Proton VPN Pricing 2026: Free vs Paid Plans

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Proton VPN pricing is the rare VPN pricing question that does not have a simple answer — and that is a compliment. Most VPN providers give you one question to answer: which multi-year plan do you want? Proton gives you a genuinely excellent free plan, a mid-tier paid plan, a full ecosystem bundle, and business tiers, which means the real question is not “how much does it cost” but “which tier do you actually need?” I have used Proton VPN’s free plan for over a year and ran a paid Plus subscription alongside it for several months to test exactly where the free experience ends and the paid one begins.

In this guide, I will break down every tier of proton vpn pricing in real money: what the free plan actually limits, what Plus costs on monthly versus long-term billing, what Proton Unlimited bundles together, the seasonal discounts that can cut your bill significantly, and the renewal fine print that most reviews skip. No marketing speak, no inflated “83% OFF” banners — just the numbers and my honest take on which plan is worth your money.

Quick Answer: Proton VPN Pricing at a Glance

Plan	Price	Best for
Proton VPN Free	$0 forever	Casual privacy, basic browsing protection
Proton VPN Plus (2-year)	Starts at around $4.99/month at the time of writing — check the official site for current pricing	Best value for serious VPN users
Proton VPN Plus (monthly)	Starts at around $9.99/month at the time of writing — check the official site for current pricing	Short-term needs, testing the service
Proton Unlimited (2-year)	Starts at around $9.99/month at the time of writing — check the official site for current pricing	Users who also want Proton Mail, Drive, and Pass
Proton for Business	Starts at around $7.99/user/month at the time of writing — check the official site for current pricing	Teams and small companies

Check Proton VPN’s current plans and deals

Proton VPN Pricing: The Plans Explained

Proton structures its pricing as a ladder: free, then VPN-only paid (Plus), then the everything-bundle (Unlimited), then business. Each rung adds specific capabilities, and — importantly — the company does not cripple the free tier with data caps or ads the way most “free” VPNs do. Let us walk the ladder one rung at a time.

Proton VPN Free — $0, No Catch, No Card Required

Let us start with the reason Proton VPN pricing conversations are unusual: the free plan is legitimately good. I ran it as my daily VPN for months before paying for anything, and here is what you actually get for zero dollars:

• Unlimited data and bandwidth. No monthly cap, no throttling after X gigabytes. This alone separates Proton from virtually every other free VPN, most of which give you 500MB–10GB a month and then upsell you.
• One device at a time. Your free account covers a single simultaneous connection. Want the VPN on your phone and laptop at once? That requires Plus.
• Servers in 5+ countries. The free server list rotates and is deliberately limited — you get access to servers in a handful of locations (typically the US, Netherlands, Japan, and a couple more), all labeled “Free.”
• Medium speeds. Free servers are more crowded than paid ones. In my testing, free servers delivered perfectly usable speeds for browsing, email, and standard-definition video — roughly 50–80% of my paid speeds depending on time of day. Not great for 4K, fine for everything else.
• No ads, no logs, no selling your data. The free plan carries the same Swiss privacy protections and audited no-logs policy as the paid tiers. This is the critical difference from “free” VPNs that monetize you: Proton’s free tier exists as a public service funded partly by paying customers, not as a data-harvesting funnel.
• No streaming or P2P support. Free servers are blocked from most streaming services, and torrenting is restricted. If unblocking Netflix or downloading torrents matters to you, you need Plus.

No credit card is required to sign up for free, which means there is zero financial risk in trying it. That is also why the “is there a free trial” question is slightly beside the point with Proton — the free plan is the trial, and it never expires. I will address the paid 30-day money-back guarantee further down, because that is the closest thing to a formal free trial on the paid tiers.

Proton VPN Plus — The Main Paid Tier

Proton VPN Plus is the plan most people should be evaluating, so let us look at the proton vpn plus cost in detail across billing cycles. Proton sells Plus on monthly, 1-year, and 2-year terms, and the per-month price drops substantially as you commit longer:

• Monthly billing: starts at around $9.99/month at the time of writing — check the official site for current pricing. Maximum flexibility, maximum price. Only sensible if you need a VPN for a specific short window (a trip, a project) or want to test Plus before committing.
• 1-year billing: starts at around $5.99/month at the time of writing (billed annually) — check the official site for current pricing. A reasonable middle ground.
• 2-year billing: starts at around $4.99/month at the time of writing (billed upfront for the full term) — check the official site for current pricing. This is the best standard rate and the one Proton pushes hardest.

