This Decodo review covers the proxy provider that used to be called Smartproxy, which is why this page still lives at the old Smartproxy address. Decodo sells residential, mobile, datacenter and ISP proxies plus web scraping tools. This page sets out what its own pages say as of 21 October 2026, what independent sources report, and what proxies can and cannot do for an Instagram account.
We do desk research only. We did not sign up for, pay for or run Decodo, so everything below comes from Decodo’s public pages and from the independent sources named in the text, all read on 21 October 2026.
Quick answer: Decodo is the 2025 rename of Smartproxy and is still operating. Its residential proxies are sold by the GB, from $3.75 a GB on a 3 GB plan, with a 3-day trial and a 14-day money-back option on first purchases. A proxy only hides your IP address: it does not make automation that breaks Instagram’s rules safe.
Status: rebranded (Smartproxy is now Decodo). Price from: $11.25 for 3 GB of residential traffic (plus VAT). Safety: proxies do not protect an account from action blocks.
What Decodo is
Decodo is Smartproxy under a new name. Proxyway reported the rebrand on 22 April 2025 as the same provider with a new logo and identity, and with the web scraping APIs combined into one product. Decodo’s own pricing page is titled “Decodo (formerly Smartproxy)” and its footer notes the domain moved from the old one. Proxyway’s review adds that the company was founded in 2018 as Smartproxy. The sources do not discuss the legal entity or ownership, so we say nothing about them.
It sits in our Proxies category. Our earlier Smartproxy review dates from 2021. Its network figures, prices and complaints are out of date, and this page replaces it.
A proxy is an intermediary server that passes your requests on to a website, so the site sees the proxy’s address instead of yours (Wikipedia’s definition). People use them for data collection, price checks, ad verification and checking how a page looks from another country. None of that is specific to Instagram.
How it works
You choose a proxy type and a plan, then receive a gateway address and credentials. Your software sends traffic through the gateway and Decodo routes each request through an IP from its pool. The pricing page says you can target by continent, country, state, city, ZIP code and ASN, and it lists HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 support.
Residential proxies use addresses from real households, mobile proxies use addresses from mobile carriers, and datacenter proxies use addresses from servers, which are cheaper and faster but easier for websites to spot. Proxyway notes that residential and mobile IPs come from real people’s devices. Our Oxylabs review covers another provider that sells proxies.
Features
Residential proxies
- “115M+ ethically sourced IPs across 195+ locations”, per the pricing page. This is Decodo’s own wording and figure.
- Country, state, city, ZIP and ASN targeting.
- HTTP(S) and SOCKS5.
Datacenter proxies
- A shared pool of 100K+ rotating and static IPs and a dedicated pool of 500K+ IPs, as listed on the datacenter pricing page.
- Shared proxies in 18 countries, including the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan and India. Dedicated proxies in the US, UK, Germany and Japan.
- 99.99% uptime and under 0.3 seconds average response time, both Decodo’s own claims.
Mobile and other products
- Proxyway lists the advertised mobile pool as 10 million IPs. We could not load Decodo’s own mobile pricing page, so we do not list mobile prices.
- Proxyway also mentions a social media scraping API priced around $2 per 1,000 requests. That is a data-collection product, not an account management tool.
Proxyway rated Decodo 9.3 out of 10 and gave it a 2026 “Best All-Rounder” award. In its testing, success rates were about 99% or higher across residential, mobile and datacenter proxies, and it counted about 2.85 million unique residential IPs from 3.6 million requests. That sample is far smaller than the advertised pool, though the two figures measure different things. Its review gives no Instagram-specific success figure. Our GeoSurf review covers another provider.
Related: what happened to Leaf Proxies (site unreachable); our Oculus Proxies review (from $0.10 per GB; 7-day trial).
Decodo pricing (read on 21 October 2026)
Decodo charges by traffic, not per proxy. Residential plans on its pricing page, with VAT added on top:
| Residential plan | Included GB | Price a GB | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular 3 GB | 3 | $3.75 | $11.25 |
| Regular 10 GB | 10 | $3.50 | $35 |
| Regular 25 GB | 25 | $3.25 | $81.25 |
| Regular 50 GB | 50 | $3.00 | $150 |
| Regular 100 GB | 100 | $2.75 | $275 |
| Enterprise 250 GB | 250 | $2.50 | $625 |
| Enterprise 1000 GB | 1,000 | $2.00 | $2,000 |
| Pay as you go | 1 at a time | $4.00 | $4 per purchase |
- Pay as you go: you top up a wallet and buy one GB at a time, and you cannot hold a monthly plan and pay as you go together.
