---
title: "Forward proxy"
url: https://proxy.wiki/glossary/forward-proxy/
type: Glossary Term
author: "proxy.wiki editorial"
published: 2026-08-19
updated: 2026-08-19
site: proxy.wiki
topics: ["Proxy fundamentals"]
license: CC BY 4.0 — quote freely with attribution to https://proxy.wiki/
---

# Forward proxy

> A proxy that acts for the client. It sits between you and the internet and hides your address from destinations.

**A forward proxy acts on behalf of the client.** It sits between a user and the wider internet, receives outbound requests, and reissues them from its own address. This is what people normally mean by “a proxy”.

## The direction that defines it

The distinction is whose side the intermediary is on. A forward proxy is deployed by, or for, the party making the request. The destination server usually has no relationship with it and often cannot tell it is there.

## Typical uses

- Concealing the client’s address from the destination.

- Enforcing an outbound policy on a corporate network.

- Distributing requests across many addresses in a [pool](/glossary/proxy-pool/) so that no single address is used enough to be blocked.

- Reaching content that is restricted by region, via [geo-targeting](/glossary/geo-targeting/).

## Commonly confused with

A [reverse proxy](/glossary/reverse-proxy/) faces the opposite way: it is deployed by the owner of a server, and clients connect to it believing it is the origin. If you are hiding the client, it is forward. If you are fronting the server, it is reverse.