Proton Mail Pricing 2026: Free, Mail Plus, Unlimited and Business Plans

Proton Mail costs $0 on its free plan. Mail Plus is $3.99 a month on the 12-month plan, billed $47.88 a year, or $4.99 a month if you pay month to month. Proton Unlimited, which adds Pass, VPN and Drive, is $119.88 a year, and business email starts at $6.99 per user a month on yearly billing. All prices are US dollars, read on Proton's pricing pages on October 27, 2026.

The yearly plan is the right default for anyone who will keep the inbox: Mail Plus costs $12 more over a year on monthly billing. The bigger choice is Mail Plus versus Unlimited, because the step up only pays off if you would otherwise buy a VPN or a password manager separately.

Proton Mail plans and prices at a glance

The "per month" figure on a 12-month plan is the yearly charge divided by 12. Proton charges the year up front, and the business cards carry the line "Taxes may apply." Prices come from the Proton Mail pricing page, the Proton Duo and Family page and the Proton business email pricing page, all read on October 27, 2026.

What the free plan includes, and where it stops

Proton Free is a real encrypted inbox, not a trial. You get one address, end-to-end encryption, password-protected emails and encrypted contacts, and Proton says its free accounts use the same encryption as the paid ones. The cost is capacity: 500 MB of mail storage, rising to 1 GB once you finish Proton's getting-started checklist, and a cap of 150 messages a day.

The organizing limits bite sooner than the storage. Free allows 3 folders, 3 labels and 1 custom filter, and the desktop app runs only as a 14-day trial. There is no custom domain, no catch-all address, no auto-reply and no IMAP access through Proton Mail Bridge, which needs a paid plan. If you send a few personal emails a day from the browser or phone, Free covers it. If you run your life out of folders and filters, it will feel cramped within a month.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks 180 email tools as of October 27, 2026, and 102 of them (57%) offer a free tier, per its email software statistics. The median entry paid plan across 85 comparable tools is $15 a month, so Mail Plus sits well under the category's middle even on monthly billing. Proton's Toolradar profile tracks the plan data.

How much does Mail Plus cost?

Month-to-month billing adds $12 to a year of Mail Plus by our arithmetic, because twelve monthly payments come to $59.88 against the single 12-month charge. If you plan to keep the address, prepay the year and pocket the difference.

What the fee buys is specific. Storage rises from 1 GB to 15 GB, addresses from 1 to 10, and Mail Plus supports one custom email domain, which is the feature most people upgrade for. Sending becomes unlimited, folders, labels and filters become unlimited, and you get the short @pm.me address, auto-reply, catch-all email, automatic forwarding and scheduled sending. IMAP and SMTP access through Bridge opens up, so Outlook or Apple Mail can read the encrypted inbox. Dark Web Monitoring and Emergency Access also come with the plan.

Watch the intro offer. On October 27, 2026 the monthly Mail Plus card showed an introductory price of $1 for the first month, then $4.99 every month after that. That is a one-month discount, not the plan's price: a year on that offer is $55.89 by our arithmetic, still more than the 12-month plan. Proton also runs seasonal sales, so treat any banner price as limited-time and check what the plan renews at.

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Proton Unlimited: when the bundle beats Mail Plus

Proton Unlimited costs $12.99 a month on monthly billing, $36 more over a year than its 12-month plan. It includes everything in Mail Plus plus Proton Pass, Proton VPN and 500 GB of Drive storage, with 15 addresses, 3 custom domains and unlimited hide-my-email aliases.

The step up from Mail Plus is $72 a year on 12-month billing. That gap is the price of a password manager and a VPN, so the bundle pays off only if you would buy one or both anyway. Proton's own standalone plans make the point: our Proton Pass pricing and Proton VPN pricing guides list what each costs on its own, and the best password managers ranking covers the standalone options. If you need only private email, Unlimited is the wrong plan.

Proton Duo and Proton Family

Proton Duo costs $179.88 a year for two people and Proton Family $287.88 a year for up to six. Both share a storage pool, 2 TB on Duo and 3 TB on Family, and Proton's family page says members get access to all Proton services and features. Monthly billing costs $19.99 and $29.99.

The per-person math depends on whether you want the bundle. Two Unlimited subscriptions on yearly billing cost $239.76, so Duo saves a couple $59.88 a year by our arithmetic. Two Mail Plus subscriptions cost $95.76, about half of Duo, so a couple that wants only email should stay on two Mail Plus plans. Family works out to $47.98 per person when all six seats are used, ten cents more than one Mail Plus subscription, which makes it the cheapest route to the full bundle for a large household.

