diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 3810ed04..31ebfcad 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "objc2-foundation",
  "parking_lot 0.12.5",
  "percent-encoding",
- "windows-sys 0.60.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.59.0",
  "wl-clipboard-rs",
  "x11rb",
 ]
@@ -1423,7 +1423,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "libc",
  "option-ext",
  "redox_users 0.5.2",
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.59.0",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1605,7 +1605,7 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "39cab71617ae0d63f51a36d69f866391735b51691dbda63cf6f96d042b63efeb"
 dependencies = [
  "libc",
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.59.0",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -2430,6 +2430,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "ratatui",
  "ratatui-image",
  "regex",
+ "reqwest",
  "rpassword",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
@@ -2794,7 +2795,7 @@ checksum = "3640c1c38b8e4e43584d8df18be5fc6b0aa314ce6ebf51b53313d4306cca8e46"
 dependencies = [
  "hermit-abi 0.5.2",
  "libc",
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.59.0",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3638,7 +3639,7 @@ version = "0.50.3"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "7957b9740744892f114936ab4a57b3f487491bbeafaf8083688b16841a4240e5"
 dependencies = [
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.59.0",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3900,7 +3901,7 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "7d8fae84b431384b68627d0f9b3b1245fcf9f46f6c0e3dc902e9dce64edd1967"
 dependencies = [
  "libc",
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.42.0",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -4402,7 +4403,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "once_cell",
  "socket2 0.6.1",
  "tracing",
- "windows-sys 0.60.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.59.0",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -5047,7 +5048,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "errno",
  "libc",
  "linux-raw-sys 0.11.0",
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.59.0",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -5599,7 +5600,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "getrandom 0.3.4",
  "once_cell",
  "rustix 1.1.3",
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.59.0",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 19f54cd3..b6da2f4a 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -94,6 +94,11 @@ version = "0.14.0"
 default-features = false
 features = ["e2e-encryption", "sqlite", "sso-login"]
 
+[dependencies.reqwest]
+version = "0.12"
+default-features = false
+features = ["socks"]
+
 [dependencies.tokio]
 version = "1.24.1"
 features = ["macros", "net", "rt-multi-thread", "sync", "time"]
diff --git a/config.example.toml b/config.example.toml
index c4ebd653..addc52c4 100644
--- a/config.example.toml
+++ b/config.example.toml
@@ -52,6 +52,11 @@ split = [
 [macros."normal|visual"]
 "V" = "<C-W>m"
 
+[proxy]
+# SOCKS5 proxy URL for all Matrix HTTP traffic (requires reqwest socks feature).
+# Omit this section or leave unset to use no proxy (or the system proxy from ALL_PROXY).
+# url = "socks5://127.0.0.1:1080"
+
 [dirs]
 cache = "/home/user/.cache/iamb/"
 logs = "/home/user/.local/share/iamb/logs/"
diff --git a/docs/iamb.5 b/docs/iamb.5
index 8357f965..8d1f068a 100644
--- a/docs/iamb.5
+++ b/docs/iamb.5
@@ -66,7 +66,32 @@ Configure the directories to use for data, logs, and more.
 See
 .Sx DIRECTORIES
 for the possible values you can set in this object.
+.It Sy proxy
+Configure an HTTP/SOCKS proxy for Matrix traffic.
+See
+.Sx PROXY .
+.El
+.Sh PROXY
+The
+.Sy [proxy]
+section configures a proxy for all outgoing Matrix HTTP requests.
+If unset, no proxy is used for the built-in client (environment variables
+such as
+.Ev ALL_PROXY
+are not read by default).
+.Bl -tag -width Ds
+.It Sy url
+Proxy URL, e.g.
+.Dq socks5://127.0.0.1:1080
+for a SOCKS5 proxy.
+Requires the reqwest
+.Sy socks
+feature (enabled in this build).
 .El
+.Pp
+.Sy proxy
+can be overridden per profile under
+.Sx PROFILES .
 .Sh PROFILES
 These options are configured as fields in the
 .Sy profiles
@@ -94,6 +119,8 @@ per-profile overrides of their global values:
 .Sy macros
 .It
 .Sy settings
+.It
+.Sy proxy
 .El
 .Ss Example 1: A single profile
 .Bd -literal -offset indent
diff --git a/src/config.rs b/src/config.rs
index e7a4a47b..0f88324e 100644
--- a/src/config.rs
+++ b/src/config.rs
@@ -809,6 +809,20 @@ pub enum WindowLayout {
     Split { split: Vec<WindowLayout> },
 }
 
