We Tested 1,200 Free Proxies: Only ~2% Actually Worked (Here's the Data)
Free proxies can be tempting. Who doesn't like the idea of unlimited, no-cost proxies?
But after testing more than a thousand free proxies from four major free proxy providers, the results were sobering:
- Success rates averaged below 5% (and in some cases, 0%).
- Location data was frequently incorrect.
- Failures ranged from connection errors to timeouts and proxy errors.
If you're considering using free proxies for any serious project, scraping, data collection, or anonymity then read on for our findings.
- Quick Summary of Results
- Why Are Free Proxies So Enticing?
- Our Testing Methodology
- Provider-by-Provider Analysis
- Aggregated Findings
- Security and Practical Considerations
- Conclusion: Free Proxies Are Generally Not Worth It
- Have You Tried Free Proxies?
- Appendix: Data Sample
- Why This Matters
- Further Reading / Next Steps
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Quick Summary of Results
| Provider | Success Rate | Key Issues |
|---|---|---|
| ProxyScrape | ~2.1% – 5% | Connection Errors |
| ProxyNova | ~5.56% | Timeouts/Resets |
| Geonode | 0% | Proxy Errors |
| Free Proxy List | 0% | Proxy Errors |
- Most proxies failed on the first attempt due to timeouts or connection issues.
- Even successful connections often provided misleading location data.
- Conclusion: Free proxies are generally too unreliable (and potentially risky) for production use.
Why Are Free Proxies So Enticing?
Proxy solutions, whether datacenter, residential, or mobile, can get expensive, and recurring service costs are a headache for any organization.
Numerous proxy providers also list free proxy services like:
These services promise large lists of fresh proxies, potentially saving you substantial money.
However, as our testing found, these proxies often don't deliver on reliability. Many times, the same sites that offer free proxies also sell paid proxy products as well.
This leads to a situation where the free lists are more like a marketing funnel than a truly usable service.
Our Testing Methodology
The following is a summary of the testing methodology we used to test the free proxies.
#1 Proxy Sources
- ProxyScrape: Access almost 1,000 free proxies at any given time. However, even on their site, these proxies come with a warning that they may be infected by malware and that many of them are already banned from accessing various sites across the web.
- ProxyNova: They claim to check over 1,000,000 proxies daily. Their list of proxies is updated every 60 seconds and proxies are ranked by anonymity level and uptime. They claim to have one of the most reliable proxy networks in the world.
- Geonode: Geonode offers access to over 7,000 free proxies. They don't offer any statements on the page about the proxies, but they do offer a filtering tool. When you filter for "elite" proxies or proxies that passed the Google test, you get zero results 🤣
- Free Proxy List: This site offers a list of proxies that are checked and updated every 10 minutes. They don't offer any filtering or anonymity ranking, but it's worth noting that almost every proxy on their site fails the Google test.
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Basic Criteria
- We tested connectivity using IPinfo's API as a baseline.
- We recorded success/failure, status codes, and location data.
- For successful connections, we compared the proxy's "claimed location" vs. the "actual location" from IPinfo.
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Test Setups
- Initial Large Test: Over 1,100 proxies from ProxyScrape alone, with a ~2% success rate.
- Focused Test Across Providers: We then tested 20 random proxies from each of the four providers to gather a more diverse set of results.
- Time to Complete: Each test suite took significant time to run, even with multithreading, due to the high failure rate.
By the end, we had a good sense of how often these proxies failed, how accurate they were when they did work, and what types of errors were most common.
The Results: Chaos and Failure at Scale
1. ProxyScrape
ProxyScrape Test Summary:
- Success rate: Approx. 2.1%–5%
- Most common errors:
ProxyError,ConnectionError, and outright timeouts. - Geographic accuracy: In the shorter test, we got 100% on our one successful connection. It advertised its location as
America/Los_Angelesand its real location turned out to beAmerica/Los_Angeles. - Key takeaway: The majority of connections never established properly. Even at a “high” point of 5% success, that rate is essentially unusable.
During our initial research, we tested almost 1,200 proxies from ProxyScrape. However, the success rate with these proxies was abysmal.
We tested a set of 1,168 proxies and only 2.1% of them received a successful response (status code 200).
With a ~98% failure rate, we decided to test proxies from different providers across the web. We adjusted our testing parameters to run individual tests on 20 random proxies from each provider.
This allowed us to use our automated testing pipeline with a more diverse dataset for less skewed results.
With the smaller testing set, ProxyScrape was able to achieve double its success rate from the larger test. However, this 5% success rate can't actually be considered usable.
Timeout Errors were the least common. We encountered quite a few Proxy Errors, but Connection Errors were most common by a long shot. These results definitely align with the warnings and statements made on their site.
2. ProxyNova
ProxyNova Test Summary:
- Success Rate: ~5.56% in our sample
- Notable errors: Timeouts and connection resets were rampant.
- Geographic accuracy: Only 1 in 10 proxies were in the location they claimed to be.
- Key takeaway: Similar to ProxyScrape, but with a slightly different error distribution.
With ProxyNova, we only tested 18 proxies. Out of our 18, only one connection was successful. With a 5.56% success rate, these proxies are also highly unusable.
ProxyNova's failure rate was similar, the reasons for failure were different. ProxyNova's primary point of failure was the more general Proxy Error.
While, the connection rate is slightly better, most of these proxies failed before the Connection Error could even occur!
