The I Ching has been cast with yarrow stalks for two thousand years, and most apps now do it with three taps and an AI paragraph. This guide compares twelve I Ching apps and websites by the thing that actually matters — which casting method they implement, whether they show you the changing lines, and whether the interpretation is traditional text or generated commentary. It explains the three-coin and yarrow-stalk methods and why their probability distributions differ, walks through how to read a hexagram with its changing lines and the transformed hexagram most apps never display, and separates the tools built for study from the ones built for a daily question. It also covers where the free options genuinely hold up, and why the public domain translations still matter more than any app's summary of them.
1 readsOctober 3, 2026
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The I Ching is one of the oldest continuously used divination systems on earth, and the way most apps deliver it takes about four seconds.
That gap is the entire problem with this category. The Book of Changes is a text designed for slow reading — sixty-four hexagrams, each with a judgement, an image, and six line texts, and a method in which the changing lines are frequently the whole answer. Most apps give you a hexagram number, a one-paragraph summary, and a share button. Some are excellent anyway; most are not, and the difference has almost nothing to do with how pretty the interface is.
This guide compares twelve I Ching apps and websites on the criteria that actually change what you get out of a reading: which casting method is implemented, how changing lines are handled, whether the interpretation is traditional text or generated commentary, and whether the thing is still maintained.
Disclosure: we build one of the products below. TripodTerra is our platform, it is marked clearly in the list, and we have written down where it loses to the alternatives. Every other entry is assessed on public information only.
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A framing note that governs the whole page. The I Ching is a traditional system for reflection and a structured prompt for thinking about a situation. It is not a prediction mechanism, nothing here is medical, financial, or legal advice, and no app on this list can tell you what is going to happen. For how the changing-line method actually works in depth, see our dedicated article on I Ching changing lines.
1. How we judged these
Five criteria, in order of how much they change your experience.
1. Casting method. This is the one that separates a serious tool from a toy. The classical method uses fifty yarrow stalks (one is set aside, and forty-nine are divided and counted in three rounds to produce each line). The later and much more common method uses three coins, tossed six times. The two are not equivalent: the probability distributions differ, and the classical yarrow method produces a slightly higher proportion of yang lines and a notably higher proportion of changing lines than the coin method does. Some apps implement the real yarrow algorithm; some animate coins; some just randomise. All are usable — but if you care about reading in a continuous tradition, knowing which one you are casting matters.
2. Changing lines. A hexagram is six lines, each either yin (broken) or yang (solid). A line that is "changing" — traditionally old yin or old yang — transforms into its opposite, which produces a second hexagram, the "transformed" or "resulting" hexagram. Reading the primary hexagram, the changing lines, and the transformed hexagram together is the classical method, and it is where most of the interpretive depth lives. An app that hides changing lines is not a complete I Ching tool, whatever else it does well.
3. Interpretation source. Three tiers, and they are not equal. Traditional translation (Wilhelm-Baynes, Legge, or the original Chinese) gives you the historical text and lets you do the interpreting. Modern commentary adds a contemporary reading of each hexagram. Generated commentary has a model respond to your specific question. The last is the newest and the least understood: it is genuinely useful for application and genuinely weak as a substitute for the text, because a model summarising the Wilhelm translation is not the same as reading it.
4. Whether it keeps a record. The I Ching is unusually well-suited to journaling, because the value of a cast often only becomes clear weeks later. An app that stores your questions and hexagrams lets you do something no single reading can.
5. Maintenance. Several well-regarded I Ching apps are ten or more years old. Some have aged perfectly, because the underlying text does not change. But an app that has never been updated for a new iOS version will eventually stop working, and a dead app is a dead app regardless of the quality of its translation.
2. The apps and websites
2.1. 1. I Ching: App of Changes (Brian Fitzgerald) — the best serious app
Platform: iOS, Android (also runs on PC via an Android emulator). Price: Paid on iOS, free trial on Android.
The app that takes the classical method most seriously, and the one most often recommended by people who have actually used several. Its engine implements the yarrow stalk algorithm properly rather than dressing coin probabilities up as stalks, and it also offers animated coins, the option to toss your own physical coins, a manual hexagram builder for when you already have a cast, and decimal-notation entry that lets you reproduce any cast exactly. It includes the full sixty-four hexagram library with changing lines, Legge's translation alongside the original Chinese, journaling with search, and uncluttered, readable interpretations. On Apple's US storefront it sits at 4.82 stars from 99 ratings — a high score on a small base, which is what you would expect from a specialist app rather than a mass-market one.
