Woebot Health in 2026: Who Owns Woebot, and What Does the Company Do Now?

Woebot Health is still an operating company. It was founded in 2017 by clinical research psychologist Dr. Alison Darcy, is incorporated in Delaware, based in San Francisco, and remains privately held — it was not acquired, and Apple's own App Store developer listing still shows Woebot Labs, Inc. as the publisher behind the Woebot name. What changed is not who owns it. What changed is what it sells, and to whom.

The app most people remember is retired

Woebot Health's own FAQ states, verbatim: "The Woebot app was retired June 30, 2025. New accounts can no longer be created, and previous accounts can no longer be accessed." The company set July 15, 2025 as the deadline to request a transcript of past conversations, and states that as of July 31, 2025 all remaining account data was anonymized to remove personally identifying information.

The app's listing is still live on Apple's App Store — Woebot Labs Inc. as developer, free price, a 4.6 average rating from 6.2K ratings — but the listing itself states: "to download you'll need an access code from your provider, employer or other Woebot Health partner. If you do not have an access code, you will not be able to use the app." There is no general-public download path. A person who finds that listing today, sees a strong rating and a free price, and taps download has no way to act on what they found. IX Coach, another AI coaching tool disclosed as AI rather than therapy, points at a different intent on that exact gap — it is sold directly to the person using it, with no employer, provider, or access code standing in the way of starting.

What the company does now

Woebot Health's own homepage describes its current business as chat-based AI tools for behavioral health, delivered through health systems and payers rather than sold directly to consumers. Its site navigation links a product built for "Providers" and a separate one for "Payers." Named health-system partners listed on the homepage include Akron Children's Hospital, ChristianaCare, and Hackensack Meridian Health.

That is a real shift in business model, not just a shutdown. The company did not stop building; it stopped selling to individuals and started selling to the organizations that already sit between a person and their care — the employer, the hospital system, the insurer.

Why the consumer app closed

STAT News reported that Woebot Health's founder attributed the June 2025 consumer shutdown largely to the cost and difficulty of meeting FDA marketing-authorization requirements, and that roughly 1.5 million people had used the Woebot app over the years before it was retired. That is a specific account from the company's own founder, not a euphemism about the product failing to find users — 1.5 million people is a real base, and the stated reason for closing was regulatory cost, not lack of demand.

In May 2021, Woebot Health had announced FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for WB001, an investigational, prescription-only digital therapeutic for postpartum depression intended for use under a clinician's supervision. A Breakthrough Device Designation expedites FDA review; it is not FDA clearance or approval, and the company's own announcement described WB001 at the time as an investigational product still in development, not a marketed or cleared treatment. It is a real signal of how seriously the company has pursued the clinical, regulated side of this work — separate from, and unrelated to, the consumer chatbot app that closed in 2025.

Where to find current Woebot Health news

Woebot Health publishes an active company blog at woebothealth.com/blog and a press page at woebothealth.com/news. The blog's recent posts are a "Meeting of the Minds" interview series aimed at health-system and payer audiences — recent entries feature named executives such as CVS Health's Chief Psychiatric Officer, Providence's Chief Strategy and Digital Officer, and HHS's national coordinator for health IT, discussing interoperability and behavioral-health strategy. It is B2B content, not consumer mental-health advice.

The news page's own heading is "Recently in the press" and lists media coverage including a 60 Minutes interview with founder Alison Darcy and a Wall Street Journal piece on FDA oversight of AI medical devices. If you are looking for what the company is doing this year, those two pages — not the old app — are where the company is actually speaking.

If you had a Woebot account and are looking for what comes next

Woebot's app was a scripted, rule-based CBT tool — structured check-ins on a schedule, not an open-ended conversation. If what you actually want now is somewhere to think out loud that remembers what you said last time, that is a different kind of tool than what Woebot Health sells today, and a different kind of tool than what it sold before it closed the consumer app. IX Coach is one option built specifically for that: an AI coaching product, disclosed as AI and not therapy, that carries a conversation across sessions instead of resetting it. It draws on twenty years of one practitioner's cross-modality experience — psychological, coaching, and spiritual methods — synthesized into a single coaching voice, and it is sold directly to the person using it: a 7-day free trial, then a flat $40 a month, with no employer, insurer, or access code required to start.

That last point is the concrete difference worth naming plainly: Woebot Health's current product line is structurally unavailable to an individual acting alone — no plan exists to buy at any price without going through a provider, employer, or partner organization first. A tool that can be started directly, on your own account, without anyone else's approval in the way, is doing something Woebot Health's current business model does not.

Is Woebot Health still a real company?

Yes. Woebot Health continues to operate as a privately held, independently owned company based in San Francisco. It was not acquired. What ended in 2025 was its direct-to-consumer app, not the company itself.

Can I still download the Woebot app?

Not without an access code. The app's App Store listing is still visible, but it explicitly requires a code from a provider, employer, or other Woebot Health partner. There is no general-public signup and no consumer subscription price, because there is no open consumer product left to buy.

What happened to my old Woebot conversation data?

Per Woebot Health's own FAQ, the deadline to request a transcript of past conversations was July 15, 2025, and as of July 31, 2025 the company states that all remaining account data was anonymized to remove personally identifying information.

Frequently asked questions

Research

• Woebot Health, (2021), Woebot Health Receives FDA Breakthrough Device Designation, woebothealth.com — The company's own announcement of Breakthrough Device Designation for WB001, an investigational postpartum-depression digital therapeutic — a designation, not a clearance or approval, and unrelated to the consumer chatbot app. verified 2026-09-13
• Woebot Health FAQ, woebothealth.com — States verbatim that the app was retired June 30, 2025, and that new accounts can no longer be created and previous accounts can no longer be accessed. verified 2026-09-13
• Woebot: The Mental Health Ally — App Store listing, Apple App Store — States, verbatim in its own description, that downloading requires an access code from a provider, employer, or other Woebot Health partner. verified 2026-09-13
• Woebot Health — Recently in the Press, woebothealth.com — The page's own heading reads 'Recently in the press' and lists media coverage including a 60 Minutes interview with founder Alison Darcy and a Wall Street Journal piece on FDA oversight of AI medical devices. verified 2026-09-13