Skip to main content
All glossary terms

Proxy & networking

HTTP proxy

An HTTP proxy is a proxy that uses HTTP protocol conventions to receive and forward client requests. It can send ordinary HTTP requests onward or use CONNECT to establish a tunnel for another protocol, commonly TLS, depending on its implementation and configuration.

Also known as HTTP forward proxy.

Why it matters in practice

The name describes a protocol role and does not specify whether the proxy connection itself is encrypted. Credentials and request contents sent to an HTTP proxy need protection appropriate to the network. For HTTPS destinations, an ordinary CONNECT tunnel carries opaque TLS unless the proxy separately terminates or inspects it.

Example

A client sends an HTTP request to its configured proxy, which makes the corresponding upstream request to api.example.com.

Educational note

This definition is general information, not legal advice. It may omit facts that matter to a specific situation and does not establish or guarantee compliance.