Proton VPN gives away a free plan with no data cap and no card details, then charges US$3.49 a month (£2.62 / €3.11) for the full service on a two-year plan. That makes it one of the few VPNs worth trying before you pay, and one of the few worth keeping if you never do.
Proton VPN deal: 65% off VPN Plus for two years
Promo Code: none needed, the discount is applied automatically at checkout
Who qualifies: new customers buying VPN Plus on the 24-month plan from Proton’s website
Key terms: US$83.76 (£62.85 / €74.60) billed for the first 24 months, then renews at US$83.88 (£62.94 / €74.70) every 12 months. 30-day money-back guarantee. Students in the UK, US, France and Germany can get 75% off the 12-month VPN Plus plan through Student Beans.
| Offer detail | What you get |
|---|---|
| Promo Code | None needed (discount applied automatically at checkout) |
| Welcome offer | 65% off VPN Plus on the 24-month plan, US$3.49 a month (£2.62 / €3.11) |
| Who qualifies | New customers buying VPN Plus on the 24-month plan from Proton’s website |
| Key terms | US$83.76 (£62.85 / €74.60) billed for the first 24 months, then US$83.88 (£62.94 / €74.70) every 12 months; 30-day money-back guarantee |
| How to claim | Choose VPN Plus for 24 months on Proton’s pricing page; the discount shows at checkout |
Proton VPN: key facts
- Official website: protonvpn.com
- Owner: Proton AG (primary shareholder: the non-profit Proton Foundation)
- Headquarters: Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland
- Founded: 2014 (Proton AG)
- Regulation: No licence applicable; jurisdiction Switzerland (Proton AG)
- Support: Live chat: yes, 24/7, paid plans only
- Ratings: App Store 4.6 (122K ratings, US App Store); Trustpilot 2.2 (1,023 reviews)
- Headline offer: 65% off VPN Plus on the 24-month plan, applied automatically
- Promo Code: None needed
- Price from: US$3.49 a month (£2.62 / €3.11) on the 24-month VPN Plus plan
- Free plan or trial: Yes: unlimited data, one device, servers in 10 countries, no card needed
- Payment methods: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Bitcoin (account credit), Cash (account credit), Bank transfer (account credit)
- Best features: Free plan with unlimited data and no card details; Five consecutive annual no-logs audits by Securitum; 20,000+ servers in 140+ countries on paid plans
Proton VPN at a glance
- Price from: US$3.49 a month (£2.62 / €3.11) on the two-year VPN Plus plan
- Renewal price: US$83.88 a year (£62.94 / €74.70)
- Money-back guarantee: 30 days
- Free plan: yes, unlimited data, one device, servers in 10 countries, no card needed
- Devices: 10 at once on paid plans
- Servers: 20,000+ in 140+ countries (paid plans)
- Streaming: guides for Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Prime Video and more, paid plans only
- Audited no-logs: yes, five consecutive annual audits by Securitum
- Jurisdiction: Switzerland (Proton AG, Geneva)
- Trustpilot: 2.2/5 from 1,023 reviews
Our verdict
Proton VPN is the free VPN we would install on a relative’s phone without a second thought. The free tier has no data limit, no adverts and the same no-logs policy as the paid one, which is rare. VPN Plus is fairly priced and well audited, and the renewal rise is gentler than most. The catch is a Trustpilot score that sits well below its app store ratings, with recurring complaints about dropped connections and refunds.
Pros
- A free plan with unlimited data and no card details, the most generous we know of
- Five consecutive independent no-logs audits
- Renewal at US$83.88 a year is modest by VPN standards
- 10 devices, ad and tracker blocking (NetShield) and Secure Core servers on VPN Plus
- Swiss company with open-source apps
Cons
- Free plan is one device only, and you don’t pick the exact country
- No UK servers on the free plan, so no BBC iPlayer for free users
- Trustpilot score of 2.2/5, with complaints about connections and support
- Refunds aren’t available for cash or bank transfer payments
- No code needed means no extra code discount on top
Proton VPN promo codes and discounts: what actually works
Search for a Proton VPN coupon code and you will find a familiar parade of coupon sites promising extra percentages. Proton doesn’t publish a public promo code for VPN Plus. The discount is built into the price on its own pricing page, and the checkout applies it for you.
