Mac Proxy Settings: Set Up a Proxy on macOS

1. Open the Apple menu → System Settings → Network. You see your network services (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, any VPN), with the one in use marked Connected.

2. Select Wi-Fi (or Ethernet), then click Details… next to the connected network. A dialog opens with a sidebar that includes TCP/IP, DNS and Proxies.

3. Click Proxies. You see a switch for each proxy type, from Auto proxy discovery to SOCKS proxy, then Exclude simple hostnames and the bypass list; you may need to scroll down to see every option.

4. Turn on Web proxy (HTTP) and enter Server gate.proxyfield.io, Port 7000. Turn on Proxy server requires password and enter your username and password. The username is your login plus optional parts: <login>-country-us for any US IP, or <login>-country-us-session-mac4us01-ttl-3600 to keep one US IP for an hour. With the switch on, Server and Port fields appear; with Proxy server requires password on, Username and Password fields appear.

5. Turn on Secure web proxy (HTTPS) and enter the same server, port, username and password. The password option exists for the web, secure web and SOCKS proxies; fill it for each one you turn on.

6. Keep the entries in Bypass proxy settings for these hosts & domains and add localhost.

7. Click OK. The dialog closes and the switches you turned on stay on. In Terminal, scutil --proxy now shows HTTPEnable : 1, HTTPProxy : gate.proxyfield.io, HTTPPort : 7000 and the same three HTTPS lines; https://api.ipify.org in Safari shows an IP that is not yours (section 6).

Turn on SOCKS proxy in the Proxies pane, enter the server and port, turn on Proxy server requires password, and repeat for each network service (Wi-Fi, Ethernet). Apps that read the macOS network settings follow it; VPNs, command-line tools and apps with their own proxy settings may not, and Chrome cannot send a SOCKS username and password (below).

networksetup -listallnetworkservices          # "Wi-Fi", "Ethernet", ...
read -s "PF_PASS?ProxyField password: "; echo
sudo networksetup -setsocksfirewallproxy "Wi-Fi" gate.proxyfield.io 7000 on "<login>-country-us" "$PF_PASS"
networksetup -getsocksfirewallproxy "Wi-Fi"   # Enabled: Yes, Server: gate.proxyfield.io, Port: 7000, Authenticated Proxy Enabled: 1
scutil --proxy                                # SOCKSEnable : 1, SOCKSProxy : gate.proxyfield.io
sudo networksetup -setsocksfirewallproxystate "Wi-Fi" off   # turn it off

networksetup changes the same settings as the Proxies pane; read -s keeps the password out of your shell history.

# 1. List your network services ("Wi-Fi", "Ethernet", ...)
networksetup -listallnetworkservices

# 2. Your values (zsh, the default macOS shell)
SERVICE="Wi-Fi"
PF_USER="<login>-country-us"
read -s "PF_PASS?ProxyField password: "; echo

# 3. HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS proxies
networksetup -setwebproxy "$SERVICE" gate.proxyfield.io 7000 on "$PF_USER" "$PF_PASS"
networksetup -setsecurewebproxy "$SERVICE" gate.proxyfield.io 7000 on "$PF_USER" "$PF_PASS"
networksetup -setsocksfirewallproxy "$SERVICE" gate.proxyfield.io 7000 on "$PF_USER" "$PF_PASS"

# 4. Hosts that skip the proxy (replaces the current list)
networksetup -setproxybypassdomains "$SERVICE" "*.local" "169.254/16" localhost 127.0.0.1

# 5. Show the active proxy settings
scutil --proxy

Run it once per network service (Wi-Fi, Ethernet), with sudo if networksetup asks for administrator rights. Then check the username in the Proxies pane; if it is empty, enter it there.

Give Safari, Chrome and Terminal one username with a sticky session, and all three leave from the same US residential IP: Safari and Chrome read it from the Proxies pane, Terminal from http_proxy and https_proxy. The IP holds for up to 36 h, and you pay only for the GB you load: 1 GB is $2.95 with the Easy Trial.

PF_USER="<login>-country-us-session-mac4us01-ttl-3600"
read -s "PF_PASS?ProxyField password: "; echo
export http_proxy="http://${PF_USER}:${PF_PASS}@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
export https_proxy="$http_proxy"
curl https://api.ipify.org     # the same IP that https://api.ipify.org shows in Safari and Chrome

For an iPhone or iPad, see iPhone and iPad.

Open https://api.ipify.org in Safari: you should see an IP that is not yours; https://ipinfo.io/json shows its country and city. In Terminal, scutil --proxy lists the active settings, and this tests your credentials:

curl -x gate.proxyfield.io:7000 -U "<login>-country-us-city-new_york:<password>" https://api.ipify.org

Or test your proxy in the ProxyField checker: up to 100 proxies per check, and your list and results are not stored.

A proxy changes your IP, its location and its reputation; it does not solve CAPTCHAs or hide a browser's fingerprint.

The username carries the location: <login>-country-us (United States) or <login>-country-us-city-new_york (New York). Change it in the Proxies pane to switch. Targeting covers country, region (state) and city, and in the US all 50 states, at the same price per GB; ASN, ZIP and carrier targeting are not offered.

You get a new IP on every request, or a sticky session that holds one IP from 30 s to 36 h (presets 1, 5, 10, 30 min, 1, 3, 6 h). Region, session and session time go in the same username: -region-<region>, -session-<id> and -ttl-<seconds> (30 to 129,600 seconds, 20 minutes by default); every part after the login is optional. Names are lowercase with underscores (city-new_york). Residential is the default; add -mobile after the login for mobile IPs: <login>-mobile-country-us. All parameters: location targeting.

In Network → Details… → Proxies, switch off each proxy and click OK. Or in Terminal:

SERVICE="Wi-Fi"
networksetup -setwebproxystate "$SERVICE" off
networksetup -setsecurewebproxystate "$SERVICE" off
networksetup -setsocksfirewallproxystate "$SERVICE" off

In Terminal sessions where you exported variables, run unset http_proxy https_proxy all_proxy.

Most errors are a typo or the wrong network service.

The gateway answers 407 Proxy Authentication Required for a wrong login or password, an IP not on the allowlist or a malformed location, 402 Payment Required when no traffic is left and 502 Bad Gateway when no exit could be connected; a restricted site gets no separate response, and a 403 comes from the site itself. All errors: proxy errors.

Automatic proxy configuration takes a PAC file URL, to proxy only some domains:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
  if (dnsDomainIs(host, ".example.com")) {
    return "PROXY gate.proxyfield.io:7000";
  }
  return "DIRECT";
}

A PAC file holds no credentials, so either sign in when an app asks, or use the IP allowlist and put the port you set up in the dashboard in place of 7000. Leave out a DIRECT fallback for proxied domains: with it, a failed proxy sends those requests from your own IP.

Start with the Easy Trial: 1 GB for $2.95: no minimum purchase, no subscription. All purchases are final; in return, your traffic never expires.