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Prices checked up to Oct 24, 2026

UDP and TCP through a proxy: which proxies carry UDP

Every proxy you can buy carries TCP, the kind of connection web pages, APIs and almost all scraping use. UDP, which online games, voice and video calls, DNS lookups and HTTP/3 use, goes through a proxy only when it is SOCKS5, the provider supports the protocol’s UDP relay, and your software knows how to ask for it. An HTTP proxy cannot carry UDP. If your job is web pages, you do not need UDP: Chrome, for one, sends all its proxied requests over TCP.

Providers whose own pages say their proxies carry UDP:

  • Evomi (ISP): “Access your ISP proxy using UDP, HTTP or SOCKS5” Read Oct 11, 2026.
  • Geonode (residential): “We support HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5 and UDP.” Read Oct 11, 2026.
  • NodeMaven (ISP): “HTTP, SOCKS5 + UDP support” Read Oct 11, 2026.
  • ProxyRack (residential, ISP and datacenter): “All plans support HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5, and UDP protocols, and each comes with its own proxy pool.” Read Oct 11, 2026.
  • ProxyScrape (residential and ISP): “HTTP + SOCKS5 with TCP and UDP support” Read Oct 11, 2026.
  • SOAX (residential and mobile): “HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 over TCP and UDP. Flexible authentication.” Read Oct 11, 2026.

The other providers we track do not mention UDP on the pages we read. That is not a refusal: if your job needs UDP, ask the provider before you buy, and test it in the trial or refund window.

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

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How each kind of proxy carries a connection, step by step: an HTTP proxy's tunnel and a SOCKS5 UDP relay.
  1. HTTP proxy: TCP only
    1. Your softwareopens a TCP connection to the proxy and sends CONNECT
    2. The proxyopens a TCP connection to the site and forwards bytes both ways
    3. The sitesees the proxy's address
    Every step is a TCP connection. There is no step that can carry a UDP datagram.
  2. SOCKS5 with UDP ASSOCIATE
    1. Your softwareopens a TCP connection to the proxy and asks for a UDP relay
    2. The proxyanswers with an address and port to send datagrams to
    3. Your softwaresends each datagram there, with a header naming where it goes
    4. The relayforwards it, or drops it without telling you
    The relay lasts only while the first TCP connection stays open, and it works only if the provider and your software both support it.

Why an HTTP proxy is TCP only

An HTTP proxy carries an https:// page by opening a tunnel with CONNECT, after which it forwards bytes blindly in both directions until the tunnel closes (RFC 9110, section 9.3.6). That tunnel is a TCP connection. A newer standard, CONNECT-UDP, describes “how to proxy UDP in HTTP, similar to how the HTTP CONNECT method allows proxying TCP in HTTP” (RFC 9298), but none of the providers we track mentions it in the protocols their pages list.

How SOCKS5 carries UDP

SOCKS5 has a command for it, UDP ASSOCIATE (RFC 1928). Your software first opens an ordinary TCP connection to the proxy and asks for a UDP relay; the proxy answers with an address and port to send datagrams to. Each datagram then carries a small header naming where it should go. Three details from the standard matter in practice:

  • The relay lasts only as long as that first TCP connection: “A UDP association terminates when the TCP connection that the UDP ASSOCIATE request arrived on terminates.”
  • Nothing tells you when a datagram is dropped. A relay “will drop datagrams it cannot or will not relay”, silently.
  • The command is optional for the software as well as for the proxy. Chrome uses SOCKS5 “only … to proxy TCP-based URL requests. It cannot be used to relay UDP traffic” (Chromium: proxy support), and many other programs that speak SOCKS5 implement only its TCP command. Check your program’s documentation before paying for UDP.

SOCKS4 has no UDP at all; SOCKS4 vs SOCKS5 covers the two versions.

What needs UDP, and what does not

  • Web pages, APIs and scraping: TCP. HTTP/3 runs over QUIC, whose packets “are carried in UDP datagrams” (RFC 9000), but through a proxy Chrome uses the older HTTP versions over TCP (its proxy documentation above), and the page loads the same.
  • Online games, voice and video calls: usually UDP, which is why most proxy setups do not suit them. A VPN carries a whole device’s traffic, UDP included; what is a proxy server sets the two side by side.
  • DNS lookups: usually UDP, but a proxy does not need to carry them: with an HTTP proxy, or SOCKS5 set to let the proxy look names up, the proxy does the lookup itself (proxy DNS leaks).

Before you buy for UDP

Pick a provider whose own page says its SOCKS5 carries UDP (the box above lists them), then test your exact program against it inside the trial or refund window.

Price it for your amount

Today's checkout totals, every billing type competing. Change the amount to recalculate.

Geonode

$34.65

Residential monthly subscription · Monthly

50 GB needed50 GB included
Rolls over while subscribed · 0 GB unused

Checked Oct 24, 2026 · $0.69 per GB used

Buy at Geonode →

GB and IP packages use separate amounts and billing units.

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