Our pick is Berceuse: more than 40 lo-fi playlists, rain or a café under the beats at your own volume, no ads and offline play. Here is how it compares with eight other ways to listen, from Lofi Girl on YouTube to Brain.fm.
We make Berceuse. We tried to be fair to every app here: each price and feature below comes from its store listing, pricing page or help pages, checked in October 2026.
The short answer
Berceuse is the best lo-fi app for most people who study, work or sleep to lo-fi. It has more than 40 lo-fi playlists, more than 80 mixes with rain, fire or a café under the beats, no ads and offline play, for $39.99 a year. Lofi Girl on YouTube and Chillhop's app are the better fit if you want lo-fi at no cost.
The best lo-fi apps side by side
Prices are US prices. App prices are from the US App Store and other prices from each service's own site, all checked in October 2026.
| App | Price per year (US) | No-cost option | Ads | Rain or café under lo-fi | Offline | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berceuse | $39.99 | No (3-day free trial) | None | Yes, each layer with its own volume | Yes, after download | Lo-fi with rain or a café under it, for study and sleep, anywhere |
| Lofi Girl (YouTube) | $0, or $159.99 for YouTube Premium | Yes | YouTube ads, unless Premium | No | No, it is a live stream | Lo-fi at no cost, at a desk with good Wi-Fi |
| Spotify | $155.88 at $12.99 a month | Yes, with limits | Free tier | No | With Premium | Lo-fi next to the rest of your music |
| Chillhop app | $0 | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes, over one radio stream | Not confirmed | One lo-fi stream with rain on top, at no cost |
| Brain.fm | $99.99 | No | None | No, rain is a genre | Yes, in the mobile apps | Music designed for focus, on a computer too |
| Endel | $34.99 to $119.99 | No (7-day trial) | Not confirmed | No user mixer found | Yes | Sound that changes on its own |
| Lofizen (web) | About $38.88 | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes, an ambient mixer | No, web only | Studying in a browser with a Pomodoro timer |
1. Our pick: Berceuse, lo-fi with rain, fire or a café under the beats
Best for: studying, working and falling asleep to lo-fi, with rain or a café under the beats, ad-free and offline.
We make Berceuse, so read this part with that in mind. We still think it is the best lo-fi app for most people who listen to study, work or sleep. Here is why.
A real lo-fi library. As of September 2026, Berceuse has more than 40 lo-fi playlists, such as Study Beats, Jazz Café, Rainy Rhodes, Tape Piano, Bossa Desk, Synth Tape, Library Hush and After the Lamps Go Out. Playlists play in order or shuffled, with repeat. Beyond lo-fi there is ambient, piano, jazz and classical music, in more than 900 sounds and music tracks in all.
Rain, fire or a café under the beats. This is what sets Berceuse apart. More than 80 ready-made mixes put rain, fire or a café under lo-fi. The playlist plays on its own channel, and each sound layer has its own volume slider (up to 10 layers on iPhone, 6 on Android). Keep the rain soft and the beats clear, or let the café lead. Save the mix, rename it, and it is there tomorrow.
Your own focus mix. To make one, pick who it is for, then focus, sleep or calm as the purpose. Then choose the sounds, the music and a cover.
No ads. Nothing breaks into a reading session or a night.
Offline after download. With a subscription, you download mixes and playlists and play them offline: on a train, on a plane or in a library with weak Wi-Fi. Downloads keep working for up to 30 days between subscription checks.
Made for long sessions and nights. The music keeps playing with the screen locked, with lock-screen controls on both platforms. On iPhone it also shows as a Live Activity on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island (iOS 16.2 or later). For sleep, the timer runs for 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes. The sound fades out over the last 30 seconds instead of stopping hard.
Siri on iPhone. With iOS 17 or later, say "Play lo-fi on Berceuse" and Siri starts a lo-fi mix. Say "Stop Berceuse in 30 minutes" when it is time for bed.
A fair price. Berceuse costs $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year in the US, with a 3-day free trial. Over a year, that is less than Spotify Premium at monthly rates ($155.88), YouTube Premium ($159.99) or Brain.fm ($99.99). Before you pay, you can browse the whole library and hear 10-second previews.
Berceuse is made for iPhone and Android phones. It has no web player and no tablet layout. You cannot build your own playlists, but you can like playlists and build mixes.
2. Lofi Girl: the classic lo-fi stream on YouTube
Best for: listening at no cost, at a desk with a good connection.
