Detection & trust · glossary

CAPTCHA

A CAPTCHA is a challenge a website serves when it is not sure a visitor is human: an image puzzle, a checkbox backed by risk analysis, or an invisible JavaScript proof of work. Through a proxy, frequent CAPTCHAs point at a low-reputation exit (hosting ranges, overused pool addresses), at a request rate above the site's comfort, or at a client fingerprint that reads as automation. Changing the exit type, slowing down and keeping sessions consistent reduce them more than solving them does.

2 min read Also called challenge page, reCAPTCHA, Turnstile Updated

Errors & troubleshooting All terms

Reading the signal#

PatternLikely causeFix
CAPTCHA on the very first requestExit type or reputationMove from datacenter to residential or mobile; check the ASN
CAPTCHA after N requests from one exitRate limit per IPRotate per connection or lower the per-IP rate
CAPTCHA regardless of exitFingerprint or behaviourFix the client: real browser profile, pacing, cookies
CAPTCHA mid-checkoutIP changed during the flowUse a sticky session for the whole flow

Retrying#

On a rotating pool a retry is a different visitor: for collection jobs, retry once on a challenge before escalating. For account flows, do not retry across exits; keep the session and solve the challenge in a real browser.

How it works at ProxShift#

ProxShift charges only for bytes that cross the gateway, so a retried request costs the size of the challenge page and nothing more; per-IP limits are yours to set since the gateway imposes none.

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