Yes — Elevate is genuinely worth it for the right person. At around $40/year, it is one of the smartest brain training apps because it trains practical skills (writing, math, vocabulary) that transfer directly to real life. The catch: if you want general “cognitive training,” other apps do more. Elevate is the right pick for practical skill sharpening, not broad brain training.
Elevate is one of the most-downloaded brain training apps in the world and has picked up a former Apple App of the Year award. If you have been wondering whether it is actually worth paying for — or whether the free version is enough — here is an honest, hands-on assessment.
Does Elevate actually work?
This is the most important question, and the honest answer is more nuanced than “yes” or “no.”
What Elevate genuinely does: it trains practical, real-world skills — concise writing, careful reading, mental math, vocabulary, listening comprehension, precision speaking. Practice these consistently and you get better at them. That is a small but genuine claim, and it is one of the few things in the brain training category that has real evidence behind it, because the transfer is by definition — you are practicing the skill directly.
What Elevate does not do: it will not make you broadly “smarter.” It will not fix attention problems by itself. It will not measurably improve your general cognitive ability in ways that show up in unrelated tasks.
So the honest answer to “does Elevate work” is: yes, for the practical skills it trains. No, for the broader claims some users assume brain training apps deliver.
For the fuller picture on brain training research, see our guide on whether brain training apps actually work.
Is the subscription worth $40/year?
Here is the honest math. Elevate Pro costs around $40 per year (roughly $5/month). That is:
Cheaper than: BrainHQ ($96/year), Lumosity ($109.99/year), and comparable to Zenelia ($44.99/year) and Peak ($35-40/year).
About the same as: a couple of good books, or two months of a streaming service. Whether that is expensive depends on your context.
The question is not really “is $40 a lot” — it is “will I use it enough to justify the cost?”
Worth $40/year if:
- You write, present, or communicate for work and want sharper skills
- You are studying, learning a new field, or preparing for exams
- You want a daily habit that produces visible improvement over weeks
- You will actually open the app 4+ times a week
Not worth $40/year if:
- You will use it once and forget
- You want the app to fundamentally change how your brain works
- You want abstract puzzle games rather than practical skill practice
- The free tier already gives you what you need (more on this below)
Is Elevate legit?
Yes — Elevate is a legitimate, well-built app from a reputable company (now owned by Applause Group). It has millions of downloads, generally strong reviews, and a real product. It is not a scam, not a data-harvesting operation posing as a brain trainer, and not a stripped-down freemium wrapper.
The most common reason people wonder if it is “legit” is that they downloaded it, tried it briefly, did not notice dramatic changes, and wondered if they were being scammed. That is not evidence Elevate is a bad app. That is evidence that brain training results — like exercise, meditation, or language learning — take weeks and consistent effort to become noticeable.
What is Elevate’s free tier actually like?
Elevate’s free tier is genuinely usable — more so than Lumosity’s or Calm’s, which are more clearly designed as samples.
Free users get a few full games each day. Not locked previews, not 30-second teasers — real, complete exercises. For a casual user who wants to sharpen practical skills without paying, the free version has real, lasting value.
For a comparison of what free brain training apps genuinely deliver, see our best free brain training apps roundup.
Try the free version first. Give it two weeks. If you find yourself opening the app daily and wanting more content, the subscription is worth it. If you forget about it, the subscription would not have saved you.
Where Elevate falls short
- Trains real, workplace-relevant skills
- Excellent, polished design
- Generous free tier — a real product on its own
- Reasonably priced (~$40/year)
- Practical transfer to daily life is genuine
- Well-calibrated difficulty progression
- Narrow scope — mostly language and math
- Leans heavily on English proficiency
- Little visual, spatial, or memory training
- Advanced users may hit a ceiling
- Feedback can feel thin on some games
Elevate’s biggest limitation is scope. It is excellent at what it does but focused: writing, reading, math, and communication. If you want broad cognitive variety — visual processing, spatial reasoning, deep memory training — you will need a different app.
Elevate versus the alternatives
Elevate versus Zenelia: Different strengths. Elevate trains practical skills; Zenelia trains general cognition with adaptive AI and comfort mode for accessibility. Both are similarly priced ($40 vs $44.99/year). For workplace skills, Elevate. For broad cognitive training, Zenelia.
Elevate versus Lumosity: Elevate wins on price and on real-world transfer. Lumosity has the larger catalog but costs $110/year and its abstract games face the transfer problem more directly.
Elevate versus BrainHQ: BrainHQ has deeper science but costs more than double and feels dated. Elevate is easier to use daily.
Elevate versus Peak: Similarly priced. Peak has broader game variety; Elevate has sharper practical focus.
For the full head-to-head across all major apps, see our best brain training apps roundup.
So — is Elevate worth it?
Yes, if you want to sharpen practical skills you actually use — writing, reading, math, vocabulary — and you will open the app several times a week. At $40/year, the value is genuine and the transfer is real.
No, if you want abstract “brain training” or expect dramatic cognitive changes. Elevate is honest about what it is; users who bring the wrong expectations to it come away disappointed.
Try free first. Elevate’s free tier is one of the most useful in the category — spend two weeks with it before paying. If you find yourself using it daily and wanting more content, upgrade. If not, you know without spending a cent.
The bottom line
Elevate is one of the smartest apps in brain training because it sidesteps the biggest weakness of the category — the transfer problem — by training real skills you actually use. At around $40/year it is a fair price for what it delivers. But it is not the app to buy if you want general cognitive training; for that, Zenelia at $44.99/year with adaptive AI is a better fit. Try Elevate’s genuinely useful free tier for two weeks, decide from actual use whether you keep opening it, and only then consider paying.