Account credit, proration, and coupons
Proton offers you a variety of subscription plans(nuova finestra), from our entry-level Proton Free plan to Proton Unlimited — the ultimate privacy bundle that includes all Proton services. You can also get Proton for Business(nuova finestra).
You can activate, change, or cancel active subscriptions at any time. If you change your plan, the value of any unused subscription days is added to your account as credits.
Here we explain three terms to help you understand how these credits work and give you an example of how we calculate your bill when you upgrade:
Account credit
Account credit is credit in your Proton Account that has not been used toward a new Proton plan.
You can get credit when you cancel or downgrade a plan with some days left in your subscription or when you make a payment by Bitcoin. You can also add credit to your account at any time using your credit card, PayPal, or by sending us cash.
The credit is applied to your account in the currency of your last payment and can be used toward your next subscription.
To find your account credits, log in to your account at account.proton.me on a computer, click Settings → All settings → Dashboard, and scroll down to Credits.
Learn how to add credit to your Proton Account
Proration
A proration is the amount of credit you receive for unused subscription days when you cancel, upgrade, or downgrade an active subscription. The proration is calculated by dividing the amount paid for the subscription term by the number of days in the term, then multiplying that amount by the number of days remaining.
Example: You paid 47.88 EUR for an annual Proton Mail Plus plan. You then decide to cancel the subscription with 100 days remaining at the time of cancellation. The proration amount will be:
47.88 EUR / 365 days * 100 days = 13.12 EUR
You’ll see any proration you have in the Plan summary at the checkout:
Coupons and gift codes
Coupons are special subscription discounts that we may apply to your account if you:
- signed up for a special promotion
- contributed to Proton’s initial crowdfunding campaign
- purchased a Lifetime Visionary plan
Our Customer Support team may also give you a discount coupon for special situations, for example, to rectify a billing mistake.
Gift codes are a type of discount coupon. There are two ways to add gift codes to your account.
In the Dashboard
1. Log in to your Proton Account at account.proton.me and select Settings → All settings → Dashboard → Gift code.
2. Add your code in the Gift code field and click Submit.
At the checkout
1. Log in to your Proton Account at account.proton.me and select Settings → All settings → Dashboard → Your plan.
2. After you edit your billing details, change your plan, or customize your plan (if you’re on Proton for Business), click Add a gift code at the checkout, add your code, and click Apply.
Plan upgrade example
To illustrate how account credit, proration, and coupons work in practice, let’s suppose:
- You’re subscribed to an annual Proton Mail Plus plan (47.88 EUR/year) with 100 days left on your annual subscription.
- You decide to upgrade to Proton Unlimited (119.88 EUR/year).
- You have a coupon discount of 15 EUR.
- You also have 20 EUR credit.
At the checkout, your account credit, proration, and coupon would be displayed in this section of the Plan summary.
Here’s how your final price would be calculated:
1. Your new plan’s cost = 119.88 EUR/year.
2. Your existing plan’s proration = 47.88 EUR / 365 days * 100 days = 13.12 EUR.
3. Your coupon discount = 15 EUR
4. Your existing credit = 20 EUR.
5. The final amount due is the total from 1. minus the amounts in 2, 3, and 4:
119.88 EUR – 13.12 EUR – 15 EUR – 20 EUR = 71.76 EUR.
You can pay the final amount by credit or debit card, PayPal, or Bitcoin. Bitcoin payments require you to first add credit to your account.
Learn how to pay for your Proton plan with Bitcoin(nuova finestra)