Sticky session

Definition

A sticky session is a proxy configuration that keeps the same exit IP assigned to your requests for a set duration — typically 1 minute to 60 minutes, or "for the life of the subscription" on static-IP classes like ISP. It's the opposite of per-request rotation, where each outgoing request uses a different exit IP.

When sticky sessions matter

Four AI workload shapes depend on sticky sessions:

1. Multi-turn agent evaluation. Agent benchmarks running 20-50 turns per session need the same IP through the conversation — otherwise cookies, session state, and the target's rate limiter get confused.

2. Authenticated RAG ingestion. Sources that require login and maintain session-cookied rate limits need stable IP through the authenticated browse.

3. LFS-resumable dataset pulls. HuggingFace's LFS backend expects the same origin to resume a partial download. Sticky sessions preserve this; per-request rotation breaks it silently (producing corrupted shards).

4. Long-session scraping. Sites that apply session-level rate-limit state (vs. per-IP or per-request state) need sticky IP to avoid tripping the limits.

How SquadProxy handles it

Via X-Squad-Session header with a value. Same value = same IP within the window. Different values = different IPs. For residential, windows from 1m to 60m. For ISP, sessions are effectively unlimited.

Sticky vs. rotating: how to choose

Simple rule: if the target applies session-cookied state or you're running multi-turn interactions, sticky. For bulk scraping of a target where each request is independent, rotating.

Related

• ISP proxy class — the exit class most long-sticky workloads route through
• Rotating proxy glossary entry
• Proxies for AI browser agents
• Proxies for HuggingFace datasets