Truvaga Reviews

If you tally every U.S. adult who has lived with chronic headaches,1 a sleep disorder,2 or any mood disorder in the past year, you’ll have counted between 50 million and 90 million people.3 This means there’s a decent chance that you’re among them and you want relief from bothersome symptoms that can impact your daily life.

Truvaga (pronounced “tru-VAY-ga”) is a brand that offers it to you by way of two transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) devices. With substantial scientific research to support them, such devices offer easy-to-use solutions to health conditions that threaten your quality of life — those that we’ve mentioned, as well as others related to cognition or physiology. In this review, we examine Truvaga’s utility as an effective at-home treatment method for common ailments, report our personal testing experiences, and give you all the information you need to determine whether it’s worth trying.

Truvaga’s two devices offer some of the best commercial at-home methods of tVNS. Their technical specifications align not only with those of an FDA-cleared device but also with the parameters used in successful clinical research for treating chronic pain, headaches, stress, and other health conditions. Our testers’ subjective experiences bear out that research as well. The total costs of ownership, even with the lower-cost Truvaga 350, are steep, well above those of competitors like Pulsetto and Xen. Also, the app-based operation of Truvaga Plus may be inconvenient to users seeking quick relief for what ails them, especially if they experience Bluetooth connectivity problems.

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In preparation for our Truvaga review, we spent upwards of 30 hours studying the literature on transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation so that we had a solid foundation on which to rest our assessments of a specific product. We also communicated with the Truvaga customer support team to collect technical details that we could compare to those we found in the scientific literature. Meanwhile, our testers used a Truvaga product for two weeks and recorded their impressions in order to share details of the customer experience with you. In the end, this review represents well over 70 hours of research, hands-on testing, and correspondence.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy and will continue to be monitored for updates by our editorial team.

We evaluated Truvaga’s two tVNS devices based on four criteria that are likely to influence consumer decisions:

• Effectiveness: Do these devices present good odds of providing relief in vagus nerve-related health areas, such as headache, stress, cognition, and sleep?
• Safety: We’re talking about electronic devices. So what dangers, if any, do they pose? What contraindications are there?
• Cost: How do Truvaga’s devices compare to competitors in terms of up-front and long-term expenses? Are the costs justifiable?
• Ease of use: How much of a learning curve is involved with start-up? What obstacles to usability are there?

In our estimation, Truvaga acquits itself quite well in each category save one. In the following sections, we’ll detail how the device fared in each criterion.

Effectiveness

The vagus nerve is the main signaling channel from your brain to multiple parts of your body: the heart, gut, and lungs. Therefore, altering vagal signals via electric stimulation may be able to induce beneficial changes in both physiological and psychological areas (including the gut-brain axis).4

A pulse frequency of 20-30Hz has been the standard range in successful clinical studies on tVNS, with 25Hz being an effective sweet spot, and 25Hz happens to be the pulse frequency at which Truvaga operates.5 What’s more, both Truvaga devices share near-identical technical specifications with gammaCore, which is currently the only FDA-cleared and CE-marked (approved for sale in the European Union) at-home tVNS device for treating cluster headaches in adults.6 7 These similarities exist because Truvaga and gammaCore are made by the same parent company, electroCore.

In addition to the pulse frequency, Truvaga emits a 5,000Hz waveform frequency that has scientific support for relieving stress-related psychiatric disorders and increasing mental responsivity.16 40 Our testers themselves can attest to Truvaga’s therapeutic potential for the latter, as they experienced better (though transient) cognitive performance in their two-week testing period. One tester also saw improved sleep quality during that time. You can read more about their impressions in the section titled “Our Truvaga user and customer experience.”

Safety

tVNS devices in general are considered to be safe and well tolerated, particularly at the 25Hz frequency used by Truvaga.8 Truvaga Plus, specifically, has a maximum output of 60mA, which is below the 75mA threshold that can cause dangerous shifts in your heartbeat.41 As long as you can tolerate electrical stimulation, you’re unlikely to experience serious adverse events.

