Meditation app

Two breathing exercises with the counts done

Box breathing is four equal steps: breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4, breathe out for 4, hold for 4. One round takes 16 seconds, so five minutes is just under 19 rounds. 4-7-8 breathing is in for 4, hold for 7, out for 8, which is 19 seconds a round, so four rounds take 76 seconds.

Both are slow, gentle patterns and are for healthy adults. Breathe through the nose, keep it comfortable and stop if you feel light headed. If you have a breathing or heart condition, check with a doctor first.

The pages that rank for them there are medical and health publishers, which is why we keep our version short, gentle and cautious.

Arithmetic worked on 23 October 2026: 300 seconds divided by the round length for five minutes, and 600 for ten. The patterns are common practice, not a recommendation from a study. The slow breath is six breaths a minute.

What meditation apps charge, and which are free

Read from each app's Australian App Store listing, and Headspace's own page, on 20 October 2026. The App Store shows up to ten purchase lines per app and the sellers label them their own way, so this is not every plan, and a line with no period in its name is marked unlabelled. Rating counts show how widely each is used.

Prices change, so check the app's own page before you pay.

What a year of a meditation app really costs

Two of the listings label their periods, which lets us do the sums. Headspace showed a monthly line at A$19.99 and an annual line at A$91.99. Twelve of the monthly months is A$239.88, so paying by the year saves A$147.89. Its other pair, monthly A$18.99 and annual A$101.99, works the same way: A$227.88 against A$101.99 saves A$125.89.

Calm's lines carry no period, so we cannot work out its year. We can say what a sitting habit costs per session if one of its A$79.99 lines is a year, which is an assumption because the listing does not say. Sitting every day for a year, that is A$79.99 divided by 365, about A$0.22 a session. Sitting twice a week is 104 sessions, and the same A$79.99 becomes about A$0.77 a session. The A$99.99 line over 365 days is about A$0.27.

The point of the arithmetic is not that paid apps are poor value. It is that cost per session falls as you sit more often, and rises steeply if the habit lapses. A free timer for two weeks tells you which of those you are before you pay anything. Insight Timer's A$299.99 line is a donation to a teacher, not a plan, so it should not be read as the price of the app.

What each paid app sells, from our read

What each listing says is behind the paywall, and what the Daily Journal has today. We list only what the files say; we have not used the apps.

Calm, Headspace and Insight Timer all put sleep in their store titles, so sleep audio is part of what the paid tiers sell. See the sleep tracker page for the sleep side.

Free or paid: a way to decide

If you are new, start with a free app or a plain timer for two weeks. If you keep sitting, the question becomes what you miss. People who want guided audio for sleep or a structured course may find a paid library worth it. People who only wanted a timer and a bell usually do not.

Whatever you pick, beware of paying for a year before you have a habit. A monthly plan you cancel is cheaper than a yearly one you forget. The habit tracker page covers how to keep the habit going, and how long it takes to build a habit puts a realistic number on it.

• Try two weeks free before you pay for anything
• Check whether the app you like is on a monthly or yearly plan
• A habit you keep matters more than the app you choose

Which kind of person needs which

A way to choose without buying anything first.

A first week of five minutes

This works with any timer and no app at all.

1. 1
   Day 1: sit and breathe

   Set a timer for five minutes. Sit comfortably, breathe in a way that feels natural and count ten breaths, then start again at one.

2. 2
   Day 2: expect a busy mind

   Thoughts will come. Noticing that you drifted and coming back is the practice, not a failure.

3. 3
   Day 3: try box breathing

   Use the 4 4 4 4 pattern for five minutes. Keep it gentle.

4. 4
   Day 4: try a body scan

   Move your attention slowly from your feet to your head, noticing each part without trying to change it. The script below does it in five minutes.

5. 5
   Days 5 to 7: same time, same place

   Attach it to something you already do, like the first coffee, as habit stacking suggests. After sitting, write one line in your journal about what you noticed.

A five minute body scan you can read aloud

Seven stops that add up to exactly 300 seconds: 40, 40, 50, 50, 40, 40 and 40. Read it slowly, or record yourself and play it back. It is a general relaxation exercise, not treatment.

1. 1
   Feet and ankles (40 seconds)

   Sit or lie comfortably and let your eyes close or soften. Notice your feet on the floor or bed, the weight, the temperature, any tingling. You do not need to change anything.

2. 2
   Legs (40 seconds)

   Let your attention travel up through your calves, knees and thighs. Notice where they touch the seat or the bed, and let them be heavy.

3. 3
   Belly and back (50 seconds)

   Notice your belly rise and fall with the breath, and the length of your back against whatever holds it. If your mind wanders, come back to the breath without a fuss.

4. 4
   Chest and hands (50 seconds)

   Feel the chest widen on the in breath. Move down your arms to your hands and notice them resting, warm or cool, still.

