AI proxies perform better than VPNs for web scraping in 2026. If you’re sending a few hundred requests to basic targets, a VPN can suffice. However, for large-scale scraping, AI proxies are clearly the better choice, and here’s why that matters.

VPNs route all traffic through one static IP meant for private browsing. Anti-bot systems keep updated lists of known VPN IP ranges, so they quickly flag and block automated traffic, often within just a few requests. They do not provide IP rotation, fingerprint management, or adjustments to site defenses.

AI-powered rotating proxies, like Crawlbase Smart AI Proxy, are designed to avoid IP blocks and bypass anti-bot detection. Unlike VPNs, they change identities for each request, spoof browser fingerprints, and adapt to new defenses in real time. The outcome is scraping jobs that run continuously without interruptions, even against highly protected targets.

CapabilityVPNAI Proxy
IP Rotation❌ Single static IP✅ Per-request rotation
IP Pool Size❌ Small, shared✅ Large, refreshed constantly
Fingerprint Management❌ None✅ Managed automatically
CAPTCHA Handling❌ Not supported✅ Built-in mitigation
Anti-Bot Bypass❌ Easily detected✅ Adaptive & real-time
Scalability❌ Low✅ High concurrency
Best ForLow-volume, simple targetsProduction scraping at scale

If your crawler works during testing but fails in production, the issue is usually with the network layer, not your code. Choosing infrastructure designed for automation sets apart stable data pipelines from constant block-fighting.

Why Teams Initially Choose VPNs for Web Scraping

Using a VPN feels like the simplest way to avoid IP blocks. You connect to a server in another country, and your requests now appear to originate from there. No code changes are required, and most developers already understand how VPN clients work.

Typical reasons teams start here:

• Quick setup with no infrastructure planning
• Low upfront cost compared to proxy services
• Ability to test geo-restricted content immediately
• Works for manual checks and small scripts
• Familiar tool already used for remote access

For early prototypes, this can appear to solve the problem. A script that sends a few dozen requests may work perfectly, which creates the impression that scaling is just a matter of running it more often.

The trouble begins when the traffic stops looking like a person browsing a website.

The Breaking Point: Why VPNs Fail for Automated Scraping

VPN networks are optimized for interactive sessions like opening pages, watching videos, and sending emails. Automated scraping produces a completely different traffic profile: rapid, repetitive, and often parallel.

Most commercial VPN providers operate relatively small pools of IP addresses that are shared among thousands of users. Those addresses accumulate a reputation over time. Once scraping activity starts, the reputation deteriorates quickly.

Common failure patterns include:

• 403 Forbidden or “access denied” responses
• CAPTCHA challenges that block automation
• Rate limiting after short bursts of traffic
• Empty or incomplete HTML responses
• Sudden connection resets

Switching to another VPN server sometimes restores access temporarily, but blocks usually return because the underlying traffic still looks automated.

In practice, many teams discover that a scraper that worked in the morning stops working by the afternoon.

Why Changing IP Alone Is Not Enough

Modern anti-bot systems rarely rely on IP address alone. They build a broader profile that combines network reputation, device characteristics, and behavioral signals. Changing servers without changing the rest of that profile does not make you look like a new visitor.

Signals commonly evaluated include:

• Reputation of the IP address and the surrounding range
• Autonomous System Number (ASN), revealing whether traffic comes from a VPN or datacenter network
• Historical abuse reports associated with that provider
• TLS fingerprint produced during the HTTPS handshake
• HTTP headers and browser signature consistency
• Cookie usage patterns across requests
• Timing and concurrency patterns inconsistent with human behavior

VPN endpoints typically perform poorly on these metrics. Their IP ranges are well-known, heavily reused, and frequently flagged by threat-intelligence systems. Even if you connect to a different server, you are still coming from the same provider’s network with the same client fingerprint.

To a detection system, this looks less like a new user and more like the same automated process trying to evade controls.

How AI-Powered Proxies Solve These Problems

AI proxies treat each request as a managed session rather than a simple network hop. Instead of exposing raw infrastructure, they orchestrate identity, routing, and mitigation dynamically.

Core capabilities typically include:

• Large pools of residential and datacenter IPs
• Automatic rotation per request or session
• Adaptive routing based on block signals
• Fingerprint normalization
• Integrated CAPTCHA handling
• Concurrency management

The key difference is automation. Engineers no longer need to monitor IP rotations and intervene manually.

