Mobile Proxy IP Pool Size: Why Per-SIM Depth Beats "Millions"
Every mobile proxy seller quotes a pool size, and the number is usually in the millions. We run the modems, SIMs and racks behind GlobalProxies in eight US metros, so we can tell you what that number does and does not describe. A pool is real, but it belongs to a carrier gateway, not to a proxy vendor, and the only slice of it you ever touch is the slice your own line's carrier and city expose. This guide explains what a mobile IP pool is, why the depth behind one SIM is the figure that matters, how rotation cadence distorts raw counts, why carrier and metro are the real levers, and which kind of line suits which job.
What a mobile IP pool actually is
When a SIM attaches to a carrier's data network it is routed through a packet gateway serving its region and APN, and that gateway hands the session a public IPv4 address from the block it administers. That block is the pool. It is finite, it is carrier specific, and it is tied to the location of the gateway rather than to the modem. Detach the session and attach again, which is all a rotation is, and the gateway may hand you a different address from the same block, or the same one back.
Because the address sits behind carrier grade NAT, it is shared at any moment with a crowd of ordinary handsets in the same area. The address is never exclusively yours, and it is not the vendor's either. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon each administer their own gateways per region, so a Verizon SIM in Chicago draws from a different block than a Verizon SIM in Houston, and both differ from an AT&T SIM racked in the same building.
Why the millions headline is a vanity figure
A vendor with hardware across many carriers and cities can add up every address any of its lines has ever seen and print a large number. The arithmetic is honest and the figure is useless to you. Your proxy is one modem holding one SIM on one carrier in one metro. It will only ever be offered addresses from that gateway's block. Whether the vendor's total is a hundred thousand or ten million changes nothing about what your line will show over the next month.
The figure that actually matters is per-SIM depth: how many distinct addresses one line on one carrier at one gateway will turn up over a period of steady use. That is the product you are buying, and it is a property of the carrier and the location, which is why we describe it as a tendency per line rather than as a network-wide total.
Count versus yield: cadence changes the number
Raw distinct-address counts depend on how often the line rotated. Rotate a line every two minutes for a week and you will log a far larger tally than the same line rotated once an hour, on exactly the same block. Neither figure tells you anything about the pool until you divide by the number of rotations. The honest comparison between two lines is yield: how many of the addresses a rotation lands on are new to that line.
Heavy rotation on a shallow block does not create addresses the block does not contain. It just cycles through the same handful faster, and the repeat rate climbs until nearly every rotation returns something the line held that day. As an order-of-magnitude rule of thumb, a single carrier line rotated many times a day tends to turn up a few hundred distinct addresses in a week and low thousands over a quarter. Discovery is quickest in the first days and slows as the line has seen most of what its gateway routinely hands out, but it never fully stops, because gateways rebalance and blocks shift over time.
Two axes: long-run depth and short-term freshness
Depth and freshness are separate properties and they move independently. Depth is the long-run figure: over weeks, how many distinct addresses the line can reach. Freshness is the short-run figure: when you rotate right now, how likely the new address is one the line has not held in the last day. A block can be deep but slow to cycle, so hourly rotations keep landing on recent addresses while the quarterly total still grows. Another block can be shallow but fast, handing out something different every time while the total plateaus within a fortnight.
Which axis you care about depends on the job. A long-lived account cares about neither, it wants the address to stay put. A verification or research task cares about freshness within the session. A scraper working over months cares about depth. Ask for the axis that matters rather than for a bigger pool.
The lever is carrier times metro, not your rotation settings
No rotation timer alters the size of the block behind a gateway. If a line is returning repeats, changing the interval from five minutes to one minute makes the repeat rate worse, not better. The lever that actually moves depth and freshness is which carrier the SIM is on and which metro the gateway serves. From what we see on our own racks, a Verizon SIM usually comes back from a rotation with a fresh address, an AT&T SIM holds on to addresses longer and circles back to ones it has already had, and T-Mobile behaviour swings widely from one metro to the next. The same carrier is a different pool in New York than in Phoenix.
Geography also follows the gateway rather than the rack. Our Boston hardware's Verizon addresses geolocate as Boston, while its AT&T addresses geolocate as New York, because that is where AT&T's gateway for the region sits. The exact number a given line will show depends on the carrier, the metro and how often you rotate, and it changes over time, so support can tell you which line in a given city is currently rotating freshest rather than us printing a figure that will be stale by next month.
Which line for which job
Treat the choice as a short decision table. For aged social, marketplace or advertising accounts, take the stickier carrier in the metro the account is registered to and rotate rarely, if ever; the address holding steady for days is exactly what you want. For account creation, verification, ad review and research, take the carrier that currently yields freshest in that metro and rotate between tasks, checking that the new address is not one you used in the last day. For sustained scraping, take a deep line and rotate on a steady schedule that gives each address a modest number of requests, then add a second metro when one block is saturated. Most serious operators run a small mix: one or two sticky lines for the accounts that matter and one fresh-yielding line for everything disposable.
One thing pool depth does not buy you is anonymity. Sharing a CGNAT address with many phones is not hiding in a crowd. Platforms attribute by account, device and behaviour, and the trust a mobile address earns comes from the carrier ASN plus consistent geography per account, not from how many other people share the gateway.
What to do next
Do not size your order from anyone's headline number, including ours. Take a plan from five dollars a day, put the line on the real target and rotate it the way your workflow would, then look at the repeat rate over a day and the distinct tally over a week. If the yield is not what the job needs, open live chat and ask which carrier in your city is rotating freshest this week; switching carrier within the metro or moving the proxy to another of our eight cities is free, and support can adjust the detach duration if rotations are handing back the same address. Every proxy is one modem and one SIM assigned to one customer on hardware we own, so the answer you get is about your line, not an average.
Frequently asked
How many IPs does one GlobalProxies line give me?
There is no single number. It depends on the carrier, the metro and how often you rotate. A line rotated many times a day usually turns up a few hundred distinct addresses in a week and low thousands over a quarter, with the fastest discovery in the first days. Ask live chat which line in your city is currently freshest.
Is a bigger advertised pool better?
Not for you. A network-wide total adds up every gateway the vendor has hardware on, but your line only draws from its own carrier's block in its own metro. Compare lines by yield, the share of rotations that land on an address new to that line, rather than by the size of the headline.
Why does rotating faster give me more repeats?
Because the block behind the gateway is finite. Each rotation is a draw from the same set of addresses, so the more draws you make in a day the more often you land on something the line already held. A faster timer raises the count of rotations, not the count of distinct addresses available.
Can I get a fresh address every time?
On a well-yielding line most rotations will be new within the day, but no carrier guarantees it. If a rotation returns the address you just had, rotate again or let the line stay detached a little longer; support can lengthen the detach so the gateway is more likely to reassign the address while you are offline.
Does sharing the address with many phones hide me?
No. Carrier grade NAT means a crowd of handsets sits behind the same public address, but platforms identify you by account, device fingerprint and behaviour, not by the address alone. The benefit of a carrier address is that it is trusted and geographically consistent, which is a different thing from anonymity.