Tor proxies are one of the most confused ideas in online privacy. Tor itself is free software that sends your traffic through three volunteer-run relays, so the website you visit sees a Tor exit relay’s IP address instead of yours. When people search for a “Tor proxy”, they usually mean one of three things: the local SOCKS proxy the Tor client opens on your own computer, running Tor through an ordinary upstream proxy, or a website that claims to be a “Tor proxy online”. This guide explains how Tor and onion routing work, how Tor compares with a proxy and a VPN, how Tor Browser’s proxy settings work, why so many sites block Tor exits, and why business data collection runs on residential proxies rather than Tor.
The short version
A Tor proxy is usually the SOCKS port that the Tor client opens on your own machine (9050 for a standalone tor, 9150 for Tor Browser), which sends your traffic through a guard, a middle and an exit relay, so the site sees only the exit’s IP address. It isn’t a server you rent. Online “Tor proxy” websites are gateways that strip out Tor’s protections, which is why we don’t list any. Tor is built for private browsing; for price monitoring, SEO checks and other business data collection, where Tor exits are public, shared and often blocked, residential and mobile proxies are the usual tool.
What is Tor?
A program, a network and a browserThe name Tor covers several things. The Tor Project describes Tor as a program you run on your computer that bounces your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers around the world. That set of relays is the Tor network. Most people use it through Tor Browser, a version of Firefox that the Tor Project has modified to fix privacy problems and to make its users look alike.
Tor’s goal, in the project’s own words, is to stop somebody watching your internet connection from learning which sites you visit, and to stop the sites you visit from learning your physical location. It does that by never making a direct connection. Your traffic travels through a series of relays, each of which knows only part of the path.
The name comes from onion routing, the technique Tor is built on, which grew out of an onion routing project at the US Naval Research Laboratory. The project spells it Tor, not TOR. The Tor Project is a non-profit organisation that develops and maintains the software.
Key takeaways
- Tor routes traffic through three relays: a guard (entry), a middle relay and an exit relay.
- Each relay removes one layer of encryption and knows only the hop before it and the hop after it.
- Websites see the exit relay’s IP address, and the list of Tor relays is public.
- A “Tor proxy” is normally the local SOCKS port of the Tor client, not a service you buy.
- Tor is free and aimed at private browsing; it is slow and widely challenged for bulk data work.
How onion routing works: guard, middle and exit relays
Three hops, three layers of encryptionWhen the Tor client starts, it downloads the current list of relays and builds a circuit: a path through the network made of three relays chosen from that list. The Tor Project’s glossary describes most circuits as a guard (or bridge), a middle relay and an exit. The client negotiates a separate set of encryption keys with each hop, then wraps your data in one layer of encryption per relay, like the layers of an onion.
your device (Tor client)
| data wrapped in 3 layers of encryption
v
guard relay sees your IP, not your destination
| 2 layers left
v
middle relay sees only the guard and the exit
| 1 layer left
v
exit relay sees the destination, not your IP
| your request (still encrypted if the site uses HTTPS)
v
website --> sees the exit relay's IP addressEach relay peels off its own layer and passes the rest on. The Tor Project’s overview puts the result plainly: each relay along the way knows only which relay gave it data and which relay it is giving data to, and no single relay ever knows the complete path.
The three relay roles
- Guard (entry) relay. The first hop. It can see your IP address and that you are using Tor, but not where your traffic is going. Your client picks a small set of guards and keeps reusing them, which the Tor Project explains lowers the chance that an attacker who runs some relays ends up at both ends of your traffic over time. A relay has to be stable and fast to be given the guard role.
- Middle relay. The second hop. It sees only the guard and the exit, never your IP or your destination. Its job is to keep the two ends apart.
- Exit relay. The last hop, which sends your traffic out to the public internet. The site you connect to sees the exit’s IP address instead of yours. Each exit has an exit policy that says which destinations and ports it will connect to, and the Tor Project notes that exit operators carry the most legal exposure of any relay type, because abuse complaints about traffic go to them.
How paths are picked and reused
Tor’s path specification says the client chooses the exit first, then the other hops. It won’t use the same relay twice in a circuit, won’t combine relays that declare themselves part of the same family, and by default won’t put two relays from the same /16 IPv4 network range in one path. The path length is fixed at three for normal browsing. The Tor Project explains that longer paths add load without adding security, and shorter ones would let a relay at either end know exactly which relay to attack.
