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Product Update 3 min read

Introducing Smart Proxy Routing

FourA now picks the best proxy type and location for every request automatically, based on the target site's defenses. Success rates jumped up to 23%.

proxyperformanceapi

Not all proxies are equal. A data center proxy works fine for an unprotected news site, but gets instantly blocked on a Cloudflare-protected e-commerce page. A residential proxy handles the e-commerce site, but costs 10 times more per request.

Until now, you had to figure out which proxy type worked for each target and reconfigure when things changed. Smart Proxy Routing automates this entirely.

How It Works

When you send a task with type: "proxy", FourA now makes an intelligent routing decision before the request is sent:

  1. Target analysis: The system checks the target domain against known protection profiles (Cloudflare, DataDome, Akamai, PerimeterX, etc.)
  2. Route selection: Based on the protection level, it selects the optimal proxy type:
    • Data center for unprotected or lightly protected sites (fastest, cheapest)
    • Residential for medium protection (Cloudflare JS challenge, basic WAFs)
    • Mobile for the most aggressive protection (DataDome, PerimeterX advanced)
  3. Automatic retry: If the selected route fails, the system automatically escalates to a higher-quality proxy type and retries

This all happens within a single API call. You don't need to specify the proxy type or configure retry logic.

The Impact

In our testing across 1,000 diverse target domains:

  • Success rate improved by 35% on sites with medium to high protection
  • Average cost per successful request decreased by 25% because the system uses cheaper proxies when they work
  • Median response time dropped by 40% because data center proxies are used when residential isn't necessary

Example

The API hasn't changed. You still send the same request:

curl -X POST https://eu.api.foura.ai/api/v1/tasks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://protected-site.com/products",
    "type": "proxy",
    "options": {"proxyCountry": "US"}
  }'

The routing happens server-side. Your code doesn't change.

Geographic Targeting

Smart routing works with geographic targeting. When you set proxyCountry, the system selects the best proxy type within that country. This is especially useful for:

  • Price monitoring: see the exact prices shown to customers in a specific market
  • Content verification: check that localized content appears correctly
  • Ad verification: confirm that ads are serving in the correct regions

What This Means for You

If you're currently using the proxy task type, you're already benefiting from smart routing. It was deployed as a transparent upgrade, so no code changes are required.

And if you've been using single or browser tasks and getting blocked, now is a good time to try proxy. The smart routing system handles the complexity that previously made proxy configuration a manual process.

Check the documentation for more details on how FourA handles anti-bot protection.