> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.proxyjam.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Check a proxy works

> Report the address a request arrived from — send it through a proxy to read that proxy's exit address.

Returns the address we saw the request come from, and nothing else.

Sent through one of your proxies, the address that comes back is that proxy's
exit address. That makes this a working test rather than a claim: if the
request arrives at all, the proxy carries traffic, and the address it reports
is the one your targets will see. Sent directly, it reports your own address.

Free, and it stores nothing — it does not appear in
[List checks](/api/ip-check/list-checks). To find out what that address is
worth to a fraud system, pass it to [Check an IP address](/api/ip-check/check-ip).

## Response

<ResponseField name="ip" type="string">
  The address the request arrived from. `unknown` in the rare case the address
  cannot be read at all.
</ResponseField>

## Example

Through a proxy — the useful form. `-x` gives cURL the proxy to route through,
and the address in the answer is the proxy's, not yours.

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash cURL theme={null}
  curl -x http://<username>:<password>@<host>:<port> \
    https://api.proxyjam.com/public/v1/ip-check/echo \
    -H "X-API-Key: pj_AbCdEf..."
  ```

  ```python Python theme={null}
  from proxyjam import ProxyJamClient

  with ProxyJamClient(api_key="pj_live_...") as proxyjam:
      result = proxyjam.proxies.check("<order-id>")
      print(result.ok, result.exit_ip, result.latency_ms)
  ```
</CodeGroup>

The Python example uses the SDK's own
[proxy check](https://github.com/getproxyjam/clients), which reads the
credentials off the order, sends this request through the proxy and times it.
A proxy that does not answer comes back as `ok=False` with the reason in
`error`, because a dead proxy is a result rather than a failed call.

Sent directly, with no `-x`, the same endpoint reports the address you are
calling from:

```bash theme={null}
curl https://api.proxyjam.com/public/v1/ip-check/echo \
  -H "X-API-Key: pj_AbCdEf..."
```

## Errors

| Status | When                                                                                  |
| ------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 401    | No credential, or one we do not recognise.                                            |
| 429    | Too many calls. This endpoint is cheap but not free to serve; space out a retry loop. |

<Note>
  Nothing here is billable and no free-check allowance is spent. The allowance
  described in [Get check quota](/api/ip-check/get-quota) applies to the paid
  reputation check only.
</Note>