MedAI Verdict
Mental health

AI Mental Health

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Youper

by Youper Inc.

Last verified

Emotional-health chatbot app that shut down: it stopped working on September 30, 2026.

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At a glance

Pricing
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HIPAA
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SOC 2
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EHRs
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On this page

Emotional-health chatbot app that shut down: it stopped working on September 30, 2026.

Contact for pricing.

Evidence record

Peer-reviewed

2 studies on PubMed: 1 observational, 1 other, published 2022 to 2025. Read the literature summary

Verification
  • Score computed November 2, 2026, method 1.2.0
  • Review written October 15, 2026
Cite this record

MedAI Verdict, Youper record, https://medaiverdict.com/tools/youper, version October 15, 2026

Change history
View every change to this record

Bottom line

Youper, an AI mental health app, has closed. Nothing is for sale, and subscriptions were disabled when the app stopped working.

What was Youper?

Youper Inc. built an app it first called an emotional health assistant, later "Youper: AI Mental Health." It offered chat conversations using cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, assessments for anxiety, depression and panic, mood tracking and progress tracking. Its App Store listing stated that it does not offer diagnostic measurements or treatment advice.

The company was co-founded in 2016 by Dr. Jose Hamilton, a psychiatrist, with Diego Couto and Thiago Marafon, according to Choosing Therapy and TechCrunch. Some sources say 2015. TechCrunch reported a $3M seed round in June 2019.

When did it close?

Choosing Therapy states that the app would stop working on September 30, 2026 and no longer recommends it, and a shutdown guide from Renee Space gives the same timeline. Accounts and chat histories were scheduled for permanent deletion from October 1, 2026.

What was the evidence?

Choosing Therapy cites an observational study in which daily users over four weeks had fewer anxiety and depression symptoms. Observational data cannot establish that the app caused the change.

What did the app charge?

Before closing, the annual plan was $69.99 with a 7-day free trial and no monthly option, according to Choosing Therapy. The App Store showed in-app options from $9.99 to $89.99.

What did users say?

Choosing Therapy rated it 3.5 out of 5, listing the trial, the CBT chatbot and easy navigation as pros. The cons were no free version, frequent freezing and a new version that long-time users found limited.

The verdict

Youper is closed, so there is no purchase decision. Choosing Therapy no longer recommends it.

Editorial review last generated October 15, 2026. Synthesized from clinician sentiment, peer-reviewed coverage, and our editorial silo picks. Refined by hand where vendor facts change.

What the literature says

2 peer-reviewed studies indexed on PubMed evaluate Youper in clinical contexts. The most relevant are shown below, ranked by editorial relevance score combining title match, study design, recency, and journal tier.

The Efficacy of Conversational AI in Rectifying the Theory-of-Mind and Autonomy Biases: Comparative Analysis. (opens in new tab)
Rządeczka M, Sterna A, Stolińska J, et al.· JMIR Ment Health· 2025Observational
The increasing deployment of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) in mental health interventions necessitates an evaluation of their efficacy in rectifying cognitive biases and recognizing affect in human-AI interactions. These biases are particularly relevant in mental health contexts as they can exacerbate conditions such as depression and anxiety by reinforcing maladaptive thought patterns or unrealistic expectations in human-AI interactions. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of therapeutic chatbots (Wysa and Youper) versus general-purpose language models (GPT-3.5, GPT-4,…
Public Trust in Artificial Intelligence Applications in Mental Health Care: Topic Modeling Analysis. (opens in new tab)
Shan Y, Ji M, Xie W, et al.· JMIR Hum Factors· 2022
Mental disorders (MDs) impose heavy burdens on health care (HC) systems and affect a growing number of people worldwide. The use of mobile health (mHealth) apps empowered by artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being resorted to as a possible solution. This study adopted a topic modeling (TM) approach to investigate the public trust in AI apps in mental health care (MHC) by identifying the dominant topics and themes in user reviews of the 8 most relevant mental health (MH) apps with the largest numbers of reviewers. We searched Google Play for the top MH apps with the largest numbers…

See all on PubMed (opens in new tab)

Other mental health

See the full mental health ranking

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