The honest version of the title above is "22 brain training apps, of which roughly two have meaningful evidence behind them and the rest are entertainment that may incidentally sharpen specific skills". Brain training is a genuinely useful category — just much more narrowly than the marketing claims. Almost none of these apps will make you "smarter" in any general sense. Several will reliably improve specific cognitive tasks, and a handful are worth your time as part of a broader cognitive-health routine.
What the research actually shows, summarised cleanly: brain training improves performance on the specific tasks being trained, and that improvement transfers narrowly to closely related tasks. It rarely transfers to general intelligence, fluid reasoning, or unrelated cognitive domains. The 2025 reviews are consistent on this — only one platform (BrainHQ) has multiple high-quality studies with effect sizes worth talking about, and even then the real-world transfer is contested.
The list below mixes the genuinely evidence-backed apps with the better-designed entertainment-leaning ones, with each entry honest about which camp it sits in. None of these is a substitute for the things that actually preserve cognitive function across decades — cardiovascular exercise, sleep, social engagement, learning new skills, managing blood pressure and blood sugar. Use the apps as a supplement, not a replacement, and you'll get sensible value from them.
1. BrainHQ
The single brain training app with substantial, independently-funded research behind it. BrainHQ exercises have been used in more than 300 studies, including the large ACTIVE trial which found that speed-of-processing training (the lineage that became BrainHQ) reduced dementia risk in older adults over a ten-year follow-up. That's not a claim other apps can make.
Best for: Older adults concerned about cognitive aging, anyone wanting evidence-based attention and processing-speed training. Subscription required; the structure is more clinical than gamey.
2. Lumosity
The most widely-marketed brain trainer, and the one that paid a $2 million FTC settlement in 2016 for overstating its cognitive benefits. The games themselves are well-designed; the claims around them remain weaker than the marketing implies. Use it as a daily cognitive warm-up, not a treatment.
Best for: People who enjoy short, varied puzzle sessions and don't mind paying for polish.
3. Elevate
Focused more narrowly on language and math micro-skills — vocabulary, reading speed, mental arithmetic, written-language patterns. Because the tasks are closer to real-world skills than abstract cognitive games, the within-task improvement is more directly useful. You will get genuinely better at the things you practise.
Best for: Writers, communicators, anyone wanting to sharpen everyday verbal and numerical skills.
4. Peak
A well-designed mixed-puzzle platform with a coaching layer that adapts difficulty over time. Visually polished, easy to develop a streak with. The evidence base is the standard brain-training one — narrow transfer, real but limited.
Best for: Habit-builders who'll show up for a 10-minute daily session.
5. CogniFit
Sits between consumer entertainment and clinical cognitive assessment, offering tests and training across multiple cognitive domains. Used in some research settings, which lends it more credibility than the pure-game competitors, though "used in research" is not the same as "shown to work".
Best for: People who want measurement-heavy training with detailed feedback over time.
6. NeuroNation
German-developed, with university research partnerships behind some of its exercises. Trains attention, memory, and reasoning across short structured sessions. The most useful feature is the ability to focus on specific cognitive areas rather than the spray-and-pray approach of other apps.
Best for: Targeted practice if you know which cognitive areas you want to sharpen.
7. Brilliant
Strictly speaking not a brain-training app — Brilliant teaches math, computer science, and scientific reasoning through interactive problem-solving. But the effect on cognition is real and durable, because you're actually learning transferable skills rather than performing isolated cognitive tasks. The honest "make you smarter" candidate on this list.
Best for: Anyone who wants to actually learn rather than just train. Twenty minutes a day for six months will produce real and visible gains.
8. Khan Academy
Similar logic: not a brain-training app, but if you spend 15 minutes a day working through math or science material slightly above your current level, the cognitive benefits dwarf anything you'd get from a dedicated brain-training game. Free, comprehensive, and one of the better uses of your screen time.
Best for: Filling specific knowledge gaps or systematically learning a subject from the ground up.
9. Duolingo
Language learning is one of the few activities consistently associated with measurable cognitive benefits, including a reduced rate of cognitive decline in older adults. Duolingo's gamification has its critics — the streak pressure can become more important than the learning — but the underlying activity (regular exposure to a new language) is genuinely good for the brain.
Best for: Anyone who wants a cognitively beneficial daily habit with a clear external goal (a holiday, a family connection, work) attached.
10. Memrise
A more spaced-repetition-heavy language and vocabulary tool, less gamey than Duolingo and arguably better for actually retaining what you learn. The cognitive benefits are similar — vocabulary acquisition in a foreign language is a strong cognitive workout.
Best for: Vocabulary-heavy language learning, with a focus on retention over streak-keeping.
11. Anki
The serious-learner choice. Anki is a free, open-source spaced-repetition flashcard system used by medical students, language learners, and people committing large amounts of structured information to long-term memory. Not gamey, not pretty, deeply effective. The cognitive workout is in the construction of cards, not just the review.
