Today we’re launching the Shifter browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, the first of the Shifter Apps. It’s free for every Residential Proxies and ISP Proxies customer, and desktop and mobile apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android are on the way.
Most proxy work does not start in a script. It starts with someone opening a browser to see what a page looks like from somewhere else: the price a shop shows in Germany, the search results in Brazil, whether an ad really runs in Canada. Until now, doing that with Shifter meant typing a host, a port and a username full of targeting parameters into your browser or operating system settings, and doing it again every time you wanted a different country.
The Shifter — Proxy & VPN browser extension removes that step. You paste your API key once, pick a plan and a location from a list, and the browser goes out through Shifter. No proxy strings, no login prompts, no settings pages.
What the extension does
The extension connects your browser to the same Shifter gateway your scripts and tools use. It reads your plans from your account, builds the connection for the location and session type you choose, and answers the proxy login for you in the background.
One thing to be clear about: it routes only the browser it is installed in. It is not a system-wide VPN. Your other apps, your email client and anything else on the device keep using your own connection. For the jobs below, that is usually exactly what you want: the tab you are checking goes through Shifter, everything else stays local.
It works with:
- Residential Proxies plans on the Full Geo, Country Geo and Non-Geo pools
- ISP Proxies plans
Legacy backconnect plans, the Web Scraping API and the SERP API are not supported in the extension.
Supported browsers
The extension is available for two browsers:
- Chrome, plus Brave and Opera, which install it from the Chrome Web Store
- Firefox on desktop
Microsoft Edge and Safari are not supported.
Getting it
Install it from your browser’s store: Add to Chrome from the Chrome Web Store (this is also where Brave and Opera get it), or Add to Firefox from Firefox Add-ons. Pin the Shifter icon to your toolbar so it is one click away. The browser extension page has an overview of every feature, and the browser extension docs walk through the install for each browser.
Connect with your API key
Open your Shifter profile, copy your API key and paste it into the extension. That is the only setup.
The key is stored only in that browser and is sent only to Shifter’s own API, which the extension uses to load your plans, your remaining traffic and your proxy settings. If you paste something that is not a Shifter key, the extension tells you so instead of failing quietly later.
Once connected, you see your active plans with the traffic left on each, plus “Expiring soon” and “Trial ends” labels where they apply. If you have more than one plan, “Switch membership” moves the browser from one to another. If you have no Residential Proxies or ISP Proxies plan yet, buy one on Shifter and it shows up in the extension right away.
Choose a location by pool
What you can target depends on the pool your Residential Proxies plan uses, and the extension only offers what your plan supports:
| Pool | What you can pick |
|---|---|
| Full Geo | Country, state, city or ISP (ASN), from one search box |
| Country Geo | Country |
| Non-Geo | Random location worldwide |
On Full Geo, one search box covers all four levels: type “Texas”, “Lyon” or the name of a mobile carrier and pick the result. Country Geo plans target by country, and the extension says so plainly rather than showing options that would not work. Non-Geo gives you random IPs from anywhere, which is fine for general browsing through a residential IP but not for checking a specific market; for that you need Country Geo or Full Geo.
Sticky IP or a new IP per request
Under “IP session” you choose how often your exit IP changes:
- Sticky IP keeps the same exit IP for a while. Use it for logins, carts, account dashboards and anything else that expects one visitor to stay one visitor. The session length defaults to 10 minutes, and you can set your own value in seconds.
- New IP per request gives every request a fresh exit IP. Use it for quick price checks and comparisons where no session needs to survive.
A “Get a new IP” button rotates the IP on demand, so you can start a clean session without changing any settings. If you want the background on when each mode fits, our guide to sticky vs rotating residential proxies covers it in depth.
Strict location
When you target a state, city or ISP, the network can fall back to a wider area if no IP is free at that exact level. Turn on Strict location and it never widens: you get an IP from the exact state, city or ISP you picked, or the connection fails with a message telling you no IP is available there right now. Use it when the exact place matters more than getting connected, for example when you are checking a city-specific landing page. Leave it off when the country is what counts.
ISP Proxies: choose your IP
ISP Proxies plans work differently: they come with a fixed set of static ISP IPs. In the extension you simply “Choose an IP” from the IPs on your plan, and the browser uses that one. This is the natural choice for managing an account that should always see the same address, since the IP stays yours rather than being picked from a pool.
Entry point
The entry point is the Shifter region your browser connects to before it leaves through the exit IP. By default it is set to Automatic, which uses the nearest region. You can also fix it to Amsterdam, Bangalore, Frankfurt, London, New York, Singapore, Sydney or Toronto.
A fixed region is useful if your own network changes during the day, for example moving from office Wi-Fi to a phone hotspot: it keeps a sticky IP even when your own connection switches.
Privacy and control settings
Two settings handle the details that usually trip up manual proxy setups:
- WebRTC leak protection is on by default. WebRTC is a browser feature for calls and peer-to-peer connections, and it can reveal your real IP to a site even when the page itself loads through a proxy. With protection on, sites cannot see your real IP that way while you are connected. If another extension or a browser policy already controls WebRTC, the extension tells you its protection is not active.
- Bypass proxy for lists addresses that skip Shifter and go direct. It comes preset with localhost, 127.0.0.1, *.local and private network ranges, so local development servers and your router page keep working. You can add your own domains, such as internal tools that should never be reached from a proxy IP.
The extension also works in private windows, such as Incognito in Chrome, as long as you allow it to run there in your browser’s extension settings.
Check where you came out
After connecting, the extension checks your exit IP and country on IP Info, Shifter’s free IP lookup tool, and shows the result. IP Info reads the same location and network data that our proxy pools use, so what you see is how our network classifies that exit. You can also open ip-info.com in a tab at any time to see the full details for your current IP, including city and ISP.
What people use it for
The extension is built for the manual, look-at-it-yourself side of proxy work:
- Localized prices and search results. Open a shop or a search engine as a visitor from another country or city and see what they see. For search specifically, our guide to localized Google search results explains what changes by location and why.
- Ad verification. Check that a campaign actually shows in the market it targets and lands on the right page. See how teams approach ad verification with residential proxies.
- QA of geo-specific pages. Review country and city versions of your own site, consent banners, currency selectors and redirects from a real local IP before your users do. Our walkthrough on verifying localized campaigns across markets pairs well with this.
- Account management. Keep a sticky Residential Proxies session or a fixed ISP Proxies IP for an account that should always see the same location.
- A quick check before you automate. Try a location in the browser first, then move the same targeting into your scripts through the gateway.
When you get to that last step, the browser has done its job and the gateway takes over. How to connect to a residential proxy explains the host, port and username format your code will need.
Get started
Copy your API key from your Shifter profile, then add the extension from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons. The browser extension docs cover the install for each browser. The docs also cover the messages the extension can show and what to do about each one.
If you do not have a plan yet, start with Residential Proxies for location targeting from country down to city and ISP, or ISP Proxies for static IPs you keep.