# Decodo vs Bright Data: which do AI models recommend for proxy and web data, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Proxy and web data providers. Nine of fourteen models named Decodo first on the direct prompt; one named Bright Data. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/it-data/proxy-networks/decodo-vs-bright-data/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decodo | 41% | #1 of 11 | 0% | 45 | 14 of 14 |
| Bright Data | 7% | #5 of 11 | 25% | 52 | 14 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Claude Haiku 4.5: decodo first (first choices: Decodo, Oxylabs) (alternatives: Bright Data, SOAX)
- Perplexity Sonar: decodo first (first choices: Decodo) (alternatives: Oxylabs, Proxy-Seller)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: decodo first (first choices: Decodo) (alternatives: Oxylabs, SOAX)
- Mistral Small: decodo first (first choices: Decodo) (alternatives: Oxylabs, ProxyWing)
- Llama 4 Maverick: decodo first (first choices: Decodo) (alternatives: Infatica, Oxylabs, ProxyWing)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: decodo first (first choices: Decodo) (alternatives: Oxylabs)
- Kimi K2: decodo first (first choices: Decodo) (alternatives: DataImpulse, SOAX)
- GPT-6 Luna: decodo first (first choices: Decodo) (alternatives: Bright Data, Oxylabs)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: decodo first (first choices: Decodo) (alternatives: Infatica, SOAX)
- GPT-5.4 mini: bright data first (first choices: Bright Data, Oxylabs) (alternatives: Decodo, NetNut, SOAX)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: SOAX, Smartproxy) (alternatives: Bright Data, NetNut, NodeMaven, Oxylabs, SimplyNode)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither first, one named (first choices: Smartproxy) (alternatives: Bright Data, Oxylabs, SOAX, Webshare)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither named (first choices: Smartproxy) (alternatives: Oxylabs, SOAX)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither named (first choices: Rayobyte, Smartproxy) (alternatives: Oxylabs)

## What the models said about Decodo

- "Go with Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) if you want the best balance of price, performance, and ease of use with ISO-certified compliance." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) - offers 115M+ IPs across 195+ countries, with a balance of enterprise capability and accessibility." (Llama 4 Maverick, direct prompt, first choice)
- "Oxylabs or Decodo tend to offer the best balance of reliability, support, and scalability without enterprise-level complexity" (Claude Haiku 4.5, direct prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Bright Data

- "Avoid Enterprise-Only Providers (Bright Data, Oxylabs) unless you have enterprise-level budgets" (Kimi K2, direct prompt, hard negative)
- "Pricing Shocks: There are multiple reported instances where automated scraping agents consumed entire bandwidth quotas in one afternoon" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "Premium enterprise providers like Bright Data and Oxylabs are generally better for large budgets, not limited ones." (Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt, soft negative)
- "Bright Data: Largest network (~72-400M+ residential IPs, 195+ countries). Enterprise-focused with advanced tools like Web Scraper API, SERP API, datasets, and unblockers." (Grok 4.1 Fast, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "the best default choice is usually a datacenter proxy network ... Bright Data's current pricing page, for example, shows datacenter plans starting at $0.90/IP" (GPT-5.4 mini, budget prompt, first choice)
- "Bright Data, IPRoyal, and FloppyData are most often considered the best providers in 2025 thanks to their extensive pool of IP addresses" (Claude Haiku 4.5, comparative prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.