How to Use a Proxy with Browserless

Which proxy to use

Residential proxies suit automation that acts like a visitor, with a sticky session for anything that logs in. For testing your own site from other countries, any plan with the right country works; Residential Lite is the cheapest.

What to enter

A PiratProxies plan gives you four things: a host, a port, a username and a password. These are the values for Residential; the username and password are on your plan page.

Host	`resi.piratproxies.com`
HTTP port	`8080`
SOCKS5 port	`1080`
Username	`USERNAME`
Password	from your plan page

The country and the session are chosen in the username, not in a separate setting. The generator on your plan page writes the username for you, and Targeting and sessions explains each part.

Steps

Add --proxy-server to the connection address with the proxy host and port.
After connecting, call page.authenticate with your username and password.

Example

Node.js, with Puppeteer

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.connect({
    browserWSEndpoint: 'ws://localhost:3000?--proxy-server=http://resi.piratproxies.com:8080',
  });
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.authenticate({ username: 'USERNAME', password: 'PASSWORD' });
  await page.goto('https://api.ipify.org');
  console.log(await page.evaluate(() => document.body.innerText));
  await browser.close();
})();

Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with the login from your plan page. The example asks an IP-check address, so the output is the address your request left from.

Rotating or sticky

If Browserless is acting as one visitor through several steps, use a sticky session so the IP address stays the same throughout. If each run is independent, leave the session out and every run starts from a new address.

A sticky username looks like this:

USERNAME-country-us-time-600-session-a1b2c3d4

If it does not work

The launch argument is per connection, so different connections can use different proxies or session IDs.
A 407 error means the username or password was not accepted. Copy both again from your plan page, and check that nothing added a space or cut the username short.
If the IP address is in the wrong country, look at the username: the country code is part of it. More fixes.

Questions

Does Browserless work with SOCKS5 proxies?

Not with a username and password: Browserless can use SOCKS5 only without a login. Use the HTTP port, 8080, which works for both http and https sites.

Which PiratProxies proxy should I use with Browserless?

Browserless is a product of its own makers. PiratProxies is not affiliated with it; the name is used here only to say what this guide is about. Use it within the rules of the sites you work with and our acceptable use policy.