Circuits aren’t rebuilt for every request. Tor reuses a working circuit for new connections for about ten minutes, then moves new connections to a fresh circuit; a single long-lived connection stays on its circuit. Tor carries TCP only, and any application that supports SOCKS can use it.
What Tor proxies are: three different meanings
SOCKS port, upstream proxy, web gatewayThe Tor Project describes Tor as sending your traffic “through a series of proxies”, which is part of why the phrase “Tor proxy” gets used so loosely. In practice, searches for Tor proxies point at three different things, and it helps to keep them apart.
1. The Tor client’s own SOCKS proxy
This is the most accurate meaning. The Tor client doesn’t change your whole system’s traffic; it opens a local proxy port, and applications that you point at that port get their traffic sent through the Tor network. According to the tor manual, the SocksPort option opens a port for SOCKS-speaking applications and defaults to 9050. Tor Browser runs its own copy of tor and, in its default settings, talks to it over SOCKS on 127.0.0.1 port 9150. That is why Tor’s troubleshooting page suggests trying port 9050 or 9150 when a “proxy server is refusing connections” error appears.
# torrc: SOCKS port for local applications (the default is 9050)
SocksPort 9050
# optional: an HTTP CONNECT port for apps that can't speak SOCKS (off by default)
HTTPTunnelPort 9080
# test from the same machine; the hostname is resolved through Tor, not locally
curl --socks5-hostname 127.0.0.1:9050 https://example.com/Two details from the documentation matter here. First, HTTPTunnelPort is Tor’s HTTP proxy mode: it accepts HTTP CONNECT requests instead of SOCKS, and it is off unless you set it. Second, the manual warns against exposing the SOCKS port beyond localhost, because the SOCKS protocol, as Tor uses it, is unencrypted and unauthenticated, so anyone on the network could read it or use your machine as an open proxy. In curl, --socks5-hostname hands the hostname to the proxy to resolve, which keeps the DNS lookup inside Tor as well.
The Tor Project also cautions that only Tor Browser is set up for safe browsing by default. Other programs can use the SOCKS port, but it hasn’t researched the application-level leaks of every one of them. For more on the protocol itself, see our guides to SOCKS proxies and SOCKS vs HTTP proxies.
2. Running Tor through an upstream proxy
The second meaning is the reverse direction: making the Tor client itself connect to the Tor network through an ordinary proxy. The usual reason is a workplace or school network where all outbound traffic must go through a proxy server. The tor manual documents three options for this:
| torrc option | What it does | Authentication |
|---|---|---|
| HTTPSProxy | Makes tor’s relay connections through an HTTP proxy with HTTP CONNECT (port 443 if none is given) | HTTPSProxyAuthenticator username:password (Basic) |
| Socks5Proxy | Makes tor’s relay connections through a SOCKS 5 proxy (port 1080 if none is given) | Socks5ProxyUsername and Socks5ProxyPassword (RFC 1929) |
| Socks4Proxy | Makes tor’s relay connections through a SOCKS 4 proxy (port 1080 if none is given) | None |
The older HTTPProxy option only covered directory requests and has been deprecated in favour of HTTPSProxy since tor 0.3.1. If you use Tor Browser, you don’t edit these by hand: the browser’s connection settings, covered below, set them for you, and the Tor Project warns that most torrc edits in Tor Browser either do nothing or make you less safe.
This isn’t the same as a proxy chain in the usual sense. The upstream proxy only carries tor’s encrypted connection to the guard relay; it sees that you are using Tor, and nothing about the sites you visit.
3. “Tor proxy online” websites
The third meaning is a website you open in a normal browser, type an address into, and get a page fetched “via Tor”. These are covered in their own section below, because they work very differently from Tor itself and remove most of what makes Tor useful.
