How do I set up a US proxy?

How do I build the proxy username?

You build the username by adding segments to your base login, in the order of the pattern USERNAME-country-{cc}-state-{state}-city-{city}-zip-{zip}-asn-{asn}-session-{id}-ttl-{minutes}. Only country is required. Values are lower case, with underscores in place of spaces.

Setting up a US proxy takes four values: a host, a port, a username that carries the location, and a password.

How do I test a US proxy with curl?

Test with curl first, because it prints errors in plain text. The HTTP test uses port 7777. The SOCKS5 test uses port 7778 with --socks5-hostname, which also sends DNS lookups through the proxy. Run each test twice: without a session segment, the IP changes.

# 1. HTTP gateway: a US residential IP
curl -x http://gw.fiftystateproxy.com:7777 \
  -U "USERNAME-country-us:PASSWORD" \
  "https://api.ipify.org?format=json"

# 2. SOCKS5 gateway: an IP in Washington State, DNS resolved by the proxy
curl --socks5-hostname gw.fiftystateproxy.com:7778 \
  -U "USERNAME-country-us-state-wa:PASSWORD" \
  "https://api.ipify.org?format=json"

# 3. ZIP code 78704 (Austin), same IP for up to 10 minutes
curl -x http://gw.fiftystateproxy.com:7777 \
  -U "USERNAME-country-us-zip-78704-session-test1-ttl-10:PASSWORD" \
  "https://api.ipify.org?format=json"

How do I use a US proxy in Python requests?

Pass the proxy URL to requests through the proxies argument, for both http and https targets. If the password holds symbols such as @ or :, encode it with urllib.parse.quote first.

# pip install requests
import requests

user = "USERNAME-country-us-state-ny-city-new_york"
password = "PASSWORD"
proxy = f"http://{user}:{password}@gw.fiftystateproxy.com:7777"

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.ipify.org?format=json",
    proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy},
    timeout=30,
)
print(r.status_code, r.json())

# SOCKS5 instead: pip install "requests[socks]"
# socks5h:// also sends DNS lookups through the proxy
socks = f"socks5h://{user}:{password}@gw.fiftystateproxy.com:7778"
r = requests.get("https://api.ipify.org?format=json",
                 proxies={"http": socks, "https": socks}, timeout=30)
print(r.json())

How do I use a US proxy in a browser?

Browsers handle proxy passwords on HTTP proxies, so use port 7777 there. Keep the proxy in a separate browser profile, so your everyday browsing stays on your own connection.

• Firefox: Settings → General → Network Settings → Settings… → Manual proxy configuration. Enter gw.fiftystateproxy.com as HTTP Proxy with port 7777, tick "Also use this proxy for HTTPS" and save. Firefox asks for the username and password on the first page load.
• Chrome: start it with the --proxy-server flag and its own profile, as below. Chrome then prompts for the login.
• Automated browsers: Playwright takes the server, username and password in one setting.

# Chrome with its own profile, all traffic through the HTTP gateway
# Windows: run chrome.exe with the same two flags
google-chrome --user-data-dir="$HOME/chrome-us-proxy" \
  --proxy-server="http://gw.fiftystateproxy.com:7777"
# When Chrome asks for the proxy login, enter:
#   Username: USERNAME-country-us-state-ca
#   Password: PASSWORD

# pip install playwright && playwright install chromium
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch(proxy={
        "server": "http://gw.fiftystateproxy.com:7777",
        "username": "USERNAME-country-us-state-ca-city-los_angeles",
        "password": "PASSWORD",
    })
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://api.ipify.org?format=json")
    print(page.inner_text("body"))
    browser.close()

Rotating or sticky: which session should I set?

Leave out session to rotate, and add it to hold one IP. 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). With -session-{id}-ttl-{minutes}, the IP holds for up to 30 minutes, set per session with the ttl parameter; the IP can change earlier. Change the session name to get a different sticky IP, and build retries into long jobs.

Which plan should I buy to start?

Start with the 1 GB plan at $1.50 for tests, then move to 10 GB or more for real work. At $0.75/GB, 10 GB costs half as much per GB as the 1 GB test plan at $1.50/GB. Unused traffic stays on the account, so the GB you do not use this month remain for the next job.

Why does my US proxy return a 407 error or time out?

A 407 error means the gateway rejected the login. A timeout usually means the filter is too narrow or the target is slow.

• 407 Proxy Authentication Required: check each segment for typos and the colon between username and password. Copy the password again from the dashboard.
• Timeouts: move a ZIP or ASN filter up to city or state level, and allow at least 30 seconds before your client gives up.
• Wrong location in a lookup tool: IP databases disagree, so compare two or three and test the real target.
• Connection refused: check the port: 7777 for HTTP, 7778 for SOCKS5.

Before pointing the proxy at real targets, follow each site's robots.txt and terms.

What can I do with a working US proxy?

A working US proxy is ready for location-dependent jobs on public pages. The guide to the best US proxies for web scraping covers volume collection. The ranking of the best US proxies for local SEO covers ZIP-level rank checks. Each state has its own page under US residential proxies by state.