Business plans: Mail Essentials and Workspace

Mail Essentials is the entry business plan, billed $83.88 per user a year. It covers 15 GB per user, 3 custom domains, email and calendar, appointment scheduling, easy migration from Big Tech providers, and Drive with the document and spreadsheet editor. Monthly billing is $7.99 per user.

Workspace Standard, billed $155.88 per user a year, adds 1 TB per user, 15 custom domains, video meetings for 100 participants, Proton VPN and team password vaults. Workspace Premium, the top published tier, raises storage to 3 TB, meetings to 250 participants, and adds Lumo, the email writing assistant and data retention policies. All three plans offer a 14-day free trial and Proton's 30-day money-back guarantee.

Each total is the printed yearly charge per user times the seat count, before tax, and is our arithmetic. A 10-person team on monthly Mail Essentials would pay $958.80 over a year, $120 more than yearly billing. Teams that already use a separate password manager and VPN can stay on Essentials; teams replacing Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 outright should price Standard, because that is where the suite starts.

What the price leaves out

• Renewal follows the price at the time. Proton's terms of service say a plan renews automatically for the same duration, and if the price has changed you pay the price valid at renewal.
• Refunds are once per user. The terms allow a full refund if you cancel within 30 days of the first purchase, once per user. Cash and bank transfer payments are not refundable.
• Taxes. Business prices add "Taxes may apply," so add your local rate to the seat totals.
• App stores bill separately. Subscriptions bought through an app store follow that store's refund policy, not Proton's.

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Which Proton Mail plan to buy

• One person, light use: Proton Free, with its 150-message daily cap.
• One person who wants a custom domain or a desktop client: Mail Plus on the 12-month plan.
• One person who also needs a VPN and a password manager: Proton Unlimited.
• A couple who want the full bundle: Proton Duo, cheaper than two Unlimited plans.
• A household of three to six: Proton Family.
• A team that needs secure email and calendar: Mail Essentials, then Workspace Standard if you are replacing a whole office suite.

For the product beyond its price, read our Proton Mail review. The best encrypted email services guide ranks it against Tuta, Fastmail and others; check the current price on Tuta's site and Fastmail's site before you compare. Teams weighing gateways and filtering should also see the best email security tools.

Frequently asked questions

Is Proton Mail free?

Yes. Proton Free costs $0 and includes one encrypted address with 500 MB of mail storage, rising to 1 GB after Proton's setup checklist. It caps sending at 150 messages a day and allows 3 folders, 3 labels and 1 filter, with no custom domain or IMAP access.

How much is Proton Mail Plus per year?

Mail Plus costs $47.88 a year on the 12-month plan, shown as $3.99 a month. Month-to-month billing is $4.99 a month, which comes to $12 more over a year for the same 15 GB, 10 addresses and one custom domain.

Is Proton Unlimited worth it over Mail Plus?

Only if you would also pay for a VPN or a password manager. Unlimited costs $119.88 a year, $72 more than Mail Plus on yearly billing, and adds Proton Pass, Proton VPN, 500 GB of storage and 3 custom domains for one person.

How much does Proton Mail cost for a family?

Proton Duo costs $179.88 a year for two people and Proton Family $287.88 a year for up to six, both on 12-month billing. Members get access to all Proton services, and the plans share 2 TB and 3 TB of storage. Family works out to $47.98 per person when all six seats are filled.

How much does Proton Mail cost for a business?

Mail Essentials costs $6.99 per user a month on yearly billing, or $7.99 month to month, with 15 GB per user and 3 custom domains. Workspace Standard is $12.99 per user and Workspace Premium $19.99 per user on yearly billing. A 10-person team on Mail Essentials pays $838.80 a year before tax.

Does Proton Mail offer refunds?

Yes. Proton's terms allow a full refund if you cancel within 30 days of the first purchase, once per user, and business plans show a 30-day money-back guarantee. Payments in cash or by bank transfer are not refundable, and app store purchases follow the store's own policy.

Sources and method

We read Proton's Proton Mail pricing page, its Duo and Family page, its business email pricing page and its terms of service on October 27, 2026, in US dollars. Monthly-billing rates come from the monthly view of the same pages. Yearly and per-seat totals multiply a printed price by months or seats and exclude tax. Prices and offers change, so check Proton's pages before you buy.

Cite this: Cyberpresso, "Proton Mail Pricing 2026: Free, Mail Plus, Unlimited and Business Plans", November 2026.

Related reading: Proton Mail review, best encrypted email services, Proton Pass pricing, Proton Pass review, Proton VPN pricing, Proton VPN review, Proton Pass vs Bitwarden, and Toolradar profiles of Proton Mail and Tuta.

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