Tor vs a proxy vs a VPN
Who runs the hops, and who can see whatA proxy, a VPN and Tor all put another IP address between you and the site. The difference is how many operators are involved, what each can see, and how much of your device’s traffic goes through them.
| Tor | Proxy | VPN | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Volunteers, who run about 6,000 relays | One provider | One provider |
| Hops | Three relays, chosen by the client | One server or gateway | One server |
| Who sees your IP and destination together | No single relay, by design | The proxy provider | The VPN provider |
| What goes through it | Apps pointed at the SOCKS port; TCP only | Apps you configure to use it | Usually the whole device |
| Encryption | Layered, from your device to the exit relay | Depends on the proxy and the site (HTTPS still protects content) | Encrypted tunnel from your device to the VPN server |
| Exit IP | A public Tor exit relay, shared by many users | Residential, mobile or datacenter, depending on the type | Usually a datacenter IP |
| Choose the location | Not by default; the client picks the path | Yes, often down to city | Yes, by server |
| Speed | Slower: three volunteer hops | Fast | Fast |
| Cost | Free | Paid (free ones exist, with trade-offs) | Usually a subscription |
The Tor Project’s own comparison with proxies is blunt. A simple proxy provider creates a single point of trust: the provider knows both who you are and what you browse, and you have to trust it not to watch, alter or record your traffic. Tor spreads that trust across three relays run by different people, so none of them holds the whole picture. The price is speed. The Tor Project’s support site says the network has over a million daily users sharing just over 6,000 relays, and that some latency is always present by design.
On combining the two, the Tor Project generally doesn’t recommend using a VPN with Tor unless you are an advanced user who can configure both without weakening your privacy. For a fuller breakdown of the proxy-versus-VPN side, see residential proxies vs VPNs.
A proxy asks you to trust one operator. Tor is designed so that no single relay can connect you to what you do.
Using Tor Browser with a proxy
For networks that require a proxyIf your network only lets traffic out through a proxy, Tor Browser has to be told about it before it can reach the Tor network. The Tor Project’s first-launch guide says this is not necessary in most cases, and that you will usually know you need it because the same proxy settings are used by other browsers on your system. If you are on a managed network, ask the network administrator for the details.
- Open the connection settingsOn the Connect to Tor screen, choose Configure Connection. Once the browser is running, the same settings are under Settings, then Connection.
- Find the advanced optionsIn the Advanced section, next to “Configure how Tor Browser connects to the internet”, click Settings.
- Turn on the proxyTick “I use a proxy to connect to the internet”.
- Pick the proxy typeThe Proxy type menu offers SOCKS4, SOCKS5 and HTTP/HTTPS. Use whichever your network’s proxy speaks.
- Enter the detailsType the proxy’s IP address or hostname and its port. Username and password are optional and only needed if the proxy asks for them.
- Restricted ports, if anyIf the network only allows outgoing connections on certain ports, tick “This computer goes through a firewall that only allows connections to certain ports” and list them, for example 80 and 443.
- ConnectSave and click Connect. If Tor Browser can’t reach the network, check the proxy details, then the Tor log from the same Advanced section.
Tor Browser passes these settings to its tor using the torrc options above: SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 become Socks4Proxy and Socks5Proxy, and HTTP/HTTPS becomes HTTPSProxy, which reaches the Tor network through HTTP CONNECT. The proxy you enter here sits in front of Tor, between you and the guard relay. The website still sees a Tor exit relay’s address, not the proxy’s.
Online “Tor proxy” sites, and why we don’t list them
Gateways that remove Tor’s protectionsSearches such as “tor proxy online”, “online tor proxy” and “tor proxy list” usually come from people hoping to use Tor without installing anything: a web page where you paste an address and it fetches the page through Tor. The best-known design is Tor2web. The Tor Project’s glossary describes Tor2web as a project that lets users reach onion services without Tor Browser, and warns that it is not as safe and removes the Tor-related protections the client would otherwise have.
The reason is structural. With an online gateway, your browser connects directly to the gateway operator’s server, over the ordinary internet. The operator sees your real IP address, every page you request and everything the page sends back, and can log or change any of it. Your browser also isn’t Tor Browser, so none of its fingerprinting or tracking protections apply. You end up with a single point of trust, which is exactly what Tor was designed to remove.
Because of that, this guide doesn’t list or link any online Tor gateways, Tor proxy lists or onion addresses. If you need Tor, the Tor Project’s own advice is to use Tor Browser, downloaded from the Tor Project. If what you actually want is a quick way to load a page from another IP address without installing software, that is an ordinary web proxy; our guide to the best online proxies covers how those work and what they can see.
