Dry January app: 7 options compared, free and paid

For most people the right Dry January app is a free one: Try Dry, from the charity that runs Dry January, counts your dry days, money and calories at no cost and with no ads. Pay for an app only if you want more than a counter: daily lessons, texts that check in on you, or a plan for cutting back rather than stopping. Below are seven options with prices checked on November 3, 2026, how to choose between them, and how to set one up on December 31 so it works from the first evening.

Dry January 2027 runs from Friday, January 1 to Sunday, January 31. That means the first weekend arrives on day 2, so the set-up you do before New Year's Eve matters more than usual.

The options side by side

Prices are from each app's own page or its US App Store listing, checked November 3, 2026. Store prices change and differ by country, so check the price on the screen where you pay.

We make the last one, so read our entry with that in mind. The rest of this page applies to any app.

The free apps, one by one

Try Dry

Try Dry is the official Dry January app, made for the charity Alcohol Change UK, which started the challenge in 2013. Its store listing says it is "totally free" with "no ads". It is on iPhone and Android, including the US App Store.

• Logs every drink and every dry day, with charts and a calendar.
• Shows units, calories and money saved.
• Counts your current and longest dry streak, with badges and missions.
• Lets you log sleep, energy, mood and how strong a craving was.
• Has a short drinking quiz and a coaching email program.

You don't have to go fully dry: the charity says it also supports cutting down and other dry challenges. It was built in the UK and talks in UK units (more on units below).

MyDrinkaware

A free app from Drinkaware, a UK alcohol education charity, for iPhone and Android. You log what you drink and it works out units, calories and spend. You choose a goal: cut back, drink less to lose weight, or go alcohol-free, and you can track drink-free days. Like Try Dry, it is built around UK guidance.

Less: Alcohol Tracker

A free tracker from the team behind the Zero fasting app. The US App Store listing shows no in-app purchases. It suggests a weekly limit you can raise or lower, logs a drink with one tap or from a widget, counts drink-free days in a row and shows your 7-day and 28-day rolling averages. It is made for cutting back more than for a dry month, but a dry streak counter works fine for January.

I Am Sober

Free to use, with an optional Sober Plus subscription. Its core is a day counter: how long since your last drink, milestones, a daily pledge in the morning and a short review at night, money saved and a community. Sober Plus adds groups, a Face ID lock and cloud backup. It is built around stopping, so it suits a fully dry month better than a cut-back one. Know that it treats any drink as a reset of the counter; some people find that motivating and others find it harsh after one slip.

The paid apps, one by one

Reframe

Reframe's App Store listing describes a "160-day, evidence-based, education program" with progress tracking, a private community and a premium tier with one-to-one coaching. You choose whether you're cutting back or quitting. The listing offers a 7-day free trial and shows ten in-app prices, from $13.99 a month up to $119.99 a year, depending on the plan. A 160-day program is longer than January, so it suits people who already know they want to keep going after the month.

Sunnyside

Sunnyside starts with a 3-minute quiz, then gives you a weekly drink plan you can change. You report what you drank by text, get daily reminders and tips, and can text a coach if you want to. Its Dry(ish) January page lets you pick your own target, so a dry month isn't required. Its brand facts page (verified March 19, 2026) lists a basic plan at $99 a year, a coaching plan at $298 a year, a 15-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee; its Dry(ish) January page says plans start at $8.75 a month. A separate medication plan at $99 a month needs a clinical evaluation and is a different kind of service.

Our 30-day Drink Less plan

Our plan is for cutting back, not quitting. A 2-minute quiz asks when, where and why you usually drink and names your pattern (for example, the evening unwinder). Then one lesson a day, about 4 minutes, changes the routine at that moment: week 1 counts and moves the first drink later, week 2 swaps the routine, week 3 covers weekends and people, week 4 sets your own rules. It has a drink tracker in US standard drinks and streaks. It costs $59.99 a year or $19 a month, you can cancel online any time, and there's a full refund within 7 days. People who join by January 31 also get a Dry January kit: 6 prep days from December 26 and a 31-day dry tracker.