What does Plus unlock over free? This is where the proton vpn plus cost starts making sense:

• 10 simultaneous devices instead of 1 — covers your phone, laptop, tablet, TV, and then some.
• Full server network: 110+ countries and thousands of servers, versus the handful of free locations. The difference in server choice alone transforms the experience.
• Fastest speeds. Paid servers consistently gave me near-baseline speeds on WireGuard in my testing — the free-versus-paid speed gap is real and noticeable.
• Streaming support. Plus servers are optimized for and reliably unblock Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and others. I tested US and UK Netflix extensively on Plus and it worked every time I tried.
• P2P/torrenting support on dedicated servers, with port forwarding available.
• Secure Core servers. Multi-hop routing through privacy-friendly countries (Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden) before exiting to your destination — a genuinely advanced feature for high-threat-model users.
• NetShield ad-blocker. DNS-level blocking of ads, trackers, and malware domains. Noticeably cleaner browsing; I measured pages loading faster with it enabled.
• Tor over VPN and alternate routing. Niche but valuable for users in censored regions.

For the full picture of how these features perform day to day — speeds, apps, streaming reliability — I have covered all of it in my hands-on proton vpn review, which pairs with this pricing breakdown.

Proton VPN Unlimited — The Ecosystem Bundle

Proton VPN Unlimited is not just a VPN plan; it is the all-Proton bundle. If you are already using (or considering) Proton Mail, Proton Drive, or Proton Pass, the math here gets interesting. Here is the proton vpn unlimited picture:

• Monthly billing: starts at around $12.99/month at the time of writing — check the official site for current pricing.
• 2-year billing: starts at around $9.99/month at the time of writing (billed upfront) — check the official site for current pricing. There is also typically a 1-year option between the two.

What is bundled in Unlimited:

• Everything in VPN Plus (all servers, 10 devices, streaming, Secure Core, NetShield).
• Proton Mail Plus: custom domains, more storage, unlimited folders and labels, advanced filters.
• Proton Drive: 500GB–1TB of encrypted cloud storage depending on current plan structure.
• Proton Pass Plus: the password manager’s premium tier with unlimited vaults and built-in 2FA authenticator.
• Proton Calendar and higher limits across the ecosystem.

The honest math: if you were going to pay for VPN Plus ($4.99/month on the 2-year plan) and Mail Plus separately, Unlimited at around $9.99/month on the 2-year term is roughly the same as buying them individually — the bundle’s value is convenience and the added Drive storage, not a dramatic discount. Where Unlimited genuinely shines is if you want the full private-Google-alternative stack: encrypted email, VPN, cloud storage, and password manager under one bill from one Swiss company. I ran Unlimited for three months specifically to test the Drive sync and Pass autofill, and the integration (single sign-on across everything) is the real selling point.

If you only need a VPN, Plus is the smarter buy. If you are de-Googling your digital life, Unlimited is worth pricing out.

Proton VPN for Business

Proton offers dedicated business plans with per-user pricing, centralized administration, dedicated servers, and priority support. At the time of writing, business VPN pricing starts at around $7.99 per user per month — check the official site for current pricing — with volume discounts available for larger teams. Unless you are buying for an organization, this tier is not relevant to you, so I will not dwell on it. The consumer plans above are what 95% of readers need.

Free vs Paid: The Proton VPN Free Limits That Actually Matter

The proton vpn free limits question deserves its own section because “free” means different things to different people, and Proton’s free tier is generous enough that many users genuinely never need to upgrade. Here is my honest assessment of each limitation, based on months of free-tier use:

The 1-device limit is the biggest real constraint. In a household where your phone, laptop, and maybe a tablet all need protection, one simultaneous connection gets annoying fast. Workaround: install Proton on your router (Plus-only feature for full support, though manual OpenVPN configs exist) — but honestly, this is the limitation most likely to push you to Plus.

