Does Proton Mail Hide or Log Your IP Address?

This page is part of the Proton Mail FAQ Hub.

Does Proton hide your IP from the people you email?

Does Proton Mail hide your IP address from your recipients? Yes, and this is a real advantage over older setups. Many email systems stamp the sender’s originating IP into the message headers, so anyone receiving your mail can read roughly where it came from. Proton strips that out, so the person on the other end sees Proton’s servers, not your home or office connection.

That protection is automatic and needs no configuration. It shuts down a surprisingly common way that ordinary people get located by other ordinary people, from disputes to harassment. It does not, on its own, address what Proton itself might hold about your connections.

Does Proton log your IP address internally?

By default, Proton does not keep a permanent record of your IP address. The privacy policy is built around retaining as little as possible, and connection details are not stored as a standing log of where you have been. This is a deliberate contrast with providers that treat your location history as an asset to be mined.

The honest caveat is that some transient handling of an IP is unavoidable for any online service to function at the moment of connection. The meaningful distinction is between processing something briefly and retaining it forever. Proton aims not to retain, which is what matters when an order eventually lands.

When can Proton be forced to start logging?

This is the exception people should understand clearly. Under a specific, valid Swiss court order naming an account, Proton can be compelled to begin logging a targeted account and its IP address from that point forward. It is prospective, not a magic window into the past, because data that was never retained cannot be produced.

That is exactly the mechanism behind the 2021 case, where a binding Swiss order required Proton to record the IP of one named account. Wikipedia and Proton both document that Proton can be legally compelled to log IP addresses in a Swiss criminal matter. It is targeted, lawful and narrow, not blanket monitoring of every user.

How do you make sure there is nothing to log?

If your threat model is serious, do not rely on the default alone. The cleanest approach removes your real IP from the equation entirely, so that even a forward-looking logging order captures nothing that leads back to you.

Done properly, an order to log your IP simply records the exit of Tor or your VPN, which points nowhere useful. Done carelessly, it captures you on the day you forgot. The tool cooperates; the discipline is yours.

• Connect through Tor or a trustworthy VPN every time, including the very first sign-up.
• Be consistent, since a single login from your true IP can undo the rest.
• Treat the VPN provider’s own logging policy as part of your chain, not an afterthought.

So what is the realistic picture?

For everyday use, Proton hides your IP from recipients and declines to build a standing log of it, which already puts you ahead of most inboxes. Proton Mail Plus does not change this calculus; it adds features like custom domains while the connection-privacy behaviour stays the same across plans.

For high-stakes situations, treat the default as a strong foundation you finish yourself with Tor or a VPN. At BAIZAAR we would rather explain the one narrow exception than let you believe your IP is untouchable. It nearly is, and knowing the edge case is the whole point.

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