Use a proxy in Chrome with FoxyProxy

Short answers

What you need

Get four values from the connection builder: the gateway host, the HTTP port, the complete generated username and the proxy password. The username already carries the pool, country and rotation you chose. Your account password and API key do not sign in to the gateway. No balance yet? GB are sold in the shop.

HTTP names the gateway protocol; it does not limit you to HTTP websites. Chrome sends an HTTPS page through an HTTP proxy with CONNECT, and TLS runs between Chrome and the site inside the tunnel. To open that tunnel, Chrome sends the site’s hostname to the proxy unencrypted. See Chromium’s proxy documentation.

Why Chrome needs an extension for this

Chromium documents four sources for Chrome’s proxy settings: managed policy, command-line flags, an extension using the chrome.proxy API, and the operating system. Without the first three, Chrome follows the system settings, which other applications use too. Chrome also ignores a username and password stored in those system settings.

An extension changes the settings of one Chrome profile. The proxy permission lets it set one server for every request, or a proxy auto-config (PAC) script that decides per URL. With webRequest and webRequestAuthProvider, it can answer the gateway’s Proxy-Authenticate challenge through the onAuthRequired event, whose isProxy field is true for a proxy challenge. See Chrome’s proxy API and webRequest API references.

Install FoxyProxy Standard

Install FoxyProxy Standard from the Chrome Web Store. Its documentation lists Chrome 126 or newer for version 9.3 and later. Choose Standard rather than Basic: the Basic edition hides the pattern features this guide uses.

The 9.8 manifest requests proxy, webRequest, webRequestAuthProvider, storage, tabs, notifications, downloads and contextMenus, with access to all sites; privacy and browsingData are optional. FoxyProxy’s documentation gives the purposes: controlling proxy settings is its core function, all-site access sets proxies and provides authentication, downloads export your settings and notifications report errors. Read the list before installing. The webRequest API exists to observe the requests a browser makes.

Add the gateway

1. Open the FoxyProxy options page and add a new proxy on its Proxy tab.
2. Set Type to HTTP, Hostname to gw.portproof.org and Port to 7000.
3. Enter the complete generated username and the proxy password in Username and Password. FoxyProxy keeps them per hostname and port, so they apply to this entry only.
4. Give the entry a title you will recognise, then click Save. FoxyProxy applies edits only when you save.

With Username and Password empty, FoxyProxy leaves HTTP proxy sign-in to Chrome, which shows its own prompt. With stored values, FoxyProxy’s authentication code answers the gateway once per request and cancels a repeated challenge. Wrong credentials therefore end in a failed page, not a loop of prompts.

If Chrome keeps asking for credentials, identify the active gateway with the proxy sign-in prompt checklist. A Chrome connection error before sign-in belongs in the ERR_PROXY_CONNECTION_FAILED guide.

Do not choose SOCKS5 for this gateway: Chrome cannot send a SOCKS5 username and password. Do not choose HTTPS either. In Chrome, an HTTPS proxy entry means TLS to the proxy itself. Use HTTP, as the connection builder shows.

Send one site through the proxy first

In Proxy by Patterns mode, FoxyProxy sends a URL through the first enabled proxy whose include pattern matches and loads everything else directly. Start with a single pattern for the echo endpoint. Your other browsing stays on its normal route, and the one page that reports an address shows whether the proxy is in use.

1. Set FoxyProxy to Disable and open https://api.portproof.org/v1/echo-ip in a tab. It shows the address that endpoint sees on your normal route.
2. Add one Wildcard include pattern to the gateway entry: ://, the endpoint’s hostname, then /. For an endpoint at https://api.example.com/v1/echo-ip, the pattern is ://api.example.com/. Then click Save: FoxyProxy’s help says Proxy by Patterns appears in the toolbar menu only once an include pattern is set. The Include Host action in that menu adds the current page’s host for you.
3. Switch the toolbar menu to Proxy by Patterns and reload the echo page.

