What is Refract? Refract is a retail checkout bot from Prism Technologies that runs locally on macOS and Windows and handles end-to-end checkout on Amazon, Target, Walmart, Best Buy and Apple. You save proxy lists in its Proxies tab, then assign them as the monitor list on a task group and the task list on each batch of tasks.
A Refract bot proxy setup is less about how many IPs you buy and more about where each list goes. Refract separates monitor traffic from task traffic, and on Target it adds a third layer: the cookie harvesters, whose proxies your tasks present to the site. Put the wrong type in the wrong slot and you get login loops, "Proxy Error" or tasks stuck on "Setting Cookies".
This guide follows Refract's official help centre at help.refractbot.com. It covers how Refract stores and hands out proxies, the Target and Best Buy setups the docs recommend today, how many IPs to plan per task, and what the proxy-related statuses mean. Where Refract's docs make a recommendation, we quote it rather than guess.
What does Refract support right now?
Refract's site lists five retailers: Amazon, Target, Walmart, Best Buy and Apple, with a module guide for each in the help centre. It runs on your own Mac or Windows PC, or on a server, and keeps accounts, payment details and proxies encrypted on that device. Built-in proxy rotation and per-task assignment are listed features.
Pricing on refractbot.com at the time of writing is $1,999 upfront for the first three months, then $50 a month, plus $50 a month for each extra device running at once. The app stops working if the subscription lapses. Backend engine updates install when you restart the bot, so check the changelog at dashboard.refractbot.com before opening a ticket mid-drop.
Refract's docs are also unusually direct about providers. The team says it doesn't sell proxies and doesn't recommend providers, with one exception: it names a single provider for Best Buy only. For every other site it tells you which proxy type tends to work and leaves the brand to your cook group.
How do you add proxies in Refract?
Open the Proxies tab, name a new proxy list and paste your proxies into it, one per line. Refract removes duplicates automatically. Then open a task group and choose a list in Monitor Proxy List, and when you create tasks, choose a list in Task Proxy List. They can be the same list or different ones.
Step 1. Build your lists
Create separate lists for each proxy type, for example "ISP Monitor" and "Resi Tasks". If you paste ten proxies and only one shows up, you pasted the same line ten times. Refract keeps unique entries only.
Refract's help centre doesn't spell out an accepted proxy string, so paste your provider's lines as delivered. Loopway delivers proxies as host:port:user:pass, which is the most common layout bots accept. If yours come as a URL or with @ in them, check with Refract support before converting a large list.
Step 2. Create a task group and set the monitor list
In the Tasks tab, click + Create Group (or the + next to the group search), name the group, choose the site in Group Site and click Create Task Group. Each group is tied to one site. The Monitor section at the top of the settings panel holds the monitor input, the Monitor Proxy List and the monitor delay.
Step 3. Create tasks with a task list
Click + inside the group to open Create Tasks, then pick your profiles, accounts and Task Proxy List. Other fields vary by site.
How Refract hands out proxies
Refract's docs explain the assignment logic plainly. The bot shuffles your list, then works down it, giving the next proxy to each task or monitor that needs one, and wraps back to the top when it runs out. It doesn't check for duplicates across tasks. If you have fewer proxies than tasks, some tasks share an IP by design.
You can swap a list while tasks are running, but the change isn't instant. A task keeps its current proxy until it hits a block or error, and only then moves to the new list. If you need the new list applied right away, restart the tasks.
Which proxies should you use in Refract?
Refract's module guides currently recommend static ISP proxies on the monitor for both Target and Best Buy, and residential proxies on tasks. On Target, residential matters most on the cookie harvesters. Plan for at least one proxy per task. Refract says some sites tolerate two or three tasks per proxy, which you should test on your own setup.
Refract's general proxy page gives a rough map. Sites where speed matters more than rotation, such as Amazon, Best Buy and "Target most of the time", tend to run fine on ISP proxies, while Walmart, and Target when Shape security is high, tend to favour residential. The module guides are more specific and take priority on drop night, so the next two sections follow them.
On ratios, the docs say the ideal is one task per proxy, meaning at least as many proxies in the list as tasks. For monitors, plan at least one proxy per monitor input, and more than 1:1 to spread the polling load. You can reuse a list across different sites without trouble. Reusing it across several groups on the same site is possible but not advised, because it raises ban risk.
Static ISP is sold per IP and residential per gigabyte, so the usual split is a small, steady ISP list for monitors and a residential balance for tasks. Loopway's Retail ISP proxies are dedicated static IPs from $1.08 a day, and UDP Residential starts at $1.61 per GB, with balance that works across both.
Refract bot Target setup
Refract's docs call Target the most complex site the bot supports and say Target's anti-bot system is Shape. A working Target setup has three proxy layers, and each one has its own job.
Monitor: ISP
The monitor input is the product's TCIN, the number at the end of the Target URL (for target.com/p/local/A-81114595, that's 81114595). A URL won't work. Set Monitor Proxy List to your ISP list. If you run Multi Input, the setup guide asks for at least one ISP proxy per monitor input. The default monitor delay is 3500 ms.