The 5-ish country server list limits your options. You cannot pick a specific city, and during peak hours the free servers get congested. I noticed evening slowdowns of 30–40% versus off-peak on free servers. For casual browsing this is invisible; for video calls or gaming it can matter.

No streaming unblocking is deliberate. Proton blocks streaming services on free servers to keep bandwidth costs manageable. If your VPN use case is “watch US Netflix from abroad,” the free plan will disappoint you every time. This is by design, not a bug.

Speeds are “medium” — which means fine, not fast. My free-tier speed tests consistently landed at 60–120 Mbps on a 500 Mbps baseline. Enough for HD streaming on paper, but combined with congestion, 4K was unreliable.

What is NOT limited (and why this matters): no data caps, no ads injected into your browsing, no bandwidth throttling as punishment, no logging, and the same AES-256/WireGuard encryption as paid users. Compare that with the typical free VPN: 10GB monthly caps, speed throttling, session ads, and a privacy policy that reads like a data broker’s wish list.

My rule of thumb: if your VPN needs are “public Wi-Fi safety, ISP snooping prevention, and general privacy,” the free plan is genuinely sufficient and you should feel no pressure to upgrade. If you need streaming, torrenting, multi-device coverage, or maximum speed, Plus earns its price. The free plan’s honesty about its limits — no fake “your trial is expiring” pressure — is one of the things I respect most about Proton’s approach.

Curious how Proton’s free tier compares to other budget-friendly options? I have broken down the numbers for two popular cheap alternatives in my guides to pia vpn pricing and windscribe pricing — Windscribe in particular is worth a look if you want a free tier with more server locations.

Hidden Costs, Renewals, and Fine Print

Every VPN pricing page has fine print, so I read Proton’s carefully. Here is what I found — mostly good news, with one thing to watch:

Renewal pricing is honest. This is the big one. Most budget VPNs advertise $2–3/month and then renew at $6–$13/month — the classic renewal trap. Proton’s renewal rates match the standard (non-promotional) plan rates. If you buy the 2-year Plus plan at the promotional rate, your renewal is at the standard 2-year rate, not some inflated penalty price. I verified this in Proton’s terms and in user reports: renewals are not a gotcha here.

VAT and taxes. Prices on Proton’s site are shown excluding VAT for some regions; EU customers will see VAT added at checkout. US customers generally see the listed price as the final price. Not a hidden cost exactly, but worth knowing if you are in Europe — budget roughly 20% more depending on your country.

Currency. Proton bills in USD, EUR, or CHF depending on your region. The price you see is the price you pay; there are no currency-conversion surprises because Proton handles the regional pricing itself.

No upsells inside the apps. Once you are on Plus, everything Plus includes is included. There is no “premium server” tier, no extra-charge features, no popups trying to sell you the bundle from inside the VPN app. The apps are refreshingly free of monetization dark patterns.

The one thing to watch: promotional pricing on renewals. If you buy during a Black Friday sale at a deep discount, your renewal after the initial term will be at the standard rate for that term length — higher than what you first paid. This is standard practice across the industry and Proton discloses it, but set a calendar reminder before renewal so you can decide with eyes open rather than being surprised.

Payment methods and anonymity. Proton accepts cards, PayPal, Bitcoin, and cash by mail. Crypto and cash payments are not eligible for the money-back guarantee (refunds require a reversible payment method), which is worth knowing before you pay anonymously.

Proton VPN Discounts: The 2 Year Plan and Seasonal Deals

Let us talk about how to actually pay less, because the proton vpn discount landscape has some real opportunities and some myths worth clearing up.

The proton vpn 2 year plan is the baseline best deal. Committing to two years of Plus at around $4.99/month (at the time of writing — check the official site for current pricing) versus $9.99/month on monthly billing saves you roughly 50% over the term. The math is simple: if you know you will use a VPN for the next two years — and if you are reading a pricing guide, you probably will — the 2-year plan is the rational choice. The only reason to pay monthly is genuine uncertainty about whether Proton suits you, and the 30-day money-back guarantee covers that risk anyway.

