Proton Mail pricing: what each plan costs monthly and per seat

Every Proton Mail plan, priced

Proton sells consumer email on five tiers, and the discount for annual billing lands between 20% and 25% depending on the plan. The table below uses the prices shown on proton.me/mail/pricing with the store set to USD and the 12-month toggle selected, then the 1-month toggle, so both columns come from the same page on the same day.

The important structural point: annual billing means paying the full year at once. Mail Plus at $3.99 is $47.88 charged on day one. If cash flow matters more than the 25% saving, monthly billing keeps Mail Plus at $4.99 and Unlimited at $12.99.

What each Proton Mail tier includes

Proton Free is a real account, not a trial: 1 GB of storage, one user, one encrypted email address, and the same end-to-end encryption as paid plans. It does not support a custom domain, so anyone who wants mail@their-own-domain.com has to pay.

Mail Plus at $4.99 monthly or $3.99 annual raises storage to 15 GB, allows 10 encrypted email addresses, one custom domain, and 10 hide-my-email aliases. This is the plan most solo users and small blogs should buy.

Proton Unlimited at $12.99 monthly or $9.99 annual is 500 GB of storage with 15 extra addresses, three custom domains, unlimited aliases, plus the full Proton VPN, Proton Pass password manager, and Proton Drive. The step up from Mail Plus is roughly $72 a year on annual billing, which is the number that decides whether the VPN and password manager you get in the bundle are worth paying for.

Proton Duo ($19.99 monthly, $14.99 annual) covers 2 users with 2 TB. Proton Family ($29.99 monthly, $23.99 annual) covers 6 users with 3 TB. Both include every Proton app and the Scribe writing assistant. Family at $23.99 works out to about $4 per person per month for six people, which is the cheapest per-seat email Proton sells.

Proton Mail business pricing per seat

Business plans are priced per user, and Proton quotes the yearly rate by default. Monthly billing costs more on all three tiers:

• Mail Essentials: $7.99 per user monthly, or $6.99 per user monthly on yearly billing ($83.88 per user every 12 months). 15 GB per user, 3 custom domains, email and calendar, appointment scheduling, Drive, and document editing.
• Workspace Standard: $14.99 monthly, or $12.99 yearly ($155.88 per user every 12 months). 1 TB per user, 15 domains, video meetings for 100 people, VPN, and Pass with team vaults.
• Workspace Premium: $19.99 yearly or $24.99 monthly ($239.88 per user every 12 months). 3 TB per user, 20 domains, meetings for 250, unlimited Lumo AI prompts, Scribe, and data retention policies.
• Enterprise: custom pricing through sales, with a dedicated account manager and all Proton services.

Each business tier includes a 14-day free trial, and paid plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee. Seat math is simple: a 10-person team on Mail Essentials pays $839 a year on the yearly rate versus $959 if it stays on monthly billing.

Proton Mail vs Google Workspace on price per seat

Google publishes annual-commitment rates on workspace.google.com/pricing: Starter at $7 per user per month with 30 GB of pooled storage, Standard at $14 with 2 TB, and Plus at $22 with 5 TB. Proton's equivalent tiers are $6.99, $12.99, and $19.99.

Proton is cheaper at every rung, by one cent on the entry tier, $1.01 on the middle tier, and $2.01 on the top tier. That is not where the decision gets made. Google gives 30 GB against Proton's 15 GB on the entry tier and 2 TB against 1 TB on the middle tier, though the top tier narrows to 5 TB against 3 TB. Google also bundles Gemini into Gmail and Docs, and includes the office apps a business usually needs anyway. Proton gives none of the office suite; you get encrypted mail, calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Meet, but no Excel or Word equivalent.

The honest read: if you are moving a team off Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace to get encryption and Swiss data protection, Proton at $6.99 per seat is the cheaper bill. If you actually use the productivity suite, you are trading away tools you would have to replace, and that replacement cost does not appear on either pricing page.

