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Sub-$10/mo VPS advice: LA preferred, clean IP for AI services, good routes to China (Unicom/Mobile)
Hi everyone, I'm shopping for a cheap but reliable VPS (hard budget under $10/month, ideally around $3-5/month on an annual plan) to run a VPN, and I'd appreciate advice from people with recent experience.
My setup: WireGuard for myself, plus Hysteria2 or VLESS+Reality over port 443 for friends in mainland China. Their main use is AI services (ChatGPT and Claude), so IP reputation matters a lot — I've read that some datacenter IPs get flagged by AI providers. Their ISPs are China Unicom and China Mobile.
What I'm looking for: 1-2GB RAM, dedicated IPv4, 1Gbps port, KVM, Ubuntu 24.04. Los Angeles is my preferred location since it balances latency for me in the US and for them in China, but I'm open to other west-coast options.
I'm currently leaning toward RackNerd's 2GB LA plan ($35.99/year) — has anyone used their LA nodes recently, and how is IP cleanliness / AI-service access on the IPs actually assigned? Also, are there other providers in this budget with cleaner IPs or better China return routes? I understand most budget LA routes are ordinary Cogent lines; is there anything near this price with better return routing?
One more thing: if the assigned IP turns out flagged, how flexible is the provider on IP changes (self-service swap vs support ticket)? Thanks in advance for any recent data points.
Comments
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China mainland optimized bandwidth is very expensive. if you are in a hurry, you need to increase your buget.
Again?
