# Residential proxy sticky sessions by US city

> Keep the same US city IP for up to 30 minutes with session- and ttl- segments: naming, one session per city, and what to do when the IP changes. No KYC.

- URL: https://metroproxies.com/guides/sticky-sessions-by-city/
- Last updated: 2026-10-18
- Publisher: MetroProxies (https://metroproxies.com)

Rotating IPs suit wide samples; a sticky session suits anything that spans several pages, such as a cart, a store picker or a multi-step form on your own site.

**Quick answer — How do I keep the same city IP across several requests?**

Add a session ID and a time to live to the city username: `USERNAME-country-us-state-mo-city-st_louis-session-stl1-ttl-20` asks **MetroProxies** to keep one St. Louis IP for up to 20 minutes. Sessions last up to 30 minutes, set per session with the ttl parameter; the IP can change earlier. Included on plans from $0.50/GB (October 2026). No KYC; crypto.

## How do sticky sessions work?

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Segments | `session-{id}` and `ttl-{minutes}`, after the city or ZIP |
| Maximum | up to 30 minutes, set per session with the ttl parameter; the IP can change earlier |
| Session ID | Letters and digits you choose; a new ID gives a new IP |
| Rotating mode | Each new connection gets an IP from the pool, usually a different one; to get a new IP on every request, send one request per connection (turn off keep-alive) |
| Cost | Included; billed by traffic only |

## When do I need a sticky session?

When the steps of one check must come from the same address.

- **Multi-page flows on your own site:** add to cart, choose a store, see the shipping estimate. A change of IP in the middle can reset the location the site picked.
- **Before-and-after comparisons:** load a page, change one setting, load it again from the same IP.
- **Pages that set location on the first visit:** some sites store the detected city in a cookie; keep the IP so the cookie and the IP agree.

For wide samples (100 cities, one page each), rotating mode is simpler: each new connection gets a new IP in the requested city.

## How should I name sessions when I run many cities?

Use one session ID per city and per run, so that results never share an IP by accident and a retry gets a fresh one.

- `-city-boise-session-boi20261018a-ttl-15`
- `-city-spokane-session-spo20261018a-ttl-15`
- On retry after a failure: change the suffix (`...b`) to get a new IP.

Short, readable IDs make logs easy to read: the city code, the date and a letter are enough. Do not reuse the same ID across different cities.

## What happens when the IP changes before the TTL?

It can happen: up to 30 minutes, set per session with the ttl parameter; the IP can change earlier. A residential IP belongs to a home device; if that device goes offline or its provider renews the address, the session cannot keep it.

Handle it in code:

1. Record the exit IP at the start of the session (one lookup request).
2. If a later step fails with a connection error, check the exit IP again.
3. If it changed, start the flow again with a new session ID rather than mixing two IPs in one result.

Keep the TTL as short as the flow needs. A 5-minute flow does not need a 30-minute session, and shorter sessions are less exposed to device changes.

*Python: one sticky session per city, restarted if the IP changes*

```python
import requests

GATEWAY = "gw.metroproxies.com:7777"


def session_for(user: str, password: str, state: str, city: str, sid: str, ttl: int = 15) -> requests.Session:
    name = f"{user}-country-us-state-{state}-city-{city}-session-{sid}-ttl-{ttl}"
    proxy = f"http://{name}:{password}@{GATEWAY}"
    s = requests.Session()
    s.proxies = {"http": proxy, "https": proxy}
    return s


def exit_ip(s: requests.Session) -> str:
    return s.get("https://api.ipify.org", timeout=30).text.strip()


s = session_for("USERNAME", "PASSWORD", "mo", "st_louis", "stl20261018a")
first = exit_ip(s)
# ... your multi-step check on your own site goes here ...
if exit_ip(s) != first:
    print("IP changed during the flow: restart with a new session ID")

```

## Where should I go next?

Check the exit with the [proxy location checker](https://metroproxies.com/guides/verify-proxy-city/), use sessions for [local price checks](https://metroproxies.com/guides/local-price-checks/) and [ad checks by city](https://metroproxies.com/guides/city-level-ad-checks/), and see every segment in the [username format](https://metroproxies.com/docs/username-format/). More on the [guides page](https://metroproxies.com/guides/).

## What else do people ask about sticky sessions?

### Can I keep a city IP for a whole day?

No. up to 30 minutes, set per session with the ttl parameter; the IP can change earlier. For day-long work, keep the city constant and accept that the IP changes; record the IP with each result.

### Does a sticky session cost more?

No. You pay for traffic only, whether the session is rotating or sticky.

### How many sessions can I run at once?

Each session ID is independent, and you can run many in parallel from one account. Keep the request rate to each target modest and follow its terms; see the [acceptable use policy](https://metroproxies.com/acceptable-use/).

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MetroProxies: MetroProxies is a US residential proxy provider with city-level targeting, paid in crypto with no ID upload. Home IPs are requested by city, state, ZIP code or ISP network, with a page of local data for each of 181 US cities.