Glossary · Proxies
Forward proxy
A forward proxy is an intermediary that a client deliberately configures to send its requests onward to other servers on its behalf; RFC 9110 calls this simply a proxy, "a message-forwarding agent that is chosen by the client", and the destination sees the proxy's address instead of the client's.
Reviewed 30 Oct 2026
# curl sends CONNECT to the proxy for HTTPS, then runs TLS with the sitecurl -x "http://USERNAME_pool-arcfast_country-de:PASSWORD@proxy.arcproxies.io:8000" https://example.com/# Many tools also read the proxy from the environmentexport HTTPS_PROXY="http://USERNAME_pool-arcfast_country-de:PASSWORD@proxy.arcproxies.io:8000"How a forward proxy handles a request
- Plain HTTP. The client sends the full URL to the proxy —
GET http://example.com/page HTTP/1.1, which RFC 9112 calls the absolute form — and the proxy makes the request to the site itself and relays the answer. - HTTPS. The client sends HTTP CONNECT with only a host and port, the proxy opens a tunnel, and TLS runs from the client to the site through it.
- Authentication. A commercial proxy asks for credentials first; see proxy authentication.
Forward proxy vs reverse proxy
| Forward proxy | Reverse proxy | |
|---|---|---|
| Chosen by | The client | The site operator |
| Sits in front of | Clients, reaching any site | One site's servers |
| Typical jobs | Egress control, caching, exits in other locations | TLS termination, load balancing, caching, filtering |
| The other side sees | The proxy's address, not the client's | The proxy as if it were the site |
The other half of the pair is described under reverse proxy.
Where forward proxies are used
- Company networks that route all outbound web traffic through one controlled point.
- Data collection that needs to see a site from a given country or city, such as price monitoring across markets.
- Testing your own pages from outside your network, covered under website testing.
ARC's gateway is a forward proxy in exactly this sense: one host and port your client is pointed at, with the exit pool and location chosen in the username. How that differs from a VPN is set out in proxy vs VPN.
FAQ
Questions
Something not covered? Write to contact@arcproxies.io.
Is a VPN a forward proxy?
They overlap in purpose but work at different layers. A VPN usually captures all of a device's traffic at the network level, while a forward proxy is configured per application and speaks HTTP or SOCKS. Both make the destination see an address other than yours.
Does a forward proxy hide my IP address?
From the destination, yes: the site sees the proxy's exit address. The proxy itself sees your address, and anything your client sends — cookies, logins, headers — still identifies you to the site in the usual way.
Can a forward proxy cache HTTPS pages?
Not when HTTPS passes through a CONNECT tunnel, because the proxy only relays encrypted bytes. Caching HTTPS requires the proxy to terminate TLS itself, which corporate proxies sometimes do with their own certificate installed on managed devices.
Do I need special software to use a forward proxy?
No. Browsers, curl, HTTP libraries and headless browsers all accept a proxy URL. You supply the host, port and credentials, and the client does the rest.
Sources & review
Last reviewed by the ARC Proxies team. Prices are read from the live catalog at build time.
- [1]IETF: RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics
- [2]IETF: RFC 9112: HTTP/1.1
In practice