How to use a custom domain with Proton Mail

If you’ve purchased a custom domain (such as yourdomain.com), you can use it to send and receive emails with your Proton Mail(new window) account (for example, using the email address yourname@yourdomain.com). 

To do this, you must have a paid Proton Mail plan(new window). The number of custom domains you can use with Proton Mail depends on your plan.

• Proton Mail Plus: 1 custom domain
• Proton Unlimited: 3 custom domains
• Proton Visionary (legacy users only): 10 custom domains
• Proton Mail Essentials: 3 custom domains
• Proton Business: 10 custom domains (by default with the option to add more)

The procedure for setting up your custom domain for use by your Proton Mail account is as follows:

1. Add your domain to your Proton Mail account.
2. Verify your domain so that Proton knows it is genuinely yours.
3. Create new users and add team members to your account.
4. Configure your domain registrar’s DNS records so that Proton Mail handles the emails sent and received using that domain.
5. Set up your email address.
6. Set up anti-spoofing protection (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC)

Add your domain

1. In your browser, log in to your Proton Mail account and select Settings → Go to settings → Proton Mail → Domain names → Add domain.

2. Enter your domain name and click Next. You might be asked to re-enter your Proton password for security reasons.

Verify your domain

The first thing you have to do after adding a custom domain name is to show Proton Mail that you control this domain. You can do this by adding a TXT record with a unique code that Proton Mail has generated to your domain’s DNS records in your registrar’s domain management portal.  

Proton Mail servers will then look up all the TXT records for your domain and see if any match the verification code. If we find a match, then verification succeeds, and you can move on to the next steps.

Once you click Next, you will be taken to the Verify tab. You can also reach it from Settings → Go to settings → Proton Mail → Domain names → Domain by clicking on the Actions → Review button and selecting the Verify tab.

In the Verify tab, your Host Name (@) and TXT verification record are shown to the right of your newly added domain.

Click on the small Copy icon to the left of the TXT verification record to copy it to your clipboard. You can then paste it into your registrar’s domain management portal.  

Wait a few minutes, then click Next to trigger a DNS check by our servers. If it succeeds, you can now move on to the next steps. If it didn’t succeed, don’t worry; our servers may still be reading old cached DNS records. 

Note: If your DNS entry page doesn’t allow you to add @ as the hostname, try leaving this field blank when you enter the Proton Mail verification information. Alternatively, some hosting providers might require you to enter your domain name here.

Some hosting providers don’t provide a field for the “Host/Name”. In this case, please provide all other information and ignore the “Host/Name” in the Verify step.

Wait an hour and come back to the same page to see if it has succeeded. This can take up to a day, depending on your TTL setting. If it still doesn’t succeed, and you have double-checked your DNS matches the code in the setup wizard, please contact our customer support(new window) for assistance.

After the first verification, our servers will periodically check your domain’s DNS records and update the status of your domain. This is crucial, as it helps us keep the right verification code in your domain’s DNS settings and quickly fix any DNS issues. After your domain is all set up, if we detect missing DNS records, such as the verify record, we will warn you for a week before disabling your domain and its addresses.

Create an organization

Now that you have a domain, if you are subscribed to a plan that supports multiple users, such as Proton Visionary (legacy users only) or a Proton for Business plan, you can create an organization(new window) and add users(new window) to it.

If you are not subscribed to Proton Visionary or a Proton for Business plan, you should skip this step and go straight to activating your domain.

Share login information with your team members

Before you change your MX records, we recommend informing your team members of the upcoming change. After you change the MX records, emails will be delivered to their Proton Mail inboxes instead of their old inboxes.

Activate your domain

Once your domain is verified, click Next to go to the MX tab (or come back to this page later and simply go directly to the MX tab). The mail exchanger (MX) record is vital for email operation: it tells the Internet which server(s) should receive your domain’s email. 

If you are setting up a new domain, go ahead and add the specified MX records in the control panel of your domain name registrar. 

If your domain currently has existing mailboxes, we recommend adding all used email addresses before switching your MX records to Proton Mail to ensure a smooth transition. We describe how to do this below.

This will help you avoid disruption to your email delivery because Proton Mail will only accept mail for addresses you have added. mail.protonmail.ch points to Proton Mail’s mail servers, so once you have made this change, you are telling the internet to send email for your domain to your Proton Mail account. 

If you have MX records for multiple services, the email will be delivered to the service with the highest priority (lowest value). If you have other MX records, you should either delete them or make sure mail.protonmail.ch‘s priority is a smaller number (higher priority) than the other MX records. 

Again, it may take up to a day for MX changes to propagate, and email may still go to your old MX during this transition. Once we detect your domain’s top MX record is pointing to Proton Mail, the MX tab will show a green tick icon.

Set up your addresses

If you are changing an existing domain to deliver emails to your Proton Mail inbox, you should set up all existing email addresses before filling in the MX records (as described above).

Select the Address tab → Add address. 

This will take you to the Organization section of your Proton Mail accounts page. Click on Add Address to create a Proton Mail email address using your custom domain. If you have more than one custom domain, you can select which one to use from the dropdown list.

You’ll be asked what encryption strength you want to use for the keys that will be generated for your account. The default is State of the Art, but you can also choose Compatibility. Click Save address when you’re done. You may need to re-enter your password.

Set up anti-spoofing protection

Now that you’ve finished all the required steps to set up your custom domain, you can take advantage of Proton Mail’s anti-spoofing features to protect your email delivery and prevent email spoofing.

We strongly recommend that everyone who uses a custom domain with Proton Mail set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

Learn how to set up anti-spoofing features for custom domains (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC)(new window)

Setup guides for specific domain registers are available for:

• Amazon Web Services(new window)
• Bluehost(new window)
• Cloudflare(new window)
• OVH(new window)
• Gandi(new window)
• GoDaddy(new window)
• Google Domains(new window)
• Namecheap(new window)
• Hostpoint(new window)

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How to set up an organization in Proton Mail

Step 1: Set up your custom domain(s) (you are here)

Step 2: Create your organization(new window)

• Organization password and key(new window)
• Restoring administrator privileges(new window)

Step 3: Add new users to your organization(new window)

• User roles(new window)
• Private users(new window)
• Catch-all email addresses(new window)

Step 4: Migrate your existing email messages to Proton Mail(new window)