The essential points from this guide -- each one is explained in detail below.
The Configure Proxy setting only applies to WiFi, one network at a time, never to cellular data.
Manual mode needs a server address and port; Automatic mode reads rules from a single PAC URL.
KnoxProxy dashboard credentials paste directly into the Server, Port, and Authentication fields.
iOS has no built-in proxy option for cellular data; a VPN-based proxy app is the only workaround.
Turning proxy off restores your normal, unproxied connection immediately, with no restart needed.
The Configure Proxy option lives inside each WiFi network's settings, not in one central location. Open Settings > Wi-Fi, tap the (i) next to a connected network, and scroll down to the Configure Proxy row near the bottom of that screen.
Three modes sit behind that row. Off is the default: your traffic goes straight to the internet with no intermediary. Manual asks you to type a server address, a port, and an optional username and password. Automatic asks for a single PAC (Proxy Auto-Configuration) URL that tells iOS which server to use for which destinations, without you entering a server or port directly.
A common question is whether Configure Proxy should be on or off. For most people on a home or public WiFi network, off is correct. A proxy only helps when you have a specific server to route through, such as a work network policy, a privacy setup, or a KnoxProxy endpoint for testing or scraping. Setting it to Manual without a real server address breaks that network's internet access. iOS tries to send every request through a proxy that does not exist, so every page fails to load or times out until you switch it back.
This setting is also per-network, not per-device. Configuring a proxy for your home WiFi does not carry it over to a coffee shop or office network. iOS asks again the next time you join a different one, and each network keeps its own independent Configure Proxy value. If you need the same proxy on every network you connect to, you either repeat these steps each time, or use a VPN-based proxy app instead, which is covered later in this guide. For the Android equivalent of this walkthrough, see Android Proxy Settings.
iOS 16 and iOS 17 or later present this screen almost identically. Apple moved the (i) icon slightly and renamed a few submenu labels in recent updates, but the Configure Proxy field itself has stayed in the same place, under the same WiFi network detail screen, since iOS 14. If your Settings app looks different from the screenshots in this guide, the Configure Proxy row is still there; only the surrounding labels have shifted between versions.
One detail worth knowing before you configure anything: iOS treats a network's proxy setting as tied to that network's identity, not to a specific router. If you rename a WiFi network or reset a router to factory defaults, the network effectively becomes new to your iPhone, and any proxy you had set up for it resets to Off. That is expected behavior, not a bug, and it means you will need to re-enter your proxy details after a router reset.
Setting up a manual HTTP proxy takes about a minute once you have your server details ready. If you use KnoxProxy, your dashboard lists a ready-to-paste host, port, username, and password for each proxy you provision, so you are not copying values by hand from an email or a support ticket. Compare plans on the KnoxProxy pricing page before you provision one for this setup.
1. Open the Settings app and tap Wi-Fi.
2. Tap the blue (i) icon next to the network you are currently connected to.
3. Scroll down to the HTTP Proxy section and tap Configure Proxy.
4. Select Manual from the three options.
5. Enter the Server address (an IP address or hostname, without http:// in front) and the Port number your provider gave you.
6. If your proxy needs a login, toggle Authentication on and enter the Username and Password.
7. Tap Save in the top-right corner. iOS reconnects to the network using the new proxy immediately.
Test the connection right away. Open Safari and visit KnoxProxy's proxy tester to confirm the IP address shown matches your proxy, not your real one. If the page fails to load, check the port number first -- a wrong port is the most common setup mistake, followed by a username or password typed with a trailing space.
A few fields are easy to get wrong the first time. The Server field wants a bare address or hostname, never a full URL, so leave out http:// and any trailing slash. The Port field only accepts a number; a proxy running on port 8080 will not connect if you type 8080/ or add extra characters. If your provider issues a hostname instead of a numeric IP address, iOS resolves it the same way it resolves any other domain name. A working DNS connection on that WiFi network is a prerequisite for the proxy to connect at all.
KnoxProxy's residential proxies ($2.10/GB) and mobile proxies ($4.50/GB) both work with this manual setup, since both hand you a standard server, port, username, and password combination with no extra app required. Datacenter ($0.60/GB) and ISP ($2.90/IP) plans use the identical fields, so the steps above apply no matter which proxy type you choose. Switching between them later only means updating the Server and Port values, not repeating the whole configuration process.
Automatic mode replaces manual server and port entry with a single PAC file URL. iOS downloads that file when you join the network and follows its rules for which requests go through a proxy and which go direct, based on the destination domain or IP range.
To set it up, open Settings > Wi-Fi, tap the (i) next to your network, tap Configure Proxy, and select Automatic instead of Manual. Paste the PAC URL your provider or network administrator gave you into the URL field, then tap Save. iOS fetches the file in the background; there is no visible confirmation beyond the network reconnecting, so the first real test is loading a page in Safari.
This mode makes the most sense on corporate networks, where IT teams manage one PAC file that routes traffic differently by destination -- internal company tools might bypass the proxy entirely while general browsing routes through it. It also suits setups with rotating proxy rules that change more often than anyone wants to re-enter by hand. A single update on the server side changes behavior for every device pointed at it, without touching each phone individually, which is the main advantage over Manual mode at any scale beyond one device.
The tradeoff is that a broken or unreachable PAC URL leaves the network unusable until you switch Configure Proxy back to Off or Manual, and iOS gives no error message that names the PAC file as the cause. If a network stops working right after you enter a PAC URL, that URL, not your iPhone, is almost always the reason.
