If you are looking to keep your payment history out of your bank’s hands, you can use Bitcoin to pay for ProtonMail Premium accounts.

Bitcoin is not available as a payment method during account sign-up, though it can be used to purchase account credits once you have created your account. You can then use those credits to purchase your Premium plan.

To purchase a ProtonMail plan with Bitcoin:

1. Create a ProtonMail free account at protonmail.com/signup if you haven’t already.

2. Click the Upgrade button in the top right-hand corner of your screen.

 

This will take you to the Select plan screen, where you can choose between a Plus, Professional or Visionary plan.

3. Click Select plan on the plan you wish to upgrade to.

This will take you to the plan customization menu where you can build a ProtonMail plan that suits your needs. Once you have built your plan, or to progress with the default plan, click Continue.

4. You will then be taken to the checkout menu, where you can select Bitcoin as your payment method. This will bring up a QR code, BTC address, and the total Bitcoin due for your upgrade transaction.

If you are using a mobile Bitcoin wallet, you can scan the QR code displayed to automatically process the payment.

If you do not have QR scanning ability within your Bitcoin wallet, you can manually submit the transaction using the provided BTC address. To do so, copy the BTC address into the recipient address of your wallet and select the amount of BTC displayed next to BTC amount in the payment module. (For example, the above amount is 0.0136106 BTC.)

Important: Please do not re-use the same QR code/BTC address from previous payments. Due to a limitation of our API, subsequent payments to the same address will not be recognized. Therefore, you must begin the payment process again for each new payment.

5. After you have successfully sent the Bitcoin transaction, you will receive a confirmation message to your ProtonMail account, letting you know the transaction has been confirmed by the ProtonMail system. 

Since the system requires several confirmations for the payment to be verified it may take up to 12 hours until you receive your confirmation message in your ProtonMail account.

6. Once the account transaction is verified, you will now have ProtonMail credit in your account. You can verify this by going to Settings > Payment and scrolling down to Credits.

7. Now it is time to upgrade your account using your new ProtonMail credit. To do so, return to the Upgrade menu by clicking the upgrade icon in the top right of the screen and select the plan you wish to use.

8. After selecting your plan, you will see your credit automatically applied to the amount due. Select Continue > Confirm to upgrade your account!

Note: Bitcoin payments currently do not have the ability to turn on Autopay. In order to ensure you do not receive any account usage interruptions between billing cycles, we recommend that you make your Bitcoin payment at least 24 hours before your bill is due. The credit you receive in your ProtonMail account when paying with Bitcoin never expires.

It is also possible to pay with cash. For details, please contact our support team at contact@protonmail.ch.