VPN vs. AI Proxy: Full Side-by-Side Comparison

CapabilityVPNAI Proxy
IP Rotation❌ Manual server switching✅ Automatic per request
IP Pool Size❌ Small, shared✅ Large, continuously refreshed
Fingerprint Management❌ None✅ Managed automatically
CAPTCHA Handling❌ Not supported✅ Built-in mitigation
Cloudflare Bypass❌ Frequently blocked✅ Adaptive mitigation
Scalability❌ Low✅ High concurrency
Reliability❌ Unpredictable✅ Consistent success rates
Automation Readiness❌ Poor✅ Designed for bots
JavaScript Rendering❌ Not supported✅ Optional headless browser
Best ForManual checks, small scriptsProduction pipelines at scale

For production scraping, these differences directly affect uptime, engineering effort, and operational cost.

Code Comparison: VPN vs. AI Proxy Implementation

The application code for both approaches can look similar. The difference lies in what happens outside your script.

Scraping with a VPN

Your program sends requests normally while the operating system routes traffic through the VPN.

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import requests
# Assuming VPN is connected at OS level
# All traffic automatically routes through VPN
target_url = "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08N5WRWNW"
try:
    response = requests.get(target_url, timeout=30)
    print(f"Status: {response.status_code}")
    print(f"Content length: {len(response.text)}")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")

Typical outcomes after repeated requests:

• 403 Forbidden responses
• CAPTCHA pages instead of real content
• Connection throttling
• Need to manually switch servers

Operational burden grows quickly because the system cannot recover automatically.

Scraping with Crawlbase Smart AI Proxy

Crawlbase Smart AI Proxy routes each request through managed infrastructure optimized for scraping workloads.

Getting started requires only your access token, which is available in your Smart AI Proxy account dashboard after signing up. Once you have the token, you use it as the proxy authentication credential in your requests.

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import requests
from urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning
# Suppress SSL warnings
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings(category=InsecureRequestWarning)
# Your Crawlbase access token
ACCESS_TOKEN = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
# Target URL
target_url = "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08N5WRWNW"
# Configure Smart AI Proxy
proxy_url = f"http://{ACCESS_TOKEN}:@smartproxy.crawlbase.com:8012"
proxies = {
    "http": proxy_url,
    "https": proxy_url
}
try:
    response = requests.get(
        url=target_url,
        proxies=proxies,
        verify=False,
        timeout=30
    )
    response.raise_for_status()

    print(f"✓ Status: {response.status_code}")
    print(f"✓ Content length: {len(response.text)}")
    # Parse your data here

except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")

Expected behavior:

• Consistent 200 OK responses
• Automatic IP rotation
• Managed fingerprints
• Reduced CAPTCHA interruptions
• No manual intervention

Handling JavaScript-heavy pages

Many modern sites render content dynamically. You can enable browser rendering through request parameters.

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# Custom headers for JavaScript rendering
headers = {
    "CrawlbaseAPI-Parameters": "javascript=true"
}
response = requests.get(
    url=target_url,
    proxies=proxies,
    headers=headers,
    verify=False,
    timeout=30
)

Advanced parameter examples

Crawlbase allows fine-grained control without infrastructure changes via request parameters.

Geo-targeting:

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headers = {"CrawlbaseAPI-Parameters": "country=US"}

Mobile emulation:

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headers = {"CrawlbaseAPI-Parameters": "device=mobile"}

Retrieve headers and cookies:

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headers = {"CrawlbaseAPI-Parameters": "get_headers=true&get_cookies=true"}

Store results in Crawlbase Cloud Storage:

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headers = {"CrawlbaseAPI-Parameters": "store=true"}

Combine parameters:

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headers = {
    "CrawlbaseAPI-Parameters": "javascript=true&country=US&device=mobile&store=true"
}

These controls operate at request level, enabling precise data collection strategies without rewriting core logic.

You can find the complete working examples in our GitHub repository.

Why Teams Choose Crawlbase Smart AI Proxy

Crawlbase Smart AI Proxy acts as a managed access layer rather than a static proxy pool. You send requests to a single endpoint, and the platform determines how to deliver them successfully.