If you want a fully dry January and nothing else, you don't need ours. Try Dry does that for free.

When a free app is enough

A free app is all you need if:

• your goal is 31 days with no alcohol and you mainly want to see the chain of dry days grow;
• you've done a dry month before and know your hard moments;
• you have a friend or partner doing it with you, so the check-in comes from a person;
• you mostly want to see the money and calories add up.

A paid app earns its price when the same evening routine has beaten you before, when you want one small thing to do each day instead of a dashboard, or when you want someone to text back. Even then, start the free trial and judge it on whether you opened it every day of the first week, not on how it looked when you downloaded it.

How to pick: quit for the month, or cut back?

Decide this first, because the apps are built for one or the other.

If you're not sure which goal fits you, our Dry January challenge guide covers the full dry month and the damp version, and who should talk to a doctor before either.

Units: why a UK app can make your week look heavier

Try Dry and MyDrinkaware are UK apps, and the UK counts in units of 8 grams of alcohol. A US standard drink, as NIAAA and the CDC define it, holds 14 grams: a 12 oz beer at 5%, a 5 oz glass of wine at 12%, or a 1.5 oz shot of 40% spirits. So one US drink is about 1.75 UK units, and "14 units" in a UK app is about 8 US drinks. Try Dry's update notes mention a US unit setting; check which one your app uses before you compare your week with US limits. For a dry month this doesn't matter, because zero is zero. It matters in February when you set a weekly number. Our guide to choosing a drink tracker app explains how to log size and strength so the count is right.

Check these before you start a free trial

• The renewal date. Write it in your calendar the day you start. A 7-day trial started on December 31 ends on January 7.
• What it renews at. Monthly or yearly, and the exact price on the payment screen.
• Where you cancel. A subscription bought through Apple or Google is cancelled in your phone's settings. One bought on a website is cancelled there.
• The privacy label. A drinking log is personal. The App Store's privacy section and Google Play's data safety section show what's collected and whether it's linked to you.
• The lock screen. "Did you drink today?" shows up on a locked phone. Hide notification previews if others see your phone.

How to set up your app on December 31

Fifteen minutes on New Year's Eve, before the evening starts, sets the app up to help on the nights that are hard.

1. Install one app, not three. Pick from the table and delete the others. Put it on your home screen where your thumb lands.
2. Enter your starting week. Log what you drank in a normal week in December, as well as you remember. It gives you a number to compare against in February, and it makes the money and calorie totals honest.
3. Set your goal for the month. 31 dry days, or your weekly number and named dry days ("no drinks Monday to Thursday").
4. Set one reminder, 15 minutes before your usual first drink. If you pour at 6 p.m., the reminder goes at 5:45. A reminder at 9 p.m. arrives after the decision.
5. Write your reasons in the app's notes. Two or three, in your own words: sleeping through the night, a clear Saturday morning, money for a trip.
6. Mark the hard dates. January 2 and 3 are the first weekend. Add birthdays, a work dinner, the big game. Decide now what you'll drink at each one.
7. Tell one person you're using it. Send them a screenshot of your streak each Sunday.

Not sure when your hard moment is? The free 2-minute drinking pattern quiz asks when, where and why you usually drink and names the cue behind most of your drinks, so you know where to put that reminder.

If you slip in week 1 or 2

Weeks 1 and 2 hold the first weekend, the first long evening and often the first social plan of the year. A slip there is common, and it doesn't cancel the days before it. What you do in the app next is what counts.

• Log it honestly. Put in the real drinks, size and time. A log with the hard nights missing hides the one thing you need to see.
• Add a note on what came just before. The place, the people, the time, whether you'd eaten, how the day went. After two slips you'll usually see the same cue twice.
• Make one plan for that cue. "If I'm home alone on a Friday at 6, I'll pour the sparkling water first and start cooking." Put it in the app's notes or reminders.
• Start again the next morning. Don't add days in February to make up for it. A streak counter that resets to zero is only a number; your total dry days for the month still count.
• Consider switching goal, not quitting. If a full dry month keeps breaking at the same moment, a damp January with a weekly number and set dry days is a real option, and the same app can track it.

