The short answer
CAPTCHA stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart". The term was coined at Carnegie Mellon University in the early 2000s. Today most CAPTCHAs are invisible: a risk score decides whether you get a puzzle at all.
Why proxies trigger them
The risk score leans heavily on your IP. Datacenter IPs, abused shared proxies and free proxies start with bad scores, so you see puzzles constantly. Clean residential or mobile IPs, realistic browsers and slower request rates keep the score low.
Also known as
reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Turnstile, bot challenge, "I'm not a robot" check.
Learn more
- CAPTCHAs and proxies
- IP reputation and proxies
- How to avoid IP bans when scraping
- Can websites detect proxies?
- CAPTCHA history and overview
- OWASP automated threats (CAPTCHA defeat)
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, why CAPTCHAs are hard for many people
- Spamhaus IP reputation
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Editorial note: Proxy providers change their pools, features and prices often, so treat any figures here as typical ranges at the time of writing and confirm current terms with the provider before you buy.
Editorial note: Proxy providers change their pools, features and prices often, so treat any figures here as typical ranges at the time of writing and confirm current terms with the provider before you buy.