The current offer takes VPN Plus from US$9.99 a month (£7.50 / €8.90) to US$3.49 (£2.62 / €3.11) on the 24-month plan, which Proton describes as 65% off. Codes circulating on coupon sites tend to repeat this same deal or point at expired seasonal sales, so there is little to be gained from pasting them in.
Here is the arithmetic. Paying month by month for two years would cost US$239.76 (£179.92 / €213.53). The two-year plan costs US$83.76 (£62.85 / €74.60), a saving of US$156 (£117.06 / €138.93). In year three the plan renews at US$83.88 (£62.94 / €74.70), so three years of Proton VPN Plus comes to US$167.64 (£125.80 / €149.30) in total.
Proton has historically run its deepest sales around Black Friday and the end of the year. If you’re not in a hurry, the free plan is a perfectly good way to wait for one.
Proton VPN student discount
Proton runs a student scheme through Student Beans for people at university, college, sixth form or on an apprenticeship in the UK, US, France and Germany. The 12-month VPN Plus plan is 75% off. You verify your status with Student Beans, which issues a coupon to use at Proton’s checkout.
Proton VPN free plan, free trial and the 30-day money-back guarantee
This is the part most people are searching for, and it deserves the attention. Proton Free is not a trial. It doesn’t expire, it has no data cap and it needs only an email address to sign up.
The limits are clear enough. You can protect one device at a time, and you connect to servers in 10 countries: the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Mexico, Canada and the United States. The app chooses the server for you rather than letting you browse the full map. Proton rates free speeds as “medium”, against up to 10 Gbps on Plus servers.
What you do get is the same core protection as paying customers: a kill switch, DNS and IPv6 leak protection, strong encryption and the audited no-logs policy. Streaming servers, P2P, NetShield ad blocking, Secure Core and split tunnelling are reserved for VPN Plus. There are no UK servers on the free plan, which rules it out for BBC iPlayer.
So who is it for? Anyone who wants a VPN for hotel and café Wi-Fi, or occasional privacy at home, and has no interest in streaming. For that job it is better than most paid services we have tried.
How to claim a refund
There is no separate free trial of VPN Plus, but every paid plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. To use it:
- Check your start date. Proton asks you to confirm you are within 30 days before you get in touch.
- If you paid on the website, sign in at account.protonvpn.com and contact Proton VPN support to request the refund.
- To stop renewal, go to Subscription in the sidebar, click Continue, then Cancel subscription, confirm, and choose a reason. Proton says the cancellation isn’t final until you submit that reason.
- If you subscribed through the App Store, cancel in your iPhone Settings under your Apple Account, then Subscriptions, then request the refund from Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.
- If you subscribed through Google Play, ask Proton support or request the refund through Google Play.
Card refunds take 5 to 10 business days, PayPal and Bitcoin one to two working days. Payments by cash or bank transfer can’t be refunded. Refunds within the 30 days are in full, except on Proton Unlimited, where the days already used are deducted.
