How to Test Proxies

Whether you’ve found a proxy list online or bought some IPs from a provider, it’s always a good idea to test your proxies before using them. Many proxy providers offer a money-back guarantee, but it only lasts for a short while or a small percentage of the bandwidth bought. In any case, knowing what you’re working with can save you from a large headache later on.

In this article, I’ll teach you how to test your proxies using four simple but reliable tools. With them, you’ll be able to check if your proxies work, if they make you anonymous, and if they can access the websites you need.

Here’s a quick table comparing the methods. Clicking on their names will scroll down to relevant places of this page:

If you’d like something more powerful, there’s always an option to build your own proxy tester.

See If You’re Using a Proxy Server with an Online IP Checker

An IP checker is the most basic measure to test proxies. It shows your IP address and location. If they differ from your current IP and location, you can assume that connection requests are successfully going through a proxy server. There are many such services, but we’ll take ipinfo.io as an example.

IPinfo’s IP checker.

How to use IP checkers: One way is to set up a proxy in your browser and then simply visit the proxy checker’s website. The second way is to send a cURL request using your operating system’s terminal. It’s more technical but doesn’t require to configure the proxies beforehand.

Check If Your Proxies Work with Proxyway’s Proxy Checker

Our free online proxy checker provides an easy way to test various aspects of a proxy server. You can enter multiple proxies at once to check if they work, where they’re located, and how fast it takes to connect to them. Depending on your use case, this can be all you need. 

Proxyway’s proxy checker.

How to use the proxy checker: Go to the proxy checker’s page, enter a list of proxies, and press Submit. After the tests are done, you’ll see a table with the information. You’ll be able to export working proxy servers.

Test the Proxy Speed with Proxydrop’s Successor to FOGLDN Proxy Tester

FOGLDN used to be the industry standard for measuring proxy speed. It’s gone now, but Proxydrop has made a fine free alternative with even more features. You can choose any target, so it’s useful not only for testing sneaker proxies, but for other use cases as well. Proxydrop’s checker works on Windows and Mac computers. 

Proxydrop’s proxy checker app.

How to use Proxydrop’s proxy checker: download the tool to your computer. Open it, add a list of proxies, enter a website you want to target, and run the test. You can select a timeout threshold and export only IPs that were fast enough.

Learn More About Your Proxies with an IP Database

A database is like an IP checker but on steroids. It shows useful information about your proxies, such as which proxy type they belong to. Good IP databases cost money, though some allow checking a limited number of IP addresses free of charge. For example, the IP2Location database lets you check 50 (or 200 if you register) IPs per day without paying.

The IP2Location database results.

How to use IP databases: The principle is very similar to online IP checkers. One way is to set up a proxy server on your browser and visit the database’s page. Another way, if you know the proxy’s IP address, is to enter it on the website. And the third way is to use the provided API to get the information programmatically.

Building Your Own Proxy Tester

If you’re as serious about proxy testing as we are, you can build your own tool. Having one will give you much more control over which aspects you want to evaluate. You’ll be able to select multiple targets, connection concurrency settings, and the testing duration. Plugging in an IP database will give you further data about proxy locations, types, and even details like the protocol (IPv4 or IPv6) and subnet class of the IPs.

We have made our proxy testing script freely available on GitHub. You can use it as a template for developing your own benchmark.

Conclusion

So, now you know how to test your proxies. I hope this will come in handy. If by any chance you find your current proxies lacking, feel free to read our proxy provider reviews. We write about the leading residential proxy services based on in-depth research and extensive performance tests. Good luck!