Selenium Proxy with Authentication: Username and Password in Chrome

Why Selenium proxies need one extra step

Selenium grids and CI runners send every browser session from the machine's own IP. Run enough sessions and a site rate-limits that one address with HTTP 429 Too Many Requests, and geo-dependent tests only ever see the country the runner sits in.

Selenium sets a proxy through browser options, but Chrome takes only host and port from them: it won't use credentials embedded in proxy settings and supports no authentication method for SOCKS5. A proxy with a password therefore needs something to answer its 407 challenge.

Selenium has that built in. With WebDriver BiDi enabled, driver.network.add_auth_handler(username, password) answers authentication challenges — the proxy's included, in our test. One catch we hit with ChromeDriver 153: a classic driver.get() stalled while the proxy was asking for the password, while navigating with browsing_context.navigate worked, and later driver.get() calls reused the credentials. A second catch: Selenium also hands a proxy set through options.proxy to Selenium Manager, which then tries to download ChromeDriver through it without the password — so the code passes the proxy as a Chrome flag instead.

• MDN — 429 Too Many Requests
• Selenium docs — Browser options: proxy
• Chromium — Proxy support in Chrome
• Selenium docs — WebDriver BiDi network: authentication handlers
• Selenium Python API — Network.add_auth_handler
• Local proxy fixture run

Recommended Selenium setup

Scroll horizontally with the arrow keys to read all content.

The button below opens Static Datacenter Proxies with the AI and automation use case. Choose Region, Term, Protocol and Quantity (up to 100 IPs at a time) before you pay.

• Proxy302 console — Static Datacenter Proxies
• Selenium docs — WebDriver BiDi network: authentication handlers
• Selenium docs — Selenium Manager: proxy for driver downloads

Which Proxy302 proxy to buy

Scroll horizontally with the arrow keys to read all content.

Prices in US dollars. Top up your wallet once and pay any line from it. Nothing renews automatically — renew in My assets to keep an IP.

• Proxy302 pricing

Set up Selenium proxies in 5 steps

1. Choose the region and term

   The button below opens Static Datacenter Proxies (Per IP and term) with the AI and automation use case. Under Connection settings pick the Region, choose a Term and set Protocol to HTTP. Set Quantity to the number of IPs you need (one for each parallel session, up to 100 at a time). Then click Review cost and generate.

2. Copy each IP

   In My assets, Copy gives host:port:user:password. Put host and port in PROXY_HOST and PROXY_PORT, user and password in PROXY_USER and PROXY_PASS.

3. Set the proxy and the auth handler

   In ChromeOptions set enable_bidi = True and add the argument --proxy-server=http://host:port, with no user or password in it. After the driver starts, call driver.network.add_auth_handler(user, password).

4. Open the first page over BiDi

   Use driver.browsing_context.navigate(context=driver.current_window_handle, url=..., wait="complete") for the first page. After that, ordinary driver.get() works.

   Expected result api.ipify.org shows the proxy's IP, not your machine's.

5. Run it on a grid or CI

   The browser connects to the proxy from the machine that runs it, so that node or runner needs outbound access to the proxy's port. Give each parallel session its own IP.

Selenium proxy with username and password (Python)

Scroll horizontally with the arrow keys to read all content.

# pip install -U selenium   (Selenium Manager fetches a matching ChromeDriver)
import os
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

# From Proxy302 → My assets → Copy (host:port:user:password); use the HTTP endpoint
endpoint = f"{os.environ['PROXY_HOST']}:{os.environ['PROXY_PORT']}"

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.enable_bidi = True  # the auth handler below runs over WebDriver BiDi
# A Chrome flag, not options.proxy: Selenium Manager would fetch ChromeDriver through options.proxy, without the password
options.add_argument(f"--proxy-server=http://{endpoint}")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
try:
    # Chrome ignores user:pass written into proxy settings, so answer the 407 challenge instead
    driver.network.add_auth_handler(os.environ["PROXY_USER"], os.environ["PROXY_PASS"])
    # Navigate over BiDi: a classic driver.get() can stall while the proxy challenge is pending
    driver.browsing_context.navigate(
        context=driver.current_window_handle,
        url="https://api.ipify.org?format=json",
        wait="complete",
    )
    print(driver.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "body").text)  # the proxy's exit IP
finally:
    driver.quit()

Checked on 2026-10-18 with Selenium 4.41.0 and 4.51.0 and Chromium/ChromeDriver 153 through a local password-protected proxy, for an HTTP and an HTTPS page: the right password loaded the page, a wrong one loaded nothing, and on a first run Selenium Manager downloaded ChromeDriver without going through the proxy.

• Local proxy fixture run
• Selenium Python API — Network.add_auth_handler
• Selenium docs — Selenium Manager: proxy for driver downloads

Quick fixes

Selenium proxy FAQ

Related setups

Playwright proxies

Playwright proxy setup with username and password: static datacenter IPs for tests and CI, rotating residential from US$1.50/GB when a site blocks servers.

View options and pricing

Uptime monitoring proxies

Uptime monitoring proxies: check your website from different countries on fixed datacenter IPs and alert only when two or more locations fail.

View options and pricing

Fast fixed IPs for APIs, tests and monitors

Fast datacenter proxies with fixed IPs, low latency and high concurrency — the lowest cost per IP for APIs, testing and bulk jobs. Pick the country; pay per IP and term.

View options and pricing