For a deeper look at how PAC files are structured and what rules they can express, see What Are Proxy Settings?. Most home users and individual proxy customers are better served by Manual mode, since a PAC file adds a layer of complexity -- writing and hosting a script -- that a single fixed server and port does not need.
iOS does not expose any proxy setting for cellular data. The Configure Proxy option only appears inside WiFi network settings, and Apple gives no equivalent screen under Settings > Cellular. Switching off WiFi bypasses whatever proxy you configured, even on the same network you just set up, because the phone silently falls back to the carrier's unproxied cellular connection.
This is a deliberate design choice by Apple, not a missing feature that a future iOS update is likely to add. Cellular network configuration on iPhone is controlled largely by carrier profiles, which leaves far less room for user-level network settings than WiFi does. Anyone who needs a proxy to also cover cellular data has to work around that limit rather than look for a hidden setting.
Two workarounds exist, and both use Apple's VPN framework to intercept traffic system-wide instead of the WiFi-only proxy setting. VPN-based proxy apps like Shadowrocket and Surge run a local VPN profile that redirects all outbound traffic, including cellular, through a proxy server you configure inside the app. Because the app operates at the VPN layer, the same configuration covers WiFi and cellular at once, unlike the native Configure Proxy setting, which only ever applies to the network you set it on. See Shadowrocket Proxy Setup for the full walkthrough.
The second option is an Apple Configurator profile, typically used by IT departments to push proxy settings to managed devices. It needs a Mac running Apple Configurator and is impractical for a single personal device. It is, however, the standard method for deploying the same proxy configuration across a fleet of company iPhones, since a profile installed this way can enforce settings the user cannot change from Settings.
For most individual use, a VPN-based proxy app is the simpler path to cellular proxy coverage. It needs no extra hardware, installs directly from the App Store or a signed profile link, and typically supports the same HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 credentials a KnoxProxy plan already provides.
Turning off a proxy takes the same number of taps as setting one up, and it takes effect the moment you save.
1. Open Settings and tap Wi-Fi.
2. Tap the (i) next to the network with the proxy configured.
3. Tap Configure Proxy.
4. Select Off, whether the current mode is Manual or Automatic.
5. Tap Save.
Your iPhone reconnects and routes traffic directly again, with no restart required. This process is identical whether you are disabling a Manual proxy with a server and port, or an Automatic proxy with a PAC URL; Off simply overrides whichever mode was active before.
If you were using a VPN-based proxy app for cellular data instead, disable or delete the VPN profile under Settings > General > VPN & Device Management, or from inside the app itself. A WiFi-only Off toggle has no effect on that separate configuration, since the two systems, native Configure Proxy and a VPN profile, operate independently of each other.
Disabling proxy on iPhone is also the right first troubleshooting step when a network stops working after you configured one. If the site loads normally with Configure Proxy set to Off, the proxy server or credentials are the problem, not your iPhone. Once you have confirmed that, you can turn the proxy back to Manual and re-check each field, starting with the port number, before contacting your provider's support.
Most iPhone proxy problems trace back to one of four causes: a wrong port, an authentication mismatch, an HTTPS-specific block, or a stale WiFi connection that needs a fresh handshake.
A wrong port is the single most common issue. Check the port number against your provider's dashboard; one wrong digit makes every request time out, and iOS gives no distinct error message for a bad port versus a fully unreachable server, so this is worth ruling out first. Authentication failures usually mean the username or password field has an extra space, or the Authentication toggle was never switched on -- iOS silently sends no credentials at all if that toggle stays off, which looks identical to a wrong password from the user's side.
"Proxy not working on HTTPS sites" is usually not a proxy failure. Most manual HTTP proxy configurations in iOS also tunnel HTTPS traffic (the CONNECT method) through the same server and port. If HTTP sites load but HTTPS sites do not, the proxy itself likely does not support CONNECT tunneling, and that is a provider-side limitation rather than an iPhone setting. Confirm this by loading a plain HTTP test page first; if that works and only HTTPS sites fail, the fix has to happen on the proxy side, not in Settings.
A "cannot connect to server" error right after saving Configure Proxy often clears itself if you toggle WiFi off and back on, forcing iOS to re-establish the connection with the new proxy settings applied from scratch. If the error persists after that, remove the network under Settings > Wi-Fi > (i) > Forget This Network, then rejoin and reconfigure the proxy from a clean state.
If none of these steps resolve the issue, the fastest way to isolate whether the problem is your iPhone or the proxy server itself is to test the same credentials on a second device or in a desktop browser. A proxy that fails identically everywhere points to the server or your account; a proxy that only fails on iPhone points back to the Configure Proxy fields.
| Symptom | Likely Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Every site times out | Wrong port number | Check the port against your provider's dashboard |
| "Authentication required" repeats | Auth toggle off or wrong credentials | Re-enter username and password, confirm Authentication is on |
| HTTP works, HTTPS fails | Proxy does not support CONNECT tunneling | Contact your provider or switch to a proxy type that supports HTTPS |
| "Cannot connect to server" right after saving | Stale WiFi handshake | Toggle WiFi off and back on |
Ready to put this into practice? Browse Residential Proxies
KnoxProxy Research Team · Technical Content
Network engineers and proxy infrastructure specialists with 10+ years in anti-bot systems, web scraping, and IP routing.
90.4M+ ethically sourced residential IPs across 195 countries. Instant activation, 14-day money-back guarantee.