Keep the pattern to the hostname. FoxyProxy runs its pattern mode as a PAC script, and Chrome gives a PAC script only the scheme, host and port of an HTTPS URL. A pattern that depends on the path therefore never matches an HTTPS page. FoxyProxy’s help also notes that a path is rarely necessary.

Once the check passes, add patterns for the sites your work needs, such as the pages you compare when you check search results in another country. Choose Individual Proxy only when every Chrome request should use the gateway.

Check the exit IP

With the pattern active, the echo page shows the address the endpoint sees, for example 198.51.100.x. That is a documentation-range example, not an address of the pool. If the page still shows your normal address, the pattern did not match or the mode is not Proxy by Patterns.

The address describes the route of that request. It does not confirm a country by itself: the dashboard connection test returns the exit IP and reports a country only when one was observed. The country guide explains why lookups differ. For a second client on the same machine, run the curl check.

The system-wide alternative

To change the route for applications that follow the operating system’s proxy settings, set the HTTP proxy in those network settings instead. Applications with their own transport settings may use another route. With FoxyProxy on Disable, Chrome uses the system settings unless a managed policy or command-line setting controls it. Chrome will not read a username and password saved there; it falls back to its normal sign-in flow, which can prompt you. The proxy settings guide explains manual entries and automatic configuration.

Turn the system proxy off when you finish. Until then, every application that follows it keeps sending traffic through the gateway and using your GB.

If it does not work

A sign-in prompt appears

FoxyProxy has no stored credentials for this hostname and port, so Chrome is asking. Add them to the entry and save, and check that the entry’s hostname and port match the gateway exactly.

ERR_PROXY_CONNECTION_FAILED

Chromium uses this error when the proxy server cannot be reached. Check the hostname and port, then follow the connection refused and timeout guide.

ERR_TUNNEL_CONNECTION_FAILED

The tunnel did not open, and the browser message does not say why. Check the stored username and password first, then follow the CONNECT tunnel guide. A rejected sign-in or a used-up balance is covered by the 407 guide.

The echo page shows your normal address

The pattern did not match, or the mode is not Proxy by Patterns. Use a hostname-only pattern as above.

The toolbar icon is grey

FoxyProxy’s help says another extension controls the proxy settings. Disable the other proxy extension.

One site fails, the echo page works

Compare that site directly and through the curl check. If only the proxied request fails, the difference lies between the exit and that site, not in the extension’s sign-in.

Limits of this setup

The extension changes one Chrome profile. For Incognito windows, Chrome must allow the extension in Incognito. Stored credentials are available to anyone who uses that profile, so use a separate Chrome profile on a shared computer. Chrome talks to an HTTP gateway without encryption, so the proxy sign-in travels unencrypted even when the page itself is HTTPS; use a network you trust.

WebRTC connections can take routes outside the proxy settings. FoxyProxy’s optional Limit WebRTC setting, which needs the privacy permission, changes Chrome’s WebRTC routing policy. Change it only when a test needs every connection from the page on the proxy route, and expect calls and other real-time features to behave differently. Firefox supports SOCKS5 sign-in in FoxyProxy; this guide covers Chrome only.

This setup suits manual checks in your own browser. For scripted browser checks, configure the proxy in code with the Playwright proxy guide instead.

How this walkthrough was checked

On 1 October 2026 we checked these steps against Chrome’s proxy API reference (updated 21 September 2026), its webRequest API reference (updated 11 September 2026), Chromium’s proxy documentation, and FoxyProxy’s help, changelog and version 9.8 source. This is a documentation-checked walkthrough, not a recorded browser test or a measurement of the live pool.

FoxyProxy is a third-party extension; we do not maintain it. If its options page differs from these names, follow its own help for the field, keep the HTTP type and port, and run the echo check again.

What is not allowed

Browse through the proxy only for permitted work such as QA, ad checks and market research, within each site’s terms and the acceptable-use policy.

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