Best for: Anyone with a specific knowledge domain to master — a language, a curriculum, a body of professional information.
12. Chess.com / Lichess
Chess training isn't usually marketed as "brain training", but it's a genuinely demanding cognitive activity that improves pattern recognition, working memory, and decision-making under pressure. Lichess is free and excellent. Chess.com has the larger community and the better tutorial structure.
Best for: People who want a deep, lifelong cognitive challenge rather than a daily 10-minute puzzle.
13. Sudoku and crossword apps
Old-school cognitive exercises with surprisingly decent evidence behind them — daily puzzle activity is associated with better cognitive function in later life. Pick a sudoku app and a crossword app (the New York Times Crossword is the gold standard if you can afford the subscription) and call it a useful 20 minutes a day.
Best for: Low-tech, sustainable daily mental engagement.
14. Headspace
Meditation rather than brain training, but the cognitive benefits — particularly to attention, working memory, and ability to disengage from rumination — are real and reasonably well-documented. Headspace has solid research partnerships and a tested progression of practices for new meditators.
Best for: Beginners who want a structured ramp into mindfulness. See also our broader take on the power of meditation.
15. Calm
Headspace's main competitor, broader content library (sleep stories, music, breathwork), more lifestyle-oriented. The meditation programmes themselves are well-constructed. If you find Headspace too earnest, Calm tends to feel softer.
Best for: People who want meditation embedded in a broader sleep-and-relaxation ecosystem.
16. Insight Timer
The largest free library of guided meditations, with a stronger emphasis on teacher diversity than the subscription apps. Useful once you've outgrown the introductory ramps and want exposure to different traditions and teachers.
Best for: Established meditators looking to broaden their practice.
17. Forest
A focus app rather than a brain trainer — you plant a virtual tree that dies if you leave the app. The behavioural mechanism is silly and effective. Sustained-focus practice is itself a cognitive workout, and Forest is one of the better tools for it.
Best for: Anyone whose phone use is fragmenting their attention. Pair with our time management hacks for the structural complement.
18. Freeform / Notability / Obsidian
Note-taking and personal knowledge management is a cognitive workout most people underrate. Building a structured second brain — through Obsidian's linked notes, Notability's freeform sketching, or Apple's Freeform — exercises memory, synthesis, and pattern recognition in ways no game does.
Best for: Information workers, students, anyone whose work involves making sense of complex material.
19. The Great Courses Plus / Wondrium
University-level lecture courses on tap. Listening to a dense lecture and taking notes is a substantial cognitive workout, and the breadth of subjects available means you can keep finding new topics to engage with for years.
Best for: Lifelong learners; particularly good for older adults wanting cognitively-engaging content as part of a daily routine.
20. Audible / Libby
Listening to substantive books — particularly non-fiction outside your normal subject area — provides regular exposure to new vocabulary, new concepts, and longer-form reasoning. Libby is free through public libraries; Audible has the bigger commercial catalogue.
Best for: Commute, exercise, or dishwashing time you'd otherwise spend on a podcast.
21. Wordle / Connections / Strands
The daily-puzzle category. None of these will transform your cognition, but they're a short, satisfying daily mental engagement, and the time investment is small enough that you'll actually keep doing them. The New York Times Games suite is the most polished version.
Best for: Anyone wanting a 5-minute morning brain warm-up.
22. Just reading harder books
Honest finishing note. Most of the cognitive benefit people are looking for from brain-training apps is more reliably available from reading dense, demanding books — fiction or non-fiction — for half an hour a day. The Kindle and Libby apps are the relevant tools. Reading at the upper edge of your comfortable difficulty consistently outperforms gamified cognitive training for actually expanding the mind.
Best for: Anyone willing to accept that the most evidence-backed cognitive habit is also the least sexy.
Where this leaves you
The trap of brain-training apps is treating them as the cognitive work itself rather than a small supplement to it. The actual drivers of long-term cognitive function — cardiovascular exercise, deep sleep, learning new skills with real-world application, social engagement, managing metabolic health — are mostly off the phone. The apps can fill the edges. They can't be the centre.
If you're going to spend 20 minutes a day on this, the highest-yield split looks something like: 10 minutes of language learning or substantive learning (Brilliant, Duolingo, Khan Academy, Anki), 5 minutes of attention training (BrainHQ if you can afford it, Forest if you can't), and 5 minutes of pure cognitive engagement (chess puzzle, NYT crossword, Wordle). That's a more useful daily routine than any single app, and it costs less than most premium subscriptions.
For more on attention and focus in working life, our productivity books piece covers the deeper reading list, and the self-improvement archive has the wider context. For the meditation side of the cognitive picture, the Meditation 101 guide is the practical starting point.
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