What is a sticky session in Snowpad?

A sticky session pins all connections that share the same -session- suffix to the same exit IP for a TTL window (10 minutes by default). It's the industry-standard format used by Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Smartproxy: append the session ID to your username and the gateway keeps you on one phone.

Do I need the Dedicated Sticky plan to use sessions?

No. Sticky Sessions are live on every plan — Free, Pro, and Dedicated. Append -session- to your normal API key and you get a pinned IP on the rotation pool. The Dedicated Sticky plan is for when you want a permanently fixed IP that never rotates, with a per-node API key.

How long does a session last?

Sessions live for up to 10 minutes (the TTL window). If you keep connecting with the same session ID, the binding renews and you stay on the same IP. After the TTL expires, the next connection with that session ID lands on a fresh node and re-pins.

What happens if the pinned phone goes offline?

The gateway silently remaps your session to a fresh online node — this is the same "silent remap" every residential and mobile provider documents. Your next request keeps working on a new IP; no action needed on your side.

Can I use sessions with Python, Playwright, or cURL?

Yes. The session ID is just part of the SOCKS5 username. Pass `api_key-session-abc123` as the username and the gateway does the rest. Examples for all three are below.

Does a session count against my concurrent connection limit?

Yes — each open connection counts toward your plan's concurrent limit, session or not. A session with 10 open workers uses 10 of your 60 (Pro) or 9 (Free) concurrent slots.

Snowpad Sticky Sessions: Pin the Same IP With api_key-session-<id>

The Problem: Rotation Breaks Stateful Workflows

Snowpad's rotation pool gives you a fresh IP on every request — that's the point. But some workflows need the same IP for a while:

Logging into a site, then browsing pages (login binds to your IP)
Checkout / payment flows that fingerprint your session
Multi-step scrapes where the target tracks IP continuity
Captcha challenge flows that re-verify the same IP

Buying a dedicated sticky plan just for a 10-minute checkout flow is overkill. That's why Snowpad now supports Sticky Sessions on every plan: pin your IP for up to 10 minutes by adding -session-<id> to your API key.

How It Works

# Rotation (default): fresh IP every request
socks5://<api_key>@gw.snowpad.io:9999

# Sticky session: same IP for the TTL window
socks5://<api_key>-session-<id>@gw.snowpad.io:9999

The gateway reads the -session-<id> suffix from your username, binds all connections with that ID to one mobile node, and keeps you there until:

The TTL expires (default 10 minutes) → the next connection with that ID re-pins to a fresh node, or
The pinned node goes offline → your session silently remaps to a fresh online node, or
You stop using the suffix → you're back to normal rotation.

You pick the session ID — any string works. Use abc123, a UUID, your order ID, whatever makes sense. The same session ID = the same IP.

Quick Start: cURL

# Same IP every time with session "abc123"
curl -x socks5h://YOUR_API_KEY-session-abc123@gw.snowpad.io:9999 http://httpbin.org/ip
curl -x socks5h://YOUR_API_KEY-session-abc123@gw.snowpad.io:9999 http://httpbin.org/ip

# Both requests print the same origin IP

# Drop the suffix → fresh IP again
curl -x socks5h://YOUR_API_KEY@gw.snowpad.io:9999 http://httpbin.org/ip

Python (requests + pysocks)

import requests

session_id = "order-4821"
proxy = f"socks5h://YOUR_API_KEY-session-{session_id}@gw.snowpad.io:9999"

proxies = {"http": proxy, "https": proxy}

# Every request with this session exits through the same IP
r1 = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/ip", proxies=proxies, timeout=30)
r2 = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/ip", proxies=proxies, timeout=30)

print(r1.json()["origin"])  # same IP
print(r2.json()["origin"])  # same IP

Playwright

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch(
        headless=False,
        proxy={
            "server": "socks5://gw.snowpad.io:9999",
            "username": "YOUR_API_KEY-session-checkout-77",
            "password": "x",
        },
    )
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://httpbin.org/ip")
    browser.close()

The whole browser session — login, cart, checkout — stays on one mobile IP.

What Happens at TTL Expiry

Sessions are time-boxed for a reason: mobile IPs are shared infrastructure, and pinning a phone forever is neither fair nor reliable. When your session's TTL expires:

Your open connections keep working until they close naturally.
Your next connection with the same session ID lands on a fresh node and re-pins — same session ID, new IP, zero config.
If the pinned phone's battery dies or it loses signal, the gateway silently remaps you to another online node.

Rule of thumb: for long-running jobs, re-create the session ID periodically (or just keep using the same one — the gateway re-binds after expiry automatically).

Sticky Sessions vs Dedicated Sticky Plan

	Sticky Sessions (all plans)	Dedicated Sticky add-on
Same IP for	Up to 10 minutes (TTL)	Forever (until node changes)
Plan needed	Any — Free, Pro, Dedicated	₹2,400/mo per node add-on
Pool	Shared rotation pool	Your exclusive node
Use case	Logins, checkouts, short multi-step flows	Long-lived scraping, account management, IP reputation building

Limits & Errors

Sessions count toward your concurrent connection limit (60 on Pro, 9 on Free, 30 per dedicated node). Keep your worker count under it.
Exceeding the limit returns SOCKS5 error 0x02 ("connection not allowed by ruleset") — reduce concurrency or let sessions expire.
If the pool is saturated you may see 0x02 with "pool capacity exhausted" — retry with backoff.

FAQ

Do sessions work over HTTP CONNECT?

Yes. The -session-<id> suffix works on both SOCKS5 and HTTP CONNECT gateways. Use the same username format.

Can I have multiple sessions at once?

Yes. Each distinct session ID pins independently — session-A and session-B can be on different phones simultaneously. Sessions are capped per client to protect the network.

Is there any setup required?

No. The feature is live on all plans — no toggle, no config, no extra billing. Append the suffix and go.

Why would I ever drop the suffix?

When you want fresh IPs again — rotation is still the default, and it's the right choice for anonymous one-shot requests. Sessions are opt-in per connection.