+#[derive(Clone, Default, Deserialize)]
+pub struct ProxyConfig {
+    /// Proxy URL (e.g. socks5://127.0.0.1:1080). Requires reqwest's socks feature.
+    pub url: Option<String>,
+}
+
+impl ProxyConfig {
+    fn merge(self, other: Self) -> Self {
+        ProxyConfig {
+            url: self.url.or(other.url),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 #[derive(Clone, Debug, Default, Deserialize, Eq, PartialEq)]
 #[serde(rename_all = "lowercase", tag = "style")]
 pub enum Layout {
@@ -831,6 +845,7 @@ pub struct ProfileConfig {
     pub dirs: Option<Directories>,
     pub layout: Option<Layout>,
     pub macros: Option<Macros>,
+    pub proxy: Option<ProxyConfig>,
 }
 
 #[derive(Clone, Deserialize)]
@@ -841,6 +856,7 @@ pub struct IambConfig {
     pub dirs: Option<Directories>,
     pub layout: Option<Layout>,
     pub macros: Option<Macros>,
+    pub proxy: Option<ProxyConfig>,
 }
 
 impl IambConfig {
@@ -872,6 +888,8 @@ pub struct ApplicationSettings {
     pub dirs: DirectoryValues,
     pub layout: Layout,
     pub macros: Macros,
+    /// Proxy URL for the HTTP client (e.g. socks5://127.0.0.1:1080), from [proxy] url.
+    pub proxy_url: Option<String>,
 }
 
 impl ApplicationSettings {
@@ -915,6 +933,7 @@ impl ApplicationSettings {
             settings: global,
             layout,
             macros,
+            proxy: global_proxy,
         } = config;
 
         validate_profile_names(&profiles);
@@ -958,6 +977,7 @@ impl ApplicationSettings {
 
         let macros = merge_maps(profile.macros.take(), macros).unwrap_or_default();
         let layout = profile.layout.take().or(layout).unwrap_or_default();
+        let proxy_url = profile.proxy.take().unwrap_or_default().merge(global_proxy.unwrap_or_default()).url;
 
         let tunables = global.unwrap_or_default();
         let tunables = profile.settings.take().unwrap_or_default().merge(tunables);
@@ -1011,6 +1031,7 @@ impl ApplicationSettings {
             dirs,
             layout,
             macros,
+            proxy_url,
         };
 
         Ok(settings)
diff --git a/src/tests.rs b/src/tests.rs
index e9b05021..121ee846 100644
--- a/src/tests.rs
+++ b/src/tests.rs
@@ -221,11 +221,13 @@ pub fn mock_settings() -> ApplicationSettings {
             dirs: None,
             layout: None,
             macros: None,
+            proxy: None,
         },
         tunables: mock_tunables(),
         dirs: mock_dirs(),
         layout: Default::default(),
         macros: HashMap::default(),
+        proxy_url: None,
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/worker.rs b/src/worker.rs
index f3c9791a..fe3964e5 100644
--- a/src/worker.rs
+++ b/src/worker.rs
@@ -711,14 +711,21 @@ async fn create_client_inner(
     let req_timeout = Duration::from_secs(settings.tunables.request_timeout);
 
     // Set up the HTTP client.
-    let http = reqwest::Client::builder()
+    let mut builder = reqwest::Client::builder()
         .user_agent(IAMB_USER_AGENT)
         .timeout(req_timeout)
         .pool_idle_timeout(Duration::from_secs(60))
         .pool_max_idle_per_host(10)
-        .tcp_keepalive(Duration::from_secs(10))
-        .build()
-        .unwrap();
+        .tcp_keepalive(Duration::from_secs(10));
+
+    if let Some(proxy_url) = &settings.proxy_url {
+        builder = builder.proxy(
+            reqwest::Proxy::all(proxy_url.as_str())
+                .expect("Invalid [proxy] url in configuration"),
+        );
+    }
+
+    let http = builder.build().expect("Failed to build HTTP client");
 
     let req_config = RequestConfig::new().timeout(req_timeout).max_retry_time(req_timeout);