Proxy Country (Geolocation)

Proxy Country allows you to specify the geographic location from which your scraping requests originate. This feature enables access to geo-restricted content, region-specific pricing, and localized search results by routing your requests through residential IP addresses in your chosen country.

Many websites serve different content based on the visitor’s location. Proxy Country addresses this challenge by allowing your requests to appear to originate from any of 190+ supported countries, thereby providing access to region-specific data that would otherwise be unavailable.

How Proxy Country works

When you specify a country code with the proxy_country parameter, ZenRows routes your request through a residential IP address located in that country. The target website recognizes your request as coming from a real user in the specified location, enabling you to access geo-restricted content and view localized results.

Proxy Country requires Premium Proxy to be enabled, as only residential IP addresses can provide accurate geolocation. Datacenter proxies cannot reliably represent specific geographic locations.

Basic usage

Enable Proxy Country by adding both premium_proxy=true and proxy_country parameters to your request:

Python

# pip install requests
import requests

url = 'https://httpbin.io/anything'
apikey = 'YOUR_ZENROWS_API_KEY'
params = {
    'url': url,
    'apikey': apikey,
    'premium_proxy': 'true',
    'proxy_country': 'es',
}
response = requests.get('https://api.zenrows.com/v1/', params=params)
print(response.text)

Common use cases

E-commerce price monitoring

Monitor pricing across different regions:

Python

countries = ['us', 'gb', 'de', 'fr', 'jp']
product_url = 'https://example-store.com/product/123'

for country in countries:
    response = requests.get('https://api.zenrows.com/v1/', params={
        'url': product_url,
        'apikey': 'YOUR_ZENROWS_API_KEY',
        'premium_proxy': 'true',
        'proxy_country': country,
    })
    
    # Extract and compare prices for each region
    print(f"Price in {country}: {extract_price(response.text)}")

Search engine localization

Get search results as they appear in different countries:

Python

search_query = 'best restaurants'
search_url = f'https://www.google.com/search?q={search_query}'

# Get US results
us_response = requests.get('https://api.zenrows.com/v1/', params={
    'url': search_url,
    'apikey': 'YOUR_ZENROWS_API_KEY',
    'premium_proxy': 'true',
    'proxy_country': 'us',
})

# Get ES results  
uk_response = requests.get('https://api.zenrows.com/v1/', params={
    'url': search_url,
    'apikey': 'YOUR_ZENROWS_API_KEY',
    'premium_proxy': 'true',
    'proxy_country': 'es',
})

Content availability testing

Check if content is accessible from different regions:

Python

def test_content_availability(url, countries):
    results = {}
    
    for country in countries:
        response = requests.get('https://api.zenrows.com/v1/', params={
            'url': url,
            'apikey': 'YOUR_ZENROWS_API_KEY',
            'premium_proxy': 'true',
            'proxy_country': country,
        })
        
        results[country] = {
            'accessible': response.status_code == 200,
            'status_code': response.status_code,
        }
    
    return results

# Test video availability across regions
video_url = 'https://streaming-service.com/video/123'
availability = test_content_availability(video_url, ['us', 'ca', 'gb', 'au'])

Best practices

Choose appropriate countries

Select countries based on your specific needs:

• US (us) - For American content
• GB (gb) - For UK-specific results
• DE (de) - For German/EU content
• JP (jp) - For Japanese content data
• CA (ca) - For Canadian content

See our complete list of countries here!

Handle region-specific layouts

Some websites serve different HTML structures by region:

Python

def extract_data_by_region(html_content, country):
    if country in ['us', 'ca']:
        # North American layout
        return extract_with_us_selectors(html_content)
    elif country in ['gb', 'de', 'fr']:
        # European layout
        return extract_with_eu_selectors(html_content)
    else:
        # Default extraction
        return extract_with_default_selectors(html_content)

Implement country fallbacks

If a specific country doesn’t work, try alternatives:

Python

def scrape_with_fallback(url, preferred_countries):
    for country in preferred_countries:
        try:
            response = requests.get('https://api.zenrows.com/v1/', params={
                'url': url,
                'apikey': 'YOUR_ZENROWS_API_KEY',
                'premium_proxy': 'true',
                'proxy_country': country,
            })
            
            if response.status_code == 200:
                return response, country
                
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Failed with {country}: {e}")
            continue
    
    return None, None

# Try US first, then Canada, then UK
response, used_country = scrape_with_fallback(
    'https://example.com', 
    ['us', 'ca', 'gb']
)

Troubleshooting

Common issues and solutions

Issue	Cause	Solution
Content still geo-blocked	Website blocks entire regions	Try neighboring countries or different continents
Different layout than expected	Region-specific website versions	Update CSS selectors for each region
Slower response times	Distance from target servers	Choose countries closer to the website’s servers
Inconsistent results	Regional content variations	Implement region-specific data extraction logic

Debugging geo-restrictions

When content remains blocked despite using Proxy Country:

1. Try multiple countries in the same region

   Python

   eu_countries = ['de', 'fr', 'it', 'es', 'nl']
   for country in eu_countries:
       # Test each country
   
2. Check if the entire region is blocked

   Python

   test_countries = ['us', 'gb', 'de', 'jp', 'au', 'br']
   # Test diverse geographic locations
   
3. Combine with additional features

   • js_render: Makes the request act like a headles browser
   • wait_for: Waits for a specific CSS element on the target url
   • custom_headers: Enable using custom headers on the request

   Python

   params = {
       'premium_proxy': 'true',
       'proxy_country': 'us',
       'js_render': 'true', # For JavaScript-heavy sites
       'wait_for': '.content',  # Wait for specific elements
       'custom_headers': 'true', # Enable using custom headers on the request
   }
   headers = {
       'referer': 'https://www.google.com'
   }
   

Pricing

Proxy Country doesn’t increase the request cost. You pay the Premium Proxy (10 times the standard price) regardless of the country you choose.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can I use Proxy Country without Premium Proxy?

No, Proxy Country requires Premium Proxy to be enabled. Only residential IP addresses can provide accurate geolocation, and Premium Proxy is necessary to access residential IPs.

How accurate is the geolocation?

ZenRows utilizes genuine residential IP addresses from ISPs in each country, ensuring highly accurate geolocation that websites recognize as legitimate traffic from those specific regions.

Can I specify a city or state within a country?

Currently, ZenRows supports country-level geolocation only. You cannot specify specific cities or states within a country.

What happens if a country is unavailable?

If no residential IPs are available for your specified country, the request will fail. Implement fallback logic to try alternative countries in such cases.

Do different countries have different success rates?

Yes, success rates can vary by country depending on the target website’s blocking policies and the quality of residential IP pools in each region. Monitor your success rates and adjust accordingly.

Can I use the same country for all requests in a session?

Yes, you can use the same country consistently. However, some websites may still detect patterns, so consider rotating between countries in the same region if needed.