Proxies for Puppeteer, Playwright and Selenium

import puppeteer from "puppeteer";

// The address is a Chromium launch flag, and Chromium DROPS any
// credentials written into it. They go to page.authenticate instead.
const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
  args: ["--proxy-server=http://gw-rotating_datacenter.node4.io:8083"],
});

const page = await browser.newPage();
// The session segment holds one exit for this page load and the flow
// after it. Without it, the document and its scripts can arrive from
// different exits.
await page.authenticate({
  username: "USER-session-482913",
  password: "PASS",
});

await page.goto("https://api.ipify.org");
console.log(await page.$eval("body", (el) => el.innerText));
await browser.close();

import { chromium } from "playwright";

// Playwright carries the address and the credentials in one option,
// and takes it on a context as well as on launch, so one browser
// process can hold several contexts on several exits.
const browser = await chromium.launch();

const context = await browser.newContext({
  proxy: {
    server: "http://gw-residential.node4.io:8082",
    username: "USER-country-de-session-a41f9c",
    password: "PASS",
  },
});

const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto("https://api.ipify.org");
console.log(await page.textContent("body"));
await browser.close();

from selenium import webdriver

# WebDriver has no username or password field for an HTTP proxy, and
# Chromium ignores credentials written into the flag. Register this
# machine's public address on the Auth & IP Access page and send none.
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("--headless=new")
options.add_argument("--proxy-server=http://gw-rotating_datacenter.node4.io:8083")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
driver.get("https://api.ipify.org")
print(driver.find_element("tag name", "body").text)
driver.quit()

Which proxies should I use with Puppeteer, Playwright or Selenium?

Test first, because the answer depends on the target rather than the tool. Run your existing script against the real target through the free datacenter allocation. If the page renders, rotating datacenter is the cheaper product and the place to start. If it comes back challenged or empty, try residential on the smallest plan. The browser-specific adjustment is the billing unit: a headless page load moves several times what an HTTP client does, so measure a short run before sizing a per-gigabyte plan, or price it by concurrent connections instead.

How do I pass proxy credentials to a headless browser?

It depends on the tool. Puppeteer takes the address as a launch argument and the credentials separately through page.authenticate, because Chromium discards a username and password written into the launch flag. Playwright takes both together in its proxy option, on launch or on a browser context. Selenium has nowhere to put an HTTP proxy credential, since the WebDriver proxy capability defines a username and password only for SOCKS, so it uses either IP whitelisting or Selenium 4's DevTools authentication handler.

Can each browser context have its own exit IP?

Yes, in both Puppeteer and Playwright, and it is the cheapest rotation a browser can do. A context is an isolated profile inside a running browser, so replacing one costs milliseconds where relaunching the browser costs a process tree and a couple of seconds. Give each context its own session id in the username and each one holds its own exit; close and reopen a context to move it to a fresh address. Chromium on some platforms has ignored a context-level proxy unless the browser itself was launched with one, so launch with a placeholder address and assert the exit before trusting it.

Does SOCKS5 work with a headless browser?

Chromium accepts a SOCKS5 proxy in the same launch flag and Playwright accepts a socks5 scheme in its proxy option, so the address half works. The credential half does not: the mechanism that answers an HTTP proxy challenge has no SOCKS equivalent, so a SOCKS5 browser job authenticates by IP whitelist, which is available on every product. SOCKS5 is included on every paid plan at no extra charge; the free allocation is HTTP and HTTPS only.

How long does a sticky session hold one exit?

On the rotating plans, for up to 30 minutes, measured from when the pin is first assigned rather than from your most recent request, so a busy session does not extend its own window. Work that outlives it should mint a fresh session id and carry on. Residential sessions are best effort, with a 30-minute ceiling: the exit can drop sooner if its device goes offline, so switch to a new session ID after repeated failures.

Will proxies stop my headless browser getting blocked?

They address one cause. Changing the exit address moves you out from under anything counted per address: rate limits, per-IP caps, a single banned address. It does not change what the browser says about itself, so an automated Chromium's runtime properties, TLS handshake and timing still travel with the session, and a target correlating on those will connect your requests from any exit. Treat the two as separate work and change one at a time.

How much bandwidth does a headless browser use?

Several times what a crawler uses, so measure rather than estimate. Multiply pages by the full weight of the page, not the weight of its markup, because the browser fetches the scripts, fonts and images a parser skips. Run a bounded, representative slice of the job and read the gigabytes off the Bandwidth tab on Analytics; that gives you cost per unit of work and it scales from there. Blocking images, media and fonts at the request level cuts it sharply, and a connection-priced plan removes the meter from the question.

Do I need one proxy per browser?

Not with a gateway. Every browser and every context points at one hostname and port with one credential, and the exit is chosen behind it, so a pool of forty workers needs no list of forty addresses and nothing to health check. Give each worker its own session id if you want each one to keep a stable identity. Per-address products are the other shape: they suit a specific, lasting identity per account rather than a fresh exit per worker.