Use these standard facts about a power series: it is absolutely convergent at every point strictly inside its radius of convergence and divergent at every point strictly outside it. Also, the triangle inequality implies that a sum or difference of two absolutely convergent series is absolutely convergent.
Let be the radius of convergence of the coefficientwise sum. For ,
Hence .
Suppose . If , choose a finite with and choose of complex modulus . The sum series and the series both converge absolutely there, so
contradicting . Thus . Interchanging the series covers , proving the sum of power series with unequal radii of convergence rule:
The argument also covers a zero radius or an infinite larger radius. When the two radii are equal, cancellation can enlarge the radius, so the inequality of the radii matters.