Proton Mail Keyboard Shortcuts
Proton Mail's shortcut set closely resembles Gmail's bare-letter conventions for everyday actions — C for compose, R for reply — which makes sense given how much of its target audience is switching from Gmail specifically for privacy reasons rather than dissatisfaction with the interaction model itself, so matching familiar shortcuts reduces that migration friction considerably. Where Proton Mail's shortcuts and UI genuinely diverge from a typical webmail client is around its encryption-specific features: composing a password-protected message to a non-Proton recipient, or checking a contact's encryption status, are actions with no real equivalent in Gmail or Outlook's own shortcut vocabulary, since those platforms don't build end-to-end encryption into the core compose flow as a default, first-class feature the way Proton Mail does. Because Proton Mail's encryption is applied automatically between Proton Mail users without any extra steps, most day-to-day shortcut use feels identical to any other modern webmail client, with the security-specific actions only becoming relevant for messages to external, non-Proton recipients. Journalists, activists, and anyone whose email content genuinely can't be safely stored on a server the provider itself could read tend to be the users who lean most heavily on the encryption-specific shortcuts rather than treating them as a rarely touched extra layer, since for that audience the password-protected external message feature isn't a nice-to-have but the entire reason Proton Mail was chosen over a mainstream provider in the first place. Supporting both folders and labels simultaneously is a genuine point of difference from Gmail specifically, since Gmail committed fully to a labels-only model years ago, while Proton Mail deliberately kept both systems available side by side, which matters for anyone migrating from a strictly folder-based email client who isn't ready to fully abandon that mental model just because they're switching providers for privacy reasons.
Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compose new message | C | C | Opens a new message composer, using the same bare-letter convention Gmail popularized, reflecting how much of Proton Mail's user base is coming directly from Gmail. |
| Go to Inbox | G then I | G then I | Navigates to the Inbox folder using the same two-key sequential pattern Gmail uses for folder navigation. |
| Search messages | / | / | Focuses the search bar to search across messages, matching Gmail's forward-slash search shortcut convention. |
| Go to Sent folder | G then S | G then S | Jumps straight to the Sent folder via the same two-key sequential pattern the Inbox shortcut uses, skipping a sidebar click to move between mailbox folders. |
Message Actions
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reply to sender | R | R | Opens a reply composer for the currently selected message, matching Gmail's bare-letter reply shortcut. |
| Archive selected message | E | E | Sends the selected message to Archive, pulling it out of the Inbox but leaving it fully searchable, matching Gmail's own archive convention key for key. |
| Delete selected message | # | # | Moves the selected message to Trash, matching Gmail's shortcut for the equivalent action. |
| Star/unstar selected message | S | S | Toggles a star marker on the selected message for quick visual flagging, the same single-letter convention used for starring in Gmail and several other webmail clients. |
| Toggle read/unread status | Shift+U | Shift+U | Switches the selected message between read and unread, matching Gmail's own convention for the same toggle, a handy way to flag something you've already opened as still needing a second look. |
| Apply a label to selected message | L | L | Opens a label picker for the selected message, following Proton Mail's Gmail-inspired multi-label organizational model rather than a strict single-folder filing system. |
| Move message to a folder | M | M | Opens a folder picker for moving the selected message, distinct from applying a label since Proton Mail supports both a traditional folder structure and a Gmail-style label system simultaneously. |
Encryption Privacy
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Send password-protected message to external recipient | Compose > lock icon > set password | — | Adds password protection to a message being sent to a non-Proton Mail recipient, letting them decrypt and read it only with a shared password — a feature without a real equivalent in Gmail or Outlook's standard compose flow, since it's built around Proton's end-to-end encryption model. |
| Check recipient's encryption status | Compose > recipient icon shows lock state | — | Shows whether a message to a given recipient will be automatically end-to-end encrypted (if they're also a Proton Mail user) or requires additional steps like password protection for external recipients, a status indicator unique to Proton's privacy-first compose experience. |
| Set message expiration time | Compose > expiration icon > choose duration | — | Sets a time after which the sent message automatically becomes inaccessible, even to the recipient, a self-destructing-message feature aimed at highly sensitive one-time communications where you don't want the message persisting indefinitely in anyone's inbox. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do Proton Mail's shortcuts look almost identical to Gmail's?
A large share of Proton Mail's growth has come from users migrating away from Gmail specifically for privacy and encryption reasons rather than dissatisfaction with Gmail's interaction design, so Proton Mail deliberately mirrors familiar bare-letter shortcuts (C, R, E, /) to minimize relearning friction during that switch, similar in spirit to how VSCodium mirrors VS Code's shortcuts.
Is encryption automatic between two Proton Mail users, or does it require manual setup each time?
End-to-end encryption between Proton Mail accounts is automatic and requires no manual steps from either party — it's a default, always-on feature of the platform. The manual password-protection step is specifically needed only when emailing someone who doesn't have a Proton Mail account, since there's no automatic encryption key exchange possible with a non-Proton recipient's mail provider.
Does Proton Mail's encryption mean Proton itself can't read my emails either?
For messages stored using Proton Mail's zero-access encryption, the company states it cannot read the content of encrypted emails and attachments stored on its servers, since the decryption keys are derived from your password rather than stored in a form Proton could access — though this guarantee applies specifically to the encrypted content itself, not necessarily to all metadata, and details are worth reviewing in Proton's own published security documentation for the most current specifics.
Does setting a message to expire also delete it from my own Sent folder?
Expiration behavior depends on the specific setting chosen, but self-destructing messages are generally designed to become inaccessible to both sender and recipient once the timer elapses, rather than only removing the recipient's copy — the feature is meant to genuinely limit how long sensitive content persists anywhere, not just clean up the other person's inbox while leaving your own copy retrievable indefinitely.
Can a password-protected external message still be forwarded by the recipient to someone else?
The recipient can technically forward the encrypted message, but whoever it's forwarded to would still need the original password to decrypt and read the content, since the protection is tied to the message's encryption itself rather than the specific person's inbox — forwarding alone doesn't bypass that requirement, though the original recipient could of course separately share the password if they chose to. This is an important distinction to communicate to recipients when sharing a password out of band, since the security of the whole exchange still depends on that password itself being shared safely rather than, say, sent in the same channel as the encrypted message.
Does Proton Mail support both folders and labels, or only one organizational model?
Both — Proton Mail supports a traditional single-destination folder structure alongside a Gmail-style multi-label tagging system simultaneously, letting users organize mail with whichever model (or combination of both) fits their own habits, which is a broader organizational toolkit than Gmail's labels-only approach or a strictly folder-based client like classic Outlook.