- Free trial: a 3-day trial with 100 MB for new users. The plan starts automatically afterward unless you cancel before the trial ends.
- Refunds: the page describes a 14-day money-back option on a first purchase, with conditions. You must not have used the free trial, must have used no more than 20% of traffic on a regular plan (10% on enterprise), and must have no account suspension or chargeback. The page says only self-service products are refundable.
- Cancelling: monthly plans can be cancelled or changed for the next billing cycle, and the paid period runs to its end.
- Datacenter: pay per GB from $0.60 at 10 GB ($6 a month) down to $0.38 a GB at 10,000 GB, pay per IP from $0.10 an IP, and dedicated IPs from $2.50 each.
Proxyway’s own rankings quote slightly different residential figures, so check the plan page at sign-up. Our 2021 review criticised large monthly commitments and the lack of a pay-as-you-go option. Both points no longer hold for residential proxies: plans now start at $11.25 and a pay-as-you-go option exists. Our Stormproxies review covers another provider’s plans.
Safety and risks
A proxy changes the address your traffic comes from, not what your software does. Automated follows, likes and comments still break Instagram’s rules from any IP address. In its November 2018 announcement, Instagram said apps that boost popularity this way violate its Community Guidelines and Terms of Use, that it removes the fake activity, and that accounts which keep using such apps may see their experience affected. Sharing your login with an automation service is a further risk of its own.
Other points to weigh:
- Sourcing. Decodo describes its IPs as “ethically sourced” on its pricing page. Proxyway says Decodo calls them “carefully vetted” but provides little detail about how. We could not load a Decodo page explaining its sourcing, so we cannot confirm the claim.
- Auto-renewal. Plans start after the trial unless you cancel before it ends, and the money-back option does not apply if you used the trial.
- Restricted targets. Proxyway says verification (KYC) may be required to reach restricted targets. We could not confirm whether Instagram is among them.
- Reader complaints. Proxyway notes reader comments about refund and billing disputes and labels them unverified.
For the wider picture on what automation can cost an account, see our guide to Instagram automation.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Low entry price: $11.25 for 3 GB, with pay as you go.
- A 3-day trial and a 14-day money-back option, both with stated conditions.
- HTTP(S) and SOCKS5, and detailed targeting down to ZIP code and ASN.
- A 9.3 out of 10 rating from Proxyway, which praises documentation, the dashboard and 24/7 support.
Cons
- Pay as you go sells one GB at a time, according to both Decodo’s page and Proxyway.
- Proxyway notes that residential filters cannot be freely combined and that dedicated datacenter proxies are US-only, with no city targeting.
- Refund conditions are strict, and the trial voids the refund option.
- KYC may be needed for restricted targets.
- Sourcing details are thin.
Who it suits
Decodo suits developers, researchers and small companies that collect public web data and want a modest starting price. It does not suit anyone hoping a proxy will make Instagram automation safe: the proxy does not change what Instagram sees your software doing. If your real goal is to grow an account, our followers apps roundup covers tools built for it.
Alternatives
Other proxy providers we have covered include Bright Data (formerly Luminati), Oxylabs, Stormproxies and GeoSurf. Some of those reviews date from 2021, so check them against the provider’s current pages.
Decodo FAQ
Is Decodo the same as Smartproxy?
Yes. Decodo’s pricing page says “formerly Smartproxy”, and Proxyway reported the rebrand in April 2025.
How much does Decodo cost?
Residential plans on 21 October 2026 ran from $11.25 for 3 GB to $2,000 for 1,000 GB, plus VAT, and pay as you go was $4 a GB.
Does Decodo have a free trial?
Yes. New users get a 3-day trial with 100 MB. The plan starts automatically unless you cancel before it ends.
Can I get a refund?
Possibly. A 14-day money-back option applies to a first purchase if you did not use the trial and stayed under 20% of traffic on a regular plan.
Can I use Decodo proxies for Instagram?
You can route traffic through them, but Instagram’s rules apply to anything your software does on an account, and we could not confirm whether Decodo restricts Instagram as a target.
Will a proxy stop Instagram blocking my account?
No. A proxy changes the IP address, not the automated behaviour that triggers action blocks.
Further reading
Pages read on 21 October 2026.