Key characteristics:

• Unified endpoint for residential and datacenter routes
• Automatic selection of IPs based on performance
• Built-in mitigation when targets begin blocking
• Geographic targeting across many countries
• Optional browser rendering

Built for concurrent workloads

Large scraping jobs require parallel execution. Collecting thousands of pages sequentially is rarely practical.

Crawlbase supports concurrency through a thread model:

• Starter plans support 20 concurrent threads
• Premium plans support up to 80 concurrent threads
• Higher limits are available through custom packages

This allows multiple requests to run simultaneously, enabling tasks such as catalog monitoring or multi-region data collection to complete in a reasonable time frame.

If additional capacity is needed, thread limits can be increased without redesigning the application. You can review the available tiers on the Smart AI Proxy pricing page to determine which level matches your workload.

Reduced operational overhead

Managing your own proxy network involves constant monitoring, routing adjustments, and ban recovery. Crawlbase handles these tasks internally, so teams can concentrate on processing the data instead of maintaining access.

For organizations without dedicated scraping engineers, this often determines whether a project is sustainable.

Making the Right Choice for Your Project

Use a VPN only for:

• Manual browsing tests
• Verifying geo-restricted content
• Low-volume experiments

Use an AI proxy for:

• Production data pipelines
• Large-scale crawling
• Competitive intelligence gathering
• SEO monitoring across regions
• E-commerce price tracking
• Any workload requiring reliability

While AI proxies typically cost more than consumer VPNs, the difference is often outweighed by reduced engineering time, fewer failed runs, and the ability to scale without constant maintenance.

If your current setup regularly encounters blocks, CAPTCHA, or unstable results, moving to infrastructure designed for automated data collection can save significant time and effort.

Sign up for Crawlbase now to start testing with real workloads and see how a purpose-built AI proxy performs at scale. You can begin with smaller jobs and expand as your data needs grow, without redesigning your scraping architecture.

Frequently asked questions

Can you legally use a VPN for web scraping?

Legality depends on your jurisdiction and the target site’s terms of service — not the networking tool itself. Both VPNs and proxies are simply methods of routing traffic. What matters legally is what data you collect, how you use it, and whether you are violating a site’s ToS or applicable data protection laws such as GDPR or CCPA. Always consult legal guidance before scraping sensitive or personal data.

What is the difference between a proxy and a VPN for scraping?

A VPN routes all device traffic through a single remote server, giving you one IP address for all requests with no rotation capability. A proxy, by contrast, routes individual requests and can be configured to use many different endpoints. AI-powered rotating proxies go further still — they automate IP rotation per request, normalize browser fingerprints, handle CAPTCHAs, and adapt routing based on live block signals. For scraping, this makes AI proxies significantly more effective than either standard proxies or VPNs.

Do you need a proxy for web scraping?

For small projects targeting simple, unprotected sites, direct connections may work. But for any meaningful scale, or any site using rate limiting, bot detection, or Cloudflare protection, proxy infrastructure is essential. Without it, your scraper’s IP will be flagged and blocked quickly, often within 50 to 200 requests on well-protected targets. Residential rotating proxies or AI proxies are the standard solution for production scraping in 2026.

How much does an AI proxy cost compared to a VPN?

Consumer VPNs typically cost between $3 and $12 per month. AI proxy services like Crawlbase are priced based on request volume and features, which makes them more expensive upfront. However, the true cost comparison must account for hidden VPN costs: engineering time spent manually rotating servers, downtime from blocks, failed scraping runs that need to be restarted, and the ongoing operational overhead of maintaining access. For teams running production pipelines, AI proxies are almost always more cost-effective in total.

What is the best proxy for web scraping?

In 2026, AI-powered rotating proxies like Crawlbase Smart AI Proxy consistently outperform general-purpose proxies for production scraping. They combine automatic IP rotation, fingerprint management, and CAPTCHA bypass, making them the most reliable option for large-scale, uninterrupted data collection.

What is the best way to avoid IP blocks when scraping?

In 2026, avoiding IP blocks requires more than just rotating IPs. Effective block avoidance combines residential IP rotation per request, browser fingerprint normalization (TLS, HTTP headers, cookies), human-like request timing, CAPTCHA handling, and adaptive routing that responds to block signals in real time. AI-powered proxy services handle all of these automatically. Using a VPN alone addresses none of them, which is why VPN-based scrapers fail consistently on protected targets.