Stillcode › Two-factor authentication › Proton
Proton sends you nothing: no text, no call, no mailbox fallback. What that leaves you holding, where its own instructions are, and what happens when the device holding your codes is gone.
These are the second factors Proton offers on proton.me. Which ones you
see can depend on your plan and your country;
what each of the seven actually costs you is set out once.
| Method | What it is | |
|---|---|---|
| Authenticator app (TOTP) | Supported | Computed on your own device; nothing is sent to produce it. |
| Hardware security key | Supported | A physical key you tap; the one option phishing does not beat. |
| SMS text message | Not offered | Texted to your number, so your carrier is part of the lock. |
Proton's own caveat, as recorded in the directory: TOTP must be enabled to use a hardware token.
Data sourced from 2FA Directory by 2factorauth. Snapshot 2026-09-24.
Proton offers no SMS or voice option at all. That is worth noticing rather than skipping past: it removes the SIM-swap route onto the account entirely, and it means an authenticator app is the baseline here, not an upgrade.
A hardware security key is also accepted. It is stronger than any code, because a code can be typed into a convincing fake page and a key cannot. The usual arrangement is a key as the primary factor and an authenticator app as the backup that fits in a pocket.
Of the fifty services on this site, twelve send you nothing at all — no text, no voice call, no email fallback,
and Proton is one of them. Five of the fifty accept exactly this combination, so the same
decision comes up on four other
services here. No other service here carries the email label at all.
The directory files Proton under email, backup, vpn and identity, records two of the seven second
factors it tracks, and points at instructions published at
proton.me/support/two-factor-authentication-2fa.
Proton is proton.me, and the same account also signs you in at
pm.me, protonmail.com, protonvpn.com. Two-factor authentication
is a property of the account, not of the address you happened to type — switch it on once
and every one of those is covered. That also means losing the second factor loses all of them at
once.
Proton's own instructions: Proton — two-factor authentication — linked, never copied, because a stale menu path here locks people out.
Proton publishes no dedicated page for losing your second factor, which in practice means the route back is ordinary account recovery: proving who you are to support, on their timetable.
Background: how the codes work · what still works when the phone is gone.
An iPhone, iPad and Mac authenticator for these codes that makes no network calls at all. What is free and what Pro adds. Get it on the App Store