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USA or EU proxies: which location should you pick?

Pick the location of the audience whose version of the site you need: USA IPs for US prices, rankings and stock, EU IPs for European ones. If location doesn’t change the content, choose the region nearest the target site’s servers. Storm offers USA, EU, a 50/50 USA+EU mix and Worldwide on rotating plans, and USA or EU on residential, with no city or single-country choice.

Updated October 2026Proxy basics

You scrape Amazon prices and get euros. Your rank tracker reports positions nobody in Ohio would see. A shop shows “not available in your region”. All three are the same problem: the site decided where you are from the proxy’s IP, and the location you picked doesn’t match the market you care about.

Choosing a proxy location sounds trivial, but there are a few things competitor pages skip. Sites don’t use the IP alone; they also read your language header, cookies, account settings and sometimes the domain you visit. Mixed regions in one gateway can scramble your data. And “EU” isn’t a country, so if your target cares about Germany versus France, a region-level IP won’t settle it.

This guide explains how sites decide where you are, what each Storm location actually gives you, how to split threads across regions, and where location-level control ends, so you can choose before you buy.

Which Storm plan fits

Rotating proxies are the flexible choice for location: every plan includes all four regions (USA, EU, USA+EU and Worldwide), and your thread count is shared across them, so a 40-thread plan can run 30 threads on US sites and 10 on EU sites at once. Residential ports come in USA or EU, chosen in the member area. If you need one fixed US address, dedicated proxies are USA-only (Cheyenne, Los Angeles, New York).

Rotating proxies (from $14/mo): 700,000+ IPs behind fixed gateway IP:PORTs. New IP on every request, or every 3 or 15 minutes. USA, EU, USA+EU or Worldwide. Unlimited bandwidth on every plan.

Get 40 threads for $39/mo See all rotating proxies plans

Before you start

Log in to the member area and copy your gateway IP:PORTs. They never change; the rotation happens on our side.
Add the public IP of the computer or server that will run your tool under Authorized IPs, click Save, and allow up to 15 minutes before testing. Rotating and residential proxies use IP authentication, so there is no username or password.
Dedicated proxies work with either IP authentication or a username and password. Use user:pass if your IP changes or the tool runs on several machines.
Count your threads: the tool’s total open connections must stay within your plan (for example 40 threads on the 40-thread plan).

On this page

Choose and set up the right proxy location
Check the exit country and run two markets at once
What each Storm location gives you
How sites decide where you are
When location doesn’t matter, pick by distance
Worked sizing: splitting one plan across regions
Location and data protection
Common errors and fixes
FAQ

Choose and set up the right proxy location

Name the market, not the website
The same site can serve different prices, stock, rankings and languages per country. Write down whose view you need: US shoppers, German searchers, French ad viewers. That decides the region, not where the site is hosted.
Find out how the site localizes
Open it from a private window, then change the country in its footer or settings. If the URL changes (.com to .de, or /en-us/ to /fr-fr/), you can often pick the market by URL alone. If the URL stays the same and content changes, the site is reading your IP or headers.
Pick the matching gateway
US market: a USA gateway. Any European market: an EU gateway. Comparing both markets: separate USA and EU gateways, not the mixed one, so you always know which region a result came from.
Match headers to the IP
Send an Accept-Language that fits the market (en-US for the US, de-DE for Germany). In a browser, also match timezone and language settings. An EU IP with a US English browser often gets a confused mix.
Verify the exit location
Request an IP-lookup endpoint through the gateway and read the country. Check a few times on a rotating gateway: on EU, the country can change between connections, because EU covers several countries.
Split your threads across regions
Your plan’s threads are a total across all gateways. Decide the split by volume per market and set each tool’s concurrency so the sum stays within the plan.

Check the exit country and run two markets at once

Use a USA gateway and an EU gateway from your member area. The script keeps the language header in step with each region and stays within a 40-thread total.

Which country am I exiting from?

for i in 1 2 3; do
  curl -s -x http://GATEWAY_IP:PORT https://ipinfo.io/country
done

two_markets.py: USA and EU gateways side by side

import requests
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor

MARKETS = {
    "us": {"proxy": "http://GATEWAY_IP:PORT",    # USA gateway
           "lang": "en-US,en;q=0.9", "threads": 30},
    "eu": {"proxy": "http://GATEWAY_IP:PORT",    # EU gateway
           "lang": "de-DE,de;q=0.9", "threads": 10},
}                                                 # 30 + 10 = 40-thread plan

def fetch(market, url):
    m = MARKETS[market]
    r = requests.get(url, timeout=(10, 30),
                     proxies={"http": m["proxy"], "https": m["proxy"]},
                     headers={"Accept-Language": m["lang"], "Connection": "close"})
    return market, url, r.status_code

jobs = {"us": ["https://www.example.com/product/1"],
        "eu": ["https://www.example.de/produkt/1"]}
for market, urls in jobs.items():
    with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=MARKETS[market]["threads"]) as pool:
        for res in pool.map(lambda u: fetch(market, u), urls):
            print(res)

What each Storm location gives you

USA (rotating and residential): exit IPs in the United States. The default for US prices, US search results, and US-only stores and services.
EU (rotating and residential): exit IPs in European Union countries. You get an EU address, but you can’t choose which EU country.
USA+EU (rotating only): a 50/50 mix. Each new connection may come from either region. Good for spreading generic scraping across a bigger slice of the pool; bad for anything where the region changes the answer.
Worldwide (rotating only): available for scraping, with IPs outside just the US and EU. Use it when the target doesn’t localize and you simply want broad spread.
Dedicated proxies: USA only, in Cheyenne, Los Angeles and New York, static and private to you.
3-minute gateway: USA only, for sign-ups, social sites and browsing.

