Do brain training apps work?

You walk into the kitchen and forget why you came, or a coworker's name slips away right after you hear it. That's usually when people start wondering whether brain training apps work. They do, for the skills you practice. In randomized trials with older adults, people who trained beat people who didn't on memory, attention, and speed tests.

What is brain training, and how does it work?

Brain training is practice for your thinking skills, packaged as short games. Each game works on one skill, like holding a list in your head, reading for the main point, or doing math without paper, and it gets harder as you get better.

It works the way most practice works. You do the same kind of thinking again and again, a few minutes at a time, and you get faster and more accurate at it.

Researchers describe two kinds of gains.

• Near transfer means you get better at the game and at tasks like it, such as a different test of remembering lists.

• Far transfer means the gain spreads to other skills or to daily life, like keeping track of everything on your plate this week.

Gains on the practiced task are the reliable kind, and the further a task is from what you practiced, the thinner the evidence gets.

What can brain training actually improve?

On tests, brain training improves memory, attention, and processing speed. To get the most out of it, pick games that practice whatever trips you up most.

• Remembering names and details. If a new colleague's name is gone before the meeting ends, try memory games that ask you to connect names with faces and facts.

• Keeping what you read. If you finish an article and can't say what it argued, try reading games that quiz you on the main point afterward.

• Finding the right word. If words sit on the tip of your tongue mid-conversation, vocabulary and speaking games give you practice pulling them up quickly.

• Writing clearly. If you rewrite the same sentence three times in a work message, try games that have you spot errors and tighten sentences.

• Doing math in your head. Reaching for your phone to split a check or add up prices? Mental math games practice exactly that.

Some Elevate players say they've noticed a difference in moments like these. One Elevate player wrote in an App Store review that they used to have "tip of the tongue moments where I can't remember specific words or terms that I know," and that the app "helps tremendously with that." Another wrote that after 24 workouts, "I'm able to type clear and concise emails to my college instructors," and "I can better visualize and solve mental math problems without thinking too hard." These are players' own words, not study results.

What scientific research says about brain training

People who train do better than people who don't. A 2025 review pooled 23 randomized trials with 1,454 adults aged 60 and over. People who did digital training, from computer games to virtual reality, improved more than control groups that didn't get the training on tests of overall thinking, attention, processing speed, planning, and memory. A 2021 review found the same pattern for game-based training. Across 15 trials with 759 older adults living at home, players improved in processing speed, attention, and short-term memory compared with control groups. Neither review tested a particular app. Elevate's 2015 study, below, tested the app itself.

The gains can last, and daily life is the open question. In the ACTIVE trial, 2,832 adults aged 65 to 94 took 10 group sessions of memory, reasoning, or speed training. Each group improved at the skill it trained, and two years later those gains were still there. What the trial didn't find at two years was a change in everyday tasks. A major 2016 review of the studies brain training companies cite found the same split. It saw "extensive evidence that brain-training interventions improve performance on the trained tasks," but "little evidence" that they improve "everyday cognitive performance." A 2014 statement from the Stanford Center on Longevity and the Max Planck Institute said much the same. Not every scientist agrees. An open letter from more than 100 scientists and other experts answered that "certain cognitive training regimens can significantly improve cognitive function, including in ways that generalize to everyday life."

Studies disagree partly because they don't test the same people or programs. The reviews above pooled trials in adults 60 and over. A 2017 trial gave 128 healthy young adults 10 weeks of Lumosity or ordinary online video games, and both groups improved on standard thinking tests only about as much as people who were simply tested again. Same kind of test, different people and program, different answer. None of the studies in the 2016 review, the 2017 trial, or ACTIVE tested Elevate.

What Elevate users and research report

In Elevate's own research, players improved more than a comparison group on practical tests of grammar, writing, listening, and math, and most users in our 2025 survey said they feel sharper. Elevate's games are built for this kind of practice. You pull answers from memory instead of rereading, you come back to skills over time, and the difficulty adjusts as you improve.

In a four-week study with a comparison group (2015), new Elevate players were asked to play four assigned games at least five times a week for four weeks.

• Before and after, they took 33-question tests of grammar, writing, listening, and math that Elevate wrote separately from the games, to check practical skills.

• Of about 300 players who started, the 146 who finished improved by 4.25 points on average, compared with 2.5 points for 125 adults who didn't use Elevate. The difference was statistically significant, which means it's unlikely to be chance.

• Players who trained four or more times a week scored higher than those who trained fewer than two times.

The comparison group was recruited separately rather than assigned at random, and the Elevate players started with higher scores. Dana Nakano, PhD, then an assistant professor of sociology at California State University, Stanislaus, analyzed the results.

In June 2025, we surveyed active US Elevate users with Jen Huberty, PhD, MS, a behavioral scientist with 25 years of experience, and two researchers from her firm, Fit Minded, Kelsey McAlister, PhD, MS, and Lara Baez, PhD, MS.