Where it loses: it is an Android-first product whose iOS pricing and platform support differ, so check the current status for your device before buying. The interface is functional rather than beautiful, and if you want a generated reading that responds to your specific question, this app will not do it — it gives you the text and expects you to work.
Who it is for: anyone who wants to cast the method properly and read the actual text. If you are going to install one serious I Ching app, this is it.
2.2. 2. YaoWise — AI-assisted, built for follow-up
Platform: iOS, Android. Price: Free tier with paid options.
YaoWise is part of the newer wave of I Ching apps that treat a cast as the start of a conversation rather than the end of one. It supports touch-based casting — six taps, one per line — and then layers AI-assisted analysis, follow-up questions, a history of past casts, a calendar, and a timeline view.
Where it loses: the touch-and-AI model departs from the classical casting method, which matters if the method is part of why you are here. The interpretation quality depends entirely on the model behind it, and AI-generated commentary on a hexagram is not the same as the traditional text. Its interpretive depth has been praised and its use of the source material has been criticised — read a few hexagrams before deciding.
Who it is for: readers who want to ask follow-up questions and see a hexagram develop over time.
2.3. 3. Yilore — the I Ching Tarot — visual, AI-driven, iOS-first
Platform: iOS. Price: Free tier with subscription.
The most visually ambitious app in the category, and the one whose concept is most unusual. Yilore translates hexagrams into plain-English action plans using AI, offers a "Birth-Hexagram" (Ben Ming Gua) derived from your birth date, provides daily guidance cards, and implements casting as an immersive hold-and-flip interaction with haptics and sound. It ships with original illustrated cards covering all sixty-four hexagrams and the 384 individual line texts.
Where it loses: the "I Ching Tarot" framing blends two distinct traditions, and purists will object — reasonably. It is iOS-only. And its trustworthiness scores from app-analysis sites have come in lower than its user ratings suggest, which is worth checking before you subscribe. The aesthetic is a large part of the product; if you want the text, look elsewhere.
Who it is for: readers who want the I Ching presented as an illustrated, interactive practice rather than a text to study.
2.4. 4. I Ching Action — action plans and daily check-ins
Platform: iOS, Android. Price: free tier with paid options.
Keeps the three-coin casting method intact but wraps it in a productivity framework: staged action plans derived from the hexagram, daily check-ins, habit logs for diet and exercise, and reflection notes. It is the clearest example of the trend toward treating the I Ching as a decision tool rather than an oracle.
Where it loses: the action-plan framing is a modern imposition on a text that is not a productivity system. Some readers find that genuinely useful — a hexagram translated into "here is what to do on Tuesday" is arguably closer to how the text was originally used as a governance manual than the fortune-telling framing is. Others will find it reductive. Try it and see which camp you are in.
Who it is for: people who want a hexagram to produce a concrete next step rather than a contemplation.
2.5. 5. Eclectic Energies I Ching — the best free online reading
Platform: Web. Price: Free.
The most useful free web-based I Ching resource, and it has been for years. It offers an online casting interface, the full hexagram texts with changing lines, and a clean, no-nonsense presentation with no account required and no aggressive upsell.
Where it loses: it is a website, not an app, and its interpretation layer is closer to a solid modern translation than to commentary that engages with your question. For pure text-and-cast, though, it is hard to beat at the price.
Who it is for: anyone who wants a free, honest, no-signup reading of a hexagram with changing lines.
2.6. 6. OnlineClarity (Hilary Barrett) — the best written teaching
Platform: Web. Price: Free articles; paid courses and personal readings.
Hilary Barrett has been writing about the I Ching for decades, and OnlineClarity is the strongest free educational resource in the category in English. Her hexagram commentaries and guides to reading changing lines are more thoughtful than most of what is published in print, and the site teaches you how to read rather than doing it for you.
Where it loses: it is not really a casting app. You can cast elsewhere — including on Eclectic Energies or with coins at your kitchen table — and then bring the hexagram to her commentary. That is a deliberate design, and it makes the site a companion rather than a product.
Who it is for: readers who want to learn the system properly. Pair it with our hexagram 1 explainer for a worked example of how a single hexagram is read.
2.7. 7. Facade.com I Ching — the classic free web cast
Platform: Web. Price: Free.
