Guides
Quick-start guides
These guides take you from an empty account to a working proxy in your own tool. Each one is short, practical and written for people who have not used proxies before.
They use only what ProxyOnly actually offers: a prepaid balance from one US dollar, orders you place in the dashboard, and the same four values for every tool.
- Guides
- 13
- Minimum balance
- US$1
- Payment
- Cryptocurrency
All quick-start guides
Read them in order the first time, or jump to the one that answers your question.
- Create an account and add fundsOpen your ProxyOnly account and put a first balance on it, which can be as small as one US dollar.
- Order your first proxyPick a type and a country, check the price and place an order that is paid from your balance.
- Find your proxy credentialsWhere the host, port, username and password are shown, and how to write them as a proxy URL.
- Choose the exit countryHow country targeting works, which codes to use and how to verify the country you really got.
- Sticky sessions and rotationKeep one exit address for a whole task, or change it on every request, and know when to use which.
- Test a proxy with curlThe fastest way to prove that your credentials, host and port work before you use any other tool.
- Use a proxy with PythonA complete, runnable Python example with Requests: proxies, timeouts, retries, country and sessions.
- Use a proxy with Node.jsRoute Node.js requests through a ProxyOnly proxy with undici, with retries, countries and sessions.
- Fix common proxy errorsWhat 407, timeouts, wrong countries and blocks mean, and the order in which to check things.
- Use the ProxyOnly APICreate an API key, list locations, create proxies and read usage from your own code.
- Choose the right proxy typeDatacenter, ISP, mobile and residential proxies compared by what the job needs.
- Avoid blocks responsiblyPractical, fair habits that keep requests succeeding without abusing the sites you read.
- Monitor your usage and balanceWhere to see what you spent, what you used and what each order cost, and how to avoid running out.
The shortest path from nothing to a working proxy
Most people need five steps. Create an account and add a small balance. Order the cheapest proxy that could fit your job. Copy the host, port, username and password. Test them with curl so that you know the proxy works. Then put the same values into your own tool, using the setup guide for it.
Everything after that is tuning: the country, the session style, the type of proxy and the request rate. The guides cover each of these in turn, and the integrations directory covers the tools, from Python and Node.js to browsers and anti-detect software.
What you can expect
ProxyOnly sells proxies in 63 countries today, from a balance that starts at one US dollar and is paid in cryptocurrency. Datacenter, ISP, mobile and residential services are all available, and the live catalog shows what is in stock with the real price before you pay.
Which proxy type fits any country
The right type depends on how strict the destination is, how much traffic you will send and how long you need the address. A short comparison of the types we sell:
Datacenter IPv4. The default choice for most jobs. These are dedicated IPv4 addresses hosted in a datacenter, fast and inexpensive, and the best fit for high-volume reading of public pages, monitoring and automation. Some websites treat datacenter ranges more cautiously than consumer connections, so test your target before you commit to a long rental.
ISP proxies. Static addresses that are registered to an internet service provider rather than a hosting company. They keep the speed of datacenter hardware and look more like an ordinary home or office connection, which helps with destinations that are strict about hosting ranges.
Shared IPv4. A shared address is used by more than one customer and costs less. It suits light tasks, quick checks and testing where a clean, exclusive address is not essential.
IPv6. IPv6 addresses are very cheap and plentiful, and they work well with destinations that serve IPv6 traffic, such as many large search, video and social platforms. Many smaller sites are still IPv4 only, so check that your target supports IPv6 before you buy.
Mobile proxies. Addresses from mobile carrier networks. Many phones share the same carrier address, so websites tend to be tolerant of this traffic, which makes mobile proxies the right choice for testing mobile ads, apps and landing pages. They cost more than datacenter addresses.
Residential proxies. Addresses from home internet connections, billed by the amount of traffic you use and not by the IP. They suit light, bursty jobs on sites that block datacenter and ISP ranges. Heavy traffic gets expensive quickly, so estimate your monthly volume first.
If you are unsure, rent one address of the type you think you need, run your real task against it for a day, and look at the success rate. Because rental periods start at a few days, trying a type costs very little.
Using proxies responsibly in any country
A proxy is a networking tool and it is lawful in most places, but what you do with it still has to be lawful and fair. Follow the laws that apply to you and to the place you send traffic to, read the terms of the sites you visit, honour robots rules and rate limits, and never use an address to access accounts or data that are not yours. ProxyOnly cannot give legal advice, and our acceptable use policy applies to every order.
In practice that means reading public pages, checking your own sites and ads, and testing your own products. If a task would be unwelcome to the site owner when done by hand, it is unwelcome when done through a proxy too.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I start?
Create an account and add one US dollar, then order a proxy and test it with curl.
Do I need technical skills?
Not for the dashboard. For tools such as Python or Node.js you need to be able to run a small script.
How much does it cost to try?
A balance can start at one US dollar, and some proxy types are cheap enough to try with that.
Ready to try it?
Create an account, add funds from US$1 and pick your country and proxy type.