Quickstart: making your first proxied request

1. Create a credential

Go to Credentials in the dashboard and click Create. A label is optional. You get back:

• A username, like mlabs_a1f9c3
• A password, shown once

Copy the password now. It is not stored and cannot be shown again. If you lose it, you can click rotate password to generate a new one.

2. Connection details

Session behavior is set per request by a suffix on the username:

<username>[_loc_<CODE>][_sticky]

• No suffix: rotating. A new exit IP on every request.
• _sticky: keep the same exit IP for about 5 minutes.
• _loc_<CODE>: only use exits in one US location, for example _loc_ORD for Chicago. Put the location before _sticky when combining them: mlabs_a1f9c3_loc_ORD_sticky.

See Rotating vs sticky sessions, and location targeting for the full list of location codes.

3. Send a request

Rotating, over HTTP:

curl -x "http://mlabs_a1f9c3:<PASSWORD>@proxy.masklabs.io:8080" \
  https://ipinfo.io/json

Run it multiple times and you will see the ip field change with every new connection.

Sticky, pinned to one location, over SOCKS5:

curl -x "socks5h://mlabs_a1f9c3_loc_ORD_sticky:<PASSWORD>@proxy.masklabs.io:1080" \
  https://ipinfo.io/json

Use socks5h, not socks5. The h makes the client resolve DNS through the proxy, so lookups happen from the exit location instead of your own network.

4. Use it from your code

Anything that accepts a proxy URL takes the same string. Setup for common clients:

• Python: requests and httpx
• Node.js: fetch with undici, and axios
• Browser automation: Playwright and Puppeteer

5. Usage and limits

Traffic is metered per credential and drawn from your organization's data allowance. The dashboard shows usage for the whole organization and usage per credential. You can set a daily or monthly cap on any credential, disable it, rotate its password, or delete it from its settings. See Billing and data usage for more information.

6. API

Everything above can also be done over the API: create credentials, set usage limits, and read usage. Keys are created on your Account page.