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CAPTCHA Proxies: Why Are the Best Sneakerheads Using Them?

Here’s how CAPTCHA proxies can help with your next sneaker drop.

captcha proxies

Sneakerheads know – those sweet drops wait for nobody and get copped within seconds. So, if you want to get in the game, you have to know what you’re doing. Newbies often forget one thing that can prevent them from getting the kicks they want – CAPTCHAs. This anti-bot system can render a bot useless at checkout. So, you need to know how to bypass it, and that’s something CAPTCHA proxies can help you with. Let’s talk more about them in this article.

What Are CAPTCHAs and How Can They Mess Up Your Cook?

You’ve probably noticed that most websites are not fond of bots. They’re the reason you are often asked, “are you a robot?” on various input fields. While you know how to answer that, a bot may find this more challenging. This challenge is called CAPTCHA.

But you just want to get some sneakers before they go out of stock, right? Well, as long as you use a bot, CAPTCHAs are something to be wary of. Most retailers don’t like automated purchases, which is why they pop up challenges right on the checkout page. You can’t really bypass them, so you’ll at least need to solve CAPTCHAs as quickly as possible.

That’s where CAPTCHA proxies come in. They can help you get those easy one-click CAPTHAs that even your bot can handle. But do you really need them?

Well, If you choose to forgo CAPTCHAs proxies, your bot will have to solve an image CAPTCHA, and it won’t be capable of doing that without your help. You’ll be stuck dealing with time-consuming puzzles, which will hurt more with every task you run.

Which Sneaker Sites Use CAPTCHA?

All major shoe stores have some kind of CAPTCHA challenge for hot releases. Most of them use Google’s reCAPTCHA implementation, where in best case scenario you don’t have to do anything (invisible CAPTCHA) or click a checkbox, and in worst case receive fading images that slow you down to a crawl:

  • Shopify – reCAPTCHA v2 Checkbox.
  • Supreme – reCAPTCHA v2 Invisible.
  • Yeezy Supply – reCAPTCHA v3.
  • Adidas – reCAPTCHA v3.
  • Footsites (Foot Locker, Eastbay, Champs Sports, Footaction) – GeeTest CAPTCHA.

What Are CAPTCHA Proxies?

Sneaker proxies are crucial to the copping process. They allow you to make multiple requests to the same website by tricking it that you’re connecting as several different people. If you tried doing that with your own IP address, you’d get banned faster than the new release sells out. 

But let’s not forget anti-bot security measures. To evade these, you’re going to need CAPTCHA proxies. This is a special type of proxy whose sole purpose is to help you generate easy one-click CAPTCHAs that your bot can solve. 

What’s the difference between sneaker proxies and CAPTCHA proxies?  Typically, sneaker proxies are only used for the purpose of navigating the retailer’s site and making a purchase. They’re premium addresses that providers often disable outside of drops to preserve quality. Meanwhile, CAPTCHA proxies work to create trustworthy Google accounts which are used to generate one-click CAPTCHA challenges.

How CAPTCHA Proxies Work

You may be wondering why you need Google accounts in this process. Well, there’s a rather simple explanation. Before presenting a user with its anti-botting system called reCAPTCHA, Google will check if the sessions are logged into a trusted Google account. Trusted accounts are determined by these criteria:

  • Age of the account – the older the more trustworthy.
  • Account usage – how much human-like activity has been generated.
  • Sign-in IP address – to make sure it hasn’t been blocked or abused.
  • Account creation method – some accounts are generated using automated means, which Google can detect and flag.

That’s why, you should plug in several seasoned Google accounts into your bot’s CAPTCHA harvester or tools like AYCD or Kodai Essentials. Each of these accounts must have different proxies assigned to them. Then, you’ll need to watch some YouTube videos and perform Google searches from these accounts to create human-like activity.

Performing these actions allows you to trick Google into thinking that each of your accounts is managed by a real user. That’s how you’ll get one-click CAPTCHAS that even your bot’s CAPTCHA harvester can handle with ease.

Requirements for CAPTCHA Proxies

As we’ve established, CAPTCHA proxies work to create trustworthy Google accounts. Since they don’t directly interact with sneaker retailer sites, these IP addresses don’t need to work with shoe sites. That means there’s no need to buy quality residential proxy plans.

Datacenter proxies or ISP proxies will work great for farming because they’re cheaper and don’t charge for traffic, which you’ll use plenty of. Another important factor is that these proxies can stay online for months at a time. You should always use your Google accounts with the same IP addresses to prevent suspicion. Finally, make sure that the CAPTCHA proxies are able to access Google and YouTube, as that’s where the whole action will take place.

How to Check If You’ll Get One-Click CAPTCHAs

The midst of an exciting drop shouldn’t be the moment when you test your Google accounts. Always check if your accounts are one-click CAPTCHA worthy ahead of release. How? Log into the Google account and then navigate to https://recaptcha.autosolve.io/version/3.Then just click on ‘I’m not a robot checkbox’ and perform the test. If you get a grid with slow fading images, your Google account might be flagged.

That said, logging in and performing a test with multiple accounts can be burdensome. Tools like AYCD can significantly shorten the process by checking your accounts in batches.

Best CAPTCHA Proxy Providers

You didn’t think we’d share all this intelligence surrounding CAPTCHA proxies without telling you where to get some, did you?

Here are three battle-tested CAPTCHA proxy providers that’ll help you farm those one-clicks:

proxydrop logo

Proxydrop offers affordable dedicated DC proxies made for getting one-click CAPTCHAs. They last a month and have no issues accessing Google and YouTube. Starts from $11 for 10 IPs ($1.1/IP).

leaf proxies

Leaf proxies offers monthly DC CAPTCHA IPs that are optimized for reCAPTCHA V3 solvers. They’re best for buying in bulk, though: the only currently available plan will get you 50 IPs for $80 ($1.6/IP).

ping proxies logo dark

Aside from regular DC CAPTCHA plans (10 IPs for 3 months cost $33.75), Ping Proxies offers ISP-based CAPTCHA proxies that also work on Yeezy and Supreme. They start from $22 for 10 monthly IPs ($2.2/IP).

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Frequently Asked Questions about CAPTCHA Proxies

To get one-click CAPTHAs, you’ll need to plug in trustworthy Google accounts into your sneaker bot’s CAPTCHA harvester. They will trick the system into thinking that the session is navigated by a real user.

Yes, and they use them pretty aggressively. That’s why we recommend using services such as 2Captcha, CapMonster or tools like AYCD’s Autosolve.

Footlocker is one of the Footsites, so yes.

Yes, Yeezy Supply uses reCAPTCHA v3. It’s based on a score system. The more warmed-up or human-like your account is, the higher the score you’re gonna get. The score ranges from 0.1 to 0.9. Basically, to be put through the waiting room to the sale page your score must be at least 0.7. But it’s best if it’s 0.9.

Supreme uses reCAPTCHA v2 Invisible. With this CAPTCHA type if you have a trusted email account you won’t need to do anything. No box, no grid with random pictures. The site is gonna do all the work in the background.

Chris Becker
Chris Becker
Proxy reviewer and tester.

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