qBittorrent proxy settings: the two boxes nobody ticks

The qBittorrent proxy settings trap fits in one line: you can type a SOCKS5 host, port and password into qBittorrent, click OK, and send zero BitTorrent traffic through the proxy. Two checkboxes decide whether trackers and peers use it, and on a fresh install both start unticked. This guide ticks them, then does the bit most guides skip: what a legal ISO costs you on a metered proxy, and when you should not bother at all.

Checked against the qBittorrent 5.2.4 source and the project wiki in October 2026. Where we say “the source shows”, we read the code; nobody here ran it to confirm.

Read this first: what the proxy will and will not do

• Legal files only. Linux ISOs, open-source releases, Internet Archive items, datasets you are allowed to share. Using our proxies to share files you have no right to share is not allowed. The acceptable use policy is where the line lives and how we enforce it.
• The meter runs both ways. Residential is metered per GB, and so is traffic past a shared IP’s allowance. A torrent you seed pays twice there: the download coming in, and every piece you upload going out. How the meter counts is in the metering explainer.
• No UDP through us. qBittorrent runs on libtorrent, which can wrap DHT, UDP trackers and uTP in SOCKS5’s UDP ASSOCIATE. Treat our SOCKS5 as TCP only: UDP relay is not something we have verified. Through us, plan on TCP peers and http:// or https:// trackers, and nothing on UDP. Over an HTTP proxy, libtorrent’s source shows it refuses those UDP sends instead of letting them out direct.
• No encryption. A proxy swaps your IP. It does not encrypt anything, and SOCKS5 sends its password in cleartext.
• Leaks are your real IP. Anything qBittorrent sends outside the proxy leaves from your own connection. With both boxes as a fresh install leaves them, that is all of it.
• Not a legal shield. qBittorrent’s own wiki says it straight: “If you are concerned about legal authorities and copyright trouble, for example, consider using a VPN instead (or in addition to it).” The proxy vs VPN guide explains the difference.

qBittorrent proxy settings, step by step

Get the IP, port, username and password for your order from your dashboard. Then, in qBittorrent:

1. Open Tools > Options… > Connection and find the Proxy Server group. The Web UI has the same page.
2. Set the type to SOCKS5. The list also offers (None), SOCKS4 and HTTP.
3. Enter the IP and port, turn on authentication, and enter the username and password. qBittorrent only takes credentials for SOCKS5 and HTTP.
4. Tick Perform hostname lookup via proxy, so tracker hostnames are resolved at the proxy and not by your own resolver.
5. Tick Use proxy for BitTorrent purposes.
6. Inside it, tick Use proxy for peer connections. This is the one. Its tooltip tells you what happens without it: “Otherwise, the proxy server is only used for tracker connections”.
7. Look at both boxes whatever your install’s history. A fresh install leaves both off; a settings file converted from an older version can come out with the first one already on and the second still off, which is the trackers-only setup in the table below.
8. Use proxy for RSS purposes and Use proxy for general purposes are up to you. General covers “Search engine, software updates or anything else”, in the tooltip’s words, and all of that is metered too.

Do not pick SOCKS4. qBittorrent greys out hostname lookup, RSS and general-purpose proxying for it, shows “Some functions are unavailable with the chosen proxy type!”, and offers no password field.

What the two boxes actually change

The middle row is a trap with a cheap side effect. Tracker requests are tiny, so it costs almost nothing. It also hides nothing from the swarm: every peer, and anyone logging the swarm, still sees your home IP on the data connections. Cheap, yes. Masked, no.

Tick both and something else changes. With peers proxied, libtorrent’s docs say the client “will not accept incoming TCP connections, will not map ports with any gateway”. Your router’s port forward goes unused, you only reach peers that accept incoming connections, and the swarm looks smaller. Downloads start slower. Seeding still works over your outgoing connections.

On a headless box: the same switches in qBittorrent.conf

Running qbittorrent-nox on a home server? Use the Web UI page above; it is the same form. If you keep the config in a repo, these are the keys the source reads:

• Network\Proxy\Type, Network\Proxy\IP, Network\Proxy\Port: the proxy itself.
• Network\Proxy\AuthEnabled, Network\Proxy\Username, Network\Proxy\Password: the credentials.
• Network\Proxy\HostnameLookupEnabled: lookup via proxy.
• Network\Proxy\Profiles\BitTorrent, plus \RSS and \Misc: the purpose boxes.
• BitTorrent\Session\ProxyPeerConnections: the peer box,false on a fresh install.

Set it once in the Web UI, then read the file to see what it wrote. That beats guessing at value formats.

Read the meter: what one ISO costs through a proxy

Say the ISO is 4 GB and you seed it back to a ratio of 1.0. With both boxes ticked, at least 8 GB crosses the proxy: 4 in, 4 out. On top of that comes protocol chatter, plus any piece that fails its hash check and gets fetched again.

On residential, the smallest order that covers 8 GB is 8 GB at $4.60/GB, so $36.80 for one ISO. A dedicated datacenter IP is $1.90 for 30 days with no traffic meter. P2P is fine on our residential IPs and on dedicated IPs with no traffic meter, as long as what you share is lawful. For a client that seeds, the flat IP usually wins; the bandwidth calculator shows the monthly GB at which one IP starts beating residential. One catch: a torrent client opens a lot of connections at once, and on ISP and datacenter orders more threads are a paid add-on, so check what your order includes before you let it loose.

Then check the meter instead of trusting it. Ours included:

1. Note qBittorrent’s own upload and download totals before and after one small test torrent.
2. Open the usage view in your dashboard for the same window and export the CSV.
3. Compare. Protocol overhead explains a few percent. A gap much bigger than that is worth a message: if our figure is higher than your real usage, the honesty page says we credit the difference. The bill audit guide has a script for the diff.

Stop the seed before it eats the balance

Seeding legal ISOs is good manners. The swarm only works if people give back. On a per-GB line it is also paid bandwidth, so decide the budget before the download finishes, not after:

• Cap the upload rate, so a hungry swarm cannot drain the balance in an afternoon.
• Stop at a ratio. A share-ratio limit of 1.0 gives back what you took and then stops the meter.
• Or seed direct. If you only proxied to get the download going, untick Use proxy for peer connections when it finishes. The upload leaves the meter, and peers see your own IP, which for a public ISO swarm is usually fine.

While you are in Options: Tools > Options > BitTorrent > Privacy has Enable anonymous mode, with the tooltip “Enable when using a proxy or a VPN connection”. It makes the client say less about itself to trackers and peers. It routes nothing, and the wiki warns it “doesn’t provide strong privacy guarantees on its own”. One more thing you can stop hunting for: “Disable connections not supported by proxies” is gone. The wiki says it is “Always enabled in qBittorrent 4.2 and above”.

The verdict: proxy it, or just download it?

For one Linux ISO from the project’s own swarm, your direct connection is the cheap answer. The file is public, the swarm is public, and a proxy adds cost without adding much.

A proxy earns its keep when you want qBittorrent alone to leave from a different IP or country without tunnelling the whole machine, when a tracker or mirror is blocked on the network you are sitting on, or when you are testing something. Then do it properly: SOCKS5, both boxes ticked, hostname lookup on, http(s):// trackers in the list, a ratio cap, and a dedicated datacenter IP rather than per-GB residential. Residential IPs are real people’s home connections billed by the gigabyte, which makes them the priciest and least polite place to park a swarm.

And if the project runs an HTTP mirror and you only want the file, that is cheaper still: one download, metered once, nothing to seed. Comparing more clients? Deluge sends peers through the proxy by default; the Deluge guide covers its five checkboxes.

Quick answers