That being said, there are several populations who can’t tolerate electrical stimulation in terms of both discomfort and contraindications. For example, anyone with arrhythmia, asthma, or an abnormally functioning autonomic nervous system should avoid Truvaga, as well as any tVNS device, unless their doctor gives them the all-clear.9

Cost

On the one hand, Truvaga 350 ($299) is among the more affordable nonprescription tVNS devices currently on the market. On the other hand, Truvaga Plus ($499) is one of the most expensive. And while you can pay for your device through an HSA/FSA and your purchase comes with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee, the price merits of one don’t balance out the weight of the other.

That’s because the lower-cost option, Truvaga 350, is programmed for only 350 sessions. If you want to keep using it, you’ll have to drop $299 for a new unit. So Truvaga Plus is the more economical option for long-term use, but its $499 price point is a high financial barrier to clear.

Also, keep in mind that in addition to the devices themselves, you’ll need to purchase supplemental conductivity medium to replace the one that comes in the box. That’s an extra $45 a year, so after 12 months, you’ll have spent $344 for Truvaga 350 and $544 for Truvaga Plus.

In comparison, competitors Xen and Pulsetto have significantly lower total ownership costs than Truvaga Plus. Xen is $449 for the unit, with any store-bought saline solution being the only ongoing purchase. And Pulsetto costs $269 for the unit and offers conductivity gel at a $40.79 subscription rate, which amounts to $350 after a year (more or less depending on your use).

Ease of use

Truvaga’s two products are intuitive enough that some people could figure out how to use them with just a glance through the user manuals. If you know that Truvaga 350 is a self-contained device and that Truvaga Plus is app-connected, the only possibly perplexing aspects are (a) how to find your vagus nerve and (b) how to orient the electrodes on your neck (the answer is vertically, not horizontally). Truvaga sessions are time-limited, too, leaving no question of how long you should use either device for therapeutic effect. We think that’s a much better system than, say, VeRelief’s, which has you minding the clock or setting your own timer.

The primary gripe we have with Truvaga’s usability relates entirely to Truvaga Plus, whose app-based functionality poses a barrier to certain users, namely those with intermittent conditions such as cluster headache. To illustrate, imagine you’ve started to feel the onset of such a headache. To treat it with Truvaga Plus, you must open the connected app and activate your phone’s Bluetooth, and only if there’s no connectivity issue can you proceed with selecting your treatment mode. Connectivity issues aren’t uncommon, either — with Bluetooth devices in general, not just Truvaga — so you may need to do some troubleshooting while your headache symptoms build and rage.

At least Truvaga 350, with its self-contained operation, circumvents these issues.

Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) is a therapeutic technique that uses electrical currents to alter autonomic, or involuntary, nervous activity.

We can break it down like this:

• Transcutaneous: meaning “through the skin.” tVNS involves applying electrodes to areas on the skin’s surface that interface with the vagus nerve, like the ears (auricular tVNS) or the neck (cervical tVNS).
• Vagus nerve: the main signaling channel between your brain, heart, and gut, as well as a connection point to the lungs.10 Alterations in vagal signals can affect your immune response, digestion, heart rate, and mood.4
• Stimulation: specifically, electrical stimulation. A tVNS device emits electrical pulses that can modulate the electrochemical signals to and from your brain.

tVNS is the noninvasive alternative to an older form of vagus nerve stimulation that involved placing the stimulating device inside your body, like a pacemaker for your autonomic nervous system.11 The stimulating action is the same, but the means to getting it are much easier — no surgical implantation necessary.

Benefits of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation

Because the vagus nerve is a key thoroughfare of the brain, altering its signals can induce healthful changes in the areas of the body it innervates.12 Primarily, whether through implantation or the transcutaneous route, it may be indicated for these health conditions:11

• Mood disorders, including treatment-resistant depression
• Chronic pain, including headaches (e.g., cluster headache)
• Stroke rehabilitation or epilepsy, as an add-on treatment

But researchers have also trialed vagus nerve stimulation in other applications and reported optimistic findings:

Truvaga is a specific brand of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation devices. It comprises two products — Truvaga 350 and Truvaga Plus — that deliver noninvasive electrical stimulation to the cervical branch of the vagus nerve at customizable intensities.

