SOCKS5 Proxies

• Rated 4.6/5 on Trustpilot (100+ reviews)
• HTTP(S) & SOCKS5
• No concurrent session limit
• Sticky sessions or new IP per request
• Bandwidth rolls over
• 24/7 support from real people

What you get with ProxyEmpire SOCKS5 proxies

One login for SOCKS5 and HTTP

A SOCKS5 proxy relays your app’s TCP connections through another IP address without reading or rewriting them, so it works for any program that can speak SOCKS5, not only web browsers. ProxyEmpire supports SOCKS5 on all six of its proxy types: rotating residential, rotating mobile, ISP (static residential), rotating datacenter, dedicated mobile and unlimited residential, with username and password authentication. For the protocol itself, read our guide to what a SOCKS5 proxy is and how it works.

• Same login as HTTP. Every proxy type answers SOCKS5 and HTTP on the same host, port, username and password.
• Targeting in the username. Country, region, city, ZIP, ISP or carrier, ASN and OS fingerprint, at no extra charge.
• Sticky or rotating. Keep one IP per session, rotate on every request, or set your own rotation time.
• No session limit. Open as many concurrent SOCKS5 connections as your tools need; you pay per GB, not per connection.
• 24/7 support from real people for setup questions in any tool.

Buy SOCKS5 proxies: prices by proxy type

SOCKS5 is included on every plan below

Every plan includes SOCKS5, HTTP and HTTPS at the same price. Compare every plan on ProxyEmpire pricing.

SOCKS5 residential proxy plans

Rotating residential — all targeting included

Try the network for $1.97, pay as you go from a single GB at $3.50, or take a larger plan for as little as $1.50/GB. Prices are the same in every location, and plans are billed in US dollars (USD). Country, city, ZIP, ISP, ASN and OS fingerprint targeting cost nothing extra, SOCKS5 and HTTP are both included, and unused bandwidth rolls over.

Discounted prices use code EMPIRE50 (limited time, rotating residential and mobile only). Rotating mobile starts at $4.50 for 1 GB and goes down to $2.00/GB on larger plans. Static residential costs $3.50 for a single IP, down to $2.00 per IP a month on larger bundles. All mobile, static and datacenter plans are on the full pricing page.

SOCKS5 endpoint and username format

Host, port and login for your tool

For rotating residential and rotating mobile proxies:

• Host: v2.proxyempire.io
• Port: 5000, the same port for SOCKS5 and HTTP
• Scheme: socks5h:// (DNS at the proxy) or socks5:// (DNS on your machine)
• Username: your Proxy Manager username, with targeting and session in it
• Password: your Proxy Manager password

The username carries your choices: -country-us selects the United States and -sid-123456 holds a sticky session, and the same pattern adds region, city, ZIP, ISP, ASN or OS fingerprint. You don’t need to type it by hand: build it in the dashboard’s Connection Builder and copy the full string, or export a proxy list as host:port:user:pass. ISP, datacenter, dedicated mobile and unlimited residential proxies show their host and port in your dashboard, and there too SOCKS5 and HTTP share the same host, port and login. If a tool only accepts an IP address instead of a hostname, our support team gives you one.

Use the password exactly as shown. If it contains characters such as @, : or / and your tool reads a proxy URL, encode them (for example @ becomes %40).

SOCKS5 proxy code examples: curl, Python and Node.js

Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with your own

curl. The socks5h scheme sends the hostname to the proxy, so the website’s address is looked up at the exit IP, not on your machine.

curl -x socks5h://USERNAME:PASSWORD@v2.proxyempire.io:5000 https://ipinfo.io/json

Python (requests). Install the SOCKS extra once, then pass the same proxy URL for both schemes.

# pip install "requests[socks]"
import requests

PROXY = "socks5h://USERNAME:PASSWORD@v2.proxyempire.io:5000"
r = requests.get("https://ipinfo.io/json",
                 proxies={"http": PROXY, "https": PROXY}, timeout=30)
print(r.json())

Node.js (axios). Use the socks-proxy-agent package and switch off axios’s own proxy handling.

// npm install axios socks-proxy-agent
const axios = require("axios");
const { SocksProxyAgent } = require("socks-proxy-agent");

const agent = new SocksProxyAgent("socks5h://USERNAME:PASSWORD@v2.proxyempire.io:5000");
axios.get("https://ipinfo.io/json", { httpAgent: agent, httpsAgent: agent, proxy: false })
  .then((r) => console.log(r.data));

The Proxy Manager also has ready-made examples for cURL, Python, Node, PHP and Go. More languages and session handling: curl with a proxy, Python scraping with residential proxies, Node.js proxy authentication and Go proxy authentication.

Chrome, and Puppeteer or Playwright on Chromium, can’t send a username and password to a SOCKS5 proxy. In those tools use the http:// scheme with the same host, port and login; you get the same IPs and targeting.

Set up SOCKS5 proxies in your tools

Step-by-step guides for each app

• Anti-detect browsers: add the proxy to each profile as SOCKS5 or HTTP. See the popular anti-detect browsers that integrate with ProxyEmpire.
• Proxifier: send any Windows or macOS program through a SOCKS5 proxy. Proxifier setup guide.
• Android: our free ProxyEmpire Proxy Manager app connects over SOCKS5 or HTTP with your login. Android setup guide.
• iPhone: Shadowrocket accepts SOCKS5 with a username and password. Shadowrocket guide.
• Telegram: add a SOCKS5 proxy in the app’s own settings. Telegram proxies.
• Firefox: its built-in SOCKS setting has no password field, so use an extension. Firefox proxy guide.

Check that a new proxy works before you use it, with our free proxy checker for HTTP, SOCKS4 and SOCKS5.

SOCKS5 or HTTP: which to use with ProxyEmpire

Same IPs, same price, different scheme

• Nothing changes but the scheme. On every proxy type, SOCKS5 and HTTP share the IP pool, targeting, login and price.
• HTTP suits most scraping and browser tools, and it is the only option where Chromium needs a password.
• SOCKS5 suits apps that ask for it, non-browser programs, and setups where you want DNS lookups to happen at the proxy (socks5h).
• Neither protocol encrypts your data. HTTPS between your app and the website does, over either one.

The full side-by-side, with handshakes and DNS behaviour: SOCKS vs HTTP proxy.

What our SOCKS5 proxies don’t do

Limits worth knowing before you buy

TCP only, no UDP, so online games, voice calls and QUIC traffic won’t go through. Only ports 80 and 443 are open by default; other ports need KYC and a use-case review, and port 25 is never opened. Some site categories are blocked on every proxy type: see blocked websites. Login is username and password only.

What teams use SOCKS5 proxies for

Where SOCKS5 earns its place

ProxyEmpire is built for legitimate data collection, testing and account management. Each website’s terms still apply on any IP, and we don’t support spam, fraud or any illegal activity.

SOCKS5 proxy types compared

Match the IP type to the job

SOCKS5 proxy FAQ

Straight answers

More on SOCKS5

Guides and tools