BrainHQ is well-designed, but it's a paid subscription with only a small free trial. If you want the same core skills — working memory, attention, processing speed, reaction time — without paying, this list covers each one with a free game that plays instantly in your browser. ▶ Start with the Free Sampler
BrainHQ groups its exercises into six categories. Here's the free equivalent for each:
Attention: Stroop Test, Go/No-Go
Brain Speed / Processing: Reaction Time, Audio Tone
Memory (Working): Dual N-Back, Digit Span
People Skills / Recognition: Pattern Match
Intelligence / Reasoning: Codebreaker, Lights Out
Navigation / Spatial: Pattern Match, Tile Slide
Minutes 1–5: Working memory — Dual N-Back or Digit Span
Minutes 6–10: Attention — Stroop Test or Go/No-Go
Minutes 11–13: Processing speed — Reaction Time
Minutes 14–15: Reasoning — Codebreaker or Pattern Match
The strongest evidence for brain training is task-specific: you get better at what you practice. Both paid and free versions rely on the same underlying paradigms. What matters more than the app is showing up daily and increasing difficulty as you improve. Our does brain training work post covers the research in depth.
Pick one speed exercise: Double Decision-style training is BrainHQ's best-known task, and Visual Search or Reaction Time practise the same quick visual processing.
Pick one attention exercise: the Stroop Test or Go/No-Go both train ignoring distractions.
Pick one memory exercise: Digit Span or Dual N-Back.
Play each for about five minutes at a level where you miss now and then. BrainHQ adapts difficulty automatically; with free games you do this by stepping up a level whenever you stop making mistakes.
Log one score per game each day and review the trend weekly.
Starting out
Keep sessions to 15 minutes. BrainHQ's own studies used short sessions spread over weeks.
Pick a fixed time of day so scores are comparable.
Intermediate
Shorten display times or add distractors as you improve; that is what BrainHQ's adaptive levels do.
Swap one exercise each week so you cover all skill areas within a month.
Advanced
Add Multiple Stimuli or Dual Tracker for divided attention.
Use Dual N-Back at 3-back or higher as your hardest working memory task.
BrainHQ's speed training is descended from the speed-of-processing arm of the ACTIVE trial, which gave 2,832 older adults about ten sessions of training (Ball et al., JAMA, 2002). The speed group improved substantially on processing-speed tests, and at ten years it reported less difficulty with daily activities than the control group (Rebok et al., Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2014). A later analysis of the same trial linked speed training with a lower rate of dementia diagnosis over ten years (Edwards et al., Alzheimer's and Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions, 2017), a finding that is promising but still needs replication.
Nothing in that research depends on a particular app. The free games above train the same abilities, though none of them is a copy of the exact tasks used in the trial.
Being honest about the gaps helps you choose. BrainHQ's exercises are the specific tasks used in its published studies, adapt automatically after every trial, and track progress across dozens of exercises in one dashboard. Free browser games adapt in simpler ways, so you need to raise the difficulty yourself, and none of them reproduces the exact research tasks. If you want a programme that matches a particular study, the paid product is the closer match; if you want to practise the same skills at no cost, the routine above does that.
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BrainHQ offers a limited free trial with a handful of exercises, but full access requires a paid subscription. Our site is 100% free — no signup, no paywall — and covers the same core skills: working memory, attention, processing speed and reaction time.
For working memory, use our Dual N-Back and Digit Span games. For attention and processing speed, use Stroop Test and Reaction Time. For visual-spatial skills, use Pattern Match and Codebreaker. All are free and play instantly in the browser.
The research behind BrainHQ centers on specific paradigms (like N-Back and Useful Field of View). You can train those same paradigms free using our tools. What matters more than the platform is doing it daily for 10 minutes.
10–15 minutes a day, 5–6 days a week. Consistency matters more than session length. Rotate between working memory, attention, and reaction time to avoid plateaus.
BrainHQ offers a limited free tier. For a fully free routine, combine a speed game such as Visual Search, an attention game such as the Stroop Test and a memory game such as Digit Span.
You can cover BrainHQ's core skills, speed, attention and memory, with free browser games. Choose one game per skill, play each at your edge for five minutes, raise difficulty as you improve and track a score each day. Comparing with Lumosity too? Read Lumosity alternatives.