3. Geonode
Geonode Test Summary:
- Success Rate: 0%
- Error Types: Proxy errors and connection errors dominated.
- Notes: Despite the largest claimed pool, none of the 20 test proxies connected successfully.
- Key takeaway: What can we say? Geonode's free proxies are about as reliable as a fortune cookies predictions.
Geonode's free proxies were as bad as it can possibly be. It wins our award for highest rate of failure!
Success rates are bad among free proxies, but Geonode's free proxies were the absolute worst... 20 proxies tested and 20 proxies with complete and utter failure.
Geonode did actually manage to achieve zero Timeout Errors. With 18 Proxy Errors and 2 Connection Errors, Geonode has earned its place in dead last.
4. Free Proxy List
Free Proxy List Test Summary:
- Success Rate: 0%
- Error Types: Almost every proxy attempt resulted in a proxy error.
- Key takeaway: "Free Proxy List" is free for a reason, because it's unusable.
When we thought Geonode would win the competition for worst free proxies, Free Proxy List came on strong! With a 100% failure rate, Free Proxy List tied Geonode for the worst free proxies around!
Here are the errors we received from Free Proxy List. Free Proxy List achieved the most Proxy Errors of all, 19! If you're looking for a provider that won't even let you create the proxy connection, Free Proxy List is your best bet.
What We Learned (and Why Free Proxies Are a Pipe Dream)
When we combine these results together, they mirror our large test from ProxyScrape much more closely. In their combined power, all of these sources give us a 2.56% success rate.
- Failure Is the Norm: Across all of these providers, we got two successful connections on 78 proxies. A far higher than we ever could've imagined.
- Geographic Lies: Nearly every proxy lied about its location. Need a U.S. proxy? You might get one from Siberia! Well this is a bit of an exaggeration, but we did find a New York proxy that was actually located in Phoenix, Arizona... ~2,150 miles (3,640 KM) from where it's supposed to be!
- Unusable for Real Tasks: Whether it's scraping, anonymity, or basic web browsing, these proxies are unreliable at best and dangerous at worst.
The Hidden Dangers of Free Proxies
- Security Risks: Most of these proxies are relatively unknown and they forward your traffic through unknown servers. Never use these proxies to send important information.
- Time Wasted: Hours of testing yielded abysmal results. To put this in perspective, when using the full list from ProxyScrape, the entire run takes almost 20 minutes, with multithreading. In a real world single threaded application, it's likely to take 5-10 minutes just to get a connection when rotating these proxies.
- Ethical Concerns: Who runs these proxies? What's their incentive? If you look at any of the websites offering free proxies, they're all selling some type of proxy product. Some of them sell software designed to find good proxies. Others, like Geonode, are selling paid proxies directly from their site. These proxies are likely offered as a marketing hook. Once you try them, you'll be far more likely to use a paid proxy.
Conclusion: Free Proxies Are Generally Not Worth It
- Verdict: With success rates often below 5%, free proxy lists are risky and inefficient for practical tasks.
- Paid Options vs. Free: Reputable paid proxies typically provide ~99% success rates and stable connections. Some even offer free trials or small free plans that out-perform any of these free lists.
- Alternatives:
- Paid Proxy Plans (e.g., residential or datacenter from known providers).
- Self-Hosted Solutions (using VPNs, dedicated servers, or containerized setups, though you'll lose features like IP rotation).
- Thorough Testing of Any Provider (always validate claims before committing to large-scale integrations).
Free proxies are a marketing ploy. Their purpose is to funnel traffic to a host site. When these proxies fail, you'll be open to using a paid proxy.
Have You Tried Free Proxies?
Free proxies are terrible products. Why do so many people choose free proxies with ~2% uptime when they could use a paid proxy with over 99%?
We'd love to hear your thoughts or experiences.
- Have you managed to achieve a better success rate with free proxy lists?
- Did you find reliable workarounds?
Share below or let us know what you think could improve these results.
Appendix: The Data Behind the Chaos
Here's a typical result from our testing. During the testing process, almost all of our results looked like this.
If you'd like to replicate our tests, you can check the methodology above. We used a straightforward approach:
- Collected proxy lists from each site.
- Attempted connections to IPinfo.io.
- Logged status codes, connection errors, and location data.
Why This Matters
Free proxies represent the more dangerous and disappointing side of the internet.
Contrary to their paid counterparts, they grossly overpromise and underdeliver. They lure people in with the promise of unlimited free access.
Because free access is almost impossible, you're then roped into buying one of their paid products.
- Reliability is Critical: If you can't rely on the product, there is no way you can actually use it in your production environment.
- The Risks are Real: When using these proxies, you're exposing your private information to untrusted sources at the very least. In a more typical scenario, you're likely to see catastrophic failure in any system that depends on them. Many of these proxies can inject additional information into your requests.
- The Answer is Clear: Free proxies are not worth the cost, as ironic as that sounds. You might win the lottery and get a free connection, but the costs saved are nothing compared to the time you'll spend troubleshooting and fixing your system.
For serious applications, like web scraping at scale, automating tasks, or ensuring anonymity, free proxies rarely measure up.
A Note on Paid Alternatives
If you're exploring paid proxy providers, many offer free trials or minimal free plans.
For example, at ScrapeOps, we provide trial credits that outperform typical free proxies in terms of reliability and speed.
Evaluating such options often proves more cost-effective than troubleshooting a 2% success rate.
More Web Scraping Guides
For further reading, you can check these existing web scraping tutorials: