Deluge proxy settings: one page, five checkboxes, sane defaults

Deluge proxy settings are refreshingly boring. One page, seven types, five checkboxes, and defaults that do the sensible thing: pick a proxy type, fill in the server, and peers go through it. No hidden box to find. The interesting bits are elsewhere: one checkbox that no longer does anything, one whose tooltip does not match the engine, and the bill a seeding daemon runs up on a metered proxy if nobody tells it to stop.

Checked against Deluge 2.2.0 and its preferences source in October 2026. We read the code; we did not run it.

Before you open Preferences

Deluge hands its proxy settings straight to libtorrent, the same engine qBittorrent uses, so the engine’s rules are Deluge’s rules. Short version:

• UDP is off the table with us. libtorrent relays DHT, UDP trackers and uTP only over SOCKS5, using UDP ASSOCIATE. We have not verified UDP relay on our gateways, so treat our SOCKS5 as TCP only. With an HTTP or SOCKS4 proxy, the engine refuses UDP instead of sending it direct.
• The meter starts on piece one. Because peers are proxied by default, every byte of the swarm crosses the proxy. On residential, or past a shared IP’s allowance, a seeded torrent pays both ways. The metering explainer says which bytes count.
• A proxy is not encryption. It changes the IP peers see. Nothing more.
• Anything outside the proxy is you. A plugin or a second client that skips it shows your real address.
• Copyright worries want a VPN. The qBittorrent project, on the same engine, tells its users to “consider using a VPN instead (or in addition to it)” for that, and so do we.
• Lawful content only. Sharing files you have no right to share through our proxies is not allowed. See the acceptable use policy.

Set the proxy in Deluge

1. Open Edit > Preferences and choose the Proxy page.
2. Pick the type. With a username and password from your order, choose Socks5 Auth. If you have allowlisted your own IP on the order instead, plain Socks5 is enough.
3. Fill in the proxy’s IP and port from your dashboard, plus the credentials for an Auth type.
4. Leave Proxy Hostnames, Proxy Peers and Proxy Trackers ticked. They already are.
5. Apply, then start one small legal torrent as a test.

The full type list is None, Socks4, Socks5, Socks5 Auth, HTTP, HTTP Auth and I2P. Authentication only exists on the two Auth types. I2P is a separate anonymity network and out of scope here.

Running Deluge headless? Its GTK, Web UI and console clients all talk to a daemon, and the source keeps these settings in Deluge’s core, which is what hands them to libtorrent. So the proxy belongs to the daemon, whichever client you set it from. Set it once, and every client you connect sees the same thing.

The five checkboxes, one line each

Force Proxy Use maps to libtorrent’s force_proxy, which libtorrent deprecated in version 1.2.1 with the note “when set, the proxy is always used”. The proxy is now always used once set, so the box is a leftover. That is our reading of the source, not a test.

Hide Client Identity is the odd one. Its tooltip reads “Attempt to hide client identity and only use proxy for incoming connections.” Deluge’s defaults carry an anonymous_mode setting, off, which is presumably what the box drives; we did not trace the wiring. libtorrent documents anonymous mode as a generic user-agent for trackers and no client version for peers. It does not route traffic anywhere, and a proxied libtorrent accepts no incoming connections in the first place. Treat the box as cosmetic privacy, and do not expect it to change what hits the meter.

What a dataset seed costs on the meter

Deluge is a favourite on home servers, which means torrents that sit and seed for weeks. Take a 6 GB research dataset and decide to stop at a ratio of 0.5: half of it given back. That is at least 9 GB through the proxy. On residential the smallest order covering it is 9 GB, costing $41.40. Leave it seeding with no ratio rule and that number has no ceiling.

A dedicated datacenter IP is $1.90 for 30 days with no traffic meter, which is why it is the line to put behind a box that seeds. P2P is fine on our residential IPs and on dedicated IPs with no traffic meter, as long as what you share is lawful. Check how many threads the order includes before you raise Deluge’s connection count; more are a paid add-on.

To see what the box actually spent:

• Write down Deluge’s session upload and download totals at the start and end of a test window.
• Pull the same window from the usage view in your dashboard and export it as CSV.
• Diff them. A few percent of protocol overhead is normal. Anything bigger, the honesty page explains how to hold us to it, and catching usage inflation shows what a meter running hot looks like.

Caps that keep a seeding daemon honest

Two settings matter more than any proxy checkbox: a global upload rate cap, and a ratio at which torrents stop seeding. Set both before you add the torrent, not after the first top-up runs dry. A box that runs all night will happily upload all night.

If you only needed the proxy for the download, the cheapest seed is one that does not go through it. Switch the proxy type back to None once the file is complete and seed the public ISO from your own connection. Your IP is then visible to the swarm, which is the normal state of a public swarm.

Deluge verdict: worth proxying?

Deluge is one of the easiest clients to put behind a proxy correctly, because the defaults already proxy hostnames, peers and trackers. That does not make every download a proxy job. For one ISO, the direct connection is cheaper and the project’s HTTP mirror is cheaper still.

Proxy it when the daemon needs to leave from an IP or country that is not your home line, when a tracker is blocked on your network, or when you are testing. Use Socks5 Auth on a dedicated datacenter IP, keep the ratio rule, and skip per-GB residential for anything that seeds: those are real home connections, billed by the gigabyte. If you are weighing Deluge against qBittorrent, the qBittorrent guide shows the opposite, where on a fresh install peers are not proxied until you tick a box.

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