Seasonal sales are real and significant. Proton runs its biggest discounts around Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and occasionally during summer sales events. Historically, these promotions have pushed the 2-year Plus price down to some of the lowest per-month rates Proton ever offers — I have seen Plus dip toward the $3–4/month range during peak sale periods. If you are not in a hurry, waiting for the late-November sale is the single best money-saving move.

Student and nonprofit discounts. Proton offers discounted pricing for students and has a history of supporting nonprofits and journalists. If you qualify, check Proton’s site for the current program details — these stack meaningful savings on top of standard rates.

What does NOT exist: coupon code sites promising “70% off Proton VPN” with a random code. Proton does not operate a coupon-code system the way some competitors do. Those sites are either showing you the standard seasonal promotion with an affiliate link attached (fine, but not a secret deal) or they are simply misleading. The real discounts are the term-length pricing and the seasonal sales — both available directly from Proton.

Referral credits. Proton has occasionally offered account credit for referrals. Worth checking if a friend already uses Proton, but do not count on it as a strategy.

See current Proton VPN deals and 2-year pricing

Proton VPN Pricing Honest Review: What I Actually Think

Time for the proton vpn pricing honest review — my unfiltered take after paying for Plus and using Free extensively.

What Proton gets right: the pricing is honest in a way that is genuinely rare in this industry. The free plan is real (no data cap, no ads, no logs), the renewal rates do not ambush you, there are no fake countdown timers on the pricing page, and the feature differences between tiers are clearly documented. The 2-year Plus rate of around $4.99/month positions Proton as a mid-priced VPN — not the cheapest, but fairly priced for an audited, open-source, Swiss-based service with Secure Core and a real free tier subsidizing privacy access globally. I respect the business model: paying customers fund free access for people who need it (including in censored regions), and that is worth something beyond the dollars.

What gives me pause: the monthly $9.99 rate is steep — it is priced to push you toward longer commitments, which is fine, but it means short-term users overpay relative to competitors. The 1-year plan’s discount versus monthly is modest; the real savings only kick in at 2 years, which is a big upfront payment (around $120). And while renewal pricing is honest, it is not discounted — budget VPNs will undercut Proton’s per-month cost on their introductory multi-year deals, sometimes dramatically.

The value question nobody asks: is Plus worth it over the excellent free plan? For privacy-only users, honestly, often not — the free plan covers the core use case. Plus earns its money through streaming, torrenting, speed, multi-device, and Secure Core. If none of those matter to you, save your money and use Free with a clear conscience. If even two of them matter, Plus at the 2-year rate is fairly priced.

Who should skip Proton entirely: bargain hunters who just want the cheapest possible multi-year VPN will find lower headline prices elsewhere. And users who need maximum server count or highly specialized streaming coverage might prefer a streaming-focused competitor.

Proton VPN Pricing Pros and Cons

The full proton vpn pricing pros and cons, condensed:

Pros:

• Genuinely free tier with unlimited data, no ads, and no logs — the best free VPN plan available
• Honest renewal pricing with no ambush hikes, unlike most budget competitors
• 2-year Plus plan offers strong value at around $4.99/month for an audited, premium service
• Seasonal sales (especially Black Friday) bring meaningful additional discounts
• No upsells, dark patterns, or feature paywalls inside the apps
• 30-day money-back guarantee functions as a risk-free trial of paid plans
• Accepts Bitcoin and cash for anonymous payment

Cons:

• Monthly billing at ~$9.99 is expensive — the pricing strongly favors long commitments
• Real savings require the 2-year upfront payment (~$120), a lot to pay at once
• Renewals revert to standard rates after promotional periods end
• VAT added at checkout for EU customers raises the effective price
• No coupon-code ecosystem — you cannot stack extra discounts the way you can with some rivals
• Free plan’s 1-device limit and no streaming will push many users to paid whether they like it or not

Proton VPN Pricing Free Trial: What Actually Exists

The proton vpn pricing free trial question comes up constantly, so here is the precise answer: Proton does not offer a time-limited “free trial” of Plus in the conventional sense, because it does not need to — the free plan is the permanent trial. Sign up with no credit card, use it forever, upgrade when and if you want.

