free-proxy-scraper-checker

Free Proxy Scraper & Checker

Collects free public HTTP and SOCKS5 proxies from open lists, tests every one of them and gives you only the working ones, sorted by speed. You can also paste your own proxy list and use the Actor as a plain proxy checker.

What you get

• Fresh free proxies tested at the moment of the run
• Response time in milliseconds for each working proxy
• Exit IP and country of every working proxy
• IP leak check: does the proxy reveal your real IP or not
• Failed proxies with the reason (timeout, connection error, bad response) if you want them
• Run summary with totals in the key-value store (SUMMARY)

How to use

1. Open the Input tab and leave the defaults to scrape and test public lists, or
2. Paste your own proxies into Your own proxies to check them (formats below).
3. Click Start. A default run keeps testing until it finds 50 working proxies and usually takes 1 to 3 minutes.
4. Download results from the Output tab as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read them through the API.

Input

Field	Description
sources	Public list URLs with a protocol (http or socks5). Plain text, one host:port per line
proxies	Your own proxies. Formats: host:port, user:pass@host:port, http://host:port, socks5://host:port
maxProxies	Upper limit of proxies tested per run (default 1000, max 5000)
targetWorking	Stop after this many working proxies are found (default 50, 0 = test all up to the limit)
concurrency	Parallel checks (default 200)
timeoutSecs	Timeout per proxy (default 8 seconds)
onlyWorking	Return only working proxies (default on)
lookupCountry	Add country of the exit IP (default on)

Output example

{
  "proxy": "http://203.0.113.10:8080",
  "protocol": "http",
  "status": "working",
  "latencyMs": 842,
  "ip": "203.0.113.10",
  "leaksRealIp": false,
  "country": "Germany",
  "countryCode": "DE",
  "source": "https://example.com/http.txt",
  "checkedAt": "2026-11-10T12:00:00+00:00"
}

Credentials of your own proxies are used only for the connection and are never saved to the output.

How it works

The Actor loads the lists, removes duplicates, mixes them and tests in batches until it finds targetWorking working proxies or reaches maxProxies (your own proxies always go first). If the chosen lists give too few proxies, extra public lists are added automatically. Every proxy makes an HTTPS request to an IP echo service. A proxy is working if it returns a valid answer in time. The exit IP seen by the service is compared with the real IP of the Actor to detect leaks.

Limits and honest notes

• Free public proxies are slow, short-lived and shared by many people. A proxy that works now may be dead in 10 minutes. Run the Actor right before you use the list.
• Typically only a small share of a public list is alive. If nothing works, the Actor returns one row with the status no_working_proxies_found.
• Do not send passwords, payments or personal data through free proxies. The operator of an unknown proxy can see and change unencrypted traffic.
• For serious or long-running tasks such as large-scale scraping, account work or anything that needs stable speed and a clean reputation, use paid proxies chosen for the specific task (residential, ISP, mobile or datacenter depending on the target site).
• SOCKS4 is not supported. The leak check covers your IP address appearing in the response, which is the most common problem with transparent proxies.
• Country detection is based on a public IP database and can be wrong for some addresses.

FAQ

Where do the proxies come from? From public plain-text lists that you set in sources. The defaults point to popular open lists hosted on GitHub. You can replace them with any list you trust.

Can I check only my own proxies? Yes. Set sources to an empty list [] and paste your proxies into proxies.

Why did I get fewer proxies than I tested? Because the rest did not respond in time or returned errors. Turn off onlyWorking to see every failed proxy with its reason.

Can I run it on a schedule? Yes. Use Apify Schedules and connect the output to your tools through the API or integrations.

Is it legal? The Actor only reads public lists and tests whether proxies respond. How you use a proxy is your responsibility. Follow the laws and the terms of the sites you visit.

Feedback

Found a bug or want a new feature, such as another test URL or more output fields? Open an issue on this Actor's page.