What is proxy-list?

thespeedx/proxy-list — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-26

★ 5,552Audience · developerComplexity · 1/5Setup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((proxy-list))
    Content
      HTTP proxies
      SOCKS4 proxies
      SOCKS5 proxies
    How to use
      Text file download
      Rotate in scripts
      Check with SOCKER
    Limitations
      Frequent downtime
      Unverified servers
      Educational only
    Related tool
      SOCKER checker

mindmap root((proxy-list)) Content HTTP proxies SOCKS4 proxies SOCKS5 proxies How to use Text file download Rotate in scripts Check with SOCKER Limitations Frequent downtime Unverified servers Educational only Related tool SOCKER checker

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Download a list of HTTP or SOCKS proxies to rotate IP addresses in a web scraping script.

USE CASE 2

Use the SOCKS5 list to route application traffic through proxies that handle non-HTTP protocols.

USE CASE 3

Pair the proxy list with the companion SOCKER tool to filter out offline proxies before using them in code.

How does it compare?

	thespeedx/proxy-list	rapid7/metasploitable3	justinfrankel/licecap
Stars	5,552	5,552	5,553
Language	—	HTML	C
Setup difficulty	easy	hard	easy
Complexity	1/5	4/5	1/5
Audience	developer	ops devops	general

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Free public proxies go offline frequently, use the companion SOCKER checker to verify addresses before use in production scripts.

License terms were not described in the explanation.

So what is it?

This repository is a regularly updated list of free public proxy servers collected from around the internet. A proxy server is an intermediary computer that routes your internet traffic through itself, which can be used to mask your original IP address or access content from different regions. The list currently contains over 11,000 proxy addresses and is updated on a regular schedule. The proxies are organized into three types: HTTP proxies (for standard web traffic), SOCKS4, and SOCKS5. SOCKS proxies are a lower-level type that can handle more kinds of internet traffic beyond just web browsing. Each type has its own downloadable text file hosted on GitHub, so you can fetch whichever format your tool or application needs. The repository also references a companion tool called SOCKER, created by the same author, which lets you check whether a given proxy from the list is actually working at any given moment. Because free public proxies tend to go offline frequently, a checker tool like that is often necessary before relying on any particular address. The author notes this list is intended for educational purposes only. The proxies themselves are not controlled or verified by the repository owner, and anyone using them does so at their own discretion. If you build software that depends on this list, the author asks for credit and a star on the repository.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Write a Python script using the requests library that fetches the HTTP proxy list from this repo and rotates through 10 random proxies to scrape a target website, retrying on failure.

Prompt 2

How do I configure a SOCKS5 proxy from this list in Python's requests library using the socks package?

Prompt 3

Write a script that downloads the SOCKS4 proxy text file and uses concurrent checks to build a working pool of responsive proxies before making any real requests.

Prompt 4

How do I test a single HTTP proxy from this list using a curl command to verify it's working and see what IP it reports?

Frequently asked questions