• More than 4,200 users answered. In our white paper on their answers, 81% said they felt mentally sharper, 85% said they felt more motivated to improve, and 70% said they processed information faster.

• A peer-reviewed paper in JMIR Formative Research compared the 3,367 complete answers with how much each person had played. People who used Elevate more were more likely to report improvements in their thinking skills, their daily life, and their overall mental fitness.

A survey tells us what users notice day to day, not whether the app caused the change.

How to get the most out of brain training

A few habits do most of the work.

1. Make it stick with short sessions spread across the week. Playing on several days beats cramming it all into one. And after a reading game, see if you can still recall the main point at lunch. Studies of how people learn rate these two habits, spreading practice out and testing yourself, as the most useful.

2. Keep it a little hard. When you can ace a game without thinking, move up a level or try a different one. In Elevate, adaptive difficulty does this for you.

3. Run your own before-and-after test. Before you start, time yourself adding up five prices from a receipt, or read a short article and jot down its main points from memory. After four weeks, try it again with a different receipt or article, since simply repeating a test makes you better at it. If the real task got easier, that's a good sign your practice is carrying over to real life. If it didn't, switch to games closer to that task.

4. Make time for exercise and sleep, too. The US National Institute on Aging lists habits with research behind them for keeping your mind healthy. Stay physically active, sleep seven to nine hours, keep blood pressure and other health problems in check, spend time with people, and keep learning new things. Brain training works best as one more habit alongside them, not a replacement.

So, are brain training apps worth your time?

Yes, if you treat them as practice for skills you use and check the results in real life. Expect the biggest change in the games and the tasks closest to them.

It also helps to pick an app that's careful about what it promises. In 2016, Lumosity's maker paid $2 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its ads claimed, among other things, that the games could protect against dementia, without the science to back that up. A brain training app isn't a medical treatment, so be wary of one that promises to prevent disease. If your memory worries you, talk to a doctor.

Want to try it with Elevate? Start with the free version, which gives you one three-game workout a day, a game of the week, and basic performance tracking. Memory training, custom workouts like Vocabulary and Focus, and all 40+ games come with the full version. Get Elevate and try your first workout today.

Frequently asked questions

How long does brain training take to work?

Give brain training a few weeks before you judge it. In Elevate's 2015 study, players improved more than a comparison group within four weeks, and in ACTIVE, 10 sessions were enough for gains that still showed two years later. For how long to play each day, see our guide to how long brain training sessions should be.

What is the best free brain training app for adults?

Elevate is a strong place to start for adults who want to practice everyday skills. Its games cover memory, reading, writing, speaking, and math, and the free version gives you a three-game workout every day plus a game of the week. Our guide to the best brain training apps compares seven apps on what they train, what they cost, and what you get free.

Can brain training make you smarter?

Brain training makes you sharper at the skills you train, like recall, reading, and mental math. It hasn't been shown to raise IQ. Our article on whether you can increase your IQ goes deeper.

Sources

1. Chen C. et al., "The effectiveness of digital technology interventions for cognitive function in older adults," GeroScience, February 2025.

2. Wang G. et al., "Game-based brain training for improving cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults," Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, January 2021.

3. Ball K. et al., "Effects of cognitive training interventions with older adults: a randomized controlled trial," JAMA, November 2002.

4. Simons D. et al., "Do 'Brain-Training' Programs Work?," Psychological Science in the Public Interest, October 2016.

5. Stanford Center on Longevity and Max Planck Institute for Human Development, "A Consensus on the Brain Training Industry from the Scientific Community," October 2014.

6. Cognitive Training Data, "Open letter," 2014.

7. Kable J. et al., "No Effect of Commercial Cognitive Training on Brain Activity, Choice Behavior, or Cognitive Performance," Journal of Neuroscience, August 2017.

8. Elevate's 2015 study: The Mind Company, "Elevate Effectiveness Study," October 2015.

9. Elevate's 2025 study: McAlister K. et al., "User Engagement With and Perceived Impact of a Digital Cognitive Training App on Cognition, Daily Functioning, and Mental Fitness," JMIR Formative Research, October 2025. The three outside authors work at Fit Minded, Inc. Anna Braunsdorf, who wrote this article, is a co-author, and The Mind Company funded the study.

10. Elevate's 2025 survey results: The Mind Company, "Elevate White Paper," 2025.

11. Federal Trade Commission, "Lumosity to Pay $2 Million to Settle FTC Deceptive Advertising Charges for Its 'Brain Training' Program," January 2016.

12. Dunlosky J. et al., "Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques," Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2013.

13. National Institute on Aging, "Cognitive Health and Older Adults," reviewed June 2024.

14. Player quotes: Elevate reviews on the US App Store by Regularrnims (September 2021) and GLlMPSE (January 2021).

15. Elevate's games, adaptive difficulty, and free and full versions: The Mind Company, "Elevate," October 2026.