How to Set Up a Proxy on iPhone and iPad

On an iPhone the proxy is not in the main settings list. It sits inside each Wi-Fi network, in a part called HTTP Proxy, behind a row called Configure Proxy. This page shows that path, the login, which apps follow the setting, what Safari says when the proxy fails, and the two things the Settings app cannot do: SOCKS5, and a proxy for mobile data.

We wrote it from Apple's own documents: its device-management schema, which lists every proxy setting an iPhone has, the iPhone User Guide for iOS 27, Apple's deployment guide and its developer documentation, plus the questions iPhone owners ask on Ask Different. We did not use an iPhone for this page, so the screen below is drawn rather than captured. The steps are the same on an iPad.

Before you start: what you need

• A proxy address as host:port, plus a user name and password if the proxy needs a login. If your provider sent one long line, the proxy format guide splits it up.
• A connection to the Wi-Fi network you want to proxy; the setting belongs to that network.
• For a first test, any HTTP entry from our free proxy list will do. Free entries come and go, so test one first; the check further down shows how.
• Our free proxy setup generator writes the values below for your own proxy, Server, Port and the login under Authentication, ready to copy.

Step 1: open Configure Proxy

1. Open Settings and tap Wi-Fi.
2. Tap the info button (the circled i) next to the network you are connected to.
3. Scroll down to HTTP Proxy and tap Configure Proxy.

Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 gives the same path: Wi-Fi, the info button, then the HTTP Proxy setting. It even works before the iPhone is set up: on the Choose a Wi-Fi Network screen of the setup, press the Home button or hold the side button for 2 seconds, tap Wi-Fi Settings, then the info button next to the network. Apple documents that route for company networks.

Step 2: set the proxy

Choose Manual (1), type the address in Server (2) and the port in Port (3). If the proxy needs a login, turn on Authentication (4) and fill in Username and Password. Tap Save (5).

The address goes in on its own, with no http:// in front, and the port in its own box. Automatic asks instead for the address of a PAC script.

Step 3: the user name and password

Unlike Android, the iPhone keeps a proxy login: with Authentication on, the Username and Password are stored with that network's proxy. They are the same two settings Apple's schema lists for every Wi-Fi proxy, "the user name used to authenticate to the proxy server" and its password. If your provider allows your address instead of a login, leave Authentication off. If an app still cannot get through a proxy that needs a login, an address allowlist at the provider avoids the login altogether; when your proxy needs a password and your software cannot send one covers the options.

Apple's own settings files show this, and more. We read them from its device-management schema, the list of every setting an iPhone can be given:

Which apps actually follow it

Apple's developer documentation draws the line. An app built on URLSession, Apple's standard networking, uses "the default system settings" unless its makers set a proxy of their own, so Safari and most ordinary apps follow the iPhone's proxy. An app with network code of its own follows it only if its makers built it to. Since iOS 17, Apple also gives apps their own proxy settings, including HTTP CONNECT and SOCKSv5, so an app can use a proxy of its own choosing instead.

Keeping some addresses off the proxy

Manual has no exceptions box: none of the seven Wi-Fi proxy settings in the picture is a list of addresses to skip. To keep a printer, a router page or company addresses off the proxy, choose Automatic and give it a PAC script, a small file on a web server that decides per address:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
  if (isPlainHostName(host) || dnsDomainIs(host, ".local") || shExpMatch(host, "192.168.*")) {
    return "DIRECT";
  }
  return "PROXY 203.0.113.10:8080";
}

Put the file's address in the box under Automatic. DIRECT sends those addresses straight out; everything else goes to the proxy.

Our free proxy setup generator writes this file for your own proxy and list of sites, and our PAC file tester shows where a PAC file sends any address in Chrome and Firefox, a quick check of the rules before the iPhone uses them.

A SOCKS5 proxy

The iPhone has no SOCKS setting. Its Wi-Fi proxy sits under HTTP Proxy, the one proxy for every network is called the Global HTTP Proxy, and Apple's proxy settings with a SOCKS type are listed for the Mac only. For SOCKS5, use an app that speaks it: one with its own SOCKS setting, or one that routes the phone's traffic through it.

One old workaround circulates: an answer on Ask Different from 2009 points Automatic at a PAC script that answers SOCKS host:port. Apple does not document that for iPhone, and we have not tested it on a current iOS, so treat it as an experiment.