5. 5
   Shoulders and neck (40 seconds)

   Let your shoulders drop a little on the out breath. Notice the neck and the place where your head rests, and soften your jaw.

6. 6
   Face and head (40 seconds)

   Soften the forehead, the eyes, the cheeks and the mouth. Notice the top of your head.

7. 7
   Whole body (40 seconds)

   Feel your whole body breathing at once, then take one slow breath, open your eyes and write one line about what you noticed.

Grounding when your mind is racing

The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique brings attention back to the present using the senses: name five things you can see, four you can feel, three you can hear, two you can smell and one you can taste. That is 15 things in all and takes about a minute. It is a short, free exercise that needs no app.

If anxiety is frequent or severe, a meditation app is not enough on its own. Talk to a doctor or a psychologist, and call Lifeline on 13 11 14 any time you need to talk to someone.

Mistakes and myths that put people off

Most people who stop meditating stop for one of a few reasons that are not about meditation at all.

• "I have to empty my mind." You do not. Noticing that you drifted and coming back is the practice, as the first week says.
• "It only counts if it is long." Five minutes a day is a good start and ten is common. A short daily habit beats a long rare one.
• Paying for a year first. The sums above show a monthly plan is cheaper to abandon. Try two weeks free.
• Holding the breath hard. The holds in box breathing and 4-7-8 are gentle. Stop if you feel light headed, and check with a doctor if you have a breathing or heart condition.
• Treating an app as treatment. Meditation is a wellbeing practice. It does not replace a doctor or a psychologist.
• Never writing anything down. One line after sitting turns it into a record you can look back on. That part is free.

What to look for before you pay

If you do decide to pay, run through this list first. It comes from the purchase lines in the price table, not from a review of the apps.

• Monthly or yearly. Do the multiplication: twelve months at A$19.99 is A$239.88, against A$91.99 for the year on the same app.
• Whether the listing names the period. Calm's lines do not, so check inside the app before you tap.
• What is optional. Insight Timer's top line is a teacher donation, not a plan.
• Whether a free option already does what you need. Smiling Mind and Medito listed no purchases.
• Whether the sleep or focus library is the part you want. If you only want a timer and a bell, you may be paying for audio you will not play.
• How you will cancel. Put the trial end date in your calendar the day you start.

Breathing apps and small timers

Between the free apps and the big libraries sit small single purpose apps. In the same App Store read, iBreathe had 1,353 ratings with a Remove Ads line at A$4.99, an Unlock Premium line at A$5.99 and tips from A$0.99 to A$14.99. Breathing Zone had 326 ratings and listed no purchases. Both are priced like tools rather than subscriptions.

We have not read the prices of Breathwrk or Tactical Breather.

What is in the app today, and what is not

The position on 23 October 2026, from the live app. A meditation timer and audio are not built.

A not built row is a fact, not a promise. Sign ups carry the tool you came for, so the count of people who sign up from this page is how we decide what to build first.

Free calm tools you can use today

You do not need an account for most of this page. The positive affirmations and daily affirmations pages hold short lines to read slowly, and the mind hub gathers them with the other calm tools. The mood tracker printable and the gratitude journal printable turn a minute of noticing into a written record.

Calm and sleep go together, so the sleep diary printable, the sleep calculator and the sleep tracker page are the next stop if bedtime is the problem. For the habit itself, see the habit tracker, the journal, the affirmation app and the pomodoro timer, and for everything in one place the journal tools page. Our how we calculate and sources pages explain the numbers.

Free calm tools on this site

Questions people ask

Related guides, prices and tools

Where these figures come from

• App prices, purchase lines and rating counts: Australian App Store listings for Calm, Headspace, Insight Timer, Smiling Mind, iBreathe and Breathing Zone, read on 20 October 2026 and saved in our files (evidence/habit-niche-apps-2026-10-20.json). Waking Up and Medito were read on the same day for price only, with no rating count saved. Headspace's own page showed no price. The App Store shows up to ten purchase lines per app, labelled by the seller.
• Names only, not a ranking and not a test. We have not read the prices of Breathwrk, Tactical Breather, UCLA Mindful or the others named.
• Breathing patterns (box breathing, 4-7-8 and in 4, out 6) are common practice. The round lengths, counts per five and ten minutes, yearly costs and per session costs are arithmetic worked on 23 October 2026 from the listed prices, not findings from a study. The Calm per session figures assume a line is annual, which the listing does not say.
• The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise and the body scan are common techniques. The body scan timings (40, 40, 50, 50, 40, 40 and 40 seconds) add to 300 seconds. No claim of treatment effect is made.
• The Daily Journal feature list: checked against the live app on 23 October 2026.
• Support lines: Lifeline 13 11 14 and 000 in an emergency.

Updated 23 October 2026. A figure that was not read from a file is written as unknown. Prices change: check the supplier's own page before you rely on one. We are not affiliated with any app named here.