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docs: add a page to estimate datacenter proxy IP addresses - #3020

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TC-MO merged 7 commits into
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@TC-MO TC-MO commented Sep 29, 2026

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Ports the Help Center article "How many proxy IPs do I need?" as a datacenter-scoped page, checked against apify-core, apify-proxy, and live Console. Along the way, documents the shared datacenter proxies add-on, which the datacenter page left out by mentioning only plan upgrades.

Paid plans can buy extra datacenter IPs without upgrading, but the
page only mentioned upgrading.
Ports the Help Center article "How many proxy IPs do I need?", scoped
to datacenter proxies, the only type billed by IP count.
Apify Proxy serves more than scraping. The heuristic still counts
page visits, so the unit stays pages.
@TC-MO TC-MO self-assigned this Sep 29, 2026
@TC-MO TC-MO added documentation Improvements or additions to documentation. t-docs Issues owned by technical writing team. labels Sep 29, 2026
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apify-service-account commented Sep 29, 2026 •

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🗑️ Preview for this PR was deleted.

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TC-MO requested a review from bliuchak September 29, 2026 10:05
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TC-MO marked this pull request as ready for review September 29, 2026 10:08
Comment thread sources/platform/proxy/datacenter_proxy.md Outdated

## Calculate the estimate

The number of IP addresses a job needs depends on how many pages it visits on a single domain, how long it can take, and how often it repeats. Major websites need 10 times more.

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10 times more than...?


To estimate the number of IP addresses:

1. Take the number of pages the job visits on a single domain.

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This process is hard to follow. Maybe an explicit example in each step?

## Examples

| Scenario | Calculation | IP addresses |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- | ------------ |

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Do these lengthy tables follow our style guide? I mean all these hyphens and spaces.

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I actually don't think we have any for tables 🤔 rendered they both look the same, but it might be good opportunity to unify this. We have mdlint accepts both styles but requires unity within a page, not project

1. Multiply the result by the value from the second table.
1. If the target is a major website, such as CNN, multiply by 10.

## Examples

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I think it makes sense to make it H3.


Each estimate depends on its assumptions:

- The first estimate holds only if you spread the job across the whole day. A faster job needs more IP addresses.

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What does first, second, and third refer to?


## Compare the estimate with your plan

In Apify Console, go to **Billing** > **Subscription** to see how many datacenter IP addresses your plan includes, listed under **Datacenter proxies**. For the count in each proxy group, see the **Available IPs** column on the [Proxy](https://console.apify.com/proxy/groups) page.

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Let's start with the goal. So:
To see how many datacenter IP...


In Apify Console, go to **Billing** > **Subscription** to see how many datacenter IP addresses your plan includes, listed under **Datacenter proxies**. For the count in each proxy group, see the **Available IPs** column on the [Proxy](https://console.apify.com/proxy/groups) page.

If you need more IP addresses than your plan includes:

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I think that info deserves its own heading.


## Adjust the estimate

These are rough estimates. On some websites, they can be far off. If the job repeats without being blocked, try fewer IP addresses. If you see blocking, add more.

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Maybe something like "suggested formulas only give you rough estimates"?

TC-MO and others added 3 commits October 22, 2026 14:59
Co-authored-by: Edyta <142720610+szaganek@users.noreply.github.com>
Name the scenarios and tables the steps point at, lead the Console
paragraph with its goal, and give the add-on options their own heading.
"These" opened the section with no antecedent after the heading.
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TC-MO requested a review from szaganek October 22, 2026 13:34
@TC-MO
TC-MO merged commit fec2234 into master Oct 23, 2026
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TC-MO deleted the docs/proxy-ip-sizing branch October 23, 2026 06:54
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