SwitchyOmega Setup: The Complete Proxy Guide

If you juggle more than one proxy, a browser proxy switcher saves you from editing the same system dialog every time you change context. SwitchyOmega is the switcher a lot of people reach for: one toolbar icon, a list of named profiles, and a rule engine that decides which sites go through which proxy. This SwitchyOmega setup guide walks through installing the right version, adding an HTTP or SOCKS5 proxy, switching it on, and building the auto switch rules that turn a plain switcher into something worth keeping.

One thing to get straight before you install anything: the SwitchyOmega you may remember is gone. The original was built on Chrome's old Manifest V2 and stopped running once Chrome removed MV2 support, so the current tool is a maintained fork called ZeroOmega. We cover exactly what to install below. This is the SwitchyOmega companion to our general Chrome proxy setup guide, so if you are still deciding between an extension and the other methods, start there.

How do you set up SwitchyOmega?

Install ZeroOmega (listed as Proxy SwitchyOmega 3) from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons. Open its options, create a new proxy profile, and enter the protocol, host, port, and any login. Click Apply changes, then pick the profile from the toolbar icon to route your traffic through it.

Setting up SwitchyOmega step by step

1. Install the genuine SwitchyOmega (ZeroOmega)

The name has been through a shake-up, so this step matters. The original Proxy SwitchyOmega ran on Manifest V2, and Chrome phased out MV2 support on a published schedule: disabling began in Chrome stable in October 2024, MV2 was off by default from March 2025, and with Chrome 138 in July 2025 users could no longer turn it back on. That left the old extension unable to run. Its maintainer declared the project finished in January 2025. So there is no point installing anything labelled just "SwitchyOmega" from an old bookmark.

What you want instead is ZeroOmega, a community fork rebuilt for Manifest V3. On the Chrome Web Store it is listed as Proxy SwitchyOmega 3 (ZeroOmega), and it ships for Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium browsers, plus Firefox through Firefox Add-ons. It is open source (the zero-peak/ZeroOmega project) and keeps the same profiles and rules the original used, so everything below applies directly.

Before you click Add, one honest warning. Any proxy switcher can read every address you visit, because routing your traffic is the whole job, which makes the name a target. In December 2024 a compromised "Proxy SwitchyOmega (V3)" extension was caught pushing data-stealing code as part of a broad Chrome extension supply-chain campaign, the same one that hit the security vendor Cyberhaven. That campaign compromised more than a dozen extensions and an estimated million-plus installs in total. Security researchers at SlowMist flagged the SwitchyOmega variant for stealing crypto wallet keys, and BleepingComputer documented the wider attack. So confirm you are installing the real ZeroOmega fork (open source, developer zero-peak), not a lookalike. If a listing has few users, a fresh publish date, and no link to the public project, skip it.

2. Create a proxy profile

Open the extension's options page. In the left sidebar under Profiles, click New profile, choose Proxy Profile, and give it a clear name like Residential US or Scraper 1. You then get a small table with these fields:

• Protocol: choose HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, or SOCKS5 from the dropdown. This is the single most common thing people get wrong.
• Server: the proxy hostname or IP your provider gave you, for example 203.0.113.10.
• Port: the port that pairs with that host.
• Authentication: click the small lock icon on the protocol row to enter a Username and Password. Leave it blank for IP authenticated proxies.

Click Apply changes in the left sidebar. This is not optional. SwitchyOmega does not save edits live, and forgetting this step is the number one reason a correct looking profile does nothing.

HTTP or SOCKS5? Use whichever type your provider issued. HTTP and HTTPS proxies are built for web traffic and cover normal browsing. SOCKS5 carries any TCP connection and, in the browser, sends your DNS lookups through the proxy instead of your local resolver, which stops your real location leaking through DNS (more on that in our SOCKS5 explainer). If your provider lists both for the same host and port, SOCKS5 is the safer default, with one caveat about authentication we cover below.

No proxy to test with yet? Grab one from our free proxy list and drop its IP, port, and type into the fields above.

3. Switch it on from the toolbar

Click the SwitchyOmega icon in your toolbar. The menu shows two built-in options plus every profile you have made:

• Direct: no proxy at all, a normal connection. This is your off switch.
• System Proxy: hand control back to your operating system's proxy settings.
• Your proxy profiles: click one and the whole browser routes through that proxy.

The icon takes on the color of the active profile, so you can tell at a glance whether you are proxied and through which proxy. Set a color per profile when you create it and that cue becomes genuinely useful once you run more than one.

4. Route only certain sites with auto switch

Routing the whole browser through a proxy is fine for a quick task, but wasteful when you only need the proxy for one or two sites. This is where SwitchyOmega earns its keep. Create a New profile, choose Switch Profile (older builds call it Auto Switch), and name it something like Auto.

