Lumosity is polished, genuinely cross-platform, and fairly priced at $59.99 a year. It is a solid choice if you want a well-known app you can use on your phone and computer. But newer rivals personalize more deeply, and several cost less, so it is no longer the automatic pick it once was.
For many people, Lumosity is brain training — the app that defined the category, with well over 100 million users since 2007. We spent real time with it to answer one question: in 2026, does the famous name still hold up against newer competition?
What Lumosity is
Lumosity is a cognitive-training platform on iOS, Android, and the web. Its core is a library of 40-plus games across memory, attention, problem-solving, speed, and flexibility. A free “Fit Test” sets your baseline, and the app builds daily workouts from the catalog, with progress synced across your devices.
Its real strengths are breadth and familiarity. After more than fifteen years of refinement, the games are polished and the daily workout flow is smooth. If you only want a quick daily puzzle rather than a full workout, our list of daily brain games like Wordle covers lighter options.
What works, what to know
- A large, varied library of 40+ games
- Genuinely cross-platform with synced progress
- Polished after more than a decade of iteration
- Works on desktop, not just mobile
- Usable free tier with three games a day
- Personalization shallower than newer apps
- Costs more than Elevate and Peak
- 2016 FTC settlement over past advertising claims
- Free games are chosen for you
What it costs
In the US, Lumosity Premium costs $11.99 per month or $59.99 per year, according to its App Store listing. A lifetime option around $299.95 appears at times, and family plans cover up to five people. Prices vary by country and between in-app and web purchases, so check before you buy.
At $59.99, Lumosity sits in the middle of the market. It costs more than Elevate at $39.99 and Peak at about $34.99, but less than BrainHQ at $96 and CogniFit. For the full breakdown, see our Lumosity cost guide.
It is worth knowing some history, too: in 2016, Lumos Labs, the company behind Lumosity, paid $2 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it made unfounded claims that its games could help users perform better at work and school and delay age-related cognitive decline. The app today is competent and its marketing more measured — but it is a useful reminder to treat bold cognitive-benefit claims skeptically. Our guide on whether brain training works covers what the science genuinely supports. If you are wondering whether an app beats a daily crossword, our comparison of brain training apps vs crosswords looks at what the research says about each.
How it scores
On our five-criterion framework, Lumosity scores well on engagement and platform availability, moderately on personalization, science, and price-to-value. The weighted result is 7.4 out of 10, above our threshold and ahead of CogniFit, but behind the more adaptive and better-evidenced apps in our roundup.
The bottom line
Lumosity is not a bad app. It is polished, varied, genuinely cross-platform, and reasonably priced at $59.99 a year. Choose it if you want a familiar app you can use on your phone and computer alike. If you want training that adapts more deeply to you, or a stronger research foundation, newer rivals do more, and some cost less. Start with the free tier or our Lumosity free trial guide, and see our full roundup for where we would point you.
For direct comparisons, see BrainHQ vs Lumosity and Lumosity vs Elevate. If you are still deciding whether to pay, our guide on whether Lumosity is worth it covers who should subscribe and who should stay on the free account.