{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "proton",
 "name": "Proton",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "proton.me",
 "category": "IT & Productivity",
 "task": "Security, backup & privacy",
 "summary": "Privacy-first suite from the makers of ProtonMail — encrypted mail, calendar, drive, VPN and password manager under one account, with a free tier and paid bundles.",
 "best_for": "teams and individuals for whom encryption is an actual requirement rather than a preference — handling client material, legal or medical files, or anything where a provider being able to read your data is itself the problem",
 "skip_if": "you mainly need cheap capacity or deep collaboration features, where the mainstream drives give more space and better co-editing per euro, or you would be paying for the Mail and VPN half of the bundle without using it",
 "honest_knock": "Storage is the axis, and the jump from Drive Plus to Unlimited is not really about storage at all: you go from 200 GB to 500 GB, but you also start paying for Mail, Calendar, Pass and VPN whether or not you wanted them. If all you need is encrypted file storage, the bundle is where the money leaks. The other thing to price honestly is the encryption itself — end-to-end encryption is the reason to be here, and it is also why per-gigabyte this costs more than the mainstream drives. That is a fair trade if privacy is the requirement, and a poor one if you just want cheap space.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$3.99",
  "entry_price_terms": "Mail Plus · per month billed yearly ($47.88 a year; $4.99 month to month)",
  "from_price_usd_month": 3.99,
  "plans": null,
  "plans_source": null,
  "notes": "(read 2026-08-26 on proton.me/pricing over a US connection, on the Mail tab with yearly billing) Free is $0.00 a month for 1 GB and one address. Mail Plus is $3.99 a month, marked 20% off $4.99 and billed at $47.88 every twelve months, for 15 GB, ten addresses and one custom domain. Unlimited is $9.99 a month, 23% off $12.99, billed at $119.88 a year, for 500 GB, fifteen addresses, three domains and the VPN, password manager and Drive storage. Those are the default figures an American is shown; the page also has a currency selector, and picking euros gives euro amounts rather than a conversion of these. Re-read on 11 October 2026 in euros, on the Mail and business pricing pages with both billing options: the euro page prints the same numbers as the dollar ladder above (Mail Plus 3.99 a month billed at 47.88 a year or 4.99 monthly, Unlimited 9.99 billed at 119.88 a year or 12.99 monthly), and the business per-user prices (see the business paragraph below) are unchanged from our 18 August reading, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.",
  "verified_at": "2026-10-11",
  "source_url": null
 },
 "free_plan": true,
 "free_plan_evidence": "(read 2026-08-26 on proton.me/pricing over a US connection, on the Mail tab with yearly billing) Free is $0.00 a month for 1 GB and one address.",
 "cost_traps": [
  {
   "id": "per_seat",
   "label": "Per-seat pricing",
   "evidence": "Re-read on 11 October 2026 in euros, on the Mail and business pricing pages with both billing options: the euro page prints the same numbers as the dollar ladder above (Mail Plus 3.99 a month billed at 47.88 a year or 4.99 monthly, Unlimited 9.99 billed at 119.88 a year or 12.99 monthly), and the business per-user prices (see the business paragraph below) are unchanged from our 18 August reading, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.",
   "verified_at": "2026-10-11",
   "source_url": null
  }
 ],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "Internxt",
  "why": "the other privacy-first storage we cover — Proton's advantage is the surrounding suite and a long track record; compare on whether you want the bundle or only the drive, because that is what you are really choosing between"
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/proton.json",
  "review": "https://officesoftwaremarketplace.com/proton-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/proton/",
  "vendor_site": "https://proton.me"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://now.getproton.me/xtd5ynchlrma",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Plan-by-plan prices are not structured in this record yet; pricing.notes has the full text.",
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "proton:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "proton:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "proton:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "proton:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}