This guide covers the Proton side of leaving Gmail, with its plans, screens, limits and gotchas. Changing your address on every account, and deciding how long to keep Gmail alive, works the same for every provider and lives in our general Gmail migration guide.
Pick a Plan Before You Import
Easy Switch works on every plan, including Free. What changes is how much mail fits, how many labels and filters you get, and whether desktop mail apps can connect.
| Free | Mail Plus | Proton Unlimited | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (Oct 2026) | $0 | About $4.99/month, or $3.99/month billed yearly ($47.88) | About $12.99/month, or $9.99/month billed yearly ($119.88) |
| Storage | Up to 1 GB (starts at 500 MB) | 15 GB | 500 GB |
| Addresses and custom domains | 1 address, no domain | 10 addresses, 1 domain | 15 addresses, 3 domains |
| Folders, labels, active filters | 3, 3 and 1 | Unlimited, up to 250 active filters | Unlimited, up to 250 active filters |
| Hide-my-email aliases | 10 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Bridge for desktop mail apps | No | Yes | Yes |
| Gmail accounts you can connect | 1 | Up to 3 | Up to 3 |
How to choose. Check how much space Gmail uses on Google’s storage page at one.google.com/storage. Easy Switch’s first pass fills up to 80% of your Proton storage with your newest mail, which is well under 1 GB on Free.
- Free works if your Gmail is small, or if you keep older mail in an offline archive.
- Mail Plus fits most people, with 15 GB and unlimited labels and filters.
- Unlimited makes sense if you’ll also move Drive and Photos into Proton Drive. Our Drive to Proton Drive guide covers that part.
The free plan’s 3-label limit matters. If your Gmail uses many labels, start on Mail Plus or untick most labels when you customize the import.
Set up the Account and Save Your Recovery Phrase
- Create your account at proton.me/mail and choose your address. @proton.me is the default.
- Save the password in your password manager and turn on two-factor authentication.
- In All settings, open Recovery. Save your 12-word recovery phrase or download a recovery file, and keep it somewhere other than your Proton account.
- Install the Proton Mail app on your phone, so the new inbox becomes the one you check.
Connect Gmail With Easy Switch
Do this on a computer, in the web app at mail.proton.me.
- Open Settings, then All settings, then Import via Easy Switch.
- Choose Google, then Connect to Gmail. The box to import emails is ticked by default. Untick it only if you just want forwarding and contacts.
- On Google’s permission screen, tick Select all, then click Continue. Proton warns that leaving out a permission causes an error later.
Once connected, Easy Switch does four things.
- It imports your most recent mail, up to 80% of your available Proton storage. You can’t change that amount during this first step.
- It adds your Google contacts to Proton Contacts, up to 10,000 including groups.
- It forwards future Gmail mail to Proton, for as long as the connection stays in place.
- It lets you send as your Gmail address from inside Proton.
A message you send as your Gmail address to someone outside Proton goes through Gmail’s servers and shows up in Gmail’s Sent folder. Reply from your Proton address whenever you can, which also tells people your new address.
Import Older Mail and Your Calendars
The first pass stops at the newest mail. For everything else, and for your calendars, run a second import.
- On the Import via Easy Switch page, click More import options, then Google.
- Tick Emails, Contacts and Calendars, then approve with Select all and Continue if Google asks again.
- Click Customize under Emails to pick a time range (all mail, or the last 1, 3, 6 or 12 months), change the label Proton adds to imported mail, or untick labels you don’t want.
- Under Calendars, keep the default new calendar or choose Merge with calendar to add events to one you already have.
- Review the summary and click Start import.
The import runs on Proton’s servers, so you can close the tab. Mail comes in newest first, and a big mailbox can take days. You can run only one transfer at a time from the same Gmail account. Running the same import again skips messages already imported, so a stopped import is safe to restart. Proton deletes the login details it used once the import is complete.
Easy Switch doesn’t touch Google Drive or Google Photos. Export those with Google Takeout.
How Your Gmail Labels Land in Proton
Gmail has only labels. Proton has two tools.
- Folders hold each message in one place, like a filing cabinet. They nest up to three levels.
- Labels work like Gmail’s. One message can carry several.
Easy Switch maps four Gmail places to Proton folders, which are Inbox, Sent, Drafts and Archive. Everything else goes to All Mail and keeps its Gmail labels as Proton labels. Nested Gmail labels become single flat labels that combine the parent and child names and take the parent’s color.
A few clashes stop or slow an import.
- A label and a folder can’t share a name in Proton. Rename one under Customize.
- Names longer than 100 characters can’t be imported as folders. Easy Switch warns you so you can shorten them.
- More than 2,000 folders needs a customized import.
While the connection runs, the two mailboxes stay separate. Read, unread and starred status don’t sync back to Gmail, and moving a message in one doesn’t move it in the other.