The two products in Truvaga’s lineup differ principally in their useful life spans and price points. The more budget-friendly Truvaga 350 is programmed for around 350 two-minute sessions, whereas the higher-end Truvaga Plus is a rechargeable and app-enabled device that’s guaranteed for at least 30,000 sessions or three years, whichever comes first. To put it in perspective: Truvaga Plus gives you more than 85 times as much useful life as Truvaga 350, and at less than twice the cost (more on value comparisons in a later section, “How much does Truvaga cost?”).

Both Truvaga 350 and Truvaga Plus can emit 5,000Hz pulses at up to a 25Hz pulse frequency with a maximum current output of 60mA. These parameters are the same that have been found to improve stress-related psychiatric disorders and mental responsivity.16 40 Additionally, the maximum 25Hz pulse frequency is the same determined to be effective in a 2020 study on tVNS techniques, although it’s considerably lower than the 100Hz (as achieved with competitor Xen) found to yield even better therapeutic effect in at least one study.5 25

Operating either the Plus or the 350 begins by locating the pulse on one side of your neck. But from there, the processes deviate.

Using Truvaga 350

Operation of Truvaga 350, as with its competitor VeRelief, is fully self-contained in the device itself. No app is needed — or available, for that matter.

After locating your pulse and applying the conductivity medium (onto the electrodes if you’re using gel, or onto your skin if you’re using spray), place one electrode over your pulse, with the other electrode oriented under it. Then press the “+” button on the device to activate your session. Use the “+” or “-” button as needed to adjust the intensity. You’ll know when you’ve reached the right intensity when you start to feel a downward pull on your lower lip and jowls. The session ends automatically after two minutes.

Using Truvaga Plus

Truvaga Plus, on the other hand, is more like competitor Pulsetto: it’s app-connected, and the app is the hub through which all therapeutic activity takes place. Its app-based operation makes it less convenient to use than the 350, especially for people who are in the throes of symptoms that would motivate them to use Truvaga (e.g., a cluster headache).

First, you have to spend about five minutes registering an account with your name, email address, and telephone number. Only once you’ve completed your registration do you gain access to the device’s functionality.

As with the 350, operation of Truvaga Plus begins with locating the pulse on one side of your neck and applying conductivity medium. The spray is odor-free and relatively mess-free.

When you’re ready, you place the electrodes over your treatment area — again, one electrode over the pulse and the other oriented under it — and select “Start a Session” on the main app interface.

The ensuing screen will display six session modes:

• Stress
• Mood
• Mental Performance
• Physical Performance
• Sleep
• Other

Each mode emits a unique pulse pattern, as different health disorders appear to respond best to different modulations. For example, a more continuous waveform may be better for health issues related to the cholinergic system, such as inflammation and stress.26

After you select a mode, you’re taken to the session interface, which displays a timer and an intensity scale of 1 to 10. Click the “+” symbol on the intensity scale to begin your session proper, clicking up until you begin to feel that lip-pull sensation we’ve described. Here, too, the session ends automatically after two minutes.

The name gammaCore fills a big space in the world of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation, as it’s currently the only FDA-cleared at-home product for preventing cluster headache in adults, and it’s also marked by the Conformité Européenne (CE) for treating headaches, epilepsy, mood disorders, and more.6 7 Available only by prescription, and at a cost of several hundred dollars per month, gammaCore is hardly the most accessible vagus nerve treatment option.

Fortunately for us consumers, the two Truvaga products boast similar technical specifications to gammaCore. According to Truvaga’s customer support, all three of them have the same maximum operating parameters: 5,000Hz pulses at a 25Hz frequency and a maximum current output of 60mA. The only outlying characteristic belongs to Truvaga Plus, which has a lower maximum voltage — 20V versus 24V — which means that it’s capable of less total intensity than the 350 or gammaCore.

