import base64 proxy_ip_port = "123.456.789.10:8888" proxy_user_pass = "awesome:dude" request = Request(url, callback=self.parse) # Set the location of the proxy request.meta['proxy'] = "http://%s" % proxy_ip_port # setup basic authentication for the proxy encoded_user_pass=base64.encodestring(proxy_user_pass) request.headers['Proxy-Authorization'] = 'Basic ' + encoded_user_pass