The best meditation apps you can use without paying. Compare MindTime, Plum Village, and Medito for silent timers, guided practice, and meditation without a subscription.

Free Meditation Without Compromise

You should not need a subscription to sit quietly and focus on your breath. Yet many popular meditation apps lock essential features behind paywalls, leaving their free tiers as little more than trials. Here are the apps that actually deliver a useful meditation experience at no cost.

MindTime

All MindTime features are free to use. You get:

Full meditation timer with custom lengths, warm-up, and fade-out
The full ambient soundscape library
Sound mixer to layer and combine sounds
Meditation bells including singing bowls and crystal bowls
Interval bell reminders during sessions
Session tracking with streaks and statistics
Soundscape downloads for offline use

There is no subscription or lifetime purchase required. MindTime is built for self-guided sessions, with optional sounds and a journal; it does not contain a narrated meditation course. This comparison is published by the MindTime team, with competitor features checked against official sources on September 26, 2026.

Plum Village

Plum Village is a free app for teachings and guided practice in Thich Nhat Hanh's tradition. Its FAQ also describes a sitting timer with interval bells and offline downloads. Choose it for tradition-led instruction; its daily mindfulness bell and session timer serve different purposes.

Medito

Medito offers free guided courses, breathing exercises, sleep content, and an unguided timer with ambient sounds. No account is required. It suits beginners who want spoken instruction before trying silent practice, and it is available on Android and iOS.

Insight Timer

Insight Timer offers the most free guided meditation content of any app — thousands of guided sessions from hundreds of teachers, plus a functional timer with bells and ambient backgrounds. The community features (milestone tracking, worldwide meditation count) are also free.

The downside is discoverability. With so much content, finding consistently good guided meditations requires patience. The timer, while solid, has fewer customization options than dedicated timer apps. Premium ($59.99/year) adds offline access and courses.

Headspace

Headspace's free tier is limited. You get a short introductory course and a handful of sessions, but the vast majority of content requires a subscription ($69.99/year). If you are evaluating Headspace, treat the free tier as a trial rather than a sustainable free experience.

Calm

Calm's free offering is the most restrictive among major meditation apps. A few guided meditations and basic features are available, but Sleep Stories, most courses, and offline access all require the subscription ($69.99/year). The free tier is essentially a demo.

What to Look For in a Free Meditation App

When evaluating free meditation apps, consider:

Timer quality: Can you set custom lengths, bells, and intervals? A meditation timer is the one feature you use every single day
Audio without paywalls: Are soundscapes and ambient sounds available for free, or locked behind premium?
Offline access: Can you meditate without an internet connection?
No pressure: Does the free experience feel complete, or does every screen push you toward a subscription?
Tracking: Can you monitor your consistency and streaks?

Our Recommendation

Choose MindTime for a free timer, sound mixing, and self-guided practice; Plum Village for its Buddhist teaching tradition; or Medito for free guided courses alongside a timer. You can also start immediately with our online timer and guide to meditating in silence.