Proton VPN prices and plans compared
Proton’s pricing page currently leads with the two-year terms. Prices below are from the US pricing page.
| Plan | Term | Per month | Billed | Renews at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proton Free | Ongoing | US$0 (£0 / €0) | Nothing | Free |
| VPN Plus | 1 month | US$9.99 (£7.50 / €8.90) | Every month | Same |
| VPN Plus | 12 months | Not published | Not published | US$83.88 a year (£62.94 / €74.70) |
| VPN Plus | 24 months | US$3.49 (£2.62 / €3.11) | US$83.76 (£62.85 / €74.60) | US$83.88 a year (£62.94 / €74.70) |
| Proton Unlimited | 24 months | US$7.99 (£6.00 / €7.12) | US$191.76 (£143.90 / €170.78) | US$119.88 a year (£89.96 / €106.77) |
Proton Unlimited adds Mail Plus, Drive Plus, Pass Plus and Calendar, with 500GB of storage, on top of everything in VPN Plus. Proton Duo (two accounts, 2TB) and Proton Family (up to six accounts, 3TB) include the VPN too.
You can pay by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or PayPal on the website. Proton also accepts Bitcoin, cash and bank transfers as account credit once you have created an account. Buying in the iPhone app is pricier: the App Store lists in-app purchases at US$11.99 (£9.00 / €10.68) and US$83.90 (£62.96 / €74.72).
Servers, countries and streaming on Proton VPN
Paid plans open up more than 20,000 servers in over 140 countries, which puts Proton among the largest networks around. The free plan’s 10 countries are listed above, and none of them is the UK.
Proton publishes step-by-step streaming guides for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4, NOW TV, BritBox, DAZN, F1 TV, ESPN+ and many more. All of them require VPN Plus or Proton Unlimited and a connection to a Plus server. Streaming platforms change their blocking regularly, so a guide is a statement of intent rather than a guarantee.
On speed, Proton says its Plus servers run at up to 10 Gbps. Your real speed depends on your own connection and how far away the server is. Trustpilot reviewers are split on this point, which we cover below.
Is Proton VPN safe? Privacy, audits and the Swiss question
Proton VPN is run by Proton AG, the Geneva company behind Proton Mail, and says it keeps no logs of user activity. The Polish security firm Securitum has audited that claim every year since 2022. The 2026 report, the fifth in a row, found no evidence of logging browsing activity, DNS queries, destinations, traffic content or identifiable connection metadata.
Proton also says it was once ordered to hand over VPN logs and couldn’t, because none existed. Its apps are open source, and a separate Securitum audit of the apps reported no significant security issues.
Two pieces of context are worth knowing. In 2021, Proton Mail (not the VPN) handed over a French activist’s IP address under a Swiss legal order, which led Proton to change its wording on what it does and doesn’t record for email. And in 2025, Proton began moving some infrastructure out of Switzerland, citing “legal uncertainty” over a proposed revision to the Swiss surveillance ordinance. The company remains headquartered in Geneva.
What users say about Proton VPN
On Trustpilot, Proton VPN scores 2.2 out of 5 from 1,023 reviews, with 59% of reviewers giving one star and 23% giving five. That is a striking contrast with the App Store, where the US app holds 4.6 from more than 122,000 ratings. Trustpilot tends to attract the unhappy, but the complaints are consistent enough to take seriously.
The praise centres on the free plan, easy set-up and reliable everyday use. “This is the best free VPN I’ve used,” wrote P. from the UK in October 2026.
The complaints focus on dropped or failed connections, slow speeds on some servers, refund disputes and slow support replies. “Frequently fails to connect to any server, internet speeds are never more than a megabyte upload or download,” wrote C.P. from Canada, also in October 2026.
How to sign up for Proton VPN and use it
- Download Proton VPN from the App Store, Google Play or Proton’s website. Apps cover Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Android TV and Chromebook, with browser extensions on paid plans.
- Create a free Proton account with an email address. No card is needed for the free plan.
- To upgrade, choose VPN Plus on the 24-month term on Proton’s pricing page. The discount is already applied.
- Open the app and tap Quick Connect, or on Plus pick a country from the map.
- In settings, switch on the kill switch and, on Plus, NetShield to block ads and trackers.
A real-life example. You are in a Lisbon hotel on a Champions League night and want the match on your usual UK streaming service. On VPN Plus, connect to a UK Plus server, open the app on your laptop and stream as you would at home. On the free plan this won’t work, because there are no UK servers.
