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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchProxyScrape, HProxy, free-proxy.cz, GatherProxy and freeproxylists.net are practical places to find free proxy endpoints in 2026. None should be treated as dependable infrastructure: public addresses disappear, fail authentication, slow down or behave differently for your target. Use the lists as candidates, run your own low-risk checks, and never send credentials, sessions or payment data through an untrusted proxy.
What “best” means for a free proxy list
A large advertised pool is not the same as a usable pool. Compare each source on the information it exposes and then test a small sample against a target you are authorized to access.
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- Freshness: a visible last-checked time, refresh cadence or historical uptime.
- Access format: downloadable TXT, CSV or JSON files, an API, or only a web table.
- Controls: protocol, country, anonymity, latency, uptime and response-time filters.
- Friction: account requirements, export limits and whether the list is accessible to automation.
- Observed behavior: connection success, HTTP status, response time and stability in your own short test.
A “live” label only means that a provider’s checker saw the endpoint respond at some point. It does not prove that the proxy will connect from your network, reach your particular site or remain online for your batch.
The five free proxy lists
| Rank | Source | Useful for | What is documented | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ProxyScrape | Machine-readable downloads and quick filtering | TXT, JSON and CSV mirrors; protocol and country shards; metadata fields; a five-minute mirror refresh cadence. | Its repository data is supplied without warranty. Counts change continuously. |
| 2 | HProxy | Aggregated data with repeated checks | More than 100 public sources, raw lists and an API, with protocol, country, anonymity, latency and uptime metadata. | Performance figures are HProxy’s own measurements, not an independent benchmark. |
| 3 | free-proxy.cz | Browser-based country and protocol selection | Filters for country, protocol and anonymity; sorting by speed, uptime and response time; a last-checked field. | A vendor-authored comparison says it offers no premium service or security guarantee. |
| 4 | GatherProxy | Filtering and export tools | A comparison describes filtering and export features. | The authors of that comparison found the service down during their benchmark, so no performance rank can be inferred. |
| 5 | freeproxylists.net | Simple paginated browsing | A comparison describes a paginated table with sorting options. | That description does not establish current availability or reliability. |
1. ProxyScrape
ProxyScrape is the strongest first stop when your script needs files rather than manual copying. Its official GitHub mirror documents TXT, JSON and CSV output, protocol and country-specific shards, and metadata fields. The mirror refreshes every five minutes, which is useful when you want to discard stale endpoints quickly.
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At 2026-09-29 02:25:09 UTC, the repository displayed 4,792 proxies across 86 countries. Treat that as a timestamped snapshot, not an annual capacity guarantee. Save the retrieval time with every downloaded file so you can correlate failures with list age.
2. HProxy
HProxy aggregates more than 100 public sources and publishes raw lists and an API. Its metadata can help you preselect protocol, country, anonymity, latency and uptime before making requests.
HProxy’s own historical pool query dated 2026-09-05 reported that a live proxy passed 45.5% of its verification checks. It also reported a 144.5-hour median lifespan among proxies that had died. Those numbers illustrate volatility; they are provider-published measurements, not a neutral comparison of all five services.
3. free-proxy.cz
free-proxy.cz is useful when you prefer a web interface. The April 2026 comparison describes country, protocol and anonymity filters plus sorting by speed, uptime and response time. A last-checked value gives you a starting point for rejecting obviously old rows.
The Tool Desk
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4. GatherProxy
GatherProxy is described as offering filtering and export tools, which can be convenient for assembling a small candidate set. However, the authors of the comparison reported that it was down when they ran their benchmark. That is a warning about availability of the list site itself, not proof that every endpoint it has ever published fails.
5. freeproxylists.net
freeproxylists.net presents a paginated table with sorting options according to the comparison. It can serve as another source for candidates, but the available description does not establish present uptime, endpoint quality or update frequency.
Why public proxies need a security boundary
A proxy that answers a TCP connection is not necessarily safe. A 2024, 30-month longitudinal study by Naif Mehanna, Walter Rudametkin, Pierre Laperdrix and Antoine Vastel examined free proxies collected from 11 providers. In its tested sample of more than 640,600 proxies, 34.5% were active at least once. The researchers identified 4,452 distinct vulnerabilities; 1,755 were reported as allowing unauthorized remote code execution and 2,036 as enabling privilege escalation. They also reported 16,923 proxies manipulating content.
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Those results are bounded by the providers and collection period studied; they are not a census of every current public proxy. They do establish why a liveness check is not a trust check.
