Proton Mail Pricing and Plans in 2026: First Year, Renewal, Tax and How to Cancel
Reviewed · Updated
- Plans and pricing
- Which plan is right for you
- What you pay when the free plan ends
- What you’ll actually pay at checkout
- What’s in the plan (and what isn’t)
- How to cancel Proton Mail
- Other details for U.S. subscribers
- Is Proton Mail worth paying for?
Quick answer: Proton Mail is paid from $47.88 a year for Mail Plus, and it also has a free plan. Proton Unlimited costs $119.88 a year, Proton Duo $179.88 for two people, and Proton Family $287.88 for six, plus sales tax — varies by state. The checkout says the plan auto-renews but prints no renewal price. Prices verified on 10/09/2026 on Proton's site.
Plans and pricing
The prices below are what Proton’s pricing page showed in USD with “12 months” selected on 10/09/2026. Proton shows them as a monthly figure, but bills the full year upfront.
| Plan | Per month, billed annually (USD) | Per year (USD) | What's included | Try |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proton Free1 address, 500 MB at signup (1 GB after a starter checklist), 150 messages a day | $0 | Free | 1 address, 500 MB at signup (1 GB after a starter checklist), 150 messages a day | — |
| Mail Plus, 12 months15 GB, 10 addresses, 1 custom domain, Bridge. Checkout with a New York ZIP: $47.88 + $4.25 tax = $52.13; renewal price not shown | $3.99 | $47.88 | 15 GB, 10 addresses, 1 custom domain, Bridge. Checkout with a New York ZIP: $47.88 + $4.25 tax = $52.13; renewal price not shown | See Mail Plus, 12 months |
| Mail Plus, monthlyBilled at $4.99 every month | $4.99 | not measured | Billed at $4.99 every month | — |
| Proton Unlimited, 12 months500 GB, 15 extra addresses, 3 custom domains, plus Proton VPN, Pass and Drive | $9.99 | $119.88 | 500 GB, 15 extra addresses, 3 custom domains, plus Proton VPN, Pass and Drive | See Proton Unlimited, 12 months |
| Proton Duo, 12 months2 users, 2 TB, all Proton apps | $14.99 | $179.88 | 2 users, 2 TB, all Proton apps | See Proton Duo, 12 months |
| Proton Family, 12 months6 users, 3 TB, all Proton apps | $23.99 | $287.88 | 6 users, 3 TB, all Proton apps | See Proton Family, 12 months |
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- Paying month to month instead of yearly costs more: $59.88 a year at the monthly rate vs $47.88 billed annually.
- Renewal price: not shown before payment on Proton Mail's checkout as of the last check — see the review.
Paying month to month instead of yearly: Mail Plus $4.99 a month, Proton Unlimited $12.99 a month. Proton Duo and Proton Family were shown only with yearly billing on the Family tab that day.
- First year: the same as the regular price above. The “20% OFF” and “23% OFF” badges compare the yearly price with paying month to month, not a first-year discount.
- Renewal: renewal price not shown before payment. The checkout says “Renewal pricing subject to change according to terms and conditions.” The terms say “the then-current price valid at the time of the renewal.”
- Sales tax: plus sales tax — varies by state. Shown in the checkout summary before you add a card.
- Auto-renew: on by default, “every 12 months,” with the next billing date printed in the checkout.
Prices verified on 10/09/2026 on Proton’s site.
Which plan is right for you
- One person who wants an encrypted inbox and nothing else: Mail Plus at $47.88 a year. It adds 15 GB, 10 addresses, the @pm.me short address, one custom domain, and Bridge for Outlook, Apple Mail, or Thunderbird.
- One person who would also pay for a VPN or a password manager: Proton Unlimited at $119.88 a year. It includes the paid versions of Proton VPN, Pass, and Drive, 500 GB, and unlimited hide-my-email aliases. Bought separately, the three would cost more; bought together, this is Proton’s recommended card.
- A couple or a household: Proton Duo at $179.88 a year for two people with 2 TB shared, or Proton Family at $287.88 for up to six people with 3 TB, per the Family tab on 10/09/2026. Each person gets their own login.
- Students: Mail Plus at $29.88 for the first 12 months after a student check through Student Beans, per Proton’s student page on 10/09/2026.
