How to Set Up a Proxy in Google Chrome (3 Ways)

There are three ways to set up a proxy in Google Chrome: install a proxy extension, enter the proxy in your computer’s system settings, or launch Chrome with a command-line flag. The extension is the easiest and the only one that keeps the proxy inside the browser without extra steps. This guide walks through all three using Shifter’s residential proxies, then shows how to check that the proxy works and fix the usual errors.

One thing to know before you start: Chrome on Windows and macOS has no proxy settings of its own. If you open Settings > System and click “Open your computer’s proxy settings”, Chrome sends you to the operating system’s network settings. Anything you set there applies to the whole computer, not only Chrome. On ChromeOS the proxy is set per network, and on Linux Chrome follows your desktop environment’s settings or command-line flags.

What you need

Whichever method you choose, have these four details ready. You can find them in your Shifter dashboard.

• Host: p.shifter.io
• Port: 443
• Username: your proxy username, with any targeting options added to it
• Password: your proxy password

Shifter puts location targeting in the username. For example, customer-USERNAME-country-us-city-new_york routes through a residential IP in New York. Without a session ID the IP rotates on every request. To keep the same IP for a while, add a session ID and a time to live in seconds, such as customer-USERNAME-country-us-sid-abc123-ttl-600 for a ten minute sticky session.

Method 1: Use a proxy extension (easiest)

A proxy extension changes the IP for Chrome only, handles the sign-in for you and can be switched off with one click. Shifter has its own browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, which we covered when we launched the Shifter extension. It works with Shifter Residential Proxies and ISP Proxies plans.

1. Install the Shifter extension from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Copy the API key from your Shifter profile and paste it into the extension to sign in.
3. Pick a location: country, state, city or ISP, depending on what your plan includes.
4. Choose a rotating IP or a sticky IP.
5. Leave WebRTC leak protection on, then click to connect.

The extension only routes browser traffic, so your other apps keep using your normal connection. It is a proxy, not a VPN. The extension docs cover each setting in more detail.

Method 2: Use your system proxy settings

This method needs no extension, but it changes the proxy for the whole computer. Other apps that follow the system proxy will use it too. Here are the short versions for Windows 11 and macOS.

Windows 11

1. In Chrome, go to Settings > System > Open your computer’s proxy settings. You can also open Windows Settings > Network & internet > Proxy.
2. Under Manual proxy setup, click Set up next to “Use a proxy server”.
3. Turn on “Use a proxy server”.
4. Enter p.shifter.io as the proxy IP address and 443 as the port.
5. Click Save, then open a new Chrome tab.

macOS

1. In Chrome, go to Settings > System > Open your computer’s proxy settings. This opens System Settings > Network.
2. Select your active connection, such as Wi-Fi, and click Details.
3. Open the Proxies tab.
4. Turn on Web proxy (HTTP) and Secure web proxy (HTTPS), and enter p.shifter.io and port 443 for both.
5. Click OK, then reload Chrome.

Signing in

Neither dialog gives Chrome a place to store your proxy username and password. Instead, when the proxy asks for credentials, Chrome shows a sign-in prompt. Type your full proxy username, including any targeting options, and your password. Chrome then remembers them for the rest of the session.

If you were hoping to use SOCKS5 here, note that Chrome supports SOCKS5 proxies but not SOCKS5 with a username and password. Shifter’s gateway supports both HTTP(S) and SOCKS5, but with Chrome, stick to HTTP.

Method 3: Launch Chrome with a command-line flag

The --proxy-server flag sets a proxy for a single Chrome launch, without touching your system settings. Pair it with --user-data-dir so Chrome opens a separate profile. If you skip that and Chrome is already running, the new window joins the existing session and ignores the flag.

On Windows, run this from Command Prompt:

"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --proxy-server="http://p.shifter.io:443" --user-data-dir="C:\chrome-proxy"

On macOS, run this from Terminal:

open -na "Google Chrome" --args --proxy-server="http://p.shifter.io:443" --user-data-dir="/tmp/chrome-proxy"

Chrome will prompt for your username and password on the first page load. To send some addresses directly instead of through the proxy, add --proxy-bypass-list, for example --proxy-bypass-list="localhost;127.0.0.1".

Which proxy type to use

For normal browsing as a local visitor, residential proxies are the natural choice. The IPs belong to real home connections, so websites see an ordinary user in the city you picked.

Rotating or sticky matters more in a browser than you might expect. A single page loads dozens of files, and with a rotating IP each request can leave from a different address. Some sites treat that as suspicious, and logins can drop. For browsing, use a sticky session with a time to live long enough for what you are doing. Keep rotation for tasks where every request should look unrelated. Our guide on sticky vs. rotating residential proxies goes deeper on the trade-offs.

If you need long sessions from the same place, look at ISP proxies. They stay in the city and on the ISP (ASN) you choose for the billing period, which suits account work, ad checks and anything where a site expects you to return from the same network.

Check that it works

Open http://ip-info.com/json, Shifter’s free IP lookup, or visit ip-info.com in the proxied browser. You should see the proxy’s IP address, country and ISP rather than your own. If the location matches what you set in the username, the proxy is working.

Then check for WebRTC leaks. WebRTC can reveal your real IP to a website even when the proxy is on. Use any WebRTC leak test page: if it shows your home IP, turn on WebRTC leak protection in the Shifter extension or use an extension that blocks WebRTC.

Troubleshooting

407 Proxy Authentication Required. The proxy rejected your credentials. Check the password, and make sure the username follows the right format, with targeting options spelled correctly and joined by hyphens.

ERR_PROXY_CONNECTION_FAILED. Chrome could not reach the proxy. Check that the host is p.shifter.io and the port is 443. If both are right, your network, firewall or antivirus may be blocking the connection, so try another network.

Pages load slowly or break. If you are on a rotating IP, page resources may be coming from different addresses. Switch to a sticky session so the IP does not change mid-page.

Turning the proxy off

With the extension, click the toggle to disconnect. With the command-line method, close that Chrome window; your normal profile never used the proxy.

The system method needs the most care. On Windows 11, go back to Network & internet > Proxy and turn off “Use a proxy server”. On macOS, open Network > Details > Proxies and switch off both web proxies. Do this when you finish, because the system proxy keeps routing other apps through it until you remove it.

Don’t have proxy details yet? Start a free trial: 100 MB of Residential Proxies over 3 days, or 1 day of ISP Proxies with up to 10 IPs, enough to try every method in this guide.