Rebuild Your Filters
Gmail filters don’t come across. Save a copy as a reference first. In Gmail, open Settings, then See all settings, then Filters and Blocked Addresses, tick your filters and click Export. You get an .xml file you can read in any text editor.
Then recreate the ones you still need in Proton.
- Open Settings, then All settings, then Proton Mail, then Filters.
- Under Custom filters, click Add filter, name it and click Next. Add conditions (such as the sender containing a domain), click Next, choose an action such as moving to a folder or applying a label, then Preview and Save.
- For anything complicated, click Add sieve filter and write the rule in Sieve, a standard filtering language.
- The free plan keeps only 1 custom filter active at a time. Paid plans allow up to 250 active filters.
- Filters can’t read the body of a message, only its headers, such as sender, recipients and subject. Gmail filters that matched words inside the email need a different rule.
- A Sieve vacation auto-reply needs a paid plan.
Use Aliases Instead of One Address Everywhere
Proton gives you three kinds of extra address. They make the next move, or the next data leak, cost you less.
- Plus addresses need no setup. Mail to yourname+shop@proton.me lands in your inbox, and you can make as many as you like. They are easy to guess, though, so they don’t hide your real address.
- Hide-my-email aliases are random addresses that forward to you. Free and Mail Plus include 10, and Unlimited has no cap. In Proton Mail on the web, click the Security center icon (the shield) in the right side panel, open Hide-my-email aliases, click New alias, then Create and copy alias. You disable or delete aliases in the Proton Pass app.
- Additional addresses come with paid plans (10 on Mail Plus). Add them under Settings, All settings, Identity and addresses, then Add Proton address. Paid plans can also use the short @pm.me domain.
SimpleLogin, the alias service, is also part of Proton and works with any mailbox. Keep your bank, government and recovery logins on your main address, so they don’t depend on one more layer.
Add Your Own Domain (Optional)
With a custom domain, you never repeat this move. If you leave Proton one day, you point the domain elsewhere and keep your address. Mail Plus includes 1 domain and Unlimited 3.
- In Proton, open Settings, then Domain names, and click Add domain. Enter the domain and click Next.
- Copy the TXT verification record into your registrar’s DNS settings, then click Next in Proton to verify it.
- Under Addresses, click Add address to create you@yourdomain.
- Back on Domain names, click Review and add both MX records. Delete your old MX records, or give Proton’s the lowest priority number.
- Add the SPF record (keep only one SPF record), all three DKIM records and a DMARC record. Proton recommends a quarantine policy for most domains.
Verification takes a few minutes to a few hours. Some providers hold on to old DNS settings for 1 to 3 days, so mail may reach your old server until then. If your registrar lets you, set the TTL to 300 while you work.
Use Thunderbird, Outlook or Apple Mail With Bridge
Proton has no direct IMAP access. Proton Mail Bridge is a desktop app that runs a small mail server on your own computer, decrypts your mail locally and hands it to your mail app over IMAP and SMTP. It needs a paid plan.
- Supported systems (Oct 2026) are 64-bit Windows 10 (22H2) and Windows 11, macOS 15 and macOS 26, and the latest Ubuntu LTS and Fedora Workstation releases.
- Setup means installing Bridge, signing in, then adding the account in your mail app with the IMAP and SMTP settings Bridge shows you.
- Phones aren’t covered. There’s no Bridge for Android or iPhone, so your phone’s built-in mail app can’t read Proton. Use the Proton Mail app there.
Finish the Move
Leave the Gmail connection running while you update your accounts. Our general guide covers the order (banks and account-recovery logins first) and how long to keep Gmail alive. To see who still writes to your old address, use Proton’s advanced search and put your Gmail address in the address field.
Not sure which accounts use your Gmail address? Our scan builds the list in your browser from files you download from Google.
When the old address has gone quiet, end the connection.
- In Proton, open Settings, then All settings, then Import via Easy Switch, and disconnect the Gmail account.
- At myaccount.google.com/linkedapps, open Proton under Access to your Google Account and remove its access.
- Delete Gmail, or keep it as a dormant account you sign in to once a year. The general guide explains both.
What Proton Can’t Do
Troubleshooting
Every New Message Arrives Twice
You probably set up Gmail forwarding to Proton before connecting Easy Switch. Turn off the forwarding in Gmail’s Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and keep the Easy Switch connection.
Some Gmail Messages Never Reach Proton
The connection only picks up mail that lands in your Gmail Inbox. Edit any Gmail filter set to skip the Inbox.
Proton Says Your Gmail Address Is Already in Use
One Gmail address can exist only once across Proton, and it can be connected to only one Proton account at a time. Disconnect it from the other account first. If you signed up for Proton VPN or Pass with that Gmail address, Proton can’t connect it at the moment.
The Import Looks Smaller Than Your Gmail
That’s expected. Proton skips duplicates, spam and trash, and compression and encryption change file sizes. Check the import report for failed messages.
Your Calendars Won’t Import
Proton allows up to 20 calendars per account. Merge the import into an existing calendar instead.