5 Best YouTube Proxy Services
Palina Zabela
Content Manager, Octo Browser
YouTube is the second most popular media platform in the world. However, access to it, or to some of its videos, is sometimes blocked by the platform itself, content creators, or local authorities. To keep watching your favorite channels, you can use a proxy. We’ve gathered five trusted YouTube proxy providers and explained how to set up a proxy connection on different OSes and what to do if a standard proxy connection doesn’t work.
Contents
What is a YouTube Proxy
A proxy is an intermediary server between the user and the website they want to visit. It relays incoming and outgoing traffic, replacing the user’s IP address with its own. This helps maintain anonymity and access restricted content. A YouTube proxy is any proxy specifically suitable for connecting to YouTube.
How a Proxy Works
Proxy servers operate on several key principles:
- Hide your real IP. Websites detect user locations via IP addresses. When you use a proxy, web pages don’t see your actual IP address and can’t determine your location.
- Redirect traffic. Proxies relay all incoming and outgoing requests and substitute your IP address with theirs, which means that YouTube sees the proxy server’s address instead of yours.
- Unblock geo-restricted videos. YouTube and channel owners can limit access to users from specific regions. To view these videos, you can connect through a proxy from a different country.
Top 5 Proxy Providers for YouTube
Let’s have a look at the top 5 proxy providers for YouTube:
SOAX
SOAX offers residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter proxies for YouTube access. Geo-targeting is available by country, city, and ISP. Users can choose from 191 million ethically sourced IPs across more than 195 locations. SOAX offers a trial version for $1.99, and mobile proxies start at $2 per GB.
Features:
Features:
- 24/7 customer support
- ~1-second response time
- Dynamic proxies and sticky sessions up to 24 hours
IPRoyal
IPRoyal offers residential, mobile, dedicated, and datacenter proxies to access YouTube. The pool includes 34+ million IPs across 195 countries. You can geo-target down to the city level. Traffic and sessions are unlimited. Mobile proxies start at $117/month.
Features:
Features:
- 24/7 support, 365 days/year.
- Rotating or sticky sessions.
- 99.9% uptime.
- Integration with popular tools and APIs.
Asocks
Asocks provides residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies to watch YouTube again. They operate on their own infrastructure to ensure safety across 7 million IPs in 150 countries. Mobile proxies start at $6 per GB.
Features:
Features:
- 24/7 support responds in under 10 minutes.
- 99.7% connection success rate.
- 0.97s response time for residential proxies, 1.3s for mobile proxies.
Oxylabs
Oxylabs offers residential, mobile, ISP, shared, and dedicated datacenter proxies for YouTube streaming. The pool includes over 102 million IPs in 195 countries. Mobile proxies start at $9 per GB.
Features:
Features:
- Chrome extension and Android proxy manager.
- Third-party app integration.
- Location targeting down to city and region.
- Continuous proxy rotation.
- No session limits.
Smartproxy
Smartproxy offers mobile and residential proxies for YouTube access. Servers are available in 195 locations, with over 65 million IPs. Smartproxy offers a free trial and a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Features:
Features:
- 24/7 chat support.
- 0.3 second average response time.
- 99.99% uptime.
- Automatic rotation and session persistence.
How to Use a YouTube Proxy
Let’s go over how to connect a proxy on different operating systems to access YouTube:
Windows
To connect a Windows proxy, you need to:
- Click on the Windows icon in the command prompt and select Settings.
- Go to Network and Internet and select Proxy.
- In the Manual proxy setup section, click Set up.
- Enable the Use a proxy server option.
- Enter the address and port.
- Click Save.
- If the proxy has a password, open Credential Manager in the Windows menu.
- Go to Windows Credentials.
- Click Add a generic credential.
- Enter the proxy’s IP address, login, and password.
- Click OK.
- Open your browser and go to YouTube to check if the proxy works correctly.
macOS
To connect a proxy on a macOS device, follow these instructions:
- Click the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of the screen.
- Select System Settings.
- Use the left sidebar to go to the Network section.
- Click Wi-Fi or Ethernet, depending on whether you have a wired or wireless Internet connection.
- In the row of the active network, click Details — Proxies.
- Enable the toggle next to the desired proxy type (HTTP, HTTPS, or SOCKS).
- Specify the address and port, as well as the login and password if necessary. All such information is provided by your proxy supplier.
- Click OK to save changes.
- Open your browser, go to YouTube, and check if the proxy works correctly.
Android
To set up a YouTube proxy on an Android device:
- Open the device’s Settings.
- Go to the Wi-Fi section, then into the settings of the active wireless network.
- Find the Proxy field and choose manual configuration.
- Enter the host name, port number, and links to online services that do not require a proxy.
- Tap the checkmark in the upper-right corner of the screen to save the changes.
- Open YouTube, enter the proxy login and password, and check if it works correctly.
iOS
To connect to a YouTube proxy on an iOS device:
- Open Settings and go to the Wi-Fi section.
- Tap the information icon (i) next to the active network.
- Scroll down to Proxy and select Manual.
- Enter the IP address and port.
- If required, enter the login and password.
- Tap Save.
- Go to YouTube to check if the proxy works correctly.
Advantages of YouTube Proxies
In addition to spoofing your IP address, YouTube proxies offer the following benefits:
- Anonymity. Spoofing the device's IP address with that of an intermediary server makes identification more difficult, so YouTube does not know the user's location. Some proxies block trackers that collect user data, which also helps maintain privacy.
- Security. Using proxies that encrypt traffic can protect you from hackers. This is useful if you're watching YouTube videos over unsecured networks, such as while using free Wi-Fi in public locations.
- Improved overall network performance. When you use a proxy, the load on your local network is reduced.
What to Do If Proxies Don’t Help
Sometimes using a proxy may not be enough to access YouTube. For example, this might happen if the video hosting platform blocks your device based on your digital fingerprint, a unique set of parameters that websites use to identify their users. In this case, you can use an anti-detect browser, such as Octo. It spoofs the fingerprint at the browser kernel level. When a visitor accesses the video hosting platform with an anti-detect browser, the YouTube anti-fraud system sees them as a new user and doesn’t block them.
Here’s how to use an anti-detect browser like Octo Browser to access YouTube:
Here’s how to use an anti-detect browser like Octo Browser to access YouTube:
- Create an account on the official Octo website.
- Download the browser.
- Log into your account.
- Pay for a subscription following our guide.
- In the Profiles tab, click Quick Profile. Octo Browser will create a virtual profile with a randomized digital fingerprint.
- Click the word Direct next to the newly created profile and select Set a new proxy.
- Enter the IP address, port, login, and password, and click Save.
- Start the profile by clicking Start and go to YouTube.
FAQ
Is it legal to use YouTube proxies?
YouTube does not prohibit the use of proxies. In most regions, they are also allowed. However, some countries, such as Russia, block access to YouTube itself. In such cases, bypassing restrictions may be considered a violation.
Are YouTube proxies safe?
YouTube proxy safety depends on the proxy provider. Many free proxy services may profit from selling their users’ personal data. That’s why we recommend using only encrypted, paid-for proxies from trusted providers.
What is the difference between a proxy and a VPN?
Both solutions spoof your IP address, helping you bypass restrictions and access content on YouTube. But a virtual private network (VPN) also routes traffic through an encrypted communication channel. Among all types of proxies, only HTTPS proxies encrypt traffic, so a VPN is considered more secure. You can learn more about the differences between proxies and VPNs in our article.
Stay up to date with the latest Octo Browser news
By clicking the button you agree to our Privacy Policy.
Related articles
