Free to download and scan, not free to read. After the scan, the report is locked behind paid options listed from $4.99 to $99.99, including a $34.99 one-report pack and an Areum Pro Weekly plan at $4.99 or $29.99. Two reviewers say the free view showed only a forehead rating. Most face raters work this way; here is why they make you pay to see results.

At a narrow task, plausibly: predicting how an anonymous panel would rank your facial measurements in head-to-head votes. We found no published accuracy figure, its Terms disclaim any warranty that ratings are accurate, and it does not measure how you come across in person. Our explainer on whether face rating apps work covers the same gap across the category.

Is the Areum app legit?

It is a real, actively updated app with published Terms and a Privacy Policy. The App Store lists Bounty Studio, Inc. as the seller, while the Terms name Cluely, Inc. as the operator. Recent complaints center on price, where the paywall sits and scans that failed, plus one report of charges after canceling. The store rates it 4+, but its Terms require users to be 18. See our analysis of low-star face rating app reviews.

How do I cancel Areum and get a refund?

On iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, choose Areum and tap Cancel Subscription at least 24 hours before it renews. Deleting the app does not cancel it. Request a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com; Apple decides, and Areum's Terms say report credits are non-refundable once granted except where the law requires. Our cancellation walkthrough shows the same Apple steps in detail.

What is a free alternative to Areum?

Our free first-impression test reads how you come across, with a face, physique and outfit breakdown, on a free account with no card. Deeper modules are $1.50 each, one-time, with no subscription. It reads the whole first impression rather than ranking your geometry against a panel, and it is not a validated clinical instrument; no photo-based test is.

Is Areum Accurate? An Honest Look at the 10M-Vote Face Rater

You answered the onboarding questions, made an account and turned your head left, then right, until the 3D scan took. The report loaded mostly blurred, above a price sheet. Before you pay: Areum can plausibly predict how an anonymous voting panel would rank your facial measurements, but that isn't how you come across in real life, and we found no published accuracy figure behind its most-accurate claim. It's free to download, not free to read (reviewers mostly cite about $35 a report; the top weekly plan is $29.99), and for most people it isn't worth it.

The useful question is underneath: accurate at what?

Desk research as of October 1, 2026; we bought nothing.

Key numbers

10,000,000+ pairwise votes between faces trained Areum's model, per its App Store listing.
$29.99 a week tops Areum's price list: $1,559.48 over a year. A one-report pack is $34.99.
46 of 50 recent U.S. reviews (July 27 to September 25, 2026) are one-star; the listing says its overall rating was recently reset.
11 meta-analyses (Langlois et al., 2000) found raters agree on who is attractive, within and across cultures: the signal Areum learns from.

What does Areum actually measure?

Areum measures a predicted win rate: how often your face's measurements would beat others in an anonymous panel's head-to-head votes, reported as a percentile, z-score, Elo number and per-demographic lenses.

Votes in. Participants pick the more attractive of two faces: a pairwise comparison, the logic behind chess's Elo rating. Each vote carries the voter's ethnicity, age group and gender (Areum FAQ).
Measurements in. Its research page says each face enters the model as a fixed set of 3D-scan measurements, from landmarks to canthal tilt and gonial angle.
Prediction out. Seonho-1 learns to predict each vote (a Bradley–Terry-style setup, per Areum), then estimates how your measurements fare against everyone.

Credit where due: crowd votes beat one model's guess, and a position-checked scan beats selfie apps where the same photo returns a different number. (Another Areum page says it reads the captured image; we follow the research page.)

Is Areum accurate? Accurate at what?

Plausibly accurate at predicting panel votes, partly accurate about your face, and blind to how you come across. We call this the panel is not the room: the number ranks your geometry for a panel, not how the people you meet read you.

Can it predict panel votes? Plausibly, but unproven

Plausibly. Pairwise judgment is a legitimate method (Thurstone formalized it in 1927), and the agreement Langlois found gives a model something real to learn.

The catch: a chess rating is built from games you actually played; your Areum rating is a predicted win rate, a forecast of games you never played. Accuracy means how often Seonho-1 predicts unseen votes. We couldn't find that figure on its listing or site, and its Terms disclaim any warranty that ratings are accurate.

Is it accurate about your face? Only the part a ruler sees

Only partly. It reads facial geometry, which stays put while light, expression, skin, hair and grooming don't. Yet across many photos of the same people, attractiveness varies more within each person than between people (Jenkins et al., 2011), which is why some photos of you look like a stranger. A geometry-only input keeps the constant and drops the variables.

Voters, though, judged whole faces, so whatever swayed them beyond geometry gets dropped or wrongly credited to it.

Does it predict how you come across? No, and it doesn't claim to

No. A face is judged fast: impressions after a 100-millisecond look closely track unhurried ones (Willis & Todorov, 2006). In person, though, expression, movement and voice join in, and thin slices of behavior predict real interpersonal outcomes (Ambady & Rosenthal, 1992). A static measurement holds none of that.

Areum agrees: its research page rules out individual-level claims, and its Terms warn results may not match any one person's judgment. Its own lenses put one face at different percentiles depending on who votes.

