Are free proxies safe?

A proxy from a public free list is not safe for anything you would not post in public. Whoever runs it sees every site you visit, can read and change any page sent without HTTPS, and can keep a log of it all; some open proxies run on computers whose owners never meant to run one, set up by misconfiguration or malware. A free tier from a named proxy company is safer, because its terms are public, but the same rule holds for any proxy: never send a password or personal data through one you do not trust. Wikipedia: open proxy

Answer · The live comparison uses prices checked up to Oct 24, 2026; every figure in the text keeps the date it was checked.

What the person running a proxy can see

A proxy sits between you and the site. Every request goes through it, so its operator sees as much as the connection allows:

With HTTPS your browser asks the proxy to open a tunnel to the site, so the operator learns which site but not which page or what is on it. A browser warning about the site’s certificate while you use a proxy can mean something is trying to read inside that tunnel; close the page rather than click through.

What goes wrong with public free proxies

• Logging and reselling. A free server costs its operator money to run. Your browsing record, your IP address and anything sent in plain text are what it can earn from.
• Altered pages. On plain HTTP pages an operator can add advertising or scripts, or swap a download for something else.
• Hijacked machines. A computer can run as an open proxy without its owner knowing, through a misconfiguration or malware; such an infected machine is called a zombie computer (Wikipedia: open proxy). If the proxy on your list is one of them, your traffic passes through someone else’s compromised PC.
• Borrowed reputation. Open proxies are often used for abuse, so mail and chat operators keep blocklists of them (Wikipedia: open proxy). A site may block you, or keep asking for CAPTCHAs, because of what others sent through the same address.
• Sudden loss. A public proxy can vanish mid-session, and anything that depends on keeping one address (a logged-in account, a long download) breaks with it.

If you use one anyway

• Open only HTTPS sites, and leave at the first certificate warning.
• Do not log in to anything, pay for anything or type personal details.
• Never install a certificate or app that a proxy asks you to install.
• Use a separate browser profile, so cookies from your real accounts never travel through it.

Safer ways to pay nothing or very little

A proxy company’s free tier is a known business with published terms and a privacy policy: Webshare gives 10 datacenter proxies with 1 GB of traffic a month, and Oxylabs $5 of credit (Webshare’s free proxy page, Oxylabs’ price page, checked Oct 11, 2026). The rules above still apply, because any proxy operator can see as much as the table shows.

Beyond the free limit, paid plans start at a few dollars: $2.99 a month for 100 Webshare datacenter proxies, or $5 for 5 GB of DataImpulse residential traffic (Webshare and DataImpulse, checked Oct 11, 2026). Free vs paid proxies compares what each free tier gives with the first paid step, and the price comparison ranks every plan for your amount.

We list prices, not free proxy lists: a list of open proxies, many of them on hijacked machines, is a different product from a price comparison, and not one we publish.