Proton Drive
Cloud Drive Switzerland
End-to-end encrypted cloud storage for private, secure file sharing. Alternative to Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Photos, and OneDrive.
Details
Proton Drive is the cloud storage service of Proton AG in Geneva, the company behind Proton Mail, and it works on the same model: files, photos and documents are end-to-end encrypted on the device before upload, so Proton cannot read them. Apps cover Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and the web.
The free plan holds 5 GB. Drive Plus costs USD 4.99 a month for 200 GB and keeps previous file versions for up to ten years; Proton Unlimited adds the VPN, Mail, Calendar and Pass with 500 GB. Share links can carry passwords and expiry dates. The phone apps back up the camera roll automatically, and shared albums let people without a Proton account view photos or add their own. Encrypted document and spreadsheet editors run inside Drive.
The encryption is also the limit. Proton cannot index what it cannot see, so photos are not recognised by face or object, and the library is browsed by timeline, filters and albums instead.
About Proton
Proton AG is a Swiss stock corporation at Route de la Galaise 32, 1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, registered as CHE-354.686.492. Its terms of service are governed by the substantive laws of Switzerland and give the courts of the Canton of Geneva exclusive jurisdiction for business users and for consumers outside the United States. The company launched in 2014 after a crowdfunding campaign in which more than 10,000 people put up over USD 500,000.
The primary shareholder is the Proton Foundation, a Geneva non-profit that founder Andy Yen, co-founder Jason Stockman and first employee Dingchao Lu endowed with their own shares in June 2024; its first board of trustees included Tim Berners-Lee. Proton says employees hold the large majority of the remaining shares, with the rest split between the Geneva technology foundation FONGIT and Proton users. Innosuisse and the European Commission have both supported the company and hold neither shares nor control.
Proton reports more than 100 million accounts and over 600 staff across nine offices: Geneva, Zurich, Skopje, Taipei, Vilnius, London, Barcelona, Paris and Prague. The line-up covers Mail, Calendar, Drive, VPN, Pass, Meet, Docs and Sheets, Authenticator, Wallet and the Lumo assistant, and the client apps are open source.
In July 2025 Proton said it was moving most of its physical infrastructure out of Switzerland and putting more than EUR 100 million into the EU, starting with Lumo. It objected to a proposed revision of the Swiss VÜPF surveillance ordinance that would oblige services above 5,000 users to identify customers and retain metadata for six months. The new capacity is going to Germany and Norway.
