What's the best breathwork app, and is there a free one?
You don’t need to pay to breathe slowly. The timer on this site is free in any browser, and an Apple Watch has Breathe sessions built in. Paid apps make sense if you want guided classes, music and a big library, but the patterns with the best trials take no subscription.
App stores make breathing look like a premium product, with streaks, soundscapes and yearly plans. The breathing itself is a count. In the best trial so far, people learned their pattern from a recorded video and then did it at home for five minutes a day, and that was enough to lift their mood over a month.
What we’d do
Start with the free timer or your watch for four weeks. If you find you love it and want more variety, a guided class, or music to breathe to, then pay for one app and use it daily. Whatever you use, make sure your minutes end up somewhere you can see them next to your sleep and mood.
What each one costs and does
Prices are the US App Store or the company’s own page, checked on November 14, 2026. They change often, so check before you subscribe.
| App | Price | Free part | Breathing in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| This site’s timer | Free, no account | All of it | Cyclic sighing, six a minute, box and 4-7-8, for 1 to 10 minutes, with sound, vibration and a dimmed bedtime mode |
| Apple Watch Mindfulness | Comes with the watch | All of it | Breathe sessions of 1 to 5 minutes, with the breaths a minute adjustable |
| Insight Timer | $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year for the extras | A large free library, breathing exercises included | Guided breathing from many teachers |
| Breathwrk | $9 a month or $49 a year, 7 day trial | A limited set of exercises | 100+ guided exercises sorted by calm, energy, sleep and health. Free with some Peloton memberships |
| Headspace | $12.99 a month or $69.99 a year | A free trial | Breathing sessions inside a meditation app |
| Calm | The App Store lists plans from $14.99 to $79.99 | A free trial, if offered | Breathing exercises inside a sleep and meditation app |
| Othership | $17.99 a month or $129.99 a year, 7 or 14 day trial | A few free sessions | Music-led guided sessions, including box breathing and fast rounds |
What to look for in any app
- A pace you can set. The patterns with trials are slow, about three to six breaths a minute. You should be able to see and change the count.
- Fast rounds behind a warning. An app that plays fast breathing or long holds should tell you to do them sitting or lying down, never in water or while driving.
- A way to log it. A month of sessions is only useful if you can look back and see whether your mood changed.
Using an app is like having a gym membership. The expensive one doesn’t do the reps for you, and the free one works fine if you show up.
Do you need an app at all?
No. The patterns with the best trials are a few counts long, and a clock with a second hand runs them as well as any app. Your body already does some of it on its own, since you sigh about every five minutes without trying. How to breathe better naturally has the free moves that come before any app, and the timer on this site runs the slow patterns with no account. It doesn’t log your sessions anywhere.
8 sources
- Apple, Apple Watch User Guide, Start a Reflect or Breathe session, checked 2026-11-14support.apple.com
- Calm, App Store listing (US), checked 2026-11-14apps.apple.com
- Headspace, App Store listing (US), checked 2026-11-14apps.apple.com
- Breathwrk, pricing and App Store listing (US), checked 2026-11-14breathwrk.com
- Othership, app pricing and App Store listing (US), checked 2026-11-14othership.us
- Insight Timer, App Store listing (US), checked 2026-11-14apps.apple.com
- Balban MY et al., Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal, Cell Reports Medicine, 2023pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- University of California, Los Angeles, Origin of sighing reflex in the brain pinpointed, ScienceDaily, 2016-02-08sciencedaily.com
