Which piano apps are actually free?
Almost every piano app describes itself as free. Very few are. This page sorts them into the three kinds of free that actually exist and tells you what each one costs once the free part runs out.
Last updated 23 September 2026. Every price was read from the product's own pages on that date. We make one of the apps on this list and have marked it clearly.
The short answer
Four are genuinely free with no expiry and no card: MuseScore, Soundslice's free tier, Yousician's 15 minutes a day, and PianGo. Everything else is either a trial that ends — Simply Piano at $169.90 a year afterwards — or a free tier narrow enough that you hit the wall in a week. Which is right depends on whether you need a course or just a tool.
There are three kinds of "free"
- A trial. Full access, then it stops and you pay. Usually 7–14 days, usually needs a card up front.
- A limited free tier. Permanent, no card, but capped — a handful of lessons, a few songs, or a daily timer. Designed so you hit the ceiling and upgrade.
- Actually free. The whole thing, indefinitely, no card and often no account. Rare, and usually because the product is funded some other way or is a tool rather than a course.
The confusion is mostly deliberate. An app that offers a 14-day trial will still rank for "free piano app", and its free tier may be two lessons long. Checking which bucket you are in before you invest a fortnight of practice is the whole point of this page.
What each app's free tier actually gives you
| App | Kind of free | What you get for nothing | What it costs after |
|---|---|---|---|
| MuseScore | Actually free | A full notation editor with playback, and a large community score library. Desktop software, genuinely complete. | $0. A Pro subscription exists for the online score library, but the software itself is free and open source. |
| PianGo (ours) | Actually free | Everything: 56 pieces, MusicXML and MIDI import, automatic fingering, hands drawn on the keys, microphone and MIDI input, 8 languages. No account, no card, no trial. | $0. There is no paid tier today. |
| Soundslice | Actually free | A real free tier of the notation player — looping, tempo control, synced audio and video. | $5/mo (Plus) or $20/mo (Teacher, up to 100 students) for scanning, courses and student recordings. |
| Yousician | Limited tier | 15 minutes of practice a day, permanently, with no card and no expiry. Honest about the cap. | $19.99/mo or $119.99/yr for Premium+ across all instruments. |
| La Touche Musicale | Limited tier | A free catalogue of 250+ songs, and MIDI keyboard connection stays free on any plan. | Premium unlocks the full 2,500+ song catalogue. |
| Synthesia | Limited tier | Around 20 of its 150+ bundled songs, and all MIDI device features including lighted keys. You can also load your own MIDI files. | $39 once for the Learning Pack — hand separation, practice modes and the rest of the songs. One payment, not a subscription. |
| Skoove | Limited tier | Roughly 25 lessons before the paywall. | A yearly subscription at the higher end of the category — the range across these apps runs about $119–170/yr. |
| flowkey | Limited tier | A small selection of songs and the first lessons. | Around $120 a year. |
| Piano Nova | Limited tier | 3 scores of up to 5 pages each, full listening, practice on the opening only. No card required. | $6.99/week, $149.99/yr, or $299 once. |
| Simply Piano | Trial | A limited free tier covering the first few lessons, plus a 14-day trial on yearly plans. | $169.90/yr or $17.90/mo individual; $209.90/yr family. The most expensive on this list. |
How to choose
- You want a structured course and will pay for it. Then "free" is the wrong filter entirely — pick on teaching quality and take the trial. Simply Piano, flowkey and Skoove all exist for this, and they have curricula and licensed arrangements that free tools do not.
- You want to practise a specific piece you already have. A tool, not a course. PianGo, Soundslice or Synthesia, depending on whether your file is MusicXML, MIDI or a PDF.
- You have a MIDI keyboard and a pile of MIDI files. Synthesia at $39 once is the best value on this page, and it is a single payment rather than a recurring one.
- You need sheet music in the first place. MuseScore, free, and it exports MusicXML — which is what most of these tools want as input.
- You want to practise more than 15 minutes a day, for nothing. That rules out Yousician's free tier and most of the others. MuseScore, Soundslice and PianGo have no timer.
What you give up by insisting on free
Free tools in this category do not have licensed popular music. Simply Piano and flowkey cost what they cost partly because they have paid for arrangements of songs people actually want to play, and a curriculum team to sequence them. If what you want is to learn a current pop song from a proper arrangement, the paid apps are the honest answer and no free tool will substitute.
Free tools also tend to skip the things that need a server: saved progress, streaks, teacher dashboards. PianGo has none of those — close the tab and the session is gone. That is the trade.
Where PianGo fits, stated plainly
We make PianGo, so treat this paragraph with the scepticism it deserves — the table above is the part that matters.
PianGo is free because it is a tool rather than a course, and because it has no catalogue to license: it reads the music you already have. Open a MusicXML or MIDI file and it plans fingering across the whole piece, draws both hands over the keyboard, and waits for each note before moving on — listening through the laptop microphone at an acoustic piano, or over MIDI. Fifty-six pieces are built in. It runs in a browser tab with no account and speaks eight languages.
It has no pop catalogue, no curriculum, no saved progress and no automatic PDF scanning. If those matter to you, one of the paid apps above is the better buy, and we would rather say so here than have you find out in a fortnight.
Questions people ask
Is there a completely free piano learning app?
Yes, a few. MuseScore, Soundslice's free tier and PianGo are free with no expiry and no card. Yousician is free forever but capped at 15 minutes of practice a day. Most of the well-known names — Simply Piano, flowkey, Skoove — are trials or narrow free tiers that lead to a subscription of roughly $120–170 a year.
What is the best free piano app?
It depends what you need. For practising a piece you already have the score for, PianGo or Soundslice. For playing along to MIDI files with a keyboard, Synthesia's free tier. For getting sheet music at all, MuseScore. For a structured beginner course, no genuinely free option is as good as the paid ones.
Is Simply Piano free?
Not really. There is a limited free tier covering the first few lessons and a 14-day trial on annual plans, but learning meaningfully requires a subscription at $169.90 a year or $17.90 a month, with a family plan at $209.90 a year.
Is Yousician free?
Yes, with a cap: 15 minutes of practice per day, permanently, with no card and no trial expiry. Premium+ across all instruments is $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year.
Is Synthesia free?
Partly. The free version includes around 20 of its 150+ bundled songs and all MIDI device features, including lighted keys, and you can load your own MIDI files. Hand separation, practice modes and the remaining songs need the $39 Learning Pack — a single purchase, not a subscription.
Do free piano apps work with an acoustic piano?
Some do. PianGo, Simply Piano, Skoove and Yousician listen through the device microphone, so an ordinary upright or grand works with no cable. Synthesia and Soundslice expect MIDI input. A MIDI keyboard is always more precise, but it is not required for microphone-based apps.
Why do so many piano apps call themselves free?
Because "free piano app" is what people search for, and a trial or a two-lesson free tier is enough to use the word. The useful question is not whether an app has a free tier but which of the three kinds it is — a trial that ends, a permanent cap, or the whole product.
Try the free one that needs no account
Open a MusicXML or MIDI file, or pick from 56 built-in pieces. Nothing to install, no card, no sign-up.