Setting up a proxy server on macOS

macOS lets you set a proxy once for the whole system: Safari, Chrome, Edge, and most apps that follow the system network settings pick it up automatically. The two main exceptions are Firefox, which uses its own proxy settings by default, and command-line tools, which take a proxy from environment variables — covered below. The setup takes about two minutes.

Before you start: proxy details and ports

You'll need your proxy IP address and port. Both are listed in your Dashboard — open your active subscription to see the full connection details. The port depends on how you want to authenticate:

Authentication	HTTP port	SOCKS5 port	Good for
Username / password credentials from your Dashboard	8080	1080	Dynamic IP — a standard home internet connection
IP whitelisting no login required	8085	1085	Static IP — a server or a connection with a fixed address

With IP whitelisting, you first add your current IP address to the whitelist in the Dashboard. If your address later changes, update the whitelist entry — the proxy stops responding to the old IP.

For everyday browsing, an HTTP or HTTPS proxy is all you need. If you choose SOCKS5, the reliable route is port 1085 with IP whitelisting: macOS has username/password fields for SOCKS, but not every app respects them, so password-protected SOCKS5 can be hit-or-miss.

Setting up the proxy

1. Open the Proxies pane
    Apple menu→System Settings→Wi-Fi→Details…→Proxies

   If you're on a wired connection, go to Network → Ethernet → Details… → Proxies instead. On macOS Monterey and earlier, the same pane is at System Preferences → Network → Advanced → Proxies.

2. Pick the proxy type and enter the details

   Enable Web proxy (HTTP) and Secure web proxy (HTTPS) — enter the same IP and port in both, so that both regular and encrypted traffic go through the proxy. For port 8080, check Proxy server requires password and enter the credentials from your Dashboard.

   Proxies

   Web proxy (HTTP)

   Secure web proxy (HTTPS)

   SOCKS proxy

   Server

   123.45.67.89

   Port

   8080

   Proxy server requires password

   Username

   your login

   Password

   ••••••••

   Example: an HTTP proxy with username/password authentication (port 8080). With IP whitelisting, use port 8085 and leave the password checkbox off. For SOCKS5, enable “SOCKS proxy” instead, with port 1085.

   Don't let the name confuse you: “Secure web proxy (HTTPS)” is where macOS asks which proxy to use for https:// sites — it's not a request for a different kind of proxy server. Enter your regular HTTP proxy there; macOS tunnels HTTPS pages through it (Apple's documentation calls this a “tunneling proxy”). Because proxy selection follows the URL scheme, leaving this box unchecked sends every https:// site around the proxy.

3. Save the settings

   Click OK, then Apply in the network settings window. Apps pick the change up immediately — no restart needed.

Check that the proxy works

Open any “what is my IP” service in a browser that follows the system settings — Safari or Chrome. It should show your proxy's IP address, not your own. If it still shows your real address, re-check the port against the table and make sure the right checkboxes are enabled and applied.

Command-line apps

Terminal tools such as curl, wget, or pip ignore the system Proxies pane — they read the proxy from environment variables instead. To route them through the proxy in the current terminal session:

With IP whitelisting, drop the login:password@ part and use port 8085. Add the two lines to ~/.zshrc to make them permanent.

How to disable the proxy

Open the same Proxies pane, uncheck the proxy types you enabled, and click OK and Apply. All traffic goes back to a direct connection.

If something doesn't work

The most common causes: the port doesn't match the authentication method (see the table); your IP isn't whitelisted when using ports 8085/1085; only one of the two web-proxy checkboxes is enabled, so HTTPS sites bypass the proxy; or you configured a different network connection than the one you're currently using. If none of these is it, message us in live chat right on this page — we'll help you get connected.