Apart from cost and the need for the prescription, gammaCore’s primary differentiator is that it combines the best of both Truvaga products: self-contained, app-free operation and technically unlimited use. Therefore, it’s likely the better option for people who have one of the more nefarious health conditions treatable with tVNS, namely cluster headache or epilepsy.

tVNS devices like Truvaga and its main competitors are considered “safe and well tolerated” according to a 2018 systematic review comprising 51 studies and more than 1,300 human subjects. Among those studies, the ones that reported their operating frequencies tended to use the same 25Hz used by Truvaga. Some of the studies reported serious adverse events, but only three were determined to be “possibly or probably tVNS-related”:8

• One case of heart palpitations resulting from “vagally mediated parasympathetic innervation of the heart”
• One case of acute vertigo (vestibular neuronitis)
• One case of localized skin lesion, though it’s unclear whether it appeared at the site of electrode placement

But we shouldn’t exclude side effects that the review’s authors have classified as non-serious, including but not limited to headache, dizziness, nausea, and electrode site skin reactions.8 In other studies, subjects have also experienced voice alteration, hoarseness, coughing, tingling, or shortness of breath.29

Also, vagus nerve stimulation as a broad treatment category is contraindicated in several populations owing to elevated risks of adverse events. We cover these contraindications in the subsection titled “Who is it not for?” in the section below.

Truvaga is best suited for people without a contraindication who want a noninvasive treatment option for an indicated health concern, such as:

• Chronic headache
• Chronic inflammation
• Stress or anxiety
• Mood changes
• Poor sleep onset or quality
• Cognitive challenges or needs, such as difficulty with executive functioning (e.g., focus, planning, problem-solving)

Truvaga also says that its products are not suitable for pregnant women. That’s the case even though some research states that tVNS could be “safe and effective for the fetus and mother,” and a paper preprint from 2025 found that it could potentially increase breast milk production and secretion via the gut-brain axis.30 31 With those opposing views in mind, you should speak with your doctor if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding and wish to use a tVNS device like Truvaga.

In addition, the ideal Truvaga user is one who’s comfortable with electrical stimulation. While functional electrical stimulation should be painless, it can be uncomfortable enough that it requires an adjustment period; after all, most people don’t regularly feed electrical currents into their bodies.32 The only way to be sure of your comfort level is to try electrical stimulation yourself. To that end, Truvaga and its main competitors offer money-back guarantees, allowing you to trial the device and return it for a refund if it isn’t right for you.

Who is it not for?

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons warns that tVNS devices like Truvaga are not suitable for anyone with any of these contraindications:9

• Having just one branch of the vagus nerve (i.e., one branch removed surgically)
• Heart abnormalities such as arrhythmias
• Lung disorders such as asthma or shortness of breath
• Fainting
• Ulcers
• Preexisting hoarseness
• An abnormally functioning autonomic nervous system

In addition to the above list, Truvaga includes people with implanted electronic devices (e.g., pacemaker, hearing aid implant).

We ourselves would add one more contraindicated population: people who aren’t comfortable with electric stimulation. Although Truvaga’s energy output is too low to pose a significant safety risk for most people, the idea of having electricity flow through the body may cause you undue anxiety that counteracts any of the device’s relaxing effects.

Pricing for the Truvaga tVNS devices is as follows:

• Truvaga 350: $299
• Truvaga Plus: $499

Each device ships for free and comes with an approximately two-month supply of conductivity gel or spray, respectively. When you run out, you can purchase a one-year supply from Truvaga for $45. So your one-year total cost of ownership is $344 for Truvaga 350 and $544 for Truvaga Plus. In comparison, a year’s worth of Pulsetto with a gel subscription (sans premium app access) would run you around $350 (more or less depending on your gel use), VeRelief Prime with a gel tip subscription would be $449, and Xen would be a little higher than $449, with the only ongoing purchase being saline solution from any retailer you choose.

Remember, though, that Truvaga 350 is good for only 350 sessions. If you use it once daily, its useful life will end before a full year is up, and you’d have to purchase a new unit to keep at it. With that in mind, a long-term user would save substantial money by opting for the higher-end Truvaga Plus so long as they can afford the up-front cost.

Truvaga products are not covered by health insurance, but they are HSA- or FSA-eligible. Financing options are also available through Afterpay and Affirm, allowing you to split your payment into four equal installments over six weeks.