Lofi Girl is a French YouTube channel and label, once called ChilledCow. Its 24/7 lo-fi live streams have about 15.8 million subscribers (June 2026). It costs nothing to watch on YouTube. You get YouTube's ads unless you pay for YouTube Premium.
There is no official Lofi Girl mobile app. The website lofigirl.com has the streams and a shop. A free official Chrome extension adds a Pomodoro timer and ambient tracks, which is handy on a laptop.
On a phone, things change. A live stream does not work offline. Free YouTube stops when the screen turns off or the app is closed. The streams have also been taken down by false copyright claims, in July 2022 and earlier in 2017 and 2020, before coming back.
3. Spotify: a huge lo-fi catalogue in an app you may already use
Best for: people who already pay for Spotify Premium and want lo-fi next to the rest of their music.
Spotify has a huge lo-fi catalogue, including playlists from Lofi Girl and Chillhop. Lofi Girl has about 1 million monthly listeners there.
Spotify Premium Individual costs $12.99 a month in the US since February 2026. That is $155.88 over a year at the monthly rate. Student is $6.99, Duo $18.99 and Family $21.99, and new users get a one-month trial. The free tier has ads and a daily on-demand limit, then shuffle with 6 skips an hour. Downloads for offline play need Premium.
Spotify has no way to layer sounds under the music. For rain under your lo-fi, you need a second app playing at the same time.
4. Chillhop's app: free lo-fi radio with ambient sounds on top
Best for: people who want one lo-fi stream with rain on top, at no cost.
Chillhop Music is a Dutch lo-fi label with a 24/7 radio. Its free app, "Chillhop radio lo-fi beats" (iOS and Android), does something close to Berceuse. It lets you layer ambient sounds such as rain and vinyl crackle over the stream. You can save presets, and it keeps playing with the phone locked.
To be fair, that is a real alternative if you mostly want one stream. The app is very new (2026) and has few ratings so far. It plays one stream rather than a library of playlists. We could not confirm whether it plays offline.
5. Brain.fm: focus music built with amplitude modulation
Best for: people who want music designed for focus and care about the research behind it.
Brain.fm makes what it calls "functional" music for focus, relaxation and sleep, built with amplitude modulation. It offers more than 20 genres, including lo-fi and rain. It runs on the web, iOS, Android, Mac and Windows, so it suits work at a computer.
It costs $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with no free tier and no ads. Brain.fm's blog lists a 7-day trial on the monthly plan and 14 days on the yearly plan. Music plays offline in the mobile apps. Rain and nature are genres you pick, not layers you mix. It has 4.5 stars from about 5,500 ratings on the US App Store. We compare the two in Berceuse vs Brain.fm.
6. Endel: adaptive soundscapes for focus and sleep
Best for: people who want sound that changes on its own rather than set playlists.
Endel makes adaptive AI soundscapes for focus, sleep and relaxation, rather than lo-fi playlists. It runs on many platforms and is an Apple Editors' Choice. Its listing says "all soundscapes are available offline".
Prices on the US App Store range from $2.99 to $19.99 a month and $34.99 to $119.99 a year, with a lifetime option at $124.99. The 7-day trial needs a payment method. We did not find a mixer you control in its listing.
7. Lofizen: lo-fi in the browser with a Pomodoro timer
Best for: studying on a laptop with a timer on screen.
Lofizen is a website, not a phone app. It has lo-fi playlists, animated backgrounds, an ambient mixer and a Pomodoro timer. There is a free tier. Premium is $4.99 a month, about $38.88 a year billed yearly, or $79 for life. It is web only, so it does not play offline. (You may still see lofi.co mentioned online. It closed in May 2024.)
Lo-fi on YouTube Premium and Apple Music
- YouTube Premium: $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year in the US. It removes ads and lets YouTube keep playing with the screen off. Premium Lite ($8.99) has no background play and no downloads.
- Apple Music: $11.99 a month for an Individual plan, offline included, no free tier.
How to choose a lo-fi app for study, work or sleep
Ask yourself four questions.
- Do you need it offline? On a train, a plane or in a library with weak Wi-Fi, a live stream will not help. Berceuse, Spotify Premium, Brain.fm and Endel all play offline.
- Do ads matter to you? An ad in the middle of a reading session breaks the mood. Paid apps avoid that.
