The McAfee+ and Total Protection plans are the products through which McAfee sells its consumer security software in the United States. The lineup mixes product names that reflect different generations. McAfee+ is the current brand for plans that combine antivirus, scam protection, VPN and identity features. McAfee Total Protection is the name carried by the five-device Essential plan page.[3] The License Agreement and the offer terms also mention McAfee LiveSafe, which means asset records may contain several product names for what is functionally the same kind of subscription.[4]
This article describes what each plan covers on the date shown in the infobox. The plan pages are undated and McAfee changes introductory offers frequently, so figures are a snapshot and must be re-checked before they are used for budgeting.
Individual plans
The Individual plans page lists three McAfee+ plans, each sold for “unlimited devices” and “1 user”, and a lower-priced Basic plan.[1]
| Plan | Devices | Users | First-term price | Crossed-out price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 1 | 1 | USD 29.99 | USD 89.99 |
| Essential (Total Protection) | 5 | 1 | USD 39.99 | USD 119.99 |
| Premium | Unlimited | 1 | USD 49.99 | USD 149.99 |
| Advanced | Unlimited | 1 | USD 89.99 | USD 199.99 |
| Ultimate | Unlimited | 1 | USD 199.99 | USD 279.99 |
The Basic, Premium, Advanced and Ultimate figures come from the Individual plans page, and the Essential figures from the Total Protection page.[1][3] The prices are described as the first-term price and “Introductory Pricing for new customers”. They are not the amounts a subscriber pays at renewal. The offer terms say that a savings amount describes the difference between the introductory first-term price, which is available only to customers without an existing McAfee subscription, and the renewal price.[4]
Feature tiers
The plan comparison table gives the same core protections to the Essential, Premium, Advanced and Ultimate plans: Scam Detector, antivirus, Secure VPN, identity monitoring and alerts, web protection and Social Privacy Manager. The differences are in the personal data and financial features. Premium shows personal info and online account scans, while Advanced and Ultimate show personal info and online account removal. All three list bank and credit card transaction monitoring, credit score, report and monitoring, identity restoration support, credit lock and security freeze, monitoring of 401(k), investment and loan transactions, and McAfee Assist protection setup.[1]
Identity theft coverage is the clearest tier difference. The Individual plans page shows up to USD 1M for Premium and Advanced and up to USD 2M for Ultimate, while the Total Protection page shows up to USD 2M beside Advanced.[1][3] The Product Terms of Service say the customer can confirm the amount of their coverage within the McAfee product,[10] so the in-product amount, not the marketing page, is the figure to record. The terms are discussed in identity, privacy and support services.
Family plans
The Family plans page shows the Advanced Family plan at USD 119.99 for the first year, with a crossed-out price of USD 269.99, for all devices and six family members.[2] The page describes the plan as covering up to two adults and four children under 18. A lower-priced family plan for five devices is shown at USD 39.99 for the first year.[2]
Family members are invited by the subscription holder to create a McAfee account and take part at no added cost. The License Agreement tells invitees that the subscription holder may be able to see limited information about them, including name, type of device protected and Protection Score.[8] The License Agreement also says that a user under 18 may use the software only where a parent has agreed on their behalf as part of a family plan.[8]
What “unlimited devices” means
The unlimited plans do not have a numeric cap, but the offer terms limit them: plans with unlimited device protection cover only household devices the subscriber owns for personal, non-commercial use and are subject to the fair use policy. Subscriptions covering “all” devices are limited to supported devices the subscriber owns.[4] The License Agreement gives the same limit in different words: unlimited device plans cover only devices each licensed user owns for personal, non-commercial use, and McAfee reserves the right to stop abuse.[8] An organisation cannot treat an unlimited plan as a licence for its employees’ or customers’ devices. The corresponding catalog metric is Unlimited household devices.
Supported devices
A device is eligible only if it meets the system requirements. For McAfee+ and Total Protection the page lists Windows 11 and Windows 10 (RS5) and newer on x64 processors, Windows 11 and newer on ARM64, macOS 13.x and above, Android 10 or higher, iOS 16 or later and ChromeOS 102.0.5005 and higher, with 2 GB RAM, 1.3 GB free drive space and a 1 GHz processor.[6] The License Agreement puts the responsibility for keeping devices up to date and meeting requirements on the user.[8] Older products have narrower lists. McAfee AntiVirus, for instance, is listed for Windows only.[6]
Trials and activation
McAfee advertises a 30-day free trial of Total Protection with no charge on the day of sign-up and says the user should cancel up to seven days before the trial ends to avoid being charged.[5] The offer terms give the amounts for one trial: at the end of the trial the customer is charged USD 39.99 for the first term, then renews at the renewal price, shown in the terms as USD 109.99 per year at the time of retrieval, with the charge made seven days before renewal.[4] A trial bundled with a new device is overridden if the user already has a subscription on their email address.[8]
Subscriptions sold at retail are activated by redeeming a product key from a Retail Card or eCard at mcafee.com/activate and then downloading the app from My Account.[4] Subscriptions bought through an app store or retailer follow the store’s terms for refunds, as the renewals article explains.
Small business
McAfee Business Protection is described as a small business product exclusively available with Dell PCs: a buyer purchases an eligible Dell PC (Latitude, Precision or OptiPlex, or a Windows Pro option on an Inspiron or XPS). The page describes a security console, a Business Protection Score and automatic policy enforcement.[7] The License Agreement allows use of small business products on devices used for internal business operations by employees, up to the product’s device or user limit.[8] The McAfee pages do not publish a list price or a device limit for the product, so those values come from the order.
Secure VPN
Secure VPN is listed as a feature of every plan, including Basic, and the VPN page advertises a price of USD 29.99 per year that matches the Basic plan.[9] The License Agreement applies a fair use policy to VPN use: the user must not impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on McAfee’s infrastructure, and McAfee may suspend the VPN function without liability if the policy is breached.[8]
Out of scope
This article does not cover regional price lists, mobile-carrier or retailer bundles, or terms outside the United States, where plan names, device counts and consumer protections differ. Standalone utilities and mobile apps were not separately reviewed.