How to cancel a Proton subscription and get a refund

You cancel a Proton subscription in the place you paid for it. If you paid on Proton's website, cancel under Settings, Subscription at account.proton.me (or account.protonvpn.com). If you subscribed in the iPhone app, cancel in your Apple Account. If you subscribed through Google Play, cancel in the Play Store. Deleting the app cancels nothing.

The steps are the same for Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Unlimited and the other paid plans, because they all live on one Proton account.

How do you cancel a Proton subscription on the web?

Proton documents the same flow on both of its help centers. As of October 2026:

1. Sign in at account.proton.me and open any Proton service, or sign in at account.protonvpn.com.
2. Go to Settings, then All settings, then Subscription (on the VPN dashboard, Subscription is in the sidebar).
3. Scroll to Cancel subscription and click Continue.
4. Click Cancel subscription again to confirm, after reading the cancellation terms.
5. Select a reason for canceling and click Submit.

Step 5 is easy to skip. Proton's VPN cancellation guide says not to close the page after confirming, because your cancellation isn't finalized until the reason is submitted. That page also notes its screenshots show a Proton Unlimited account and the steps are exactly the same for VPN Plus and every other paid VPN plan.

If you change your mind, the VPN page says you can sign back in and select Reactivate now.

Where did you pay?

A Proton plan can be billed by Proton, Apple or Google, and each one handles its own cancellations and refunds.

If you're not sure, check the receipt or card statement. Apple's cancel a subscription page suggests searching your email for "receipt from Apple" and, if there isn't one, checking your bank or card statement to see which company bills you.

Cancel a Proton subscription bought on the App Store

Proton's steps and Apple's match:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad and tap your name.
2. Tap Subscriptions, then the Proton subscription.
3. Tap Cancel Subscription, read the terms, and confirm.

On a Mac, open the App Store, click your name at the bottom of the sidebar, click your name again, then Subscriptions, the subscription and Cancel Subscription.

Apple adds a useful check: if there is no Cancel button, or you see an expiration message in red text, the subscription is already canceled. Proton says you keep the paid features until the expiration date, and you can tap Renew to restart.

Cancel a Proton subscription bought on Google Play

1. Open the Play Store app and sign in with the Google Account that has the subscription.
2. Tap your profile picture, then Subscriptions.
3. Select the Proton subscription and tap Cancel subscription, then follow the instructions.

Google's page on cancelling Play subscriptions states plainly that uninstalling the app does not cancel the subscription, and that you can keep using it for the time you've already paid.

What happens after you cancel

Proton's subscription management page says that when you cancel and move to the Free plan, your plan stays active until the end of the current billing period and doesn't renew. The VPN page puts it the same way: you keep premium features until your next renewal date, then the account is downgraded to Proton Free.

Proton notes it is still moving all users to this end-of-period behavior. Its terms of service describe the other case too: if you downgrade before the end of the period, you get account credit for the unused portion, which must be used within 24 months. Read the confirmation screen to see which applies to your account.

Two other cases from Proton's pages:

• Switching to a cheaper paid plan takes effect immediately. The unused time becomes prorated credit applied to future payments.
• Cancelling doesn't delete your account. You keep a free Proton account with access to the free version of every Proton service.

What happens to data over the free plan limits

This is the part to check before the plan runs out. Proton's page on exceeding plan limits says that if you're over the limits of the plan you drop to, your account access is limited. On the Free plan, Mail storage over 1 GB means you can't send or receive new emails until you free up space or upgrade again.

While you're over the limit, Proton lists these restrictions:

• Proton Mail: you can't receive new emails other than from Proton, can't send emails with attachments, and can't manage your calendar.
• Proton Drive: your devices won't sync, you can't upload new files, and phone photo backup stops.
• Organizations: existing Proton accounts you added are removed, members you created have their storage cut to 0 MB, and any custom domain is disabled.

Proton gives you one year to resolve it. After that, data in the apps that are over their limits risks being deleted, and Proton explains that because it can't access your data, it can't selectively delete emails or files, so all data in those apps is deleted. Proton says it sends several email and in-app notifications first.

To stay inside the limit, check your usage in account settings, delete what you don't need, and empty the trash so the storage figure updates. If you'd rather keep everything, export it first. Proton's free Mail Export Tool saves mail as EML files, and our guide on exporting Proton Mail emails walks through it.

How Proton's refund policy works

Proton's terms (section 9, last modified October 9, 2026) set out the rules:

• You may cancel within 30 days of the initial purchase and receive a full refund.
• Both the cancellation and the refund request must be made within those 30 days. You request it through Proton's support form.
• Refunds can only be requested once per user.
• Payments by cash or bank transfer are not refundable.
• The option applies to subscriptions bought directly through Proton's website and apps. If you subscribed through a third party, that party's refund policy applies.
• After 30 days, the services are non-refundable, and any refund or credit is at Proton's discretion.

Proton's terms also say that using a chargeback through your card provider means waiving the Proton refund in favor of that dispute process, so the support form is the route Proton offers.

For the stores, Proton's VPN guide says App Store subscribers should cancel in the App Store and then request the refund at reportaproblem.apple.com. Apple's refund page says to choose "Request a refund," pick the subscription and submit, then wait 24 to 48 hours for an update. For Google Play, Proton says to contact its support team or request one through Google Play. Google's refund policy says you may be able to get one within 48 hours of purchase, and after that it sends you to the developer.

Proton's VPN page lists how long refunds take to arrive:

Auto-renew and renewal dates

Proton's terms say subscriptions renew automatically for the same duration as your initial purchase unless you cancel or change them, and that the renewal is charged at the price current at that time. To stop a renewal, you have to cancel before the renewal date. Your renewal date is listed under Settings, Subscription, Your Subscriptions.

If you can't get into your account dashboard, the terms say you can cancel by contacting Proton customer support.

Business VPN plans work differently. For Proton VPN Essentials, Business and Enterprise, the terms require a termination notice to your account representative or through the support form at least 30 days before renewal. Notice given later means one more term renews before the cancellation applies.

After you cancel

If you cancelled a VPN plan, the app's VPN configuration can stay on your device. Our general guide to cancelling a VPN subscription covers removing leftover VPN profiles and always-on settings on iPhone, Android and Mac.

If you're replacing the service, Secria VPN is $7.99 a month with post-quantum encryption on every connection and RAM-only servers. No activity logs: we do not record browsing, DNS queries or traffic contents. Secria Pro at $9.99 a month bundles mail with 500 GB and the VPN on 5 devices, and sign-up asks for a name, address and password, with no phone number. The Secria Proton VPN alternative page and pricing page have the details, and our guide to switching VPN providers covers the move itself.

Frequently asked questions

Does deleting the Proton VPN app cancel my subscription? No. Google says uninstalling doesn't cancel a Play subscription, and website and App Store subscriptions keep renewing until you cancel them where you paid.

Can I get a refund on Proton VPN after 30 days? Proton's terms say services are non-refundable after the 30-day period, and any refund or credit after that is at Proton's discretion.

Do I lose my emails when I cancel Proton Mail Plus or Unlimited? Not immediately. If your mail is over the Free plan's 1 GB, you can't send or receive new mail until you get under the limit, and after a year over the limit Proton says the data risks deletion.

Does cancelling delete my Proton account? No. You keep a free account. Deleting the account is a separate step in account settings.

I cancelled but Proton still shows my plan. Did it work? Probably. Proton keeps paid features until the end of the billing period. On the website, make sure you submitted a cancellation reason, since Proton says the cancellation isn't final until you do.

Cancel where you paid, submit the reason, and note the end date. If you're within 30 days of buying, send the refund request the same day.