You do not have to pay to practise ATT. Recorded delivery is documented in the manual itself — it notes that recorded versions of sounds have been used in the implementation of ATT[1] — and several full sessions are published free.
Here is what exists, checked in September 2026, with what each one actually asks of you.
The free options
| Where | What you get | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Full guided sessions and several series, no sign-up — reviewed channels listed here | Nothing. Ads unless you have a subscription |
| Mind & Mood | A free Attention Training audio guide | First name, last name and email |
| MCT Institute | Wells’ manual closes by pointing readers there for a recorded version of the ATT[1] | Unknown — we have not retrieved the recording itself |
| Heed | Free to download with sessions included; the full scene library is paid | Nothing to start |
YouTube has the broadest free selection found in this review. The channels we found — English, German, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Danish and Japanese — are listed with direct links on ATT on YouTube. If you want one link to start with, it is Afternoon Break’s Beginner 1.
What to check before you use one
The exercise is specific, and “attention training” is a phrase attached to a lot of audio that is not it. Before committing to a recording, check that it has:
- Several sounds at once, at different distances — the manual’s layout is at least three competing sounds in the room, two nearby and two in the far distance[1]
- A voice naming them and instructing a refocus when attention is captured[1]
- The three phases — about five minutes selective, five switching, two divided[1]
- An accelerating switch, from about ten seconds to five[1]
Anything with no voice is not the exercise, whatever the sounds are. The reasoning is on ATT audio: what to listen to and can you do ATT without the voice?.
The one thing free audio struggles with
Not quality — variation. The protocol specifies that the sounds and their arrangement are varied between sessions, and describes that variety as offsetting the effects of practice on task difficulty[1]. The exercise is meant to stay attentionally demanding rather than become substantially easier with practice[1].
A single recording you replay daily works against that by design. The practical workarounds are to rotate between several different free recordings rather than settling on a favourite, or to use something that generates a new arrangement each time.
About the email gate
Mind & Mood’s audio is genuinely free, and reaching it means handing over a name and an email address. Whether that is a fair trade is your call — it is worth knowing before you click, since the YouTube sessions ask for nothing.
Is free enough?
For trying the exercise: yes, easily. Wells’ own framing for patients is general “mental fitness training”[1], and a free session delivers that as faithfully as a paid one if it follows the protocol.
For sustained practice the question becomes whether you will keep rotating recordings, since the protocol asks for that variation rather than treating it as a nicety. See the best attention training apps for what paying changes, and what it doesn’t.
Questions and answers
- Is there a free ATT audio download?
- Mind & Mood publishes a free Attention Training audio guide; its current form asks for a first name, last name and email. Full sessions are also on YouTube with no sign-up at all.
- Does the MCT Institute have a recording?
- Wells' manual closes by pointing readers to a recorded version of the ATT at the MCT Institute's website. We have not retrieved the recording itself, so treat that as what the manual says rather than as a verified download.
- Is free audio as good as an app?
- For a single session it can be identical. The difference is that the protocol asks for the sounds and their arrangement to vary between sessions, which one fixed recording cannot do.
References
- Wells, A. (2009). Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression. Guilford Press. Chapter 4: Attention Training Techniques.
Heed is a self-practice tool inspired by ATT research — not therapy, and not a medical device.