# What is a rotating proxy? > A rotating proxy sends each connection, or each few minutes of traffic, out through a different IP from a pool. Fine for scraping, wrong for a login. Source: https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/rotating-proxy ## Rotating proxy: a new exit IP per connection A rotating proxy is a single gateway address that sends your traffic out through a different IP from a pool on each new connection, or after a set interval. Sites see many unrelated visitors instead of one, which suits scraping and price checks and works against any account you stay signed in to. ![Rotating proxy, drawn as a mosaic of tiles](https://mosaicbrowser.com/covers/rotating-proxy.webp) You get one host and port from the seller, and behind it a pool of thousands of addresses. Every time your client opens a connection to that gateway, the seller picks an address from the pool and sends the traffic out through it. Nothing on your side changes; the exit does. That arrangement is also called a backconnect proxy, and most residential sellers sell it as their default. ## How a rotating proxy decides when to rotate Sellers rotate on one of three clocks. 1. Per connection. Each new TCP connection gets a new exit. A browser opens several connections to load one page, so one page view can arrive from several addresses. 2. Per request. The same idea, applied to each HTTP request where the gateway can see them. 3. Per interval. The exit holds for a set number of minutes and then moves, whether you were in the middle of something or not. The username usually decides which clock you get. Send the login as issued and most residential gateways rotate. Add a session parameter and the same gateway holds an exit for that session, which is a [sticky session](https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/sticky-session-proxy). IPRoyal, for instance, documents both modes on one endpoint, switched by what you put in the password ([IPRoyal rotation docs](https://docs.iproyal.com/proxies/residential/proxy/rotation), read 2 November 2026). Some sellers split the modes by port instead. On one of them we measured the rotating port refusing a session token outright: ``` 400 "Can not use -session- on rotating ports" ``` Mosaic is a desktop app Email yourself the link and open it on your computer. [How it works: Provider minting](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/proxy-providers) ## What it is good for Rotation spreads load. A crawler fetching ten thousand public pages does not want all of them to come from one address, because the site's rate limits are counted per address. With rotation, each request looks like a different visitor, and none of them needs to be remembered. Price monitoring and checking search results from many places work the same way. ## Why it is wrong for accounts An account is a long conversation, and a rotating exit changes the speaker's address in the middle of it. We pointed Mosaic's proxy check at a rotating residential endpoint and read the exit three times in a row: Peru, Brazil, Bahrain. For a scraper that is the product working. For a profile that claims one timezone and one language, it is three countries in three requests, and a login that moves like that looks like a stolen one. The trade-offs side by side, with how long sticky sessions last at each seller, are in [rotating vs sticky proxies](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/rotating-vs-sticky-proxies). The fix is not to stop using a rotating gateway. The same gateway, with a different session id per account, gives every account its own steady exit. That is also the answer to [how many accounts per proxy](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/how-many-accounts-per-proxy): one session each. ![The Mosaic proxies table with checked proxies, their exit locations and how many profiles use each](https://mosaicbrowser.com/shots/proxies-list.png) *Every proxy checked, its exit and who uses it* ## How Mosaic handles it Mosaic finds out whether a proxy rotates instead of assuming. The proxy check opens two connections and compares the exits; if they differ, the proxy is marked rotating with the two addresses shown and the sentence "This endpoint rotates, so a profile behind it cannot hold a timezone or a language." A seller's gateway line saved as a [provider](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/proxy-providers) mints a sticky session for each profile instead. For one-time and scraping profiles there is a switch, New exit on every launch, which mints a fresh session at each start: one exit for the whole run and a different one next time. In our test of it, three launches came out of three different addresses with it on, and the same address three times with it off. We leave it off for any profile that signs in. ## Sources 1. [IPRoyal Docs: Residential proxy rotation](https://docs.iproyal.com/proxies/residential/proxy/rotation), read November 2, 2026 ## Questions ### What is the difference between a rotating and a sticky proxy? Often only the username: the same gateway rotates when you send the login as issued, and holds one exit when you add a session id such as -session-ab12cd34, until that session expires. ### What is a rotating proxy used for? Work where each request stands alone: collecting public data, checking prices or search results from many places, and spreading a large number of page loads across a pool so no single address carries them all. ### Are rotating proxies good for social media accounts? No. An account whose address changes between clicks looks like a session that was taken over. Accounts belong on a sticky session, one per account. ### How do I know if my proxy is rotating? Read the exit IP twice over two separate connections. If the two addresses differ, the endpoint rotates. Mosaic's proxy check does exactly this and says so on the proxy. ## Related [Rotating vs sticky proxies: which one an account needs](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/rotating-vs-sticky-proxies): Rotating vs sticky proxies: rotating changes the exit IP per connection, sticky keeps one for a session you name. Logged-in accounts need sticky. [Sticky session proxy: one exit IP held by a session id](https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/sticky-session-proxy): A sticky session proxy keeps one exit IP for as long as a session id in your login lives, so an account signs in from one place, not a new one per click. [Residential proxy: an exit on a home internet connection](https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/residential-proxy): A residential proxy sends your traffic out through an address an ISP assigned to a home connection, so sites see a household rather than a data center. [How many accounts per proxy is safe?](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/how-many-accounts-per-proxy): How many accounts per proxy? No platform publishes a number. For accounts that must stay apart the answer is one per exit; a shared home IP is different. [Provider accounts: one gateway line, one exit per profile](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/proxy-providers): Paste your proxy seller's gateway line once and Mosaic mints a separate session for every profile, so each one browses from its own exit address.    ## See rotating proxy on a real profile Mosaic shows the values a site reads, per profile, and runs a leak test from inside the profile’s own page. Free holds 3 profiles. Pro is $49 a month for any number. Mosaic is a desktop app Email yourself the link and open it on your computer.