Ash AI Therapy App Review: Price, Evidence, Limits

Ash is an AI app from Slingshot AI that you talk or text with about stress, anxiety, relationships and bad days. It remembers what you said before and sends weekly insights about your patterns. It is free to download, with paid "Unlimited access" listed from $9.99 to $169.99 on the US App Store. Verdict: a careful AI for reflection, not a therapist, and its evidence is still early.

Ash at a glance, checked on its website, terms, the US App Store and Google Play on 6 November 2026:

What is Ash and who makes it?

Ash is made by Slingshot AI. Its co-founders are Daniel Reid Cahn, the CEO, and Neil Parikh, who previously co-founded Casper. The R&D lead is clinical psychologist Derrick Hull, and the advisors include Tom Insel, a former director of the US National Institute of Mental Health.^[3] Ash was introduced publicly in July 2025, and early coverage on its own news page calls it "the first AI designed for therapy".^[4] Today the website describes it as "AI designed for mental health".^[2]

The main technical claim is that Ash is not a general chatbot with a new interface. Slingshot says most AI tools were trained on data from the internet, while Ash is a specialist model trained on a large set of proprietary expert data.^[1] The Google Play listing says it draws on techniques from CBT, DBT, internal family systems, ACT and somatic approaches.^[5]

The legal terms are more careful than the marketing. Slingshot's user agreement says it is not a healthcare provider, using Ash does not create a provider and patient relationship, and the service is not a substitute for in-person care, counseling, therapy or psychiatric care.^[6]

How does Ash work?

• Talk or text, at any hour. You can speak to Ash as you would on a phone call, or type to it.^[2]
• It remembers you. Ash keeps your stories, preferences and progress, so each conversation continues from the last one.^[2]
• Weekly insights. Ash looks for patterns across your conversations and sends a weekly summary that connects them.^[1]
• A program, or your own agenda. You can bring a topic or let Ash suggest the next step.^[2]

In its year-long study, Slingshot coded what Ash actually said and found ten families of techniques. These included behavioral activation (planning small, doable activities), cognitive reappraisal (questioning a thought), grounding, communication coaching and encouraging people to contact supportive friends. People with more severe symptoms received more of this structured support, even though Ash could not see their questionnaire scores.^[8]

How much does Ash cost?

Ash is free to download, with in-app purchases on both the App Store and Google Play.^[1][5] On 6 November 2026, the US App Store listed only one kind of purchase, "Unlimited access", at five prices: $9.99, $19.99, $44.99, $59.99 and $169.99. The listing does not say which price is weekly, monthly or yearly.^[1]

The user agreement explains why prices can vary. Ash may offer free and paid versions, and the features, usage limits, free message allowances, prices, trials and offers can differ from user to user and change over time, including by country, platform, promotion or test group.^[6] In practice, two people can see different prices and different free limits.

Other points from the terms:^[6]

• Paid plans renew automatically until you cancel. If you subscribed through Apple or Google, you cancel in your app store account.
• Fees are not refundable except where the law or the app store's own policy says so.
• Fees may not be covered by Medicare, Medicaid or commercial insurers.

We could not find the size of the free allowance or the billing period for each price on any Slingshot page. Check the paywall in the app before you start a plan.

Does Ash work? What the research shows

Slingshot publishes a lot of its research on its website. Its main study was run in collaboration with New York University, and the full preprint is public.^[8][9]

• Who took part. 299 US adults with at least moderate symptoms of depression or anxiety, followed for up to 12 months. 185 completed the one-year assessment.^[8]
• What changed. Average depression scores on the PHQ-9 questionnaire fell from 15.5 to 9.4, and average anxiety scores on the GAD-7 fell from 13.1 to 8.9.^[8]
• How it was designed. The preprint describes a single-arm, naturalistic pilot. There was no comparison group, so the study cannot show how much of the change came from Ash and how much from time, other support or natural recovery.^[9]
• Not everyone improved. The preprint grouped participants into three paths: non-responding (57.2%), improving (37.1%) and rapidly improving (5.7%).^[9]
• Who ran it. The authors include Slingshot staff, and Slingshot says randomized controlled trials are "coming soon".^[8]

