Is Finch free?

Yes. Finch is free to download and, by its own written commitment, the core of it stays free. Finch Plus costs $69.99 a year or $9.99 a month, printed in full only in a help center article. And Finch uses the word “trial” for two different things, one of which charges you.

Every price Finch publishes, and where

Read on 14 September 2026 and again on 29 October 2026, in the US, signed out and without the app installed. The help center and store figures held both times; the gift checkout and the merch shop were read only the first time.

Derived: twelve monthly payments at $9.99 come to $119.88, so the yearly plan at $69.99 saves $49.89 a year, about 42%, and works out at $5.83 a month. The gift is priced at the ordinary annual rate; Strava sells the same thing at the same price but without auto-renewal.

Apple’s Information row lists Finch Plus at $5.99, $9.99, $34.99, $39.99 (twice), $41.99, $49.99, $59.99 and $69.99, and a Guardian Program at $7.99, with no billing periods. The description and What’s New notes never use the words subscription, trial or Finch Plus, and there is no promoted purchase above the App Privacy panel. Google Play’s optional section, by contrast, pairs the price with a trial length. Among the apps on these pages only Duolingo fills that slot as well; Calm, ChatGPT, Strava and Rocket Money do not.

Two trials, one word

Finch’s article Finch Plus Preview Explained says the preview activates automatically after three days of using the app and is a temporary subscription gifted by the team. It adds: “Unlike a traditional free trial, you won’t be charged when the preview ends” and “There’s nothing you need to cancel.” How long it lasts, it never says. Only “a limited time”. Google Play advertises a 7-day trial that becomes $69.99 a year, and does not mention a preview. The two are reconciled only in a long general FAQs article, under Understanding Finch Trials:

• “3-Day Free Plus Trial: Ends automatically, no subscription.”
• “7-Day Free Trial: Turns into a subscription unless manually canceled.”
• “One trial per account/email. Charges before the 7 days may occur if trial was used previously, but our team is happy to help with providing a refund.”

Say you read the preview article and learn that a Finch trial does not charge. Then you accept the seven-day offer. A true sentence about a different product has misled you. The third line is the one to act on: if you have used a Finch trial before, the charge can arrive before the week is up. Strava has a similar rule for ineligible student accounts. Assume the shorter number and set a reminder.

What the free tier includes

The help article opens with a commitment: “All of our core self-care features are (and will always be) free. You can take care of your birb, set goals, reflect, send vibes to friends, and enjoy seasonal events without paying a thing.” Strava’s terms point the other way. They say: “Strava has the right to add, modify, or discontinue any free or subscription-only feature at any time.” Finch’s promise sits in a help article rather than its terms. So it binds reputation rather than contract, but it is in writing.

What Plus adds, per Finch’s list: every goal emoji, a daily discounted shop item, and more rare item and location slots. In seasonal events you get extra rewards, a Micropet on day 20 instead of day 25, and every event outfit if you take part daily. It also adds all good vibe options; extra reflection prompts; every soundscape, movement and breathing option at all durations; five newsletter updates a week instead of one; all quiz options. No ad removal, because there are no ads, and no timer that converts waiting into a purchase, as Duolingo’s hearts do. You pay for more choice and faster rewards.

Three published ways to get Plus without paying

• The preview. Three days after you start using the app it gives you Plus for a while. No card, no charge, nothing to cancel.
• The Guardians raffle. Guardians is a second, more expensive subscription whose stated purpose is to sponsor other people’s. Its raffle gifts free Finch Plus “to users who otherwise cannot afford it” and runs toward the start of each month. You stay entered until you win, as long as you stay active. No winner count is published, so treat it as a lottery.
• Wellhub. If your employer offers Wellhub, Finch says you may be able to activate Plus through it at no additional cost, like Calm Health and ChatGPT for Teachers.

The Guardians tier itself is the one price Finch publishes nowhere we could reach. Its finchcare.com page reads “Become a Guardian — sponsor Finch Plus subscriptions for others, and gain exclusive benefits for yourself” beside a button. Its help article explains how to change or cancel one, and never names the cost.

What Finch does not sell

Finch is fifth on Google Play’s top grossing chart for health and fitness, and sells neither currency nor ad removal. There is no currency to buy. Energy is earned by completing goals and self-care activities, and Rainbow Stones through quests, seasonal event days, milestones and goals completed after your bird returns. Neither is described as purchasable, and Google Play’s items section lists one item, the subscription. The shop even buys items back, at half the stones you paid. There are no ads. Google Play carries no Contains ads badge and neither description mentions advertising. We run ads in four apps; the people paying $69.99 a year fund Finch’s free tier.

Canceling, refunds, and the sentence in the terms

Finch sells Plus through Apple and Google, so they process cancellations and refunds. Finch’s article gives the routes: iOS Settings, Apple ID, Subscriptions, Finch, Cancel Subscription; or the Play Store menu, then Subscriptions. “Canceling ends your Plus features at the end of the current billing cycle”. The terms say fees already paid for the current period are not refunded. The help center still invites anyone who subscribed by accident to email support, and the trials section offers a refund where an early charge lands.

The terms also say “Subscription plan details are available to you when you purchase a subscription.” Not true of Google Play, where the listing prints the price. And “Prices for our products are subject to change without notice” is in the merchandise section, about the hoodies, not the subscription.

Three published answers about who this is for

• The App Store rates it 9+.
• Google Play rates it Everyone, with a Users Interact notice.
• Finch’s own Terms of Service say: “Our Services are not directed to children who are under the age of 13. Please do not use our Services if you are under age of 13.”

A store rating describes content and the terms describe permission, and the terms are stricter. Finch explains the gap. It would like to open some of the Services to under-13s, but various countries’ laws require significant investment to show compliance, and it hopes to have the resources later. The terms also say the Services are not medical care or mental health services and are not for emergencies. Anyone in crisis is told to call 911 or local emergency services.

The price that is itemized

Google’s form counts a service provider as sharing and Apple’s definition of tracking does not, so both declarations can be accurate at once. Duolingo declares eight tracked categories and eleven linked. Both stores say data is encrypted in transit and deletion can be requested. These are the developer’s answers to a form, not the store’s measurement.

What Finch does better

• It wrote down that the core will always be free, in a category where the usual clause reserves the right to withdraw a free feature at any time.
• It sells no currency and shows no ads while fifth on Play’s top grossing health and fitness chart. Four of our apps run ads and none is near that chart.
• Paying users fund free ones, through a monthly raffle with a published purpose. No other app here has one.
• It filled in Google Play’s optional price slot, with a trial length beside the price.
• Its privacy declarations are the lightest here: nothing under tracking on Apple, and a policy that names its service providers by function.
• It is enormous and well liked. 4.9 across 769,000 App Store ratings, Editors’ Choice, 15th in Health & Fitness; 4.9 across 636,000 reviews and over ten million downloads on Google Play.
• It is a public benefit corporation. Its privacy policy publishes the mission: to maximize positive impact on the world’s health and well-being through the creation of innovative products, services, education, content and community.

What we could not check

We did not install Finch, so we cannot say what the paywall shows, whether the in-app price matches the store price, or how long the preview runs. No surface we reached prices a Guardians subscription, says what happens to Plus-only unlocks when Plus ends, or publishes how many people win the raffle.

How to check any of this yourself

Open both store listings. On Apple, expand the In-App Purchases row under Information; on Google Play, look below the description for In-app items and offers. Then search the help center rather than the marketing site: Finch’s pricing, trials, cancellation route and free routes are all in help articles. When two articles use one word differently, read both before acting on either.