The catches before you enter a card

Annual means prepaid. The $3.99 Mail Plus rate is $47.88 charged immediately, and the same applies to every other plan. Nothing is charged monthly at the discounted rate.

Renewal is not a cliff. Proton states the first 12 months and the renewal at the same amount, so the second year does not jump the way budget hosting does. The trade is that you must cancel before the renewal date if you do not want another year.

Bridge is paid-only. Proton's own Bridge page says the app is available only with a paid plan that includes Proton Mail. Anyone who needs IMAP and SMTP in Outlook, Thunderbird, or Apple Mail cannot do it on the free tier.

Custom domains are paid-only. The free plan is one address at proton.me. A custom domain starts at Mail Plus.

Monthly billing costs 25% to 30% more. Unlimited goes from $9.99 to $12.99, Mail Plus from $3.99 to $4.99. If you expect to stay a year, monthly billing is the expensive way to keep flexibility.

What annual billing actually saves

Proton prints the saving next to each annual price: $12 a year on Mail Plus, $36 on Unlimited, $60 on Duo, and $72 on Family. Those match the gap between the 1-month and 12-month toggles, so they are real numbers rather than rounded marketing.

Over three years at today's rates, with renewals holding where Proton says they will, the totals are:

• Mail Plus: $143.64 on annual billing against $179.64 on monthly.
• Unlimited: $359.64 on annual billing against $467.64 on monthly.
• Family: $863.64 on annual billing against $1,079.64 on monthly.

On the business side the yearly discount is smaller: 13% on Mail Essentials and Workspace Standard, 20% on Workspace Premium. For a 10-person team that is $120 a year on Mail Essentials and $240 on Workspace Standard, which is worth the paperwork if you already know you are keeping the seats.

Prices are quoted in USD by default, and Proton lets you switch the store to CHF or EUR. Those amounts move with the exchange rate instead of being fixed per region, so a European buyer will not see the same numbers.

Which Proton Mail plan should you buy

Stay on Free if you want encrypted mail at a proton.me address and 1 GB is enough. Moving from Gmail is a forwarding rule and an afternoon.

Buy Mail Plus if you want your own domain and 15 GB. At $47.88 a year it is the cheapest way to get a custom-domain encrypted mailbox from Proton.

Buy Unlimited if you want a VPN and a password manager from the same account. Proton does not sell those as an add-on to Mail Plus, so the comparison is the full $72 a year against whatever you pay for equivalent tools today.

Buy Family for a household of up to six: $287.88 a year is within a dollar of six separate Mail Plus subscriptions at $47.88 each, and it adds 3 TB shared plus every Proton app.

Buy Mail Essentials for a team that wants encrypted mail and calendar without office software. Step up to Workspace Standard only when you need 1 TB per user or meetings with 100 participants.

At a glance

Proton Mail consumer pricing in USD, verified at proton.me/mail/pricing on October 31, 2026. Annual billing is charged once for 12 months.

FAQ

Is Proton Mail free?

Yes. Proton Free includes 1 GB of storage, one user, and one encrypted email address with the same encryption as paid plans. A custom domain, more storage, and Proton Mail Bridge all require a paid plan.

Is Proton Mail cheaper than Google Workspace?

Yes, per seat. Mail Essentials is $6.99 per user per month on yearly billing against $7 for Google Workspace Starter, and the gap widens on higher tiers. Google includes roughly double the storage and a full office suite, which Proton does not.

Does Proton Mail pricing go up after the first year?

No. Proton states that the first 12 months and the renewal are billed at the same amount, from $47.88 for Mail Plus to $287.88 for Family. The catch is that the year is charged upfront, so you need to cancel before renewal to stop it.

Related reading

Gmail alternatives with monthly and annual costs, business email hosting pricing compared, Google Workspace alternatives

Sources

• Proton Mail personal plans and pricing
• Proton business email plans and pricing
• Proton Mail Bridge system requirements
• Google Workspace pricing