A switch profile holds no proxy of its own. It holds switch rules, and each rule pairs a condition with a result profile. When you browse, SwitchyOmega checks the site against your conditions top to bottom and sends it to the first profile that matches. The condition types you can pick from:

• Host wildcard: the workhorse. *.example.com matches example.com and its subdomains. Covers most needs.
• Host regex: a regular expression against the hostname, for exact control when wildcards are too blunt.
• URL wildcard and URL regex: the same idea, but matched against the full URL rather than just the host, so you can route a single path.
• IP literal: match a raw IP address or a CIDR range.
• Host levels: match by how many dots are in the hostname, useful for catching all internal short names.

At the bottom sits the default rule, the catch-all for anything no condition matched. Point it at Direct and you get the setup most people actually want: one Host wildcard rule sending *.example.com to your proxy profile, and everything else falling through to a normal connection. Click Apply changes, then select the switch profile (not the proxy profile) from the toolbar to turn rule mode on.

For heavier routing, SwitchyOmega can also import an external rule list in the AutoProxy format, so a maintained list of domains drives your routing instead of hand-written rules. Most people never need it.

5. Manage multiple proxy profiles

Once auto switch clicks, the natural next move is one proxy profile per proxy, each with its own name and color. A switch rule can then point different sites at different proxies: a US storefront through a US proxy, an EU site through an EU proxy, staging through a client's proxy, and everything else direct. The toolbar color tells you which one is carrying the current tab.

One convenience worth knowing: a virtual profile is a placeholder that points at another profile. Aim your switch rules at one virtual profile, and when you swap proxies you repoint it once instead of editing every rule.

6. Test that it actually works

Never trust a proxy just because the icon changed color. After you switch it on, open our proxy checker and confirm the IP and location it reports belong to the proxy, not your home connection. If the checker still shows your real IP, the proxy is not carrying your traffic. Recheck the protocol, the host and port, that you clicked Apply changes, and that the right profile (or the switch profile) is selected in the toolbar.

The SOCKS5 authentication catch, and other gotchas

A few things trip people up beyond picking the wrong protocol:

• SOCKS5 with a username and password: this is the big one. Chromium has never fully supported authenticated SOCKS5 proxies, so even with the credentials stored in SwitchyOmega, Chrome may simply fail to log in. If your SOCKS5 proxy needs a login, the clean fixes are to use a proxy that authenticates by IP allowlist instead, or to run that same proxy over HTTP, which handles credentials reliably in Chrome. HTTP proxy auth in SwitchyOmega works fine; SOCKS5 auth is the fragile case.
• Forgetting Apply changes: worth repeating because it catches everyone at least once. Edits stay inert until you click Apply changes in the sidebar.
• SwitchyOmega overrides the system proxy: while a profile is active, the extension controls Chrome's proxy settings, so changes you make in Chrome's own network settings will not take effect. Switch to Direct to hand control back.
• Install only the real extension: since a switcher reads every URL you open, this bears repeating. Stick to the genuine ZeroOmega listing and skip anything else using the name.

If a proxy still refuses to connect after all of this, the fault is usually on the proxy side rather than the extension, and it is often just a dead free proxy. Our free proxy checker will tell you which it is in a few seconds.

SwitchyOmega vs FoxyProxy

These two extensions sit in the same category, and the honest answer is that either one does the job. Both are free, open source, and route chosen sites through chosen proxies with a rule engine. The differences are small. SwitchyOmega's rule editor is a little more visual and granular, with several condition types and a result profile per rule. FoxyProxy ships as a single actively maintained extension across more browsers and has the larger user base.

If you want the more granular, condition-based rule UI, SwitchyOmega fits. If you want the broadest browser support in one well-worn package, FoxyProxy fits, and our full FoxyProxy setup guide mirrors this one step for step. There is no wrong pick, and no reason to switch if you already run one happily.

Grab a proxy and try it

The fastest way to learn any of this is to set it up with a real proxy in front of you. If you do not have one to spare, our free proxy list has verified HTTP and SOCKS5 entries refreshed every few minutes. Drop one into a proxy profile, build a single wildcard rule, and switch it on.

Then confirm it the way you should confirm every proxy, with our proxy checker, so you know the exit IP and location are really the proxy's and not your own. Once that reads correctly, add the rest of your proxies as their own profiles, give each a color, and let auto switch route each site to the right one.

Sources

• Google: Manifest V2 deprecation timeline: the October 2024 to July 2025 (Chrome 138) schedule that retired the original SwitchyOmega.
• BleepingComputer: Chrome extension supply-chain attack and SlowMist: SwitchyOmega exposed for stealing private keys: why installing only the genuine ZeroOmega matters.