Proton Mail for business
Business plans sit on a separate page, proton.me/business/plans. On 10/09/2026, in the yearly view, Workspace Standard was “$12.99/user per month,” billed at $155.88 per user every 12 months, with 1 TB per user and 15 custom domains. Workspace Premium was “$19.99/user per month,” billed at $239.88, with 3 TB and 20 domains. Both offered a 14-day free trial; Enterprise had no listed price. Monthly billing costs more, and I didn’t capture those figures.
What you pay when the free plan ends
Proton Free doesn’t end, so nothing converts or bills by itself. You pay only when you choose a paid plan in the checkout and add a payment method. The cheapest step up is Mail Plus at $47.88 a year. What the free plan includes, and the referral and student discounts Proton publishes, are on the Proton Mail free plan page.
What you’ll actually pay at checkout
On 10/09/2026 I opened the Mail Plus 12-month checkout, set the billing country to the United States and the state to New York with ZIP 10001, and stopped at the card field. The summary showed the subtotal, the tax, and the amount due before any card details were entered.
- Mail Plus, 12 months: $47.88 subtotal plus 8.875% tax ($4.25). Total $52.13 at checkout on 10/09/2026, ZIP 10001, New York.
- Same checkout, Massachusetts: a second open from another browser the same day prefilled “United States, Massachusetts, 02112” and showed 6.25% tax, $2.99, for $50.87 due.
- Renewal: not printed. The footnote reads “Subscription auto-renews every 12 months. Your next billing date is October 9th, 2027. You can cancel at any time. Renewal pricing subject to change according to terms and conditions.”
- Payment methods: credit or debit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, in USD. The privacy policy also names Bitcoin as a payment type handled through Chargebee; it wasn’t offered on this signup checkout.
- Coupon field: none.
The 30-day money-back line sits right under the pay button. The terms add the conditions: once per user, through the support form, not for cash or bank-transfer payments.
What’s in the plan (and what isn’t)
What changes as you go up, per the comparison table on 10/09/2026:
| Plan | What it adds | What it still doesn’t include |
|---|---|---|
| Mail Plus | 15 GB, 10 addresses, @pm.me, 1 custom domain, Bridge (IMAP/SMTP), auto-reply, forwarding, catch-all, schedule and snooze, contact groups, Dark Web Monitoring, priority support | Paid VPN, Pass, and Drive; unlimited aliases; Proton Sentinel |
| Proton Unlimited | 500 GB, 15 extra addresses, 3 domains, unlimited hide-my-email aliases, Proton VPN Plus, Pass Plus, Drive Plus, Proton Sentinel, version history | A second user |
| Proton Duo and Family | 2 or 6 users, 2 TB or 3 TB shared, all Proton apps | Business admin tools |
Hide-my-email aliases are capped at 10 on both Proton Free and Mail Plus. Only Proton Unlimited and the family plans lift the cap.
How to cancel Proton Mail
Proton’s help center gives these steps (10/09/2026):
- Sign in at account.proton.me and open any Proton app.
- Click the gear, then “All settings,” then “Subscription.”
- Scroll down to “Cancel subscription” and click “Continue.”
- Click “Cancel subscription” again to confirm.
I didn’t reach the cancellation screen because a free account has no plan to cancel. The Subscription page in our free account showed “Your plan: Proton Free” and an upgrade offer.
After you cancel, “your plan remains active until the end of the current billing period and does not renew,” and the account then drops to Proton Free. If your mail is over the free plan’s 1 GB at that point, Proton’s help center says you won’t receive new mail, except from Proton, until you free up space or upgrade again. You get one year to sort it out; after that, data in the apps over their limits may be deleted (free-limits article, 10/09/2026).
Canceling doesn’t delete your account or your data. Deletion is a separate button under “Account and password,” and it’s permanent: Proton doesn’t recycle usernames, so the address can’t be reused.
Refund policy
30 days from the initial purchase, per the terms (last modified 06/23/2026): “You may cancel your subscription within 30 days of the initial purchase and receive a full refund for the Service.” Both the cancellation and the refund request must happen inside the 30 days, through the support form. Refunds go back to the original payment method in the original currency, once per user. Cash and bank-transfer payments are excluded, and purchases through an app store follow that store’s rules.
Past 30 days, the plan is non-refundable “and any refund or credit given will be at the sole discretion of the Company.” I didn’t request a refund, so I can’t confirm how long it takes.
Other details for U.S. subscribers
What personal data they ask for — and how to delete it
Sign-up asks for a username and a password, then a CAPTCHA or a one-time email code. No name, phone, or card for the free plan. Payment details go to Chargebee, Proton’s payment processor. To delete the account and its data, open “Account and password,” click “Delete your account,” pick a reason, and confirm. The help center says the deletion is permanent and the username can’t be used again.
