For most people, Elevate wins. It costs about a third less, and it practices everyday skills like reading, writing, and math rather than abstract puzzles, though evidence that either app’s gains carry over outside it is limited. Choose Lumosity if you specifically want its broader mix of abstract games or access on a computer.
Lumosity and Elevate are two of the most downloaded brain training apps in the world, and they could hardly be more different. One throws a vast catalog of abstract games at you; the other drills a focused set of practical skills. We compared both hands-on.
Head to head
| App | Best for | Price (annual) | Rating | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elevate | Everyday skill practice | ~$40/yr | 8.4 | iOS, Android |
| Lumosity | Broad game variety | $59.99/yr | 7.4 | iOS, Android, Web |
The core difference
Lumosity is broad and abstract — 40-plus games designed to exercise cognition in general. Elevate is narrow and practical — it trains writing, reading, mental math, and speaking, skills you use every day. Almost everything else follows from that distinction.
Price — Elevate is cheaper
Elevate Pro costs $39.99 per year. Lumosity Premium costs $59.99 per year in the US, about 50% more. Both offer a free tier of three games a day, chosen for you. Elevate has a standard 7-day trial, while Lumosity’s trials appear as occasional promotions. On price, Elevate wins.
Approach — which actually helps?
Lumosity’s abstract games run into the transfer problem: getting better at a brain game often does not make you better at anything outside it. Our guide on whether brain training works goes deep on this.
Elevate takes a different route: it practices everyday skills like reading, writing, and math, so the exercises at least resemble tasks you care about. That does not make the transfer question go away. A major 2016 review of brain training research found little evidence that training improves everyday cognitive performance, and we found no controlled trial showing that Elevate’s gains carry over outside the app. Still, if you want practice that looks like your daily tasks, Elevate is the stronger choice. Lumosity’s counterargument is variety — if you simply enjoy a wide rotation of games as a habit, it delivers more of that.
Which should you choose?
- Choose Elevate if you want to practice everyday skills like writing and math, you write or present for work, or you want a fair price and a genuinely useful free tier.
- Choose Lumosity if you want a broad mix of abstract games, you need access on a computer, or variety for its own sake keeps you training, and you are comfortable paying about $20 a year more.
The honest verdict
For most people, Elevate is the better choice: cheaper, and focused on everyday skills rather than abstract puzzles. But neither is our top pick overall. That is BrainHQ, which has the deepest research record in brain training, though it costs $96 a year and feels dated. See our full roundup before deciding.