Questions, answered

You describe something you’re facing, like a decision, a conflict or a setback, and hear how three thinkers from across 2,500 years would see it, plus one concrete next step. Around that are smaller daily things: Daily Wisdom, Storytime, a Journal and The Vent.

25 philosophers, strategists and leaders, from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Lao Tzu to Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Montaigne, Ida B. Wells and Florence Nightingale. They often disagree, which is the point. You can meet all 25 on the Sages page.

No. You can try it as a guest, with no sign-up. A free account gives you more consultations and keeps your saved perspectives, Journal and progress across devices.

Be specific. Say what actually happened, who’s involved, what’s at stake and what you’d count as a good outcome. “My manager presented my analysis as his own in Tuesday’s review” gets a far better answer than “work is frustrating.”

Just a web browser on your phone, tablet or computer. There’s nothing to download.

Adults (18 and over) facing ordinary hard things: students, professionals, founders, executives, people at a crossroads, and anyone who likes philosophy and wants to use it.

The council (free) gives you three thinkers with different angles on your situation and one next step. Sage mode (Pro) is a 1-on-1 with the thinker you choose: a deeper, guided consultation with room for a longer conversation.

Yes. Every consultation leaves room for a few follow-ups, and Sage sessions on Pro allow a longer conversation. Each new situation starts a new consultation.

When the app shows a thinker’s exact words, they come from public-domain translations we’ve checked word for word against the original books. In consultations, the AI puts their ideas in its own words and won’t present a sentence as their exact quote, because AI tools often misquote.

If you ask for a medical judgment, like whether something is a condition or whether to change a medication, AskAncients gives a short reply instead of a consultation. It can’t assess that safely. It can help with the human side: how to raise it with someone, or the decision in front of you.

Guided reflections on one topic, taken one pass at a time (about 15 minutes each) over a few weeks. Each pass ends with a short card in your Journal: your insight and the one thing you’ll do. Free accounts can take one complete journey; Pro opens every journey.

Daily Wisdom (something new to think about each day), Storytime (interactive historical dilemmas that show which thinkers you lean toward), your Journal (your own pages and the passages you kept, read like a book) and The Vent (write it out, then let it go; nothing is saved).

Yes. Press Listen on an answer, a Journal page or a Journey. You can choose the AskAncients voice or your device’s own voice, and the speed, in Account → Listening.

The AskAncients voice has a monthly allowance shared by everyone who uses the app; once it’s used up, your device’s built-in voice reads instead until the allowance resets at the start of the next month. Your device’s voice also takes over if you’re signed out or the voice service can’t be reached, and the app tells you when it switches. Device voices vary by phone and browser, and they usually sound flatter and more robotic.

Two new ways to think things through are on the way: Hero, which reads your situation through the chapters of one great book, and Spar, which pushes back on a decision until you’re clear. They’ll appear on your home page when they’re ready.

Your email and first name, the perspectives you choose to save (with the question you asked), your Journal pages, ratings and progress such as streaks, and the takeaway cards from journeys. We don’t store your conversations.

To write a response, your words are sent to our AI provider, Anthropic, and the response comes back to you. No one at AskAncients reads your consultations, and nothing is reported to your school, employer or anyone else. If you use Listen with the AskAncients voice, the text being read is sent to Google to turn it into speech.

No. Anthropic’s commercial terms say that what’s sent through its API isn’t used to train its models, and we don’t train models.

On Pro, AskAncients keeps a short, private summary of the kinds of situations you bring, so its guidance fits you better. It’s never your conversations themselves. You can see, edit, clear or turn it off in your Account.

Yes. In your Account, Download My Data gives you everything as a file, and Delete My Account permanently removes your account and everything in it. You can also email privacy@askancients.com. If you’re on Pro, cancel your subscription under Manage subscription first.

No. We don’t sell or share your information for marketing, and there are no ads or advertising cookies. Our analytics are anonymous and never include anything you write.

$10.99 a month, or $109.90 a year (two months free). Teams and organizations can ask about Enterprise.

1-on-1 Sage mode with the thinker you choose, a deeper consultation format with room for a longer conversation, higher daily and weekly limits, every journey, and a personal memory you control.

Each plan has a daily and a weekly limit, higher on Pro. When you reach one, the app tells you and shows when it resets.

Go to Account and choose Manage subscription. Cancelling stops the next charge; you keep Pro until the end of the period you’ve paid for.

Subscriptions aren’t refunded for part of a billing period: when you cancel, you keep access for the time you’ve paid for. For any billing question, email support@askancients.com.

Prices can change, but never for a period you’ve already paid for, and we’ll tell you at least 30 days before a new price applies.

Yes: 3, 6 or 12 months, paid once, with no subscription and no auto-renewal. Gifts aren’t refundable, and an unredeemed gift code expires six months after purchase. When the gift ends, the person goes back to the free plan unless they choose to subscribe. To buy one, go to the Gift Pro page.

Open the link you were sent, or go to Account and enter it under “Have a code?”. No payment is needed.

AskAncients isn’t crisis care. In the US, call or text 988, any time. If you’re in immediate danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. Our Support page lists more options, including outside the US.

When something you write sounds serious, the app stops and shows you people who can help right now. That’s all it does: we don’t store what you wrote or that it happened, and no one is told.

No. Nothing you write is reported to your school, program or employer. If an organization gives you access, it sees only anonymous trends across its whole group, never an individual and never what anyone wrote.

18 or older.

On the sign-in page, choose “Forgot password?” and we’ll email you a reset link. If you signed up with Google, use Continue with Google instead. If the email doesn’t arrive within a few minutes, check your spam or junk folder. School and work email systems sometimes block outside mail; your IT team can allow noreply@askancients.com.

Yes, if you create your account from the guest prompt. Logging into an account you already have won’t bring guest progress with it.

AskAncients is built for and run from the United States. You can use it elsewhere, but our policies are written for US users.

Email support@askancients.com, or use Send Feedback at the bottom of the Ask, Sages, Storytime and Vent pages. We read everything.