How to Use Proton Mail: Step by Step With Screenshots (2026)

What you need before you start

You need a username that’s free on @proton.me and a password you’ll keep somewhere safe, because Proton says it “can’t reset your password for you if it’s lost.” You’ll also need to pass a human check: a puzzle CAPTCHA, or a one-time code sent to another email address. For the free plan you don’t need a card, a phone number, or your name. If you’ll move old mail in, have the login for that account ready for step 3.

Step 1: Create your Proton Mail account

Open Proton’s sign-up page and choose the free plan. Type a username in the “Username” field; a green check appears when it’s available. Set a password and repeat it in “Confirm password,” then click “Start using Proton Mail now.”

Create a free Proton Mail accountAffiliate link · how it works →

That’s the whole form on 10/09/2026: two fields and a confirm. Before the human check, Proton showed me a Mail Plus offer with a “No, thanks” link; skipping it keeps you on the free plan. Mail Plus costs $47.88 a year if you want it later. What the free plan includes is on the Proton Mail free plan page.

If the username is refused, try another: Proton doesn’t say why a name is unavailable, and deleted usernames are never recycled.

Step 2: Pass the human check and open the inbox

After the form, a “Human Verification” window opens with two tabs. “CAPTCHA” shows a puzzle. “Email” asks for another address and sends a one-time code; Proton’s note says the address is used only for that check.

The check takes under a minute. On 10/09/2026 the email code was refused from our network with a “too many requests” message, so I used the CAPTCHA. If both fail, wait a few minutes and try again from a different connection; Proton’s privacy policy says it rate-limits verification to stop bulk sign-ups.

Then Proton asks a few optional setup questions and opens the inbox. If it offers a recovery email or phone, add one now, or do it in step 3.

Step 3: Set up the inbox (recovery, storage, and import)

The first screen is the inbox, with a welcome email from Proton and an import prompt in the middle. “New message” is at the top left; the gear at the top right opens settings.

Three things worth doing here:

• Recovery. Open Settings, then “Recovery.” Proton’s help center says to enable “at least one password reset method and one data recovery method”; a recovery phrase covers both. Without one, a lost password means a lost account.
• Storage. Our new account showed 500 MB. The “Get storage bonus” checklist in the left sidebar raises it to 1 GB if you finish three tasks within 18 days: look through the privacy features, open the import settings, and sign in on the phone app.
• Import. “Import via Easy Switch” in Settings pulls mail from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or any IMAP account, with a choice of all mail or the last 1, 3, or 12 months. The import runs on Proton’s servers, and the help center says a long-used account can take days. The free plan’s 1 GB is the limit, so pick a date range.

The free plan sends 150 messages a day and allows 3 folders, 3 labels, and 1 filter.

Step 4: Create your first hide-my-email alias

Aliases live in Proton Pass, which opens with the same login. From the inbox, click the grid icon at the top left and choose “Pass,” or go to pass.proton.me. Click “Create item,” choose “Alias,” give it a title such as “Online store signup,” and save. Proton generates an address on a domain like passinbox.com that forwards to your inbox.

I made one on 10/09/2026 and sent it a test email from another provider. It arrived in the Proton inbox, and the alias card’s activity line read “1 forward, 0 replies, 0 blocks.” The toggle on the alias card turns forwarding off without deleting it. The free plan and Mail Plus allow 10 aliases; Proton Unlimited lifts the cap.

For a lighter option, Proton also accepts plus addresses: anything after a ”+” in your username, like yourname+bills@proton.me, lands in the same inbox with no setup. Your real address is easy to guess from it, which is what the alias fixes.

Step 5: Send a password-protected email to anyone

Click “New message,” add a recipient on Gmail, Outlook, or any other service, and click the lock icon in the composer toolbar. The “Encrypt message” dialog asks for a password and an optional hint, and notes that the message “will expire in 28 days.” Click “Set encryption,” then “Send.”

The recipient gets a notification email with a button that opens a proton.me page, enters the password there, and reads the message in the browser. They can reply up to five times inside that window. Share the password by another route, such as a text message. I opened the dialog in this account; on the same day I sent a message this way from another free account for our Gmail encryption guide, and the recipient opened it in a browser.

Mail between two Proton addresses is end-to-end encrypted without any of this. Mail to other providers without a password travels over TLS and, per Proton’s help center, “isn’t end-to-end encrypted by default.”

Step 6: Use Proton Mail on your phone and desktop

The phone apps are free. Install “Proton Mail: Encrypted Email” from the App Store or Google Play and sign in with the same username and password. On 10/09/2026 the iPhone app had 4.8 from 48,552 ratings and the Android app 4.5 from about 94,800 reviews.

Desktop is where the free plan stops. Outlook, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird connect through Proton Mail Bridge, and the IMAP/SMTP page in our free account read “Included with Mail Plus, Proton Unlimited, and Proton for Business.” Proton’s own desktop app for Windows and Mac is listed with a 14-day trial on the free plan. Until you upgrade, use the web inbox at mail.proton.me.

Sending encrypted email from Gmail or Outlook instead

If most of your mail stays in Gmail or Outlook and you need to protect one message now and then, you don’t have to move. Our how to send encrypted email in Gmail and how to send secure email in Outlook guides show what each service does on its own and where a free Proton account fills in.

Common problems and how to fix them

The email verification code never arrives

On 10/09/2026 Proton refused to send the code to our test address with a “too many requests” message, and on an earlier run it said verification was “temporarily disabled” for the address’s domain. Switch to the CAPTCHA tab, or try another email address.

The inbox shows 500 MB, not 1 GB

That’s the starting size. Finish the three-task checklist under “Get storage bonus” in the sidebar within 18 days, and Proton raises it to 1 GB and sends a confirmation email.

I can’t add Proton Mail to Outlook or Apple Mail

Bridge needs a paid plan. On the free plan, use the web inbox or the phone apps. If you pay for Mail Plus, Proton’s help center notes that the new Outlook for Windows doesn’t work with Bridge; the classic Outlook does.

Prices show in another currency

Proton picks the currency from your connection. On our Canadian network exit the account showed Canadian dollars until I chose USD on the pricing page and set the billing country to the United States in the checkout.

When to contact support

Through the form at proton.me/support/contact or mail@support.proton.me. Proton publishes no hours. Our billing question sent on 10/09/2026 at 4:27 a.m. ET had no reply when this page was written; the review tracks it.

U.S. customer card

Next steps

• What the free plan includes, and where it ends.
• Proton Mail pricing: tax at checkout, renewal, and how to cancel.
• Proton Mail review: encryption, support, and what other users say.
• Best secure email providers compared.

Try Proton Mail free

What we checked

• Test account: Proton Free opened 10/09/2026 at 4:14 a.m. ET in a desktop browser. Steps 1 to 4 and the Encrypt message dialog in step 5 were done in that account the same day
• Not done in the account: sending the password-protected message from this account (sent from another free account for our Gmail guide the same day), Easy Switch import, the phone and desktop apps

FAQ

More on Proton Mail

• Proton Mail review →
• Is there a real free plan? →
• Proton Mail pricing and renewal →