The best tinnitus apps of 2026, compared

Because a professional sets it up and follows your progress, the plan is personalized and overseen by someone who knows tinnitus. Day to day, you do a five to ten minute guided session (a CBT exercise, breathing or a "skill of the day") and can dip into a sound library of white, pink and brown noise, nature sounds and layered soundscapes, including a background sound you set around your own tinnitus. There is a wind-down session for sleep, and your clinician can track your progress and adjust the plan.

The research: Oto has more published clinical research than any other app in this guide. A randomized controlled trial run by Flinders University in 2025 found people using Oto reported about a 9-point greater drop in tinnitus-related distress than a wait-list group over six months, on the Tinnitus Functional Index (Mui et al., 2025). A larger University of Cambridge trial, DEFINE, has finished and is in peer review, so we are not quoting its numbers yet. An earlier feasibility study also reported a benefit, and for transparency, one of its co-authors is a co-founder of Oto.

Cost and access: Oto is not sold on its own and is not a separate charge. It is included in a tinnitus care plan from a participating clinic. If your clinic recommends a hearing device, Oto is included alongside it at no extra cost; if not, it is part of a basic care plan (these typically run $500 to $1,000, set by the clinic, with Oto included). Either way, you are paying for your care, not for the app. You can find a provider near you.

Ratings and reviews: 4.7★ on the App Store (845 reviews), around 4.0★ on Google Play. Reviewers most often credit the CBT-based sessions and breathing exercises with helping them feel calmer and more in control of the ringing, and like that the short daily format is easy to keep up.

The catch, and the point: Oto is not a download-and-go app. The full program comes through your clinic, not a self sign-up. You can download a free demo to get a feel for it, but to unlock everything you go through a provider. That clinician-led setup is what makes it the most thorough and most personalized option here, and it is also the honest downside: if you would rather not see a clinician at all, one of the free apps below will suit you better.

It used to be delivered on a dedicated device, and was rebuilt as an app after the company was acquired (it is now run by a firm called SoundVida).

The research: Neuromonics has a genuine history of controlled trials, but they were done on the original device version (Davis et al., 2007 and 2008), not the current app. As far as we can find, the app-and-telehealth version has not been studied on its own. The original device was cleared by the FDA back in 2005.

Cost and access: this is the most expensive and most demanding option here. You enroll through a clinician, the guided program is $199.99 a month, and it drops to $29.99 a month for maintenance afterwards. It asks for two or more hours of listening a day for six months.

Ratings and reviews: the current app has just 3.1★ from only 9 App Store ratings, so there is very little user feedback to go on, and what there is centers on a clunky sign-up (you have to get a clinician code before you can really start). Treat it as a small, early relaunch.

A "Relax" section adds guided meditations, breathing exercises and calming imagery, and there is a short "Learn" section on tinnitus. There is no set daily routine; most people use it at bedtime or in stressful moments.

Cost: the core app is genuinely free, with everything above included. There is an optional premium plan ($6.99 a month or $69.99 a year) that adds a personalized weekly plan, but you do not need it to get real value.

Ratings and reviews: one of the most-reviewed apps in the category, 4.7★ on the App Store from over 18,000 reviews, and roughly 4.4★ on Google Play with around 800,000 downloads. People call it a life-saver for sleep and nighttime tinnitus and like that the free version is genuinely full. The common complaint is reliability: the sound sometimes stops during a long overnight timer, or an incoming call interrupts it.

Worth knowing: Beltone Tinnitus Calmer is the same app from the same parent company, so if you wear Beltone hearing aids, that is the matching version. One catch: Beltone's app is currently only on iPhone, it has been pulled from the Google Play store, so Android users should use ReSound.

There is a tinnitus tool where you raise only the bands that match your own tinnitus, aiming for the quietest sound that blends with the ringing rather than drowning it. An optional calibration tunes everything to your headphones and hearing.

Cost: free to try (a 14-day full unlock), then a single one-time purchase of $19.99 to keep the whole library. No subscription, no ads. The same sounds are free to use on the myNoise website in a browser.

Ratings and reviews: 4.7★ on the App Store (949 reviews) and about 4.4★ on Google Play (500,000-plus downloads), and the website reaches far more people than the app does. People love the depth of control, the quality of the real recordings, and the one-time price. The recurring complaint is that saved custom mixes can disappear after a crash or an update, so back them up.

The research: none, and to its credit, myNoise does not claim any. It is a sound tool, not a medical program.

The chat coach covers education, coping strategies and exercises to change how your brain reacts to the sound. It comes out of tinnitus research at the University of Auckland, and offers a free 15-minute consultation with a tinnitus expert when you start. CBT is the approach with the strongest overall evidence for reducing tinnitus distress.

Cost: free to start, then a subscription for the full program, around $6 a month or $59 to $69 a year. (Their store listing shows several prices at once, so check what you are quoted before you buy.)

Ratings and reviews: 4.5★ on the App Store (464 reviews) and about 3.8★ on Google Play (10,000-plus installs). People like the breathing and relaxation exercises most, and that it is research-backed. The complaints are mostly technical: glitches, being asked to log in again after paying, and a hearing check that did not always show results.

The research: MindEar has a small pilot and a larger trial behind it (Jackson et al., 2026, found a meaningful drop in tinnitus distress over eight weeks). Both studies involve people connected to the company, so treat them as promising rather than fully independent.

Widex's own store listing frames it as an add-on to a professional Widex fitting rather than a standalone therapy. Widex suggests listening two to four hours a day at a soft background level.

Cost: completely free, with no subscription and no in-app purchases.

Ratings and reviews: this is the quietest app here. 4.2★ on the App Store from just 40 reviews, and it has not been updated since 2023, so it feels neglected next to the others. The people who use it like the fractal tones for sleep and focus.

The research: the studies on Widex Zen are for the full in-clinic therapy (tones combined with hearing aids and counseling), not the free app on its own.

You do a quick in-app hearing check, it builds a track targeting your weak spots, and you play it under music or work without paying attention to it. You retake the check every so often so it recalibrates.

Cost: a 14-day free trial, then a subscription: $9.99 a month for the basic tier, $12.99 a month (or $99.99 a year) for the higher tier that targets more frequencies.

Ratings and reviews: 4.2★ on the App Store (342 reviews) and around 3.1★ on Google Play (50,000-plus installs). Fans like that it is passive and fits into the day, and some report clearer hearing. The critics are blunter: several long-term users report no change after months and call it expensive for what it is, and a few report their tinnitus feeling worse after starting.

The research: AudioCardio's marketing points to a long list of studies, but those are about the general science of sound conditioning, not tests of this app, and much of it is not about tinnitus. We could not find an independent trial of the AudioCardio app for tinnitus. The app's own terms state it is not an FDA-reviewed medical device, and, notably, they warn that "rare" cases of worsened hearing conditions have been reported with intensive frequency stimulation, which lines up with those few negative reports.