> ## 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.

# Compare every source

> What each reputation source says about one address, side by side, for free.

The companion to [Check an IP address](/api/ip-check/check-ip), not a cheaper
version of it. That endpoint asks three vendors and returns one verdict. This
one shows what each source says and leaves the judgement to you.

**Free, and free structurally.** The published blocklists are held locally, so
consulting them is a database lookup rather than a request. The paid vendors
are not called at all — their rows appear only when a recent check on the same
address is still cached, which is what `cached_check` reports. Nothing is
charged and no free allowance is spent.

## Do not compare the vendors' numbers directly

Each vendor row carries `score_metric`, `risk_metric` and `score_derived`, and
they exist because the columns invite a comparison the numbers cannot support:

* `score` is a measurement for some vendors and a band midpoint for others.
  When `score_derived` is `true`, that vendor published no number of its own
  and ours is arithmetic, not their finding.
* `risk` is not the same question twice. One vendor reports a risk level;
  another reports how *frequently* the address is seen abusing. A high score
  beside a low wording is those two fields answering different questions, not
  a vendor contradicting itself.

## Body

<ParamField body="ip" type="string" required>
  A public IPv4 or IPv6 address. Private and reserved ranges are refused.
</ParamField>

## Response

<ResponseField name="listings" type="object[]">
  Every published list held locally, whether or not it contains the address:
  `source`, `label`, `claim`, `listed`, `network`, `attribution` and
  `synced_at`.

  Silent sources are included on purpose — a table of hits alone cannot be
  told apart from one whose corpus never loaded. Check `synced_at` before
  trusting a `listed: false`: `null` means that list has never loaded here.

  `claim` says what membership would mean, and the three are not
  interchangeable. `blocklist` is a publisher saying not to route the address,
  and it is the only one that decides a verdict. `recent_abuse` is a honeypot
  report from the last couple of days, which ordinary residential addresses
  pass through routinely. `tor_exit` describes what the address is, not what
  it did.

  `network` is the matching range rather than the address you asked about — a
  /20 listing and a single-host listing are different claims.
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="cached_check" type="object | null">
  The vendors' rows from a recent check on this address, reused for free:
  `vendors` (same shape as in [Check an IP address](/api/ip-check/check-ip)),
  `verdict` and `risk_score`.

  `null` means no vendor was asked — not that every vendor was unreachable.
  This endpoint never calls one.
</ResponseField>

## Errors

| Status | Meaning                                                      |
| ------ | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `403`  | The feature is off for your account. Read `GET /flags`.      |
| `422`  | The address is missing, malformed, or not publicly routable. |
| `429`  | Too many requests.                                           |

## Example

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash cURL theme={null}
  curl -X POST https://api.proxyjam.com/public/v1/ip-check/sources \
    -H "X-API-Key: $PROXYJAM_API_KEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"ip": "1.10.16.42"}'
  ```

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

  with ProxyJamClient(api_key="pj_live_…") as client:
      survey = client.ip_check.sources("1.10.16.42")

  for entry in survey.listings:
      if entry.listed:
          print(f"{entry.label}: {entry.network} ({entry.claim})")
  ```
</CodeGroup>

```json Response theme={null}
{
  "ip": "1.10.16.42",
  "checked_at": "2026-09-09T06:29:30Z",
  "listings": [
    {
      "source": "blocklist_de",
      "label": "blocklist.de",
      "claim": "recent_abuse",
      "listed": false,
      "network": null,
      "attribution": "blocklist.de",
      "synced_at": "2026-09-09T06:29:30Z"
    },
    {
      "source": "spamhaus_drop",
      "label": "Spamhaus DROP",
      "claim": "blocklist",
      "listed": true,
      "network": "1.10.16.0/20",
      "attribution": "The Spamhaus Project",
      "synced_at": "2026-09-09T06:29:30Z"
    }
  ],
  "cached_check": null
}
```