The App Store listing adds a separate claim: among people who talk to Ash a few times a week or more, 91% made progress on goals they set, based on an ongoing research study.^[1]

On safety, Slingshot reports that Ash ranked first or second on 36 of 39 dimensions of an independently developed benchmark called SIM-VAIL, compared with nine frontier AI models. Slingshot says it tested the model without the extra safety guardrails used in the app. It also says that all 76 study sessions flagged for possible crisis content were escalated appropriately.^[8] The benchmark is independent, but these results are the company's own analyses.

Our reading: the results are encouraging for a young product, and publishing a non-responder rate is to Slingshot's credit. But a company-run study with no control group is a starting point. It does not show that Ash works as well as a human professional.

What are the downsides and limits?

• It can be wrong. The App Store listing says plainly that Ash sometimes makes things up.^[1]
• No human in the conversation. You talk to an AI, and the terms say using Ash does not create a provider and patient relationship.^[6]
• Not for crisis. Ash says it is not designed to be used in a crisis.^[2]
• Adults only. The terms and privacy policy say Ash is only for people aged 18 and over.^[6][7]
• Availability can change. Ash says it was withdrawn from the UK market in 2026 for regulatory reasons.^[10] Its terms say Ash may not be available in your location.^[6]
• English only. The App Store lists English as the only language.^[1]
• Data details do not fully match. The privacy policy says conversation data is kept while you are an active user and that you can delete it with "delete my data" in the app.^[7] The Google Play data safety section says data cannot be deleted and that the app may share audio and app activity with third parties.^[5] If this matters to you, ask Ash support which statement applies to your account.
• The style is not for everyone. One recent App Store review says Ash sometimes forgets details and ends every reply with a probing question.^[1] That is one person's view, so try it yourself before paying.

Who is Ash for?

A good fit if you:

• Are an adult with everyday stress, worry, low mood or relationship strain.
• Want to think out loud at odd hours, by voice or text.
• Like seeing your patterns summarized over weeks.
• Are waiting for a therapist, or between sessions, and want something structured.

Not a good fit if you:

• Are in crisis or worried about your safety.
• Live with a severe or complex condition that needs a clinician's judgment.
• Are under 18.
• Want a human who knows you, or need a diagnosis or treatment.

Is Ash worth it?

Try the free version first. It will tell you within a few conversations whether the questioning style suits you. If it does and you hit the free limit, look at the prices on the paywall and compare them with the five Unlimited access prices on the App Store.

If you are tracking whether you are actually getting better, use a standard measure rather than the app's own feedback. Our free CORE-10 check is a 10-question distress questionnaire you can repeat every few weeks. If your score stays high, that is a reason to see a professional, whatever any app says.

Ash alternatives

Wysa. An AI chatbot app with exercises based on CBT, solution-focused approaches and mindfulness. Talking to the AI is free, and Wysa sells a premium version with more tools, plus human coaching in some locations at extra cost.^[11] See our Wysa review for its prices and the research behind it.

A licensed therapist. If your symptoms are moderate or worse, or have lasted weeks, a human professional is the evidence-based choice. Ash's own terms say it is not a substitute.^[6]

A general chatbot. When Ash left the UK, Slingshot surveyed 393 former users: 27% relied most on a general AI tool afterward, and 26% used no support at all. Many said the general tools lacked the memory and continuity they valued in Ash. Keep in mind that Slingshot ran this survey about its own product.^[10]

A daily check-in. If you mainly want to notice how you are doing, our 60-second mental health check-in tracks mood, energy, stress, sleep and connection without an account.

Lovon. An AI voice companion app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud about relationships, breakups, conflict and stress. It is not a licensed therapist and not therapy, and it does not diagnose or treat anything. It starts with a 3-day trial, then costs $29.99 for the first month, then the price shown in the store. On the US App Store it has a 4.4 rating from 960 ratings (November 2026). It is not for you if you would rather type than talk, or if you need a licensed professional, a diagnosis or treatment.