How to set a proxy on iPhone and iPad, password included

An iPhone will happily send its web traffic through a proxy, username and password included. The setting is just buried three taps deep, belongs to one Wi-Fi network at a time, and only covers part of what the phone sends. Here is where it lives, what to type, how to check it works, and what to do when the password box will not go away. The steps are the same on an iPad.

How to set a proxy on iPhone

Short answer: Settings → Wi-Fi → tap the ⓘ next to your network → Configure Proxy → Manual, then enter the server, port, and your proxy username and password. The menu names below were checked in September 2026.

1. Open Settings and tap Wi-Fi.
2. Join the network you want to use, then tap the ⓘ (info) button next to its name.
3. Scroll to the bottom. Under HTTP Proxy, tap Configure Proxy. It says Off by default.
4. Choose Manual.
5. In Server, type the proxy IP. In Port, type the port. From your dashboard, that is the IP:PORT pair, split at the colon.
6. Turn on Authentication, then fill in Username and Password with the USER:PASS from the same place.
7. Tap Save in the top corner.

That is it. The next page Safari loads on that network goes through the proxy. No restart, no profile, no app.

iPad proxy with a password

Identical path: Settings → Wi-Fi → ⓘ → Configure Proxy → Manual, with the same Authentication switch. Everything below applies to both.

The Automatic option, and PAC files

Automatic takes a single URLpointing at a proxy auto-config (PAC) file, a small script that tells the phone which proxy to use for which site. It is handy when an IT team already hosts one. It has no username or password fields, though, so with a proxy that wants credentials the phone asks for them itself when a page loads. For one proxy on one phone, Manual is simpler.

Which traffic goes through an iPhone proxy

Less than you might think. The setting is an HTTP proxy, and iOS hands it to apps that use Apple’s own networking stack for web requests. Safari does. Most apps built on the standard system frameworks do too. What slips past:

• Apps with their own networking code. Games, calling apps and some streaming apps talk directly to their servers and never ask the system about a proxy.
• Anything that is not HTTP. Voice and video calls, most push traffic and raw sockets go straight out.
• A VPN. If a VPN is connected, it decides where traffic goes. The proxy vs VPN explainer covers why the two behave so differently.

So treat it as a browser-and-well-behaved-apps proxy, not a tunnel for the whole device. For testing your own website or web app from another location, that is usually exactly what you need.

Can I use SOCKS5 on an iPhone?

Not from Settings. The section is literally titled HTTP Proxy, and there is no SOCKS field anywhere in the Wi-Fi screen. Every line we sell speaks HTTP and HTTPS as well as SOCKS5, so use the HTTP details; for browsing, you lose nothing. If an app insists on SOCKS5, that app needs its own proxy setting. SOCKS5 vs HTTP has the long version.

Only on Wi-Fi: what about cellular data?

The proxy belongs to the Wi-Fi network you set it on. Join a different network and you are direct again; switch to cellular and there is no proxy screen at all. Your settings stay saved with that network, so they come back the next time you join it.

For a proxy on cellular, or on every network at once, iOS needs a configuration profile pushed by device management, the kind a company uses for work phones. Apple’s global HTTP proxy setting only works on supervised devices, so it is not something you switch on for a personal phone. If this is a managed work device, ask whoever runs your MDM.

Check the proxy is working

Open Safari and visit https://httpbin.org/ip. It shows the address the site sees. That should be the proxy’s IP from your dashboard, not your home connection’s. Any other “what is my IP” page works too.

If you still see your own IP:

• Check the phone is on the Wi-Fi network you configured, not cellular or a different network with a similar name.
• Turn off any VPN and try again.
• Reopen Configure Proxy and confirm Manual is still selected and saved. Backing out without tapping Save loses the change.
• Try Safari first. If Safari shows the proxy IP but another app does not, that app is ignoring the system proxy, which is the app’s choice rather than a setting you missed.

To check the proxy itself rather than the phone, run the same test from a computer. The Chrome and Firefox proxy guide walks through the desktop version.

iPhone keeps asking for the proxy password

A sign-in box that keeps coming back means the proxy is rejecting what the phone sends. In order of likelihood:

1. The credentials are wrong. A stray space from copy-paste, autocorrect capitalising the first letter, or an old password after a reset. Retype them by hand in Configure Proxy.
2. Authentication is off. With the switch off, iOS sends no credentials, and the proxy answers every request with a 407. The 407 Proxy Authentication Required page explains that code.
3. You used Automatic. The PAC route has nowhere to store a password, so apps ask for it. Switch to Manual.
4. An app does its own asking. Some apps do not pick up the saved credentials and show their own prompt. Either type them once more there, or skip passwords entirely.

Skipping passwords means an IP allowlist. Every line supports one: add the public IP of the Wi-Fi network in your dashboard, and the proxy lets that network in without a username or password. Leave Authentication off on the phone. The catch is that it only holds while the network’s public IP stays the same, and anyone else on that network can use the proxy too. Never do it on a connection behind CGNAT, such as a phone hotspot or some home broadband: allowlisting a shared carrier address lets everyone else behind it use your proxy. There, keep Authentication on and use the password.

How to turn off the proxy on iPhone

Settings → Wi-Fi → ⓘ next to the network → Configure Proxy → Off → Save. The phone goes direct on that network from the next request. Forgetting the network removes its proxy setting too, along with the Wi-Fi password.

Which proxy to put on a phone

A phone wants one address that stays put. If the IP changes between taps, logins break and sites start asking you to prove who you are. That points at a static IP:

• ISP proxies. A static ISP IP is hosted in a data centre but registered to a consumer ISP, in a country you pick at checkout. One per test device or per work phone keeps things tidy. It is the usual pick for seeing your own app or site the way people in another country see it.
• Datacenter proxies. Same setup, same static address; fine when the sites you are testing do not treat hosting ranges differently. The proxy type guide helps you decide.
• Not plain rotating residential. Our residential gateway, resi.proxymonkey.io:8000, gives a new exit on every new connection, and a phone opens new connections constantly. You cannot pick its country either. If you need it anyway, turn on sticky sessions in your dashboard first.

Setting up an Android test device as well? Android hides its proxy in a similar place but has no password field at all. The Android proxy settings guide covers that, and the workarounds.