Why many sites block or CAPTCHA Tor exit nodes
A public list of shared addressesIf you have used Tor Browser, you have probably met more CAPTCHAs, “unusual traffic” warnings and outright blocks than usual. The Tor Project explains why, and none of it is a secret:
- The relay list is public by design. Tor clients need the list of relays to build their circuits, so the Tor Project doesn’t hide it, and says that anyone could rebuild it anyway by connecting through Tor and recording the addresses. Any site can tell when a connection comes from a Tor exit. The Tor Project even offers an exit list for site operators who want to treat Tor traffic differently.
- Exits are shared by many people at once. The Tor Project’s CAPTCHA page notes that thousands of users may share one exit relay’s IP address at the same time. To an automated abuse system, that looks like many requests or logins from one address, or like bot traffic.
- Abuse systems can’t tell users apart. The Tor Project says most large websites aren’t specifically trying to block Tor; their systems simply can’t tell Tor traffic from suspicious traffic. Some sites do block it deliberately, which the project accepts is their decision.
- Location jumps look risky. Banks and other sensitive services often lock accounts that suddenly log in from the other side of the world, and a Tor exit can be anywhere.
The Tor Project’s suggestions for users are modest: choose “New Circuit for this Site” in Tor Browser to get a different exit, wait until the relay is less busy, or use services that are friendlier to Tor. For site operators, it recommends limiting specific actions, such as posting, for Tor users rather than banning the network outright, because many people use Tor for ordinary privacy reasons.
What Tor doesn’t do
Limits the Tor Project documents itselfTor meaningfully improves privacy, but the Tor Project is careful about its limits, and so should anyone writing about it:
- It can’t stop an attacker who watches both ends. The Tor Project states that Tor, like every practical low-latency design, fails if an attacker can see both the traffic entering the network and the traffic reaching the site, and correlate their timing and volume.
- The exit can see unencrypted traffic. The exit relay delivers your request to the site. Without HTTPS, it can read what you send; with HTTPS, it sees only the destination.
- Other browsers leak. Using Tor through a normal browser can expose your real IP through DNS or WebRTC leaks and leave you easy to fingerprint. The Tor Project strongly recommends against it.
- Your own behaviour still identifies you. Logging in to your usual accounts, or moving between Tor Browser and a normal browser, can link Tor activity back to you.
- It carries TCP only. Applications that need UDP won’t work over Tor.
No tool makes you anonymous on its own, and Tor doesn’t claim to. The terms of the sites you use and the laws where you live still apply when you use Tor or any proxy.
Tor vs residential proxies for business data collection
The right tool for the jobSome of the searches that land on this page are really about work: “tor http proxy for web scraping”, “tor rotating proxy”, “cheap proxy vs tor”. The idea is appealing, because Tor is free and changes IP addresses. In practice it is a poor fit for price monitoring, SEO rank tracking, ad verification, market research or any other collection at scale.
| Tor exit relays | Residential and mobile proxies | |
|---|---|---|
| How sites see the IP | A known Tor exit on a public list | An ordinary home broadband or mobile carrier address |
| CAPTCHAs and blocks | Common, because exits are shared and listed | Much rarer, when requests are paced sensibly |
| Location | Whatever exit the circuit uses | Chosen per request: country, city, ISP and more |
| Rotation | New circuits roughly every ten minutes for new connections | New IP per request, or a sticky IP for a session |
| Speed and capacity | Shared volunteer bandwidth; slow | Commercial gateways built for concurrency |
| Support and uptime | None: it’s a volunteer network | A provider with support and a status page |
There is also a question of fairness. The Tor network’s bandwidth is donated by volunteers, and the Tor Project’s own support pages describe load on its roughly 6,000 relays as a cause of slowness for everyone. Pushing bulk automated traffic through it slows the network for the people it exists to protect, and gets exits challenged or blocked even faster.
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Tor proxies FAQ
Short answersWhat is a Tor proxy?
Usually the local SOCKS proxy that the Tor client opens on your computer, which sends the traffic of apps pointed at it through three Tor relays. The term is also used for running Tor through an upstream proxy, and for online gateways that fetch pages via Tor.
Is Tor a proxy?
In a sense. The Tor Project describes Tor as sending your traffic through a series of proxies, and applications reach it through a SOCKS proxy port. Unlike a single proxy, no one relay in the chain knows both who you are and where you are going.
What port does Tor use?
A standalone tor listens for SOCKS connections on 127.0.0.1 port 9050 by default. Tor Browser uses its own tor on port 9150. Tor can also open an HTTP CONNECT port with HTTPTunnelPort, which is off by default.
