HTTP Proxy
A proxy that forwards HTTP and HTTPS requests between a client and a web server.
An HTTP proxy sits between your application and the web server. Your application sends the HTTP request to the proxy instead of directly to the target. The proxy forwards the request, receives the response, and passes it back to your application.
For HTTPS traffic, HTTP proxies use a method called CONNECT tunneling. Your client sends a CONNECT request to the proxy with the target hostname and port. The proxy establishes a TCP tunnel, and all subsequent encrypted traffic passes through without the proxy being able to read it.
HTTP proxies are the most widely supported proxy type in programming languages, browsers, and automation tools. Python's requests library, Node.js fetch, curl, Playwright, Puppeteer, and Selenium all support HTTP proxies natively.
The standard URL format for configuring an HTTP proxy is: http://username:password@host:port. For HTTPS targets, most clients automatically use CONNECT tunneling through the same HTTP proxy endpoint.
HTTP proxies can optionally inspect and modify requests (forward proxies) or cache responses (caching proxies). Proxy providers for anonymity and web scraping typically operate as transparent forward proxies - they forward requests without modification.
A proxy that reads what it forwards
An HTTP proxy sits inside the protocol it carries. For plain HTTP your client sends the whole URL in the request line rather than just the path, and the proxy uses that to decide where to forward it. The proxy can read the request, add or strip headers, cache the response and log the destination.
For HTTPS the arrangement changes. Your client issues a CONNECT request naming host and port, the proxy opens a TCP tunnel, and everything after that is encrypted end to end. The proxy sees the hostname in the CONNECT line and the bytes flowing through, and nothing else. That is why an HTTP proxy does not weaken TLS.
Authentication happens through a header. When credentials are missing or wrong the proxy answers 407 Proxy Authentication Required, which is distinct from 401 and comes from the proxy rather than the destination. Recognising which of the two you received tells you immediately where the failure is.
Because the proxy understands HTTP, it can also be selective in ways SOCKS cannot: routing by hostname, rewriting headers, applying rules per URL. Whether that is a feature or an intrusion depends on who is running it.
HTTP on our endpoints
Both product families accept HTTP, and the scheme in your client decides how the connection is made:
HTTP against residential and static
# Residential, targeting in the login
curl -x http://login_c_US:password@proxy.sotaproxy.com:10000 https://example.com
# Static address
curl -x http://login:password@your-ip:50100 https://example.com
# 407 means we rejected the credentials.
# 401 means the destination did.- HTTPS through an HTTP proxy uses CONNECT and stays encrypted end to end. Nobody in the middle reads it, including us.
- Resolution happens on our side, so an HTTP proxy does not leak your target list to your own resolver the way a misconfigured SOCKS client does.
- Most libraries default to HTTP proxying and need extra packages for SOCKS. Unless you need UDP or a non-HTTP protocol, HTTP is the simpler choice.
- Keep the proxy scheme http even when the target is https. The scheme describes how you talk to us, not how we talk to the destination.
HTTP proxy misconceptions
It does not decrypt your HTTPS
CONNECT builds a tunnel. Interception requires a certificate your client trusts, which is a corporate arrangement rather than how a public proxy works.
https:// in the proxy URL is not required
Writing http:// as the proxy scheme while fetching an https:// page is correct and confuses almost everyone once.
407 is not the site rejecting you
It is us, and it means the login string did not parse. The destination never saw the request.
It is not less anonymous than SOCKS
Our HTTP proxies send no forwarding headers. The exit address is what the site judges either way.
Related terms
See this in practice
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