Introduction – Since the 1980s, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has posed a major global health challenge leading to over 36 million deaths worldwide. Despite tremendous achievements in treatment options, no cure or vaccine exist for the virus. The HIV envelope glycoprotein (Env) is the sole viral protein on the surface of the virus which has made designing an effective vaccine targeting this molecule challenging. Additionally, Env spikes are sparse on the virus, further hindering vaccine design. Contrarily, the virus surface is also decorated with a myriad of human proteins that the virus acquires as it exits infected cells. These human proteins may serve as novel targets on virions for new therapeutics. Methods – We are pioneering the use of the emerging technique ‘flow virometry’ for high throughput phenotyping of the HIV surface. Using fluorescent antibodies, we can detect human proteins on virions and estimate the total number of proteins on each virus particle. Results – Herein we show a discordance in human proteins that are found on cell surfaces versus virion surfaces, indicating that HIV does not simply uptake all proteins present on the cell it infects. We observed selectively in the human proteins the virus incorporates and found that some human proteins on virions significantly impact virus infectivity. Significance – Human proteins are abundant on the HIV surface and may significantly impact infection in vivo. This research will help us better understand the biology of HIV infection and could identify new proteins on the virus for therapeutic targeting.