Who can sign up (U.S. only, state limits, age)
Open to U.S. customers; I found no state limits. The terms set the minimum age at 13, with parental consent for minors. U.S. consumers agree to individual arbitration with a class-action waiver, and can opt out by mail within 30 days of accepting the terms (06/23/2026).
Support: channels and hours (ET)
A web form at proton.me/support/contact and the address mail@support.proton.me. No phone, and no hours are published. Mail Plus and above get “priority customer support.” Our standard billing question went in through the form on 10/09/2026 at 4:27 a.m. ET and had no reply when this page was written; the Proton Mail review tracks the answer.
What we saw inside the account
The Subscription page matched the public prices once the currency was set to USD. On our Canadian network exit it first showed Canadian dollars; U.S. readers on a U.S. connection should see USD by default.
Is Proton Mail worth paying for?
Pay for Mail Plus if the free plan’s 500 MB or the missing desktop-app support gets in your way: $47.88 a year buys 15 GB, Bridge, and a custom domain. Pay for Proton Unlimited only if you’d use the VPN or the password manager too, because at $119.88 a year most of the price is those apps, not the mailbox. Either way, the checkout shows tax before the card step, and you have 30 days to ask for your money back.
The full Proton Mail review covers encryption and support in detail, and the best secure email providers page compares prices across services.
What we checked
- Checkout: Mail Plus for 12 months opened to the card field on 10/09/2026 with a New York ZIP (10001) — $47.88 subtotal, $4.25 tax at 8.875%, $52.13 due, auto-renew note with no renewal price. A second open from this session's browser prefilled Massachusetts 02112: $2.99 tax, $50.87 due
- Prices: pricing page in 12-month and 1-month views, Family tab, business plans page, student page — all in USD, captured 10/09/2026
- Vendor pages: terms of service (last modified 06/23/2026), cancel, free-limits and delete-account help articles — captured 10/09/2026
- Cancellation: not reachable on a free account. Steps from Proton's help center; the delete-account dialog opened in Settings and was not confirmed
- Refund window: 30 days per the pricing page, checkout, and terms — no request made
- Support: our standard billing question sent through the support form on 10/09/2026 at 4:27 a.m. ET — no reply when this page was written
FAQ
How much does Proton Mail cost per year?
Mail Plus is $47.88 for 12 months, which Proton shows as $3.99 a month. Proton Unlimited is $119.88, Proton Duo $179.88 for two people, and Proton Family $287.88 for six. Add sales tax — varies by state. Prices verified on 10/09/2026 on Proton's site.
Does Proton Mail charge sales tax?
Yes, where your state applies it. On 10/09/2026 the Mail Plus checkout with a New York ZIP added 8.875%, or $4.25, for $52.13 due. A second check with a Massachusetts address showed 6.25%, or $2.99. The tax appears in the summary before you enter a card.
What's Proton Mail's renewal price?
Proton doesn't print one. The checkout on 10/09/2026 said “Renewal pricing subject to change according to terms and conditions,” and the terms say you're charged “the then-current price valid at the time of the renewal” (last modified 06/23/2026). The regular Mail Plus price that day was $47.88.
Does Proton Mail auto-renew?
Yes. The checkout footnote read “Subscription auto-renews every 12 months” and named the next billing date, October 9th, 2027, for a purchase on 10/09/2026. You stop it under Settings, then Subscription, then Cancel subscription, and the plan runs to the end of the period.
Can I get a refund from Proton Mail?
Within 30 days of the first purchase, yes. The terms say to cancel and request the refund through the support form inside those 30 days, once per user. Cash and bank-transfer payments aren't refundable, and a chargeback waives the refund (terms, 06/23/2026). I didn't request one.
How do I cancel Proton Mail?
Sign in, open Settings, then All settings, then Subscription, scroll to Cancel subscription, click Continue, and confirm with Cancel subscription again, per Proton's help center on 10/09/2026. The plan stays paid until the period ends and then drops to Proton Free.
What's the difference between Mail Plus and Proton Unlimited?
Mail Plus at $47.88 a year is email only: 15 GB, 10 addresses, one custom domain, Bridge for desktop apps. Proton Unlimited at $119.88 adds 500 GB, 15 extra addresses, three domains, unlimited aliases, and the paid versions of Proton VPN, Pass, and Drive (pricing page, 10/09/2026).