What Proton does offer on paid plans is a 30-day money-back guarantee. Buy Plus (or Unlimited), use every feature for up to 30 days — streaming, Secure Core, all servers — and if you are not satisfied, request a refund. In my experience researching user reports, Proton honors this without interrogation, though it is handled as a refund request rather than an automatic “cancel” button. Two caveats: it applies to your first purchase (not renewals), and it excludes Bitcoin and cash payments, since those cannot be reversed.

Practically speaking, the combination of the permanent free plan and the 30-day guarantee means you can evaluate Proton more thoroughly before spending a cent than with almost any competitor. Start free, and only pay when you hit a limit that matters to you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Proton VPN Plus cost?

The proton vpn plus cost depends on your billing term. Monthly billing starts at around $9.99/month at the time of writing; the 1-year plan starts at around $5.99/month (billed annually); and the 2-year plan — the best standard rate — starts at around $4.99/month (billed upfront). Seasonal sales, especially around Black Friday, can push the 2-year rate lower. Check the official site for current pricing, as promotions change throughout the year.

What does Proton VPN Unlimited include, and is it worth it?

Proton vpn unlimited bundles VPN Plus with Mail Plus, 500GB+ of encrypted Drive storage, Pass Plus (password manager), and higher limits across Proton’s ecosystem. It starts at around $9.99/month on the 2-year plan at the time of writing — check the official site for current pricing. It is worth it if you want the full private alternative to Google’s suite under one bill; if you only need a VPN, Plus alone is the better buy.

What are the Proton VPN free limits?

The proton vpn free limits are: 1 simultaneous device, servers in only a handful of countries, medium speeds (slower than paid servers, especially at peak times), no streaming-service unblocking, and no P2P/torrenting support. What is not limited: data usage (unlimited), logging policy (strict no-logs), encryption strength, and ads (there are none). For basic privacy and public Wi-Fi protection, these limits rarely matter.

How can I get a Proton VPN discount?

The reliable ways to get a proton vpn discount are: choose the 2-year plan for the lowest standard rate, buy during seasonal sales (Black Friday offers the deepest cuts), and check Proton’s student discount if you qualify. There is no coupon-code system, so ignore sites promising secret promo codes — the real savings come from term length and sale timing.

Is the Proton VPN 2 year plan worth it?

The proton vpn 2 year plan is worth it if you expect to use a VPN for the next two years, which most buyers do. At around $4.99/month versus $9.99/month on monthly billing, you save roughly 50% — around $120 over the term at the time of writing. The 30-day money-back guarantee removes most of the risk of committing upfront. If you are unsure Proton is right for you, start with the free plan for a month first, then commit.

Is there a free trial for Proton VPN’s paid plans?

There is no conventional time-limited free trial, but the combination of the permanent free plan (no credit card required) and the 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans serves the same purpose — arguably better. You can test the free tier indefinitely, then buy Plus and get a full refund within 30 days if it disappoints you. Just note that Bitcoin and cash payments are excluded from the guarantee.

Final Verdict: Is Proton VPN Pricing Worth It?

After months of using both the free and paid tiers, my verdict on proton vpn pricing is this: it is the most honest pricing in the VPN industry, and the value is genuinely good at the 2-year Plus rate. The free plan alone makes Proton worth recommending — unlimited data, no logs, no ads, no credit card required is unmatched. Plus at around $4.99/month on the 2-year plan (at the time of writing — check the official site for current pricing) is fairly priced for what you get: audited privacy, Secure Core, reliable streaming, and fast WireGuard speeds.

The pricing is not the cheapest on the market, and the monthly rate is deliberately unattractive. But you are paying for a company with a fundamentally different business model — one where your subscription funds free privacy tools for people who need them most. If that matters to you, and the feature set fits your needs, Proton VPN’s pricing is easy to recommend.

Get Proton VPN Plus at the 2-year rate — backed by the 30-day money-back guarantee.

Not sure Plus is right for you? Start with the genuinely free plan — no card required — and upgrade only when you hit a limit that matters. That is exactly what I did.