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Part 1
Proton referral code
Get $20 off your first paid Proton plan (encrypted Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass or the full suite) when you sign up with a referral link.
Proton is the Swiss privacy suite I have used for years: encrypted Mail as a day-to-day inbox, plus Drive, Calendar and the free VPN tier. I am a free-tier user, so I can vouch for the free products firsthand; the paid features below are described from Proton's own documentation, not from my own testing. Proton's refer-a-friend scheme gives a new customer $20 off their first paid plan and pays the referrer $20 in Proton credit, once the new customer has been on a paid plan for a full month.
Last tested on by Seb Place.
Part 1
The offer
Proton
Proton is a Swiss privacy company founded in 2014 by scientists who met at CERN. It offers an integrated suite of end-to-end encrypted services (Mail, Calendar, Drive, Pass, VPN and Wallet) under a single account. Proton's apps are open source and independently audited, and the company is funded by its users rather than by advertising.
Or copy the referral link below:
Reward
Get $20 off your first paid Proton plan when you sign up with a referral link, across encrypted Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass or the full suite.
How it works
- The free Proton tiers (Mail, Calendar, Drive and a limited VPN) need no code and cost nothing
- To claim the referral saving, click the referral link on this page and choose a paid Proton plan
- Sign up and stay on the paid plan
- You get $20 off as the new customer, and the referrer receives $20 in Proton credit once you have been subscribed for a full month
- The reward works across any paid Proton plan: Mail Plus, VPN Plus, Drive Plus, Pass Plus or Proton Unlimited
3.7 / 5
My rating for this deal
This rates the Proton referral itself: what you get, what you have to do to get it, and how long it takes to arrive. It isn’t a rating of Proton as a company.
Why this rating
Credit that works against any Proton subscription rather than being locked to one product, which is more flexible than most account credit. It rates here because credit is only worth something if you were going to keep paying Proton, and a privacy suite is a longer commitment than a SIM.
Part 2
Is it for you?
Proton referral summary
- Reward
- $20 off your first paid plan (Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass or the full suite)
- Reward type
- Money off a paid plan for the new customer; Proton credit for the referrer (not cashable)
- Requirement
- New customer subscribes to a qualifying paid Proton plan
- Time to receive
- After the new customer's first full month on a paid plan (two months on monthly plans)
Proton referral pros and cons
Pros
- Genuinely free tiers for Mail, Calendar, Drive and a limited VPN, with no code needed
- $20 off your first paid plan through the refer-a-friend scheme, across the whole suite
- Swiss-based and subject to strong Swiss privacy law, outside EU and US jurisdiction
- All apps are open source and have been independently audited
- One account covers encrypted email, calendar, storage, passwords and a VPN
- End-to-end encryption on Mail and Drive, so Proton cannot read your content
Cons
- Rewards are in USD and Proton credit, not cash: the $20 comes off a Proton plan and is not withdrawable
- The referral saving only applies to paid plans; if the free tier is enough, you will not need it
- Proton VPN Plus and Unlimited are excluded from the 14-day free trial
- As a VPN alone it has fewer servers and features than a dedicated VPN like Surfshark
- You need a paid plan to unlock the full VPN, extra storage and premium features
What is Proton?
Proton is a Swiss privacy company founded in 2014 by scientists who met at CERN. It offers an integrated suite of end-to-end encrypted services (Mail, Calendar, Drive, Pass, VPN and Wallet) under a single account, with genuinely free tiers and paid upgrades. Its apps are open source and independently audited.
What is Proton?
Proton is a Swiss privacy company founded in 2014 by scientists who met at CERN. It offers an integrated suite of end-to-end encrypted services (Mail, Calendar, Drive, Pass, VPN and Wallet) under a single account, with genuinely free tiers and paid upgrades. Its apps are open source and independently audited.
The CERN founding story (opens in new tab) is Proton's own, and the naming tells you what each piece does: Drive is storage, Pass is passwords, Wallet is the newest of them. The free tiers cover Mail, Calendar, Drive and a limited VPN.
Proton's pitch is that one trusted account can replace a patchwork of free services that monetise your data, which is why it sells a suite rather than a product. The refer-a-friend scheme takes $20 off the paid plans if you decide to upgrade.
How does the Proton referral scheme work?
Proton's refer-a-friend programme gives a new customer $20 off their first paid plan and pays the referrer $20 in Proton credit. The reward is account-wide across Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass and Proton Unlimited. It triggers once the new customer has been on a paid plan for a full month, and the referrer's credit is capped at $1,000 (about 50 referrals).
How does the Proton referral scheme work?
Proton's refer-a-friend programme gives a new customer $20 off their first paid plan and pays the referrer $20 in Proton credit. The reward is account-wide across Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass and Proton Unlimited. It triggers once the new customer has been on a paid plan for a full month, and the referrer's credit is capped at $1,000 (about 50 referrals).
Proton runs a single refer-a-friend programme (opens in new tab) across its whole account, not a VPN-only scheme. On monthly plans the qualifying period is two months rather than one.
How the referrer is paid: in Proton account credit, spendable only on Proton subscriptions and not withdrawable as cash, so for a free-tier referrer it is worth nothing unless they later upgrade. The new customer's side is the part that matters if you are the one signing up.
