Available authentication methods

There are two available authentication methods to access Proxy networks.

  1. Username and password combination
  2. Using API key / token

When to use username & password for Proxy authentication

Bright data uses your account ID concate Bright Data uses the proxy username to pass on proxy configuration parameters to our proxy network, by concatenating the paramater name and values separates by - charachter, to the proxy username.

This authentication method is preferred when using 3rd party tools which take Proxy Native configruation, and do not support REST API operations.

To read more about Native Proxy access vs. REST API access read here: API vs Native access

Using API Token to access proxy networks over REST API

API token enables access to proxy networks. Some users may find API token more convenient to use. API Token allows you:

  1. Control your access with one token, instead of combination of two
  2. Token is tied to a names user, which enhances traceability
  3. Token to access all zones
  4. Easier migration to high level scraping solutions for hard to access domains
  5. Full compliant with REST API

Creating an API token

Please see here about our API token and its usage.

How to use the API Token

When using curl API token is used as part of the header fields:

curl
 curl  -H "Authorization: Bearer <API_TOKEN>" "rest OF curl params"

When using this in REST API, populate the Authrorization bearer string with the token as shown in the API playground.