Truvaga’s satisfaction guarantee

Truvaga offers a 30-day satisfaction guarantee that starts from the day of delivery, the same as Xen’s and Pulsetto’s. VeRelief’s guarantee is longer at 60 days, also starting from the delivery date.

To qualify for a refund:

• You must be a first-time customer and complete your return request within the guarantee’s time frame
• You must provide proof of purchase
• You must cover the return shipping cost
• Your Truvaga product must be undamaged and returned in the original packaging with its accessories

For our review, we purchased and tried Truvaga Plus for two weeks and periodically interacted with Truvaga’s customer support during that time. Here, we want to tell you about our testers’ experiences to give you a lower-altitude perspective on what it’s like to be a Truvaga user and customer. Keep in mind that these experiences are subjective and that your own experience may differ.

Therapeutic benefits from Truvaga Plus

Our testers primarily used the Mental Performance and Sleep session modes during their use period, and both modes yielded the desired outcomes, though to different degrees.

During their Mental Performance sessions, one of our testers consistently experienced what they called a “melting-away” point at which they could think and perceive things more clearly. Here’s how they described their first session:

“You know how sometimes you drive around in your car and everything looks blurry, and you rub your eyes and it doesn’t help? But then your passenger clicks on the defogger and it’s like ‘Oh, I didn’t even realize the windshield was foggy.’”

The clarity, though, was transient. A few hours later, they say, the fog would seem to return, so they’d do a repeat session to clear it away. Except the second time wouldn’t feel as distinctively blurry-to-clear as the first one of the day.

The Sleep sessions generally delivered better results. One tester claimed they were able to stay asleep throughout the night every time they used Truvaga an hour before bed. They also said they’d begun to dream more frequently, whereas they’d previously not done so on a regular basis. Their increased dreaming suggests they’ve been getting more REM sleep, which bodes well for health factors such as stress response and memory consolidation.33

Shipping and customer support

Truvaga shipped our order bafflingly fast. We purchased the device on April 1, 2025, and it arrived on April 4. From the East Coast to our Midwest testers in just three days! The only other tVNS brand that has come close to that degree of expediency is Xen, which had a four-day turnaround.

Truvaga’s customer support team is similarly responsive. Its website includes a live chat feature, which we always like to see, and the live agents consistently replied to our queries within one minute. Their responses never failed to be succinct and satisfactory, either.

Maybe you aren’t willing to shell out nearly $600 per year in user costs, in which case you’d prefer a more budget-friendly option. Or maybe you aren’t keen on electrical stimulation in general, so a non-tech approach is more suitable for your needs. No matter which camp you belong to, there’s a Truvaga alternative for you.

Other tVNS devices

Several dedicated tVNS devices compete directly with Truvaga, and at significantly lower costs. The two most budget-friendly alternatives we’ve identified are:

• Xen by Neuvana: an earpiece device that stimulates the vagus nerve via the auricular branch. It costs $449 for the device but requires only some saline solution as a conductivity medium, so the total cost of ownership is mostly folded into the up-front price. Its parameters also allow for higher-frequency pulses, which may provide better therapeutic benefit.
• Pulsetto: a hands-free device for cervical tVNS. A year’s worth of consistent use (sans premium app membership) should cost around $350, or almost $200 less than Truvaga Plus.

Natural approaches

If you’d rather not spend money at all, you’ll be happy to know you can stimulate your vagus nerve and regulate your autonomic nervous system with these cost-free techniques:

• Cold: A 2018 study concluded that exposure to 5-16°C (41-60°F) temperatures on different areas of the body, particularly the sides of the neck, could lead to a lower heart rate and potentially stress reduction via cardiac-vagal activation.34
• Exercise: According to another 2018 study, cardiac vagal activity can be enhanced through endurance training, allowing for a potentially lower resting heart rate and improved vagal tone.35
• Deep breathing: “Breathing can indeed directly affect the activity of the autonomic nervous system,” say the authors of yet another 2018 study.36 That’s why you often hear people recommend taking deep, slow breaths when you’re under extreme stress.

Mind, these natural approaches aren’t ideal for targeting specific health conditions, but they can be effective for achieving a transient sense of calm when you need it.