---
title: "Success rate"
url: https://proxy.wiki/glossary/success-rate/
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/
---

# Success rate

> The share of requests that return a usable response. Meaningless without a sample size and a named target.

**Success rate is the proportion of requests that produce the response you wanted.** It is the headline metric in proxy marketing and the one most often quoted without the context needed to interpret it.

## What a rate needs to mean anything

- **A sample size.** “98%” from 100 requests and from 100,000 are very different claims.

- **A definition of success.** A 200 response containing a block page is not a success, though naive measurement counts it as one.

- **A named target.** Rates against an echo service and against a heavily defended retailer are not comparable.

- **A date.** Pools and defences both change continuously.

## The most common measurement error

Counting HTTP status alone. Many [anti-bot systems](/glossary/anti-bot-system/) return 200 with a challenge page or an empty result set, because doing so wastes the scraper’s time. Validate that the response actually contains what you asked for, not merely that the request completed.

## Reading provider claims

A rate published without sample size, target and date is marketing. Treat it as a claim about the vendor’s confidence, not as a measurement.