How to use proxies in Go

• An active CleanProxies plan: static ISP proxies for fixed US IPs, or rotating residential / mobile proxies for pools. The trial works too.
• Your credential line from the dashboard's proxy manager: host (or IP), port, username and password.
• Go 1.21 or later (any recent release works).
• Only the standard library; golang.org/x/net/proxy is optional, for non-HTTP traffic over SOCKS5.

New to proxies? For the overview, read Using proxies with cURL, Python and Node.js and SOCKS5 vs HTTP proxies. This guide goes deeper on Go only.

Most tools want the same details as a URL: http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT for HTTP(S) or socks5://USERNAME:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT for SOCKS5. The examples on this page use those placeholders; copy the host, port, username and password from your CleanProxies dashboard. To convert a whole list at once, paste it into the proxy list formatter.

1. 1

   Build the proxy URL

   Turn your dashboard line into http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT. Use url.UserPassword if the password has special characters, so it is escaped for you.
2. 2

   Create one Transport per proxy

   Set Proxy: http.ProxyURL(u) on an http.Transport and wrap it in an http.Client with a timeout.
3. 3

   Reuse the client

   A client and its transport are safe for concurrent use and pool connections, so create them once per proxy, not per request.
4. 4

   Check the exit IP

   Request https://api.ipify.org and compare the result with the IP in your dashboard.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	proxyURL := &url.URL{
		Scheme: "http",
		User:   url.UserPassword("USERNAME", "PASSWORD"),
		Host:   "HOST:PORT",
	}

	client := &http.Client{
		Timeout:   30 * time.Second,
		Transport: &http.Transport{Proxy: http.ProxyURL(proxyURL)},
	}

	resp, err := client.Get("https://api.ipify.org")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	ip, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println("exit IP:", string(ip))
}

http.DefaultTransport already uses http.ProxyFromEnvironment, so a plain http.Get honours HTTPS_PROXY, HTTP_PROXY and NO_PROXY. Setting the proxy in code is clearer once you run more than one.

http.Transport understands socks5:// proxy URLs natively: the user info becomes the SOCKS5 username and password, and the hostname is sent to the proxy, so DNS is resolved on the proxy side.

proxyURL := &url.URL{
	Scheme: "socks5",
	User:   url.UserPassword("USERNAME", "PASSWORD"),
	Host:   "HOST:PORT",
}

client := &http.Client{
	Timeout:   30 * time.Second,
	Transport: &http.Transport{Proxy: http.ProxyURL(proxyURL)},
}

For raw TCP connections that aren't HTTP, use proxy.SOCKS5("tcp", "HOST:PORT", &proxy.Auth{User: "USERNAME", Password: "PASSWORD"}, proxy.Direct) from golang.org/x/net/proxy and dial through it.

Give each proxy its own client and hand work out round-robin. Each ISP line is a 100% dedicated IP, so this pattern keeps the load per IP predictable.

func loadClients(path string) ([]*http.Client, error) {
	data, err := os.ReadFile(path)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	var clients []*http.Client
	for _, line := range strings.Split(strings.TrimSpace(string(data)), "\n") {
		parts := strings.SplitN(strings.TrimSpace(line), ":", 4) // IP:PORT:USER:PASS
		if len(parts) != 4 {
			continue
		}
		u := &url.URL{Scheme: "http", User: url.UserPassword(parts[2], parts[3]), Host: parts[0] + ":" + parts[1]}
		clients = append(clients, &http.Client{
			Timeout:   30 * time.Second,
			Transport: &http.Transport{Proxy: http.ProxyURL(u), MaxIdleConnsPerHost: 10},
		})
	}
	return clients, nil
}

// in your worker loop: client := clients[i%len(clients)]

A kept-alive connection stays on the exit IP it opened with. With rotating residential proxies, set DisableKeepAlives: true on the transport when you want every request to get a fresh IP.

Run the HTTP example above: it prints the exit IP. Run it twice against a rotating residential line with keep-alives disabled and you should see two different addresses.

Open What is my IP? through the proxy to see the address and headers a website receives, or paste up to ten lines into the free proxy checker to test connectivity, latency and exit IP before you start.

Still stuck? Our 24/7 support team answers fast: contact us with the error and the line you used (leave the password out).