The next morning, at the airport, you need to pay a bill on the terminal Wi-Fi. The free plan is ideal here: connect to any available server and your banking traffic is encrypted on a network you know nothing about. If your bank flags a login from an unfamiliar country, a quick reconnect usually finds a server it is happier with.
Proton VPN vs NordVPN vs Mullvad
Prices below are each brand’s comparable entry-level VPN plan from its official pricing page.
| Proton VPN Plus | NordVPN Basic | Mullvad | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | US$3.49 a month (£2.62 / €3.11) on 24 months | US$3.49 a month (£2.62 / €3.11) on 2 years | €5.00 a month (US$5.61 / £4.21), any term |
| First billed total | US$83.76 (£62.85 / €74.60) for 24 months | US$94.23 (£70.71 / €83.92) for 27 months (3 bonus months) | €60.00 a year (US$67.32 / £50.52) |
| Renewal | US$83.88 a year (£62.94 / €74.70) | US$139.08 a year (£104.37 / €123.86) | Unchanged, €5.00 a month |
| Devices | 10 | 10 | 5 |
| Countries | 140+ | 225+ locations | 50 (566 servers) |
| Free option | Free plan, unlimited data | None | None |
| Money-back | 30 days | 30 days | 14 days (not cash) |
On day one, Proton VPN Plus and NordVPN Basic cost the same per month, though Nord bills more upfront for three bonus months. The real difference arrives at renewal, where NordVPN costs US$55.20 (£41.42 / €49.16) a year more. NordVPN Promo Code LOCALS gets you its current offer, and Nord’s apps are polished, but you’ll want a diary reminder before year three.
Mullvad is the purist’s choice: a flat €5 a month, no long contracts, anonymous account numbers instead of email sign-up, and cash accepted by post. It has a smaller network and only five devices. Proton suits most people best, because it is the only one of the three you can use properly for free, and the cheapest to keep once you pay.
Proton VPN FAQs
Is Proton VPN really free?
Yes. Proton Free has no data limit, needs no card and doesn’t expire. You are limited to one device and servers in 10 countries, and streaming servers are reserved for paying customers.
Is there a Proton VPN promo code?
Proton doesn’t publish a public promo code for VPN Plus. The current discount, 65% off the two-year plan, applies automatically at checkout. Students can get 75% off the 12-month plan through Student Beans.
Is Proton VPN free safe to use?
The free plan uses the same encryption, kill switch and audited no-logs policy as the paid plans. Proton funds it through paying subscribers rather than adverts or data sales. As with any free VPN, check you are downloading the official app from Proton or an official app store.
Does Proton VPN work with BBC iPlayer and Netflix?
Proton publishes guides for both, but only on VPN Plus or Proton Unlimited using Plus servers. The free plan has no UK servers, so it can’t be used for iPlayer. Using a VPN to watch content outside your region may break a service’s terms.
How do I get a refund from Proton VPN?
Contact Proton VPN support within 30 days of subscribing. If you bought through the App Store, cancel there first and request the refund from Apple. Cash and bank transfer payments are not refundable.
Proton VPN vs NordVPN: which is better?
They cost the same per month on two-year plans, but Proton renews for less and has a free plan. NordVPN offers bonus months and a 30-day guarantee too. Pick Proton for privacy and value over time, Nord if you prefer its apps and extras.
How many devices can I use with Proton VPN?
One on the free plan, and up to 10 at once on VPN Plus, Proton Unlimited, Duo and Family. Setting Proton up on your router covers every device at home under one connection.
Is Proton VPN legal in the UK?
Yes. VPNs are legal in the UK, and using one for privacy on public Wi-Fi is entirely routine. Using a VPN to get around a streaming service’s regional rules can break its terms, and the service may restrict your account.
VPNs are legal in the UK. Using one to break a streaming service’s terms can get an account restricted.
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