Lock Instagram
until you've
read.

Your device already records the habit. Tonic reads your iPhone and Apple Watch and lifts the lock on its own: a chapter in Kindle, a walk, a workout, a sit, time outside. Apps that only need a boundary get limits that fit.

Get Tonic free Free to start · iPhone and iPad, iOS 17.4 or later
Kindle
Read 20 min in Kindle
of a good chapter
13 of 20 min
then it's yours: TikTok Instagram
🚶
Walk to bank scroll time
100 steps → 1 min of reward time
23 min banked
4,160 steps today
☀️
20 min of sunlight
Apple Watch measures it on your wrist
12/20 min
auto-tracked

How it works

Every app is a different problem.
Tonic treats it that way.

Earn

Set any app as a reward for your good habits. Tonic tracks what would be too hard to log yourself: your progress in apps like Kindle or Duolingo, your workouts, whether you meditated this morning, even whether you've gotten outside. Require them each day or bank productive minutes to spend later.

Unlock all day

Strava Workout → Apps all day

Or bank minutes

Headspace 10 min → 30 min of scroll
Duolingo 2 lessons → 20 min of scroll

Limits

For apps that only need boundaries, Tonic adapts to the problem. Limit by time, by visits, or with moments of pause that escalate the more you reach for it.

Instagram
Instagram Daily cap
60 min / day · 27 min left
TikTok Reddit X
TikTok + 2 more Visit cap
5 opens / day · 3 used
YouTube
YouTube Per visit
20 min per visit · 7 min in
X
X Pause only
A longer pause each visit · visit 4 today

Your rules

You choose what locked looks like: a gentle nudge towards the good thing, a strict wall, or moments of pause that increase each time you haven't earned it.

Before you earn

Opens freely
Make me pause
Make it hard

After you earn

Make me pause
Make it hard
Cut me off

When and where

A rule can run only during set hours, like 9 to 5 on weekdays, or only at a saved place, like work. Outside those hours, or away from that place, the apps are free. Earning counts wherever you are.

Schedule

MTWTFSS
9 AM5 PM

Location

Work
Home

Nothing to log

You never open Tonic to unlock.

Your iPhone and Apple Watch already record the habit. Tonic reads it in the background and lifts the lock by itself.

No check-ins, no proof photos. A chapter, a walk, a workout, a sit: each counts on its own, with nothing to start or log.
Unlocks from the background. Usually within a minute of the goal, whether Tonic was open or not.
Any app or activity you pick. Kindle, Duolingo, Strava, Headspace, your steps, your Watch. Nothing new to install.

Reads from the apps and devices you already use

Kindle Duolingo Strava Headspace Apple Health ⌚

and any app you pick

Tonic Tonic
Instagram Reading done. Instagram is unlocked. You earned it. now

One-time setup: pick the app you earn with and the apps it unlocks. For a walk or a workout, allow Tonic to read that activity in Apple Health.

Beyond one app and one habit

People set up things like this.

After dark

Dark mode comes standard.

And when a locked app catches you reaching, the screen doesn't scold. It sends you somewhere better.

Building a meditation ritual in Tonic: the goal slider marks your average, and shows how many days last week would have earned
Tonic on a real iPhone: 30-day earn rates, unearned minutes, a steps ritual earned, and 27 banked minutes
Tonic on a real iPhone: habit progress and app limits, including 10 of 20 minutes left on Instagram and 3 of 5 visits left

When temptation calls…

TikTok Blocked

5 min of reading left

Open Kindle instead
Not yet

No logging, no proof photos, no check-ins

Works with the apps you already love.

Workouts, meditation, steps, and sunlight come straight from Apple Health and your Apple Watch. Reading and lessons count from time spent in the apps you choose. And the unlock is real: when your habit counts, the lock lifts on its own. Finish your reading, and your apps are simply open when you reach for them.

Workouts

Strava Nike Run Club Peloton Strong Hevy Fitbod

Meditation sessions

Headspace Calm Waking Up Insight Timer Balance Ten Percent Happier

Reading, lessons & journaling

Kindle Duolingo Apple Books Day One GoodNotes Brilliant

Yours to control

No account. No parent. No lock you can't open.

Tonic is self-directed and built for adults. You pick the apps, you set the rules, and you can change them whenever you want.

Apple's Screen Time system keeps your app choices hidden from everyone, including us. Tonic doesn't sell data or show ads, and the anonymous usage data it does send is spelled out in plain English. Here's exactly how we handle data.

Quick answers

Is Tonic a parental control?

No. Tonic is for adults managing their own phone. There's no parent, no admin, and no rule you can't change yourself.

What can I earn with?

Time in productive apps like Kindle or Duolingo, plus walks, workouts, meditation, steps, and sunlight read from Apple Health.

What does Tonic cost?

Free to start: lock two apps and earn with one habit, for as long as you like. Tonic Unlimited lifts the limits on apps and ways to earn, for $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month, with the first 7 days free.

What do I need to run it?

An iPhone or iPad on iOS 17.4 or later. An Apple Watch makes sunlight and brisk-minute earning possible; steps, workouts, meditation and app time work without one.

More questions answered at Support →

Ways to use Tonic

However you want to scroll less

Meditate, read more, keep a language streak honest, do your morning pages, set work boundaries. The move is always the same: put the thing you meant to do in front of the feed.

See every way to earn

Start with one app and one habit.

1
Pick the app that gets in your wayInstagram, TikTok, the game you swore you deleted. The one that always goes first.
2
Pick the habit you keep meaning to doA chapter, a walk, ten minutes of stillness. Tonic tracks it for you.
3
Tomorrow morning is going to be differentThe good thing goes first. The fun thing is earned. That's the whole trick.
Get Tonic free Free to start · no account needed

Checked against the app on September 28, 2026.