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 practices everyday skills (writing, math, vocabulary) instead of abstract puzzles. The catches: evidence that the gains carry over outside the app is limited, and if you want general “cognitive training,” other apps do more. Elevate is the right pick for practical skill practice, 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 will get better at Elevate’s exercises. Whether that improvement carries over outside the app is less clear. A major 2016 review of brain training research found that training reliably improves the trained tasks but shows little benefit for distantly related tasks or everyday performance. The only peer-reviewed Elevate study we found, a 2025 survey of 3,367 Elevate users, linked more use to users’ own reports of better reading, writing, and math. But it measured how people felt rather than testing their skills, it had no control group, and several of its authors work for or consult for Elevate’s maker, The Mind Company.
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: you will get better at the practical exercises it gives you, but evidence that those gains carry over outside the app is limited. And there is no good evidence 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 $39.99 a year?
Here is the honest math. Elevate Pro costs $39.99 a year (about $3.33 a month), or $9.99 if you pay month to month. That is:
Cheaper than: BrainHQ ($96/year) and Lumosity ($59.99/year), and comparable to Peak (about $35/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?” For plan-by-plan pricing, see our Elevate app cost breakdown.
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 with visible progress in the app 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 an established developer. Its App Store listing names the seller as Elevate Labs, LLC and the developer as The Mind Company, which also makes the Balance meditation app. 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: on par with Lumosity’s three free games a day, and far more useful than Calm’s, which is designed as a sample.
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 ($39.99/year)
- 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. Our full Elevate app review covers its strengths and limitations in more depth.
Elevate versus the alternatives
Elevate versus Lumosity: Elevate wins on price, and its exercises practice everyday skills rather than abstract puzzles, though evidence that either app’s gains carry over outside it is limited. Lumosity has a broader mix of abstract games but costs $59.99/year. Our Lumosity vs Elevate comparison puts the two side by side.
Elevate versus BrainHQ: BrainHQ has deeper science but costs more than double and feels dated. Elevate is easier to use daily. Our Elevate vs BrainHQ comparison covers prices, free options, and the research in detail.
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.
Zenelia is a brain training app made by Mindkindly’s owner, so we don’t rank or score it here. It costs $6.99 a month or $44.99 a year, has a 7-day free trial, and is iPhone only for now; read more about Zenelia or see it on the App Store.
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, as long as you treat it as skill practice rather than a proven boost to everyday performance.
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 practices real skills you actually use, like reading, writing, and math, rather than abstract puzzles. Evidence that those gains carry over outside the app is still limited, so treat it as skill practice, not a proven upgrade. 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, Peak offers broader game variety at a similar price, and BrainHQ has deeper science, though it costs more than double. Try Elevate’s genuinely useful free tier for two weeks, decide from actual use whether you keep opening it, and only then consider paying.