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Elevate

Cognitive skills training app from Elevate Labs covering reading, writing, maths and speaking games

As of 1 September 2026, Elevate is free to use. A brain training app offering short daily games targeting reading comprehension, writing, maths and speaking skills, personalised into a training programme. Softwr lists it under Education. Elevate is made by Elevate Labs, available on iOS, Android.

Overview

What Elevate does

Elevate presents daily short games practising specific skills such as reading speed, comprehension, mental maths, vocabulary, listening and writing mechanics, generating a personalised training schedule based on an initial assessment and ongoing performance tracking. Its positioning differs from Lumosity in emphasising concrete, exam- or workplace-relevant skills like proofreading and quick arithmetic rather than abstract memory and reasoning puzzles. The free tier gives access to a limited number of games per day, enough to sample the format but not to follow the personalised programme the app is built around. Elevate Pro, commonly priced around $9.99 a month or roughly $44.99 to $59.99 a year, unlocks the full game library, personalised training plans and detailed progress tracking. The brain training category as a whole has faced scrutiny over marketing claims about cognitive improvement transferring to real-world outcomes, and buyers should treat any specific claims of measurable IQ or cognitive gains with the same scepticism applied to Lumosity, since independent evidence for transfer beyond improved performance on the trained games themselves is limited across the category. Buyers are adults wanting short daily practice on practical skills like vocabulary, writing and mental maths, often framed as professional development or exam preparation rather than medical or age-related cognitive concern. The trade-off is the standard brain training one: measurable improvement on the specific games practised is well documented, but evidence that this transfers to broader cognitive ability or real-world task performance is weaker than marketing in the category has historically implied.

What people use it for

  • An adult wanting short daily practice on workplace writing and proofreading skills
  • Someone preparing for a maths or verbal reasoning assessment who wants low-stakes daily drills
  • A user comparing Elevate against Lumosity on whether they want practical skills or abstract cognitive games
  • A buyer wanting to sample the format on the limited free tier before committing to a subscription

The honest half

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Elevate.

  • The free tier limits daily games enough that the personalised programme the app is designed around is effectively a paid-only feature.
  • As with the brain training category generally, evidence that improved performance on Elevate specific games transfers to broader real-world cognitive or task performance is weaker than marketing framing implies.
  • The annual subscription auto-renews and, as with most mobile subscriptions, must be cancelled through app store settings rather than inside the app itself.
  • Game variety within each skill category is finite, and long-term daily users report the exercises becoming repetitive after extended use.
  • It does not replace structured instruction for skills like reading comprehension or maths where a genuine foundational gap exists; it is practice and drilling rather than teaching from first principles.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Elevate

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

  • Elevate logo
    Elevate
    vs
    Lumosity logo
    Lumosity

    Lumosity: If you want broader abstract cognitive games rather than practical reading and writing skills

  • Elevate logo
    Elevate
    vs
    Anki logo
    Anki

    Anki: If your goal is memorisation of specific material rather than general skills practice

Pricing

What Elevate costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Elevate Pro

$9.99 /mo

  • Free tier gives a limited number of games per day
  • Pro unlocks the full game library and personalised training plan
  • Annual Pro plans typically run $44.99 to $59.99, cheaper per month than monthly billing
  • Progress tracking and skill trend history require Pro

Capabilities

Features

  • Daily game sets

    Short, rotating games targeting reading, writing, maths, speaking and listening

  • Personalised training plan

    Programme adjusted based on an initial assessment and ongoing performance, Pro only

  • Progress tracking

    Detailed performance history and skill trend charts, Pro only

  • Reading and comprehension drills

    Games targeting reading speed and retention specifically

  • Maths and estimation games

    Mental arithmetic and numerical reasoning practice

  • Writing and proofreading games

    Grammar, editing and vocabulary games aimed at workplace writing skills

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Is Elevate free?

A limited number of games per day are free. The full library, personalised training plan and progress tracking require Elevate Pro.

Does Elevate improve real-world cognitive ability?

It reliably improves performance on the specific games practised. Evidence that this transfers broadly to real-world cognitive or task performance is limited, consistent with the brain training category generally.

How is Elevate different from Lumosity?

Elevate focuses on practical skills such as reading, writing and workplace maths, while Lumosity is built around broader abstract memory, attention and reasoning games.

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Elevate, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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