How to use a proxy with a username and password in Chrome

Most paid proxies are “authenticated”: the seller gives you something like 203.0.113.10:8080:alice:s3cret. Chrome’s own settings (and the operating system proxy panel it uses) only take a host and a port — there is no place to type the username and password. That is why you see a “Sign in — Proxy requires authentication” popup, often again and again.

Option 1: type the login into Chrome’s popup

If you set the proxy in your operating system (macOS: System Settings → Network → Details → Proxies; Windows: Settings → Network → Proxy), Chrome will ask for the login the first time a page loads. This works for one proxy, but:

• the popup comes back after every restart, and sometimes for every new connection;
• switching proxies means editing system settings each time;
• it changes the proxy for every app on your computer, not only Chrome.

Option 2: an extension that answers the login for you

Chrome extensions can set the proxy just for Chrome and listen for the proxy’s login challenge (HTTP status 407 Proxy Authentication Required). In Manifest V3 this needs two permissions, webRequest and webRequestAuthProvider, and an onAuthRequired listener that replies asynchronously with the saved credentials. Many older proxy extensions broke when Chrome removed Manifest V2, which is why authenticated proxies “stopped working” for a lot of people.

Two details separate a reliable implementation from a frustrating one:

1. Stop after a rejected login. If the password is wrong, the proxy answers 407 again. A naive extension keeps sending the same password, and Chrome shows a popup or hangs. ProxyNest gives up after one rejection and marks the proxy as “wrong username or password”.
2. Pick the right credentials when proxies share a gateway. Rotating residential providers often give many logins on the same host:port. Chrome caches a login per host and port for the session, so switching to another username on the same gateway may keep using the first one until Chrome restarts. ProxyNest warns you when this happens.

Step by step with ProxyNest

1. Install ProxyNest and open Manage.
2. Paste your proxy, in the format your seller uses — ip:port:user:pass, user:pass@ip:port or http://user:pass@host:port all work.
3. Press Check: you see the exit IP, country, city and speed. A wrong password shows up here, before you browse.
4. Click the proxy in the toolbar popup. The badge shows the exit country; no login popup appears.

Troubleshooting

If your proxy is SOCKS5 with a password, read why Chrome can’t log in to SOCKS5 proxies first.