How we picked these
"Free" in app-store marketing is rarely free. We applied four filters before including any app:
- Genuinely free, useful tier. Not a 7-day trial that auto-bills. Either entirely free, free-funded by donations or grants, or with a free tier that delivers real value without coercive paywalls.
- Some clinical evidence or evidence-based framework. Either published RCTs, FDA-recognized status, or clear grounding in CBT/DBT/ACT/IPT. Apps with no evidence base get excluded even if they are free.
- Reasonable privacy posture. No major outstanding FTC actions; no obvious red flags in the privacy policy around advertising data sharing.
- Crisis safety layer. Some plausible mechanism for routing users to 988 or other crisis resources. Apps that ignore crisis flags get excluded.
These filters narrow the field considerably — there are hundreds of free-on-paper mental-health apps in the iOS App Store alone, but most fail one or more of these criteria. The eight below are what passes.
1. Wysa (free tier)
Free tier: Unlimited AI CBT chatbot conversations, mood tracking, and a library of basic CBT/DBT exercises. Premium ($74.99/yr) adds human coaching and additional exercises.
Why it's good: Wysa holds an FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for chronic-pain-related depression, has 14+ peer-reviewed publications on its CBT chatbot, and includes a robust crisis-detection layer that routes to 988 and other resources. The free tier is genuinely useful — most users don't need the premium upgrade.
Watch out: The conversational quality is more scripted than ChatGPT-style chat — the trade-off is safety predictability.
Use for: Daily mood check-ins, anxiety / mild-to-moderate depression coping skills, journaling.
2. Insight Timer
Free tier: The largest free meditation library on the app stores — 200,000+ guided meditations, talks, and music. Premium ($60/yr) adds offline downloads and courses.
Why it's good: The free library is enormous and includes meditations from named teachers (Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg, Sam Harris on his own app rather than Insight Timer, but you get the idea). No paywall on the bulk of content.
Watch out: Quality is uneven across teachers; the discovery experience can be overwhelming.
Use for: Free guided meditation, sleep meditations, stress relief, and exposure to many teaching styles before committing to a paid app.
3. Woebot (where still available)
Free tier: The consumer Woebot app was shut down on June 30, 2025. Woebot now operates only via enterprise / health-system partnerships. Existing users may still have access via insurer or employer programs.
Why it's listed despite the shutdown: If your insurer or employer offers Woebot, it remains one of the most clinically-validated AI CBT chatbots — multiple peer-reviewed RCTs published. It's worth checking whether your benefits include it.
Use for: If you have access via employer / insurer — daily CBT-grounded conversations.
Alternative: Wysa (above) is the closest like-for-like consumer replacement.
4. MindShift CBT (Anxiety Canada)
Free tier: Entirely free, donation-supported. Built by Anxiety Canada, a non-profit.
Why it's good: Pure CBT framework, no AI chatbot — guided self-help modules for general anxiety, social anxiety, panic, and worry. Endorsed by anxiety-focused clinical organizations.
Watch out: No conversational AI, so users seeking dialogue should pair with Wysa.
Use for: Structured anxiety self-help, especially for social anxiety and panic disorder.
5. CBT-i Coach (US Department of Veterans Affairs)
Free tier: Entirely free. Built by VA in partnership with DoD.
Why it's good: Specifically targets insomnia using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-i), the first-line evidence-based treatment for chronic insomnia. Used as an adjunct in VA sleep clinics.
Watch out: Designed as a clinician-supervised companion app — works best when paired with a sleep doctor or therapist.
Use for: Chronic insomnia, sleep restriction therapy, sleep diary.
6. PTSD Coach (US Department of Veterans Affairs)
Free tier: Entirely free.
Why it's good: VA-developed app for PTSD symptom management. Evidence base from VA studies. Includes self-assessment tools (PCL-5), symptom-management exercises, and direct links to crisis resources.
Watch out: Designed as an adjunct, not a stand-alone treatment.
Use for: PTSD symptom tracking and self-management; particularly for veterans, first responders, and trauma-survivors with clinical care.
7. Smiling Mind
Free tier: Entirely free, donation-supported. Built by an Australian non-profit.
Why it's good: Mindfulness-based programs designed in collaboration with educational and clinical experts. Strong programs for kids and teens — one of the few legitimately free options for younger users.
Watch out: Australian provenance means some content is region-specific; it's still globally usable.
Use for: Mindfulness practice, school-age and teen meditation, family meditation.
8. Headspace (free trial + free Plan B Care.org partnership)
Free tier: Limited free starter content; 7-day Premium trial. Headspace also has a free public-health partnership with the US Public Health Service for some users; check eligibility.
Why it's listed: Headspace is the meditation app with the strongest published RCT evidence (a research program spanning anxiety, sleep, workplace stress, mindfulness training). Even the free starter content is high quality and uses the app's signature evidence-based framework.
Watch out: Most content is paywalled — set a calendar reminder before any trial ends. Annual Premium runs roughly $69.99/year.
Use for: Trying Headspace's evidence-based methodology before committing; evaluating against Calm.
Crisis safety
None of these apps are appropriate for crisis or active suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 (US) or text HOME to 741741. Outside the US, contact your local crisis line. Every app on this list includes a crisis-routing layer, but none replace human crisis intervention.
What we excluded (and why)
- Apps with no clinical evidence and aggressive paywalls (multiple "AI therapy" chatbots that launched 2023–2025 with venture money but no published research).
- Apps with major outstanding FTC concerns (where the free tier appeared to be lead-gen for paid services with documented data-sharing complaints).
- Replika and similar AI-companion apps. Designed for emotional companionship, not mental-health treatment. Not validated for anxiety/depression and have raised concerns from clinicians about parasocial-relationship reinforcement.
- Apps that lack any crisis-routing layer. If a user types "I want to hurt myself" and the app doesn't route to crisis resources, it doesn't belong on a mental-health-app list.