# Success rate

Proxy success rate is the percentage of requests sent through a proxy that return a usable response from the destination, as opposed to a connection failure, a gateway error, a block or a challenge. Published figures are measured against specific targets and are not comparable across providers unless the methodology is; for your own workload, the meaningful number is the rate against your target, at your rate, with your client.


## What lowers it

| Cause | Symptom | Lever |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Exit type mismatched with the target | 403, CAPTCHA on first request | Move to residential or mobile |
| Per-IP rate too high | 429, blocks after N requests | Rotate more, slow down |
| Client fingerprint | Blocks regardless of exit | Fix the client |
| Pool churn | Occasional connection resets | Retry once; sticky sessions replace the exit |
| Target instability | Timeouts and 5xx from the site | Back off; not a proxy problem |


## Measuring it honestly

- Count only responses whose content is valid, not just status 200 (soft blocks hide there).
- Separate gateway errors from destination errors: the status codes tell you which side failed.
- Measure per target and per exit type; a global number hides everything useful.


## How it works at ProxShift

ProxShift does not publish a single success-rate figure because it would describe a target, not the network; instead the error codes distinguish gateway from destination failures, and retries cost only the bytes they move.

Source: https://proxshift.com/glossary/success-rate