Is there a safe Tor proxy online?
Online Tor gateways, such as the Tor2web design, let you skip Tor Browser, but the Tor Project warns this removes Tor’s protections: the gateway operator sees your IP and your traffic. That is why we don’t list them. Use Tor Browser instead.
Is there a Tor proxy list?
You don’t need one. The Tor client downloads the public list of relays itself and picks the path for you. Lists of “Tor proxies” on third-party sites are usually web gateways or open proxies, which carry the risks described above.
Proxy vs Tor: which should I use?
For private browsing, where you don’t want one operator to see both your IP and your destination, Tor Browser. For work that needs speed, a chosen location and IPs that aren’t on a public list, such as price monitoring or SEO checks, a residential or mobile proxy.
Does a proxy make Tor faster?
No. An upstream proxy adds a hop in front of the Tor network; it doesn’t change the three relays your traffic still has to cross. Tor’s speed depends on the relays and network load.
Why do sites show me CAPTCHAs on Tor?
Many people share each exit relay’s IP address, and the list of exits is public, so abuse systems often treat that traffic as suspicious. Choosing “New Circuit for this Site” in Tor Browser gives you a different exit.
Should I use a VPN with Tor?
The Tor Project generally doesn’t recommend it unless you are an advanced user who knows how to configure both without weakening your privacy.
Can I use ProxyEmpire with Tor?
ProxyEmpire isn’t a Tor service and doesn’t sell Tor proxies. Its proxies open only ports 80 and 443 by default, and other ports need KYC and a use-case review, as explained on our connection protocols page. For business data collection, use a residential or mobile proxy directly.
References
Primary documentation- Tor Project Support — What is Tor? support.torproject.org/about-tor/introduction/what-is-tor
- Tor Project Support — How is Tor different from other proxies? support.torproject.org/about-tor/introduction/tor-vs-other-proxies
- Tor Project Support — What protections does Tor provide? support.torproject.org/about-tor/introduction/protections
- Tor Project Support — How Tor works: overview. support.torproject.org/about-tor/how-tor-works/overview
- Tor Project Support — What are entry guards? support.torproject.org/about-tor/how-tor-works/entry-guards
- Tor Project Support — How often does Tor change its paths? support.torproject.org/about-tor/how-tor-works/path-selection
- Tor Project Support — Can I change the number of hops Tor uses? support.torproject.org/about-tor/using-and-sharing/circuit-length
- Tor Project Community — Types of relays on the Tor network. community.torproject.org/relay/types-of-relays
- Tor Specifications — Path selection and constraints. spec.torproject.org/path-spec/path-selection-constraints
- Tor Project — tor manual (SocksPort, HTTPTunnelPort, HTTPSProxy, Socks5Proxy, Socks4Proxy). torproject.org/docs/tor-manual
- Tor Project Support — Running Tor Browser for the first time (proxy settings). support.torproject.org/tor-browser/getting-started/first-launch
- Tor Project Support — “Proxy server is refusing connection” error. support.torproject.org/tor-browser/encountering-issues/proxy-errors
- Tor Project Support — Editing the torrc file. support.torproject.org/tor-browser/encountering-issues/editing-torrc
- Tor Project Support — Glossary (circuit, exit, guard, Tor2web). support.torproject.org/glossary
- Tor Project Support — Why do websites make me solve CAPTCHAs? support.torproject.org/tor-browser/encountering-issues/captchas
- Tor Project Support — A website is blocking access over Tor. support.torproject.org/tor-browser/general/website-blocking-tor-exits
- Tor Project Support — Why Tor’s relay list is public. support.torproject.org/about-tor/alt-design/hide-list-of-exits
- Tor Project Support — Blocking or restricting Tor users. support.torproject.org/abuse/ban-tor
- Tor Project Support — Using Tor with other browsers. support.torproject.org/tor-browser/security/using-tor-with-other-browsers
- Tor Project Support — Using Tor Browser with a VPN. support.torproject.org/tor-browser/general/vpn-with-tor
- Tor Project Support — Tor Browser speed. support.torproject.org/tor-browser/general/tor-browser-speed
- curl — man page, –socks5-hostname. curl.se/docs/manpage
- IETF — RFC 1929, “Username/Password Authentication for SOCKS V5”. rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1929
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