What Storm doesn’t offer: a single-country pick (Germany only, France only), the UK as its own option, any state or city, or countries outside these groups by name. If your job depends on one of those, Storm isn’t the right fit for that part; use a provider that sells IPs by country or city.

How sites decide where you are

Most sites start with an IP geolocation lookup: a database maps your address to a country, sometimes a region. That’s the part a proxy controls. Then they layer other signals on top:

Language header. Accept-Language tells the server which languages you prefer. Many sites pick language from it and country from the IP.
Cookies and saved settings. A cookie from an earlier visit (“country=FR”) can override your new IP. Start each market with a clean cookie jar.
The domain or path you visit. Many retailers serve the German store on .de regardless of where you connect from, though shipping, taxes and stock may still follow the IP.
Account settings. Logged in, the account’s country often wins over the IP.
Search parameters. Search engines accept country and language parameters in the URL, which refine results within the region your IP is in.

So for clean data, change one thing per market: IP region, language header and cookies together.

When location doesn’t matter, pick by distance

For sites that show everyone the same content (documentation, many blogs, global APIs), location is about the route, not the content. Traffic goes from your machine to the gateway, then to the exit IP, then to the target. Shorter hops usually mean quicker responses. If the target is hosted in the US and your scraper runs on a US server, a USA gateway keeps the whole path on one continent. If both sit in Europe, use EU.

Speed complaints are often about distance plus concurrency, not the proxy itself: a European server scraping a US site through a US gateway crosses the Atlantic twice per request. Running the scraper on a server in the same region as the target removes one of those crossings.

Worked sizing: splitting one plan across regions

Threads on a rotating plan are shared across every gateway you use, so you don’t buy a separate plan per region.

US-focused price monitor with a small EU side project: 40-thread plan, 30 threads on the USA gateway, 10 on EU.
Rank tracking in the US and Europe: search engines get a quarter of your threads. On an 80-thread plan that’s 20 search threads, for example 12 on USA and 8 on EU, with the other 60 free for crawling.
Generic crawl that doesn’t localize: USA+EU or Worldwide on the Main gateway; spread is what matters.
Strict US retailer that needs home IPs: residential ports set to USA. Five ports give five US home IPs at a time. If you also need EU home IPs, ask support before ordering how best to split ports between regions.

Location and data protection

The proxy’s location doesn’t decide which privacy law applies. The EU’s GDPR follows the people whose personal data you process, wherever your servers or proxies are. Scraping public product prices from EU shops through a US gateway doesn’t avoid it, and scraping US shops through an EU gateway doesn’t trigger it. If your project collects names, profiles or other personal data about people in the EU, read up on GDPR or ask a lawyer; changing the gateway region won’t change your obligations.

Common errors and fixes

Prices show in the wrong currencyThe site read an old cookie, your language header, or the domain, not just the IP. Clear cookies, match Accept-Language to the market, and use the market’s own domain or path.

Results flip between US and European versionsYou’re on the USA+EU gateway, which mixes regions per connection. Use a single-region gateway for anything location-sensitive.

“Not available in your country” through an EU gatewayThe service is limited to certain countries, and EU exits can land in any EU country. Storm can’t pin one country; use a provider with country targeting for that site.

IP lookup says a different EU country each timeExpected on the EU rotating gateway. Region is guaranteed, country isn’t.

US site is slow through the EU gatewayThe request crosses the Atlantic. Use a USA gateway for US targets and run the scraper close to the target where possible.

Connection reset on every request after switching gatewaysThe machine’s IP isn’t authorized, or it was added under 15 minutes ago.

FAQ

Should I use USA or EU proxies?

Use the region whose users you want to look like. US content and prices need USA IPs; European content needs EU IPs. If the site doesn’t localize, pick the region closest to the site’s servers.

Can I choose a specific country like Germany or the UK?

No. Storm’s locations are USA, EU, USA+EU and Worldwide (rotating), and USA or EU (residential). For a single country, use the market’s domain and language settings, or a provider that sells country targeting.

Can I use USA and EU proxies on the same plan?

Yes, on rotating plans. All four locations are included, and your threads are a total you split between gateways however you like.

Are dedicated proxies available in Europe?

No. Storm’s private dedicated proxies are USA only, in Cheyenne, Los Angeles and New York. For EU addresses, use rotating or residential.

Does the proxy location affect speed?

Distance adds time to every request. Keeping your scraper, the gateway region and the target on the same continent gives the shortest route.

Do USA proxies work for sites outside the US?

Yes. A proxy reaches any public site. The location only changes how that site sees you, for example which currency or language it serves.

Still have questions? Contact us here. A real person answers.

Tool facts checked against the official documentation (October 2026): MDN: Accept-Language header · RFC 9110: Accept-Language · GDPR, Article 3: territorial scope (EUR-Lex) · ipinfo.io API docs. Storm Proxies facts: our plans page and refund policy.

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