How to Avoid IP Bans & 403 Errors in Python

There is nothing more frustrating than writing a perfect Python scraper, only to see403 Forbiddenafter just 50 requests. Websites today use advanced anti-bot systems (Cloudflare, Akamai, Datadome).

In this guide, we will cover the 3 essential layers of undetectable scraping: Headers, IP Reputation, and Behavior.

1. The Fake Identity (User-Agents)

By default, Python's `requests` library identifies itself as `python-requests/2.31.0`. This is an instant flag for any server. You must look like a real browser (Chrome/Firefox).

Bad Practice: Using the same User-Agent for every request.
Good Practice: Rotating recent User-Agents.

2. The Network Layer (Residential Proxies)

This is the most critical factor. Even with perfect headers, if your IP address comes from a Datacenter (like AWS, DigitalOcean, or Hetzner), you will be blocked.

Datacenter IPs have a high "Fraud Score".
Residential IPs are assigned by ISPs (Verizon, AT&T, Orange) to real homes. They are virtually impossible to distinguish from normal traffic.

3. Code Implementation

Here is a robust function to handle requests without getting banned:

import requests
import time
import random

# Unlimited Residential Proxy Gateway
PROXY_URL = "http://user:pass@<YOUR_GATEWAY_HOST>:7777"

proxies = {
    "http": PROXY_URL,
    "https": PROXY_URL
}

user_agents = [
    "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36...",
    "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36..."
]

def make_request(url):
    headers = {
        "User-Agent": random.choice(user_agents),
        "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9"
    }
    
    try:
        # The proxy automatically assigns a new Residential IP
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, proxies=proxies, timeout=10)
        
        if response.status_code == 200:
            return response.text
        elif response.status_code == 403:
            print("Access Denied - Retrying with new IP...")
            return make_request(url) # Retry (New IP assigned)
            
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}")

    return None

# Usage
html = make_request("https://target-site.com")

Summary

Avoiding IP bans is an arms race. To stay ahead in 2026, you cannot rely on free proxies or datacenter IPs. You need a pool of millions of residential IPs that rotates automatically.