What Areum reads	What a stranger actually reads first
Landmark geometry from one guided scan	Your face in motion: expression, eye contact
An anonymous panel's pooled votes	One person's reaction, in context
Face only	Face plus hair, grooming, build, clothes, posture
A percentile that can drift as the model retrains (per its FAQ)	An impression you can change by next week

Reviews are anecdotes, not a test: 7 of the 50 recent ones dispute the read, including a woman told to grow a beard (August 21, 2026), per the App Store listing.

Where does Areum's paywall appear?

At the very end, after questions, an account and the full 3D scan. Two reviewers (July 27 and August 26, 2026) say the free view showed a forehead rating and nothing else.

Questions that set your demographic lenses.
Account sign-up with email.
Guided 3D scan: front, left and right profile.
Report generated, then locked behind an unlock or subscription.

Reviewers describe 5 to 15 minutes before the price screen (the homepage promises under five): the classic upload-then-paywall pattern. As an August 26 reviewer put it: "There was no report to speak of in the free portion."

What you're buying	Listed price	What it works out to
One report (1 Report Pack)	$34.99	The ~$35 most reviewers cite
3 or 10 reports	$59.99 / $79.99	About $20 or $8 per report
Areum Pro Weekly	$4.99 or $29.99	$1,559.48 a year at $29.99, six times the weekly median in our 15-app price audit
Areum Weekly Scans	$99.99	Period not shown; reviewers describe ~$100 a year
Other items	$4.99–$39.99	Single unlock, weekly credits, 3D scans

Money dominates: 31 of the 50 recent reviews (62%) mention price, the paywall, charges or refunds, near the 65.2% in our 1,695-review analysis. One reports charges after canceling (September 15), another a refused refund (August 9); ten, all August 1 to 18, describe scans or reports that wouldn't finish.

Version 3.0.0 shipped September 30, so those failures may be fixed. Low-star reviewers also self-select.

A man in an armchair looking at his phone, weighing whether to pay to unlock a face report

Photo: Edmond Dantès on Pexels

Is Areum legit, and where does your face data go?

Yes: it's a real, actively updated app with published Terms and a Privacy Policy. Four things to know first:

Who runs it. The App Store seller is Bounty Studio, Inc.; the Terms and Privacy Policy name Cluely, Inc. as operator.
Age. The store rates it 4+; its Terms require users to be 18.
Your 3D model stays on your phone; your photos don't. The policy (effective September 29, 2026) says selected 2D face images, measurements and results are stored in the cloud (Convex) while the report exists; a report image may go to remove.bg or, as a fallback, OpenAI to prepare a headshot.
Training and deletion. Face data is used to improve its models; Areum says it doesn't sell face data. Deleting a report removes its photos from active systems; revoking camera access doesn't.

Apple's label, which Apple hasn't verified, lists usage data as used to track you; Areum was the only app in our 24-app privacy audit to declare Sensitive Info.

How do you cancel Areum and get a refund?

Cancel through Apple at least 24 hours before renewal; Apple decides refunds, and Areum's Terms call report credits non-refundable once granted, except where law requires.

Cancel: Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions → Areum → Cancel Subscription (Apple). Deleting the app doesn't cancel it.
Refund: at reportaproblem.apple.com, choose I'd like to → Request a refund, pick a reason and the purchase, then Submit. Expect an update within 24 to 48 hours, per Apple.
Bought on the web? Cancel via your receipt email; email support@areum.app about card refunds.

Refunds aren't guaranteed; Apple says eligibility varies by country or region.

Is Areum worth it, and what's the free alternative?

Only if you want a panel-calibrated percentile of your geometry, split by voter demographics, as one data point. If you want to know how you come across, $35 buys an answer to a different question.

That missing axis is what our test reads: your whole first impression (face, physique, outfit), not your geometry's panel rank. The read on our 70–155 perception axis and the breakdown are free on a free account, no card; deeper modules are $1.50 each, one-time, never a subscription. It isn't a validated clinical instrument either; no photo-based test is. More options: free looksmaxxing apps with no paywall.

If a percentile stung, take Areum at its word: its Terms say not to rely on it for self-image decisions. A low spot on one panel's curve isn't a verdict on you, and chasing a higher one with weekly scans is how the looksmax spiral starts.

The bottom line

Is Areum accurate? At predicting how a panel ranks your measurements, plausibly but unproven. At telling you how you come across, no, and its fine print agrees. The panel is not the room, and $35 a report or $29.99 a week is steep for a percentile.

Your face doesn't have a percentile that decides your life. It has an effect on people, formed in about a tenth of a second and more movable than any panel average.

Take the free test: a first-impression read, no card.

Studies referenced

Ambady, N., & Rosenthal, R. (1992). Thin slices of expressive behavior as predictors of interpersonal consequences: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 111(2), 256–274.
Jenkins, R., White, D., Van Montfort, X., & Burton, A. M. (2011). Variability in photos of the same face. Cognition, 121(3), 313–323.
Langlois, J. H., et al. (2000). Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 126(3), 390–423.
Thurstone, L. L. (1927). A law of comparative judgment. Psychological Review, 34(4), 273–286.
Willis, J., & Todorov, A. (2006). First impressions: Making up your mind after a 100-ms exposure to a face. Psychological Science, 17(7), 592–598.

Prices, privacy label, versions and reviews are as described in publicly available App Store listings and user reviews (U.S., October 1, 2026); method and policies are from areum.app.