- Do not send passwords, session cookies, API keys, payment details or private customer data.
- Use a separate test account and synthetic or public URLs.
- Prefer HTTPS to the destination, while remembering that a malicious proxy can still observe connection metadata and may interfere with traffic.
- Follow the target site’s terms, robots policy and applicable law. The existence of a proxy list does not authorize scraping.
A safe workflow for testing a list
- Download a small sample. Start with 20–50 endpoints, preserving the source name and retrieval timestamp.
- Normalize records. Convert entries to
host:port; keep the declared protocol and country as metadata rather than assuming they are accurate. - Set short timeouts. Use a 5–10 second connection timeout and a bounded read timeout. Never let one dead endpoint block a batch.
- Use a harmless test URL. Choose a page you control or a public endpoint that permits automated requests. Check status, elapsed time and a marker in the response.
- Record failures by type. Separate DNS errors, connection refusals, TLS errors, timeouts, HTTP 407 authentication responses and destination status codes.
- Retry with a different endpoint. Do not hammer the same proxy. Apply exponential backoff and cap attempts.
- Promote only repeatable endpoints. Recheck survivors after several minutes. A single successful request is not evidence of stability.
- Monitor the batch. Track success rate, median latency, timeout rate and destination errors, and remove endpoints whose behavior changes.
Minimal Python checker
This example tests public HTTP proxies against a URL you are permitted to request. It does not send credentials and stops after a short timeout.
Rank #3
import time
import requests
proxies = ["203.0.113.10:8080", "198.51.100.7:3128"]
target = "https://example.com/"
for endpoint in proxies:
proxy = {"http": f"http://{endpoint}", "https": f"http://{endpoint}"}
started = time.perf_counter()
try:
r = requests.get(target, proxies=proxy, timeout=(5, 10), allow_redirects=False)
elapsed = time.perf_counter() - started
print(endpoint, r.status_code, f"{elapsed:.2f}s", len(r.content))
except requests.RequestException as exc:
print(endpoint, "failed", type(exc).__name__, exc)Interpreting results
- 407 Proxy Authentication Required: the endpoint is not an anonymous open proxy; remove it unless you have authorized credentials.
- Connection refused or timed out: the address is offline, filtered or overloaded.
- TLS or certificate errors: do not disable verification merely to make the proxy appear to work.
- Unexpected content: the proxy may inject a block page or modify traffic. Discard it.
- Fast response with destination errors: the proxy is reachable, but the target may be rejecting its IP or the request shape.
When a free list is the wrong tool
Public lists are suitable for experiments, light testing and permitted public-page work. They are a poor fit for workloads that require predictable throughput, contractual privacy, fixed geographic egress, authenticated sessions or a service-level commitment. In those cases, compare a provider’s free plan or trial, or a managed scraping API, as separate categories. Terms, quotas and trial conditions change, so verify them directly before committing.
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cURL:
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpPython:
import requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)Node.js:
const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
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Common failure modes and fixes
The list page is unreachable
Use another source and keep the old file for auditability. GatherProxy’s reported downtime shows why a single directory should not be a dependency.
Most endpoints die immediately
Reduce the age of your file, choose a smaller batch, and retest. Public pools churn quickly; advertised counts do not predict survival.
Requests are unusually slow
Filter by latency where the source supports it, cap connection and read timeouts, and remove endpoints that repeatedly exceed your limit.
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The target returns a block page
Stop retrying aggressively. Confirm that your activity is authorized, slow the request rate, and test whether the destination rejects the proxy’s network or region.
Results differ between machines
Proxy reachability depends on your network, DNS path and geography. Run validation from the same environment that will execute the production job.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are free proxies legal to use for scraping?
Legality depends on your jurisdiction, the target’s terms and the data or method used. A public proxy list does not grant permission to scrape a site.
How many proxies should I test before a batch?
There is no universal number. A small 20–50 endpoint sample is a practical starting point; promote only endpoints that pass repeat checks for your authorized target.
Does a working proxy hide all of my activity?
No. The operator may observe metadata, alter content or log traffic. Never route credentials, sessions or payment information through an untrusted public proxy.
The Bottom Line
Start with ProxyScrape for structured downloads, use HProxy when its metadata and API fit your workflow, and treat the other three as additional candidate sources. Validate every endpoint yourself, timestamp your data, and keep sensitive traffic away from public proxies.
Quick Recap
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