If you find you can't get through more than a day or two, or the cravings are much stronger than you expected, that's worth knowing. It's a reason to talk to a doctor, not a reason to blame yourself.

What to do with the app in February

February 1 is where most of the value of a dry month is kept or lost. The app you used in January can help, but only if you change what you ask it to do.

• Switch the goal from dry days to a weekly number. Lower than your December week. NIAAA's low-risk lines are no more than 4 drinks on any day and 14 a week for men, and no more than 3 on any day and 7 a week for women; the US Dietary Guidelines advise 2 drinks or fewer in a day for men and 1 or fewer for women, on the days people drink.
• Keep named dry days. "Monday to Thursday" is easier to keep than "four days a week".
• Keep the reminder at your cue time. The routine you built in January still needs the nudge, even on the days you drink.
• Count a full week in late February. Compare it with the week you entered on December 31.
• Cancel what you won't use. If a paid trial rolled into a subscription you don't open, cancel it now.

For what to expect in your body week by week, and what the studies did and didn't measure, see our Dry January benefits timeline. For apps built for the cut-back part of the year, see our guide to choosing a drink less app.

When an app isn't enough

An app is a tool for people who can stop or cut back on their own. If you drink heavily every day, talk to a doctor before stopping suddenly. Stopping all at once after heavy daily drinking can cause withdrawal, which can be dangerous. Shaking, sweating, nausea, a racing heart or bad anxiety when you go without a drink are signs to get medical help first. A doctor can help you cut down safely.

In the US, SAMHSA's National Helpline is free, confidential and open 24 hours a day on 1-800-662-4357.

Questions people ask

Is there an official Dry January app?

Yes. Try Dry is the official app of the Dry January challenge, made for the charity Alcohol Change UK. It's free, has no ads and works on iPhone and Android, including in the US.

Is the Try Dry app free?

Yes. Its store listing says it's totally free, with no upfront or hidden costs and no ads.

Can I use a Dry January app if I just want to cut back?

Yes. Try Dry and MyDrinkaware both support cutting down as well as going alcohol-free, and Less, Sunnyside and our plan are built for cutting back.

Do I need a paid app for Dry January?

No. A free app, or a calendar on the fridge with a mark for each dry day, works for most people. Pay only if you want daily lessons, check-in texts or a plan for after January.

What happens to my streak if I have one drink?

Most counters reset the streak, but your total dry days for the month stay. Log the drink, note what came before it, and start again the next day.

When should I download the app?

A few days before January 1, so you can enter your December week and set your reminder on December 31. Starting a paid trial on January 1 means it ends during the month, so note the date.

More on drinking less: all our drink-less guides.

Prices and features checked November 3, 2026, from public pages only. Sources: Alcohol Change UK, "Try Dry: the app to help you cut down" (alcoholchange.org.uk/alcohol-facts/interactive-tools/the-dry-january-app-1) and the Try Dry US App Store listing (apps.apple.com/us/app/id1441293755). Drinkaware, MyDrinkaware app (drinkaware.co.uk/tools/mydrinkaware-app). Less: Alcohol Tracker, US App Store listing (apps.apple.com/us/app/id1484828892). I Am Sober, iamsober.com and US App Store listing (apps.apple.com/us/app/i-am-sober/id672904239). Reframe: Drink Less & Thrive, US App Store listing (apps.apple.com/us/app/id1485756576). Sunnyside, brand facts (sunnyside.co/brand-facts, verified March 19, 2026) and Dry(ish) January page (sunnyside.co/product/dryish-january). NIAAA, Rethinking Drinking: what counts as a drink and low-risk drinking levels. CDC, About moderate alcohol use (standard drink, Dietary Guidelines limits). NHS, alcohol units. SAMHSA National Helpline, 1-800-662-4357. This guide is about habits and is not medical advice.