proxy parameter to control which proxy strategy is used for a request.
Proxy types
If you do not specify a proxy, Firecrawl defaults to
auto.
Basic usage
Set theproxy parameter to choose a proxy strategy. The following example uses auto, which lets Firecrawl decide when to escalate to enhanced proxies.
When Firecrawl escalates
Firecrawl starts on basic proxies. If the target responds with 401, 403, or 429, Firecrawl treats that as a sign the proxy was not good enough and retries the same URL through enhanced proxies. Other status codes, including 404 and 5xx, do not trigger an escalation, because a different proxy would not change the answer. The escalation happens at most once per request. Once a request is already on enhanced proxies, a further 401, 403, or 429 is returned to you as the result rather than retried again. You do not need to detect this or handle it. The retry is part of the same request and the response you receive is the final one.Enhanced proxy requests cost the same as basic requests — 1 credit per request. An escalated retry is not charged separately, so a request that starts on basic and finishes on enhanced still costs 1 credit.
Are you an AI agent that needs a Firecrawl API key? See firecrawl.dev/agent-onboarding/SKILL.md for automated onboarding instructions.

