There are three common ways to connect to overseas proxies: username/password credentials, IP whitelisting, and API extraction. They are not mutually exclusive — many teams enable two and separate them by environment.

Username and password

Connect with a username and password instead of a fixed egress IP. It works across machines and networks and suits multi-environment teams, but leaked credentials can be used by anyone, so rotate them regularly.

IP whitelist

Only whitelisted egress IPs can connect. This is the most secure and lowest-overhead option, but every egress change (elastic IPs, home broadband) requires reconfiguration. Best for production servers with a fixed egress.

API extraction

Fetch IPs on demand through an API — ideal for scraping workloads that rotate egress frequently. For static residential plans, the API returns the fixed IP list of your plan, which makes it easy to distribute across machines programmatically.

How to choose

  • Fixed server, long-term use: whitelist first, credentials as backup;
  • Multiple environments and people: credentials, issued per environment;
  • Programmatic scraping: API extraction with retry on failure;
  • Short-lived tasks: reuse the links already in your plan; do not edit whitelists mid-task.

All three are configured per plan in the member center under API access.