One VPN-specific caveat: Proton VPN Plus and Proton Unlimited are excluded from Proton's 14-day free trial, so a friend who specifically wants the paid VPN subscribes directly. Both sides still get the reward. Rewards are denominated in USD and converted for GBP billing.
How to get and use a Proton referral code
The free Proton tiers need no code at all. The referral saving applies only when you take a paid plan: click a referral link, choose your paid plan, and $20 comes off. There is no separate code to type, the link carries the referral. Existing customers find their own referral link inside their Proton account.
How to get and use a Proton referral code
The free Proton tiers need no code at all. The referral saving applies only when you take a paid plan: click a referral link, choose your paid plan, and $20 comes off. There is no separate code to type, the link carries the referral. Existing customers find their own referral link inside their Proton account.
If the free tier is all you need, sign up at proton.me directly. There is nothing on this page you need.
To claim the $20 on a paid plan, the choice is Mail Plus, VPN Plus, Drive Plus, Pass Plus or Proton Unlimited, and the saving applies to whichever you pick. This works the same way as the Surfshark and Octopus Energy schemes on this site.
Already a Proton customer? Your own link is inside your Proton account under "Refer a friend".
My experience: years on Proton's free tier
I have used Proton for years, mostly Proton Mail as a day-to-day inbox, alongside Drive, Calendar and the free VPN tier. This section is a genuine free-tier user account, not a paid-plan review: I have not personally tested VPN Plus or the paid storage, so I describe those from Proton's documentation rather than firsthand.
My experience: years on Proton's free tier
I have used Proton for years, mostly Proton Mail as a day-to-day inbox, alongside Drive, Calendar and the free VPN tier. This section is a genuine free-tier user account, not a paid-plan review: I have not personally tested VPN Plus or the paid storage, so I describe those from Proton's documentation rather than firsthand.
What I can speak to firsthand: the apps are stable, the encrypted inbox has been reliable, and having email, calendar and storage under one privacy-first account has been genuinely useful. I moved to it because I wanted an email provider that does not monetise the contents of my inbox.
What I have not tested: Proton VPN Plus, the paid storage tiers, and Pass on a paid plan. Anything about those in this guide comes from Proton's own documentation and public terms.
The reasons I have stayed are the ones in the trust section below, and they hold whether you use the free tier or upgrade.
Who is Proton best for?
Proton suits people who want privacy-first email and storage, anyone trying to move off ad-funded free services, and travellers who want an encrypted account plus a VPN under one roof. If your only need is a fast, feature-rich VPN, a dedicated VPN will offer more; Proton's strength is the integrated, encrypted suite.
Who is Proton best for?
Proton suits people who want privacy-first email and storage, anyone trying to move off ad-funded free services, and travellers who want an encrypted account plus a VPN under one roof. If your only need is a fast, feature-rich VPN, a dedicated VPN will offer more; Proton's strength is the integrated, encrypted suite.
The specific routes in are de-Googling, wanting encrypted email plus a VPN for public Wi-Fi on one subscription, or wanting Mail, Drive, Pass and VPN under a single Proton Unlimited plan rather than four separate bills.
If your only requirement is the widest server network and the fastest streaming performance, a dedicated VPN like Surfshark is the better single-purpose tool.
Is Proton trustworthy? Swiss jurisdiction, open source, audits
Proton is headquartered in Switzerland, outside the EU and US, under strong Swiss privacy law. Its applications are open source, meaning the code can be inspected, and they have been independently audited. The company is funded by its users rather than by advertising, which removes the incentive to monetise personal data.
Is Proton trustworthy? Swiss jurisdiction, open source, audits
Proton is headquartered in Switzerland, outside the EU and US, under strong Swiss privacy law. Its applications are open source, meaning the code can be inspected, and they have been independently audited. The company is funded by its users rather than by advertising, which removes the incentive to monetise personal data.
- Jurisdiction: Switzerland (opens in new tab), which matters because it sits outside both the EU and US disclosure regimes
- Open source: the apps are open source (opens in new tab), and Proton commissions the third-party audits rather than waiting to be audited
- End-to-end encryption: Mail and Drive are end-to-end encrypted, so Proton cannot read your messages or files
- Funding: paying users, so the business does not depend on profiling you
No provider can prove perfect privacy, but that combination is about as strong a set of signals as the consumer market offers.
Part 3
How it compares
Proton referral at a glance
| Your reward | $20 off your first paid plan (Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass or the full suite) |
| Friend's reward | $20 in Proton credit, usable on any Proton subscription |
| Reward type | Money off a paid plan for the new customer; Proton credit for the referrer (not cashable) |
| Requirement | New customer subscribes to a qualifying paid Proton plan |
| Time to receive | After the new customer's first full month on a paid plan (two months on monthly plans) |
| Referral limit | Referrer credit caps at $1,000 (about 50 referrals) |
Proton key facts
Jurisdiction
Switzerland (outside the EU and US, under strong Swiss privacy law)
What's included
Encrypted Mail, Calendar, Drive, Pass, VPN and Wallet under one account