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Residential proxies support two modes, chosen by whether you include a -session- token in your username.

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Rotating (default)

Omit -session- and every request gets a fresh residential IP. This is ideal for high-volume scraping, spreading requests across many IPs, and avoiding rate limits. 
# A new exit IP on each request
curl -x "http://USERNAME-country-us:SECRET@proxy.illusory.io:1080" https://api.ipify.org

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Sticky

Add -session-<id> and all requests with the same id keep the same exit IP. Use this when a site needs continuity: logins, carts, checkouts, multi-step flows. 
# Both requests exit from the same IP
curl -x "http://USERNAME-country-us-session-checkout1:SECRET@proxy.illusory.io:1080" https://api.ipify.org
curl -x "http://USERNAME-country-us-session-checkout1:SECRET@proxy.illusory.io:1080" https://api.ipify.org
  • Pick any id you like (checkout1, user42, a UUID…). Different ids get different IPs.
  • Your session ids are private to your account. Two customers using the same id never share an IP.

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Sticky duration

By default a sticky session holds its IP for a standard window. Control it with -sesstime-<min> (minutes, 3–1440): 
# Hold the same IP for ~30 minutes
curl -x "http://USERNAME-country-us-session-checkout1-sesstime-30:SECRET@proxy.illusory.io:1080" https://api.ipify.org
After the duration elapses, the session rotates to a new IP. Values are clamped to the 3–1440 minute range.

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Choosing a mode

Use caseMode
Large-scale scraping / data collectionRotating
Login → action → logout flowsSticky
Checkout / cart continuitySticky
Maximizing IP diversityRotating
A sticky session pins one residential peer for its lifetime. If that peer is slow, start a new session id or switch to rotating.