- Do you want sounds under the beats? If rain or a café helps you settle, look at Berceuse, Chillhop's app or Lofizen. Berceuse is the one that pairs them with a library of more than 40 lo-fi playlists.
- Is it for sleep too? Then you want a sleep timer that fades out, and music that keeps playing with the screen locked. Berceuse does both.
Lyrics matter as well. Research suggests music with lyrics hurts reading more than instrumental music does. We sum up the studies in Does lo-fi help you study or sleep?
Ad-free lo-fi costs less with Berceuse: $39.99 a year
Here is what a year of lo-fi with no ads costs in the US:
- Berceuse: $39.99 a year ($5.99 a month), with a 3-day free trial.
- Brain.fm: $99.99 a year.
- Spotify Premium: $155.88 over a year at $12.99 a month.
- YouTube Premium: $159.99 a year.
To be fair, Spotify and YouTube Premium give you far more than lo-fi: all their music and videos. If you use them for everything, the sums change. If you want lo-fi and sounds to study or sleep, Berceuse costs much less.
Home: tonight’s featured mix and the ones you played last.
Search by name: everything with rain in it.
The mixer: each sound has its own volume, with music underneath.
Why we think Berceuse is the best lo-fi app for study and sleep
- Rain under the beats, at your volume. More than 80 mixes pair lo-fi with rain, fire or a café, and every layer has its own slider.
- A real lo-fi library. More than 40 lo-fi playlists as of September 2026, from Study Beats to After the Lamps Go Out.
- No ads, ever. Nothing breaks into a study session or a night.
- Offline after download. Mixes and playlists play on a plane or a train.
- Made for nights. A sleep timer from 5 to 60 minutes fades the sound out instead of cutting it.
- Siri on iPhone. Say "Play lo-fi on Berceuse" and a lo-fi mix starts.
- A fair price. $39.99 a year, against $155.88 for Spotify Premium at monthly rates, $159.99 for YouTube Premium and $99.99 for Brain.fm.
Who should still pick another lo-fi app
- You want lo-fi at no cost: Lofi Girl on YouTube, or Chillhop's app if you also want rain on top.
- You already pay for Spotify Premium: its huge lo-fi catalogue may be enough if you do not need sounds under the music.
- You work at a computer all day: Brain.fm runs on the web, Mac and Windows, and Lofizen runs in the browser.
For a closer look at the free options, read Berceuse vs Lofi Girl and Spotify.
Questions people ask
Is Berceuse better than Lofi Girl or Spotify for lo-fi?
Yes, for studying and sleeping to lo-fi. Berceuse puts rain, fire or a café under the beats at your own volume, has no ads, plays offline after download and has a sleep timer that fades out, for $39.99 a year. Lofi Girl is the better fit if you want lo-fi at no cost, and Spotify if you want lo-fi next to all your other music.
Is there a lo-fi app that lets you add rain sounds?
Yes. Berceuse lets you put rain, fire or a café under more than 40 lo-fi playlists, each layer at its own volume. Chillhop's free app layers ambient sounds such as rain and vinyl crackle over its radio stream. Lofizen has an ambient mixer on the web.
Can I listen to lo-fi offline?
Yes, with the right app. Berceuse, Spotify Premium, Brain.fm (in its mobile apps) and Endel play offline. Lofi Girl's live streams and Lofizen do not.
Is Berceuse free?
No. Berceuse is a subscription at $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year in the US, with a 3-day free trial. You can browse the library and hear 10-second previews before you pay.
Does lo-fi help you sleep?
Music can help. A Cochrane review found that listening to music improved self-reported sleep quality in adults with insomnia. Studies on lo-fi itself are few and small. A sleep timer that fades out helps the music end gently.
Is there an official Lofi Girl app?
No. Lofi Girl has no official mobile app. Its streams are on YouTube and lofigirl.com, and there is an official Chrome extension.
Sources
- Lofi Girl on Wikipedia
- Lofi Girl website
- Forbes: Lofi Girl returns after a false copyright claim (July 2022)
- Spotify Premium plans (US)
- Music Business Worldwide: Spotify's free tier
- Chillhop Music
- Chillhop radio lo-fi beats on the App Store
- Brain.fm pricing
- Brain.fm on the App Store
- Endel on the App Store
- Lofizen pricing
- gHacks: YouTube Premium US prices (June 2026)
- Apple Music
- Cochrane: music for insomnia in adults
