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, calories burned, 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

Workout → Apps all day

Or bank minutes

10 min → 30 min of scroll

2 lessons → 20 min of scroll

Limits

For apps that just 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 Daily cap

60 min / day · 27 min left

TikTok + 2 more Visit cap

5 opens / day · 3 used

YouTube Per visit

20 min per visit · 7 min in

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

People set up things like this.

Make it harder each time I reach for Instagram if I've used it more than Duolingo today.
After 5 visits on the weekend, make me pause when I reach for Slack or Teams.
Don't let me into social media for longer than five minutes at a time until my watch has registered 20 minutes of sunlight.
When I reach for social media in the morning, redirect my phone to my journaling app.
Hard block mobile games until I've worked out three times in the last week, then give me 1hr each earned day.

After dark

Night 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, sunlight, and sleep 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 shield lifts on its own. Finish your reading, and your apps are simply open when you reach for them.

Calories & workout minutes

Meditation sessions

Reading, lessons & journaling

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. Your health data is read on your phone and never leaves it. 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, sleep, 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 covers your whole phone 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 on iOS 17.4 or later. An Apple Watch makes sunlight and sleep tracking possible, but isn't required for anything else.

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 the ways people use Tonic

Start with one app and one habit.

Pick the app that gets in your wayInstagram, TikTok, the game you swore you deleted. The one that always goes first.

Pick the habit you keep meaning to doA chapter, a walk, ten minutes of stillness. Tonic tracks it for you.

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

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