Tasks: residential
Set Task Proxy List to a residential list. The setup guide says residential proxies "have been passing Shape much better" than ISPs, even though they use data. Leaving the field blank runs tasks on your local IP, which the guide marks as not recommended. Every task needs an account, and the guide recommends one task per account per product.
Harvesters: residential above all
This is the part most setups get wrong. Refract's guide says tasks present the harvester's proxy to Shape for add to cart and login, so harvester proxy quality "carries your whole setup". Harvesters and tasks don't need matching proxies. A couple of local harvesters can use your home connection, but at larger task counts, and on any server, including a Mac mini server, the guide says residential proxies are required.
Two Target statuses are worth knowing before you blame your proxies. "Rate Limit (High Demand)" is Target throttling checkouts site-wide during busy drops, and Refract says it's not a proxy, account or bot issue. A product that's in stock but shows "product not found" in the bot or harvester browser, on the other hand, is a proxy rate limit. For more on where static IPs still fit on Target, see our ISP proxies for Target guide.
Refract bot Best Buy setup
Best Buy follows the same monitor and task split, with stricter task proxy advice. Create a group with Best Buy US as the site and set the monitor input to the product SKU, which is listed at the bottom of the product's specifications. A URL won't work here either.
- Monitor Proxy List: your ISP list. Monitor Delay defaults to 3500 ms.
- Task Proxy List: your residential list. Refract's guide says Best Buy has been blocking many ISP proxies at the Akamai level, so residential is the safer default for tasks, while ISP on the monitor is still fine.
- Use Account Proxy: off. Refract says to leave account proxies empty and let login use the task proxy. In its tests, keeping one IP on an account made no significant difference, and removing account proxies is the documented fix for "Proxy Error".
- Accounts: one task per account per group. Set up IMAP, which the guide calls essential for the email codes Best Buy sends.
If tasks show "Max Solve Attempts" or loop on login, the Best Buy FAQ points at the task proxies first: some ISP proxies can't pass login, so move tasks to residential. A queue that loops before login usually means flagged proxies. A loop after login points to the account.
Running Stellar AIO on Best Buy too? Stellar's guide reaches a similar split, ISP for monitoring and residential for checkout, and our Stellar AIO proxy setup guide walks through it.
Testing and troubleshooting Refract proxies
Refract's docs don't describe a proxy tester inside the bot. Their advice is to run test tasks: if you can check out on a test product with those proxies, you're in good shape. Before that, confirm that the credentials authenticate and that the IP sits in the right country with the Loopway proxy checker.
These are the proxy-related statuses from Refract's common errors page and module guides:
- Proxy Error: the proxy is dead, expired, banned, out of data, or the provider is down. Test, replace the list, and remove any account proxies you didn't mean to set.
- Request Timed Out: no response from the site. Reduce the task count, check proxies, test on your local IP and see whether the site itself is down.
- Setting Cookies (looping): normal briefly. If tasks loop here, especially on Walmart or Best Buy, the proxies are likely flagged, so swap them.
- Access Denied: the account or proxy was flagged. Let the task rotate and retry, then raise delays, rest the account or use fresh proxies.
- IP banned: the site blocked that proxy. Let it rest or replace it.
- Soft Banned (OOS): a false out-of-stock, usually on Amazon, from too many requests too fast. Switch proxies, rest, or increase delays.
Refract lists the usual causes of soft bans as too many tasks on one proxy, low-quality proxies and delays set too low. Most proxy trouble in Refract traces back to one of those three.
Key Takeaways
- Refract stores proxy lists in the Proxies tab and assigns them through Monitor Proxy List on the group and Task Proxy List on tasks.
- The bot shuffles each list and hands out proxies in order, wrapping around, so you need as many proxies as tasks to avoid sharing.
- For Target and Best Buy, Refract's guides recommend ISP on the monitor and residential on tasks, with residential on Target harvesters above all.
- On Best Buy, leave Use Account Proxy off and set up IMAP.
- Swapping lists mid-run only takes effect when a task hits an error, unless you restart.
FAQ
Do I need a separate proxy list for Refract monitors?
Not by default. Refract says you can use the same list for tasks and monitor on every site. A separate monitor list mainly pays off when you run Skip Monitoring hard, or when your tasks use residential and your monitor should stay on ISP.
Can I use ISP proxies for Refract on Target?
Use them on the monitor. Refract's current Target guide recommends residential for tasks and harvesters because those proxies are what Shape sees at add to cart and login.
Does Refract recommend a proxy provider?
Only for Best Buy, where it names one provider. For all other sites its policy is to recommend a proxy type, not a company, and point you to your cook group.
How many tasks can I run per proxy in Refract?
Ideally one. Refract says some sites allow two or three tasks per proxy, but you should test that yourself and roll back if blocks start.
Why did my new proxy list not apply?
Running tasks keep their current proxy until they hit a block or error. Restart the tasks to apply the new list immediately.
Do I need a login proxy on Target?
Only if you log in from the Accounts tab, which Refract doesn't recommend. Otherwise login uses the harvester proxy.
Get the slots right and a Refract bot proxy setup stays simple: ISP on the monitor, residential on tasks and harvesters, and at least one IP per task. Loopway sells dedicated static ISP IPs by the day for your monitors, plus residential data for tasks, so you can size each list for a single release. If you're sizing a short run, read our daily ISP proxies guide first.