Scraping frameworks

How to use proxies with Axios

Axios supports a proxy option, but its built-in handling does not tunnel HTTPS reliably. The dependable pattern in Node.js is to pass an https-proxy-agent instead and disable the native proxy option.

Recommended for Axios

Residential proxies — Axios jobs are usually high-volume API and HTML collection, where rotating residential IPs prevent the rate limiting a single address runs into.

See residential proxies

Setup

1
Install the agent
Install Axios together with the proxy agent that handles HTTPS tunnelling correctly.
```
npm i axios https-proxy-agent
```

Route requests through the agent

Set httpsAgent and turn off the native proxy option, otherwise Axios tries to handle the proxy itself and the two conflict. Replace PROXY_HOST, PROXY_PORT, USERNAME and PASSWORD with the endpoint and credentials shown in your seamless dashboard.

const axios = require("axios");
const { HttpsProxyAgent } = require("https-proxy-agent");

const agent = new HttpsProxyAgent(
  "http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@PROXY_HOST:PROXY_PORT"
);

const res = await axios.get("https://example.com", {
  httpsAgent: agent,
  proxy: false, // required: prevents Axios' own proxy handling from interfering
  timeout: 30000,
});

Create a preconfigured instance

An Axios instance keeps the agent and headers in one place instead of repeating them at every call site.

const client = axios.create({
  httpsAgent: agent,
  proxy: false,
  timeout: 30000,
  headers: { "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)" },
});

const { data } = await client.get("https://example.com");

Rotate per request

Build a fresh agent with a new session identifier when you want each request to leave from a different IP.

const { randomUUID } = require("crypto");

function rotatingAgent() {
  const session = randomUUID().slice(0, 8);
  return new HttpsProxyAgent(
    `http://USERNAME-session-${session}:PASSWORD@PROXY_HOST:PROXY_PORT`
  );
}

Axios proxy FAQ

Why does the Axios proxy option not work for HTTPS?

Axios' built-in proxy handling does not establish a CONNECT tunnel correctly in all Node versions, which produces TLS and certificate errors. Passing an https-proxy-agent as httpsAgent and setting proxy: false is the reliable approach.

How do I authenticate a proxy in Axios?

Include the credentials in the URL you hand to HttpsProxyAgent, in the form http://username:password@host:port. The agent sets the Proxy-Authorization header for you.

Can I use one agent for all requests?

Yes, and you should when you want connection reuse. Create a separate agent per session only when you deliberately want each request to leave through a different exit IP.