Apps That Lock Your Phone While Studying (2026)
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The short answer
Apps that lock your phone while studying mostly lock apps, not the phone. What really separates them is how you get back in:
| How you get out | Apps | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| The session ends (leaving early kills a tree) | Forest, Flora | Free |
| A schedule ends | Opal, Refocus, Screen Time Downtime | Free to paid |
| You fetch a physical key | Foqos, Brick | Free / $59 |
| Your study habit is done | Habit Doom | Free tier |
| A timer or passcode, whole phone | Guided Access, screen pinning | Free, built in |
Pick by how you usually lose focus, not by feature list. If you want a ranked list instead, see our best app blockers for students.
First: locking the whole phone, for free
If you literally want your phone to do one thing while you study, you do not need an app.
On iPhone, use Guided Access. Turn it on in Settings, Accessibility, Guided Access and set a passcode. Open the one app you study with, such as a flashcard app or a timer, triple-click the side button, set a time limit, and start. Until the time runs out, the phone stays in that app. It is free and built in, and almost nobody uses it.
On Android, use screen pinning (called App pinning on some phones) in Settings, Security. It pins one app to the screen until you unpin it.
The catch: both are easy to undo if you know the passcode, and you do. They work best as a "not now" lock for a single study block, not as a long-term habit.
1. Session timers: Forest and Flora
Start a study session, a tree grows. Leave the app to check Instagram and the tree dies. Forest is free on iPhone with an optional Forest Plus subscription, and free with ads on Android. Flora is free on both, with optional real-tree pledges, and adds study sessions with friends.
How you get out: leave the app. You lose a tree, not your phone.
Best for students whose problem is starting. The ritual of planting a tree makes the first 25 minutes easier. It is gentle by design, so it will not stop a determined scroll.
2. Scheduled locks: Opal, Refocus and Screen Time
Set a block for your study hours, say weekdays 4pm to 8pm, and the chosen apps lock on the clock.
- Opal is free with one rule, which can be exactly that study block. Hard Mode, where you cannot turn Opal off mid-session, is Opal Pro at $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year. See is Opal free.
- Refocus lets you pick how hard quitting is, from "stop any time" up to Always Block, where the session cannot be ended. Pro starts with a 7-day free trial; see our Refocus alternatives.
- Screen Time Downtime on iPhone is free, but the Ignore Limit button gets you out in one tap.
How you get out: the schedule ends, or you change the setting.
Best for students with a regular timetable who start well but drift after twenty minutes.
3. Physical keys: Foqos and Brick
These put the unlock in an object. Tap your phone on a tag to lock your apps, and you need that tag to unlock them. Leave it in the kitchen and studying in your bedroom gets a lot easier.
- Foqos is free and open source on iPhone. It works with any NFC tag, QR code or barcode, so a printed code taped inside a cupboard does the job.
- Brick is a $59 device with a free app and no subscription, on iPhone and Android, with 5 emergency unbricks. See Brick vs other app blockers.
How you get out: walk to the key.
Best for students who know they will switch a blocker off, and who study in the same place every day.
4. Earned unlocks: Habit Doom
Habit Doom is ours, so weigh this section accordingly.
Instead of a timer, schedule or tag, the unlock is the work itself. Make "study for 45 minutes" one of your daily habits. TikTok, Instagram and YouTube stay locked until it is checked off. Once it is, the apps open for the rest of the day.
Checking off a habit you did not do is the obvious cheat, so free Anti-Cheat asks for a real-time photo, such as your open notes, and matches it on your phone. The lock uses Apple's Screen Time API and holds through force-quit and uninstall. The free tier includes 3 habits, app blocking, custom alarms, streaks and Anti-Cheat, with no ads. Pro is $4.99 a month, $19.99 a year with a 7-day trial, or $29.99 once. It runs on iPhone and Android.
How you get out: finish studying.
Best for students who have tried blockers and keep turning them off. More on the setup in lock TikTok until homework is done.
5. On Android: Regain and Focus mode
- Regain is a study timer first, with Pomodoro, study rooms with other students, and a feature that blocks Reels and Shorts specifically. Its Strict Mode has moved to a paid tier.
- Digital Wellbeing's Focus mode is free and built into most Android phones. It pauses chosen apps until you turn it off, which is also its weakness.
For the full Android field, see best app blockers for Android.
Which one should you use?
You cannot start studying: Forest or Flora. The ritual helps.
You start, then drift: a scheduled lock. Opal's free rule or Refocus.
You switch blockers off: a physical key (Foqos, free) or an earned unlock (Habit Doom).
You need one hour of total lockdown tonight: Guided Access. Free, already on your phone.
Whichever you choose, set it up before you sit down. The worst time to decide how strict to be is the moment you want to check your phone. For study habits that make the lock easier to keep, see how to focus while studying.
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