How to set a proxy on Android, and why the password field is missing

Android lets you point a Wi-Fi network at a proxy in about ten taps. Then you go looking for the password field and discover it does not exist. Here is where the setting lives, why the username and password have nowhere to go, the ways around that, and the one-line adb command for test devices.

How to set a proxy on Android

Short answer: Settings → Network & internet → Internet → tap your Wi-Fi network → Edit (the pencil) → Advanced options → Proxy → Manual, then enter the proxy hostname and port. Those are the names on stock Android, as found on Pixel phones, checked in September 2026.

1. Open Settings and tap Network & internet, then Internet.
2. Tap the Wi-Fi network you are connected to (or the gear next to it) to open its details.
3. Tap the Edit pencil at the top of the screen. On older versions, long-press the network and choose Modify.
4. Expand Advanced options.
5. Under Proxy, change None to Manual.
6. Fill in Proxy hostname with the IP and Proxy port with the port, the two halves of the IP:PORT in your dashboard. Leave Bypass proxy for empty unless you want some domains to go direct; it takes a comma-separated list.
7. Tap Save.

Right under the fields, Android warns you: “The HTTP proxy is used by the browser but may not be used by the other apps.” Believe it. More on that below.

Samsung and other manufacturers

Every manufacturer rearranges Settings a little. On Samsung Galaxy phones the route is usually Settings → Connections → Wi-Fi → the gear next to your network → View more → Proxy. Xiaomi, OnePlus and others hide it under similar names. If you are lost, search Settings for “proxy”, or open the network’s details and look for an advanced section. The fields themselves are the same everywhere: hostname, port, bypass list.

Proxy Auto-Config

The other choice in the Proxy menu is Proxy Auto-Config, which takes a PAC URL: a script that tells the phone which proxy to use for which site. Useful if an IT team already hosts one. It does not solve the password problem, because a PAC file names proxies but carries no credentials.

Android proxy with username and password

Stock Android has no proxy username or password field, on Wi-Fi or anywhere else in Settings. That is not your phone hiding it. Android’s own record of a proxy, the ProxyInfo class in its developer reference, holds a host, a port, a bypass list and a PAC URL. Nothing else. There is nowhere to store a password.

What happens next depends on the app. Some browsers, Chrome among them, pop up a sign-in box when the proxy asks for credentials. Most other apps just fail, usually with an error that says nothing about a proxy. So, three ways to make it work:

1. Allowlist the network’s IP. Every line we sell supports an IP allowlist as well as a username and password. Add the public IP of the Wi-Fi network the phone is on, in your dashboard, and the proxy lets it in with no password. Nothing to type on the phone beyond hostname and port. The catch: it holds only while that network’s public IP stays put, and anyone else on the same network can use the proxy too. Never do it on a connection behind CGNAT, which is how most mobile data reaches the internet: allowlisting a shared carrier address lets everyone else behind it use your proxy. Use a password where the app supports one.
2. Let the browser ask. If all you need is a browser, set the proxy as above, open Chrome, and type the USER:PASS from your dashboard when it asks. Fine for a quick check; tedious for daily use.
3. Use a proxy client app. There are Android apps that run a small local VPN, take your proxy with its username and password, and forward the phone’s traffic through it. They exist precisely because Settings cannot hold credentials. We do not endorse any particular one; pick one that is open about what it does with your traffic, and prefer one that works with an allowlist too.

For a work or test phone that sits on the same office network all day, the allowlist is the least fiddly by a distance.

Which apps use the Android proxy

Fewer than you would hope. Android hands the proxy to apps, but it is up to each app to use it. Android’s developer docs say the standard Java networking classes pick it up automatically, while other HTTP stacks have to go and read it themselves. Plenty do not.

• Chrome honours it. Chrome on Android takes its proxy from the system settings, which is why the warning above singles out the browser.
• Many apps ignore it. Apps with their own networking code, games, and anything that is not plain HTTP, such as calls, go straight out.
• A VPN overrides it. If a VPN is connected, that is where the traffic goes. The proxy vs VPN explainer has the full picture.

And like on iPhone, the Wi-Fi setting belongs to one network, and a different network means no proxy. Mobile data does have proxy fields: the APN editor (Access point names, under your SIM’s settings) has Proxy and Port. Carriers often lock them, there is no password field there either, and the allowlist is no help on a carrier connection behind CGNAT. Company-managed phones can get a device-wide proxy from their management tool; ask whoever runs it.

Set a proxy on a test device with adb

For QA phones and emulators, clicking through Settings every time gets old. With USB debugging on, adb can set a global HTTP proxy, which applies on every network, mobile data included:

adb shell settings put global http_proxy IP:PORT

To take it off again:

adb shell settings put global http_proxy :0

Setting it to :0 clears it straight away. Do not reach for settings delete instead. Android keeps its own copy of the proxy, and deleting the value does not clear that copy, not even after a reboot. That is how test phones end up quietly stuck behind a proxy nobody remembers setting. This route has no password field either, so pair it with the allowlist: add the public IP of the network the device sits on.

Check it worked

Open Chrome on the phone and visit https://httpbin.org/ip. It prints the address the site sees, which should be the proxy’s IP, not your network’s. If it shows your own IP, check you edited the network you are actually on, that Proxy still says Manual, and that no VPN is running. If Chrome shows the proxy but another app does not, that app is ignoring the system proxy.

If every page fails instead, the proxy is probably refusing the phone. That is a 407 when it wants a password it did not get; the 407 fixes cover it, and the usual cure here is the allowlist.

How to turn off the proxy on Android

Go back to the network’s Edit screen, open Advanced options and set Proxy to None. If you used adb, run the :0 command above as well; a global proxy outlives any change you make to a single Wi-Fi network.

Which proxy to use on an Android device

A phone opens new connections constantly, so it wants an exit that does not change between them. That means a static IP:

• ISP proxies. A static ISP IP, registered to a consumer ISP, in a country you pick at checkout. One per device suits testing your own app or site the way users in another country see it.
• Datacenter proxies. The same static address and setup, for sites that do not treat hosting ranges differently; the proxy type guide helps you choose.
• Not plain rotating residential. Our gateway at resi.proxymonkey.io:8000 changes exit on every new connection, and you cannot pick its country. If you need it, turn on sticky sessions in your dashboard first.

Setting up an iPhone alongside? iOS has the password field Android is missing. The iPhone proxy settings guide walks through it.