On mobile data

The Settings app has no proxy for mobile data; Configure Proxy belongs to a Wi-Fi network. Apple's schema shows two other ways:

• A cellular configuration profile. Its access point (APN) has a ProxyServer and a ProxyPort. Apple marks it as needing no supervision and as installable by hand, from a file sent by email or downloaded from a web page, with your permission. It applies only to the SIM used for mobile data, and Apple refuses it while an older-style APN profile is installed. It carries no proxy login, so a proxy that needs one has to allow your address instead. The APN's own Username and Password belong to the carrier: they come with an authentication type of PAP or CHAP, the carrier's login.
• The Global HTTP Proxy. One proxy for every network, Wi-Fi and mobile data alike. Apple allows it only on supervised iPhones, the kind a company or school manages. An answer on Ask Different notes that supervising your own iPhone with Apple Configurator erases it first.

Installed profiles are listed under Settings > General > VPN & Device Management. Apple warns that deleting a profile deletes all the settings that came with it.

A proxy inside a VPN configuration

A VPN configuration on the iPhone has a proxy part of its own: Apple's VPN settings carry an HTTP and HTTPS proxy and a PAC address. It is used while that VPN is connected, on Wi-Fi or mobile data, and it has nothing to do with the Wi-Fi network's Configure Proxy.

Check that it worked

Open this address in Safari:

https://www.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/trace

The line starting with ip= is the address sites see; if it is the proxy's address, Safari goes through the proxy. Then open https://hproxy.com/api/ip/ followed by that address: it names the country, city and network behind it. Before you put a proxy into the phone at all, paste it into our free proxy checker, which reports whether it answers, its protocols, anonymity, country and latency. That separates "this proxy is dead" from "I typed it wrong", which look the same on a phone that loads nothing.

When it does not work: the messages

Mistakes other guides make

• "The iPhone takes an HTTP or a SOCKS5 proxy the same way." It has no SOCKS setting; Apple's SOCKS-capable proxy settings are for the Mac.
• "All requests from your device go through the proxy." Only on that Wi-Fi network, and only for apps that follow the system proxy.
• "A proxy can only work on Wi-Fi." A cellular profile can give mobile data a proxy, and a company-managed iPhone can have one for every network.

Turning it off again

Settings, Wi-Fi, the info button next to the network, Configure Proxy, Off, Save. A proxy that came in a profile goes when you remove the profile under Settings > General > VPN & Device Management. If one Wi-Fi network suddenly loads nothing while others work, a forgotten proxy on that network is the first place to look.

About free proxies on a phone

Free entries come and go, so test one before you rely on it, and set Configure Proxy back to Off when you are done: a dead proxy left on a network makes Safari load nothing there. For daily use, a paid proxy can keep one address for a sticky session.

How we wrote this

We read Apple's device-management schema on GitHub (the Wi-Fi, Global HTTP Proxy, Cellular and VPN settings) on October 3, 2026, along with Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27, Apple's deployment guide, its support article on Setup Assistant, and its developer documentation for URLSession, the Network framework's proxy settings and CFNetwork's errors. The questions come from Ask Different and Stack Overflow, where iPhone owners quote the screens and errors word for word. The terminal picture is our own read of Apple's schema.

Limits: we did not use an iPhone, so the Configure Proxy screen is drawn from Apple's settings and the labels its guide and users quote. Which apps follow the proxy is stated by Apple's URLSession rule, not tested app by app, and the SOCKS workaround was not tested on a current iOS.

Sources

All read on October 3, 2026.

• Apple device-management schema, branch release: com.apple.wifi.managed.yaml, com.apple.proxy.http.global.yaml, com.apple.cellular.yaml, com.apple.vpn.managed.yaml (github.com/apple/device-management).
• Apple iPhone User Guide for iOS 27: Manage Wi-Fi settings on iPhone; Install or remove configuration profiles on iPhone (support.apple.com).
• Apple Support: Set advanced network settings in iOS Setup Assistant (support.apple.com/en-us/102108).
• Apple Platform Deployment: Global HTTP Proxy payload settings; Network Proxy Configuration settings (support.apple.com/guide/deployment).
• Apple Developer documentation: URLSessionConfiguration connectionProxyDictionary and proxyConfigurations; Network framework ProxyConfiguration; CFNetwork CFNetworkErrors (developer.apple.com).
• Ask Different questions 5308, 81102, 144427, 22534, 141643 and 478714; Stack Overflow question 25973476.
• Our read of Apple's schema with curl, October 3, 2026.