One of the old reliable free online I Ching casters, running for decades with a plain interface, a coin-toss simulation, and the traditional text. It is not elegant and it has not been redesigned in a long time, which for this particular use case is closer to a feature than a bug.
Where it loses: no journaling, no account, no record — you get the reading and then it is gone. Presentation is dated enough that some users will assume it is broken.
Who it is for: a quick free cast when you want the text and nothing else.
Platform: Android. Price: Free with subscription-based AI credits.
A Chinese-language app that bundles several classical systems: Plum Blossom Numerology (梅花易数), Liu Yao divination with coin and yarrow casting, number divination, and manual casting, with AI chat interpretations layered on top. It includes a classical yarrow algorithm and produces full chart detail — primary and changed hexagrams, moving lines, heavenly stems and earthly branches, the six relatives — and works offline with local storage for past readings.
Where it loses: it is Chinese-language first with modest download numbers, so English support is limited, and the AI interpretation sits behind a credit subscription. The breadth of systems is impressive and also makes it harder to learn any one of them from.
Who it is for: Chinese-speaking practitioners who want the fuller Liu Yao chart rather than a simplified hexagram reading.
2.9. 9. HOROS — the Vietnamese Mai Hoa implementation
Platform: iOS, Android, with synced accounts. Price: Free reading every few days; paid single readings and packages.
A Vietnamese app that casts using the Mai Hoa Dich So (Plum Blossom) number-entry method while grounding its interpretation in the original Zhou Yi text. It produces the primary hexagram, the moving line, the mutual hexagram, and the changed hexagram, with a layered reading.
Where it loses: Vietnamese-language, so it serves one market well and others poorly. The free tier is a reading every three days, which is a real constraint if you are casting regularly.
Who it is for: Vietnamese-speaking readers, and anyone curious how the Plum Blossom method is practised in a different tradition.
2.10. 10. TripodTerra — our platform, and what it is not
Platform: Web (mobile browser). Price: Free tier with a real message allowance; paid plans from $19.90/month with a multi-day trial.
Full disclosure again: this is ours.
TripodTerra's I Ching service casts a hexagram, shows the hexagram image, the judgement, and the changing lines, and then interprets them against the question you asked — and it holds the conversation across sessions rather than resetting. Its real difference is contextual: the same chat runs nineteen services including BaZi, Zi Wei Dou Shu, tarot, palmistry, and Qi Men Dun Jia, and the I Ching reading is informed by your birth chart. A hexagram read against a BaZi chart is more specific than a hexagram read in isolation, which is the actual product argument.
Where it loses, honestly. It is not a study tool — it does not ship the full Wilhelm or Legge translation, it does not implement the yarrow stalk algorithm, and if you want to learn the text properly, I Ching: App of Changes or OnlineClarity will serve you far better and we would tell you to use them. Casting is generated rather than a physical coin toss, which matters if the ritual is part of why you cast. It has no native mobile app. And it is a subscription product.
Who it is for: readers who want a hexagram applied to a real question in context, and who want the I Ching connected to the rest of their chart rather than standing alone.
2.11. 11. ctext.org and sacred-texts.com — the public domain text
Platform: Web. Price: Free.
Two digital libraries that matter for a reason most app comparisons miss: the classical translations are in the public domain. The Chinese Text Project hosts the original Chinese text of the Zhou Yi, and Sacred Texts hosts James Legge's nineteenth-century English translation along with others. If you want to read the I Ching rather than be told what it says, these are free, permanent, and more authoritative than any app's paraphrase.
Where it loses: they are raw texts, not tools. No casting, no interface, no guidance. They are the reference layer, and every serious reader should have them open in a tab.
Who it is for: anyone who has realised that an app's summary of a hexagram is a summary of a summary.
2.12. 12. Physical coins and a notebook
Not an app, and it belongs on the list anyway.
Three coins, six tosses, a pen, and a page. Each toss gives a value: assign 3 to heads and 2 to tails (some traditions reverse this), sum the three coins, and the result maps to a line type — 6 is old yin, 7 is young yang, 8 is young yin, 9 is old yang. Old lines change; young lines do not. Six tosses build the hexagram from the bottom up, and you read it with the changing lines marked.
Why this is on a list of apps: the casting is the part of the I Ching that involves your hands, and the reason the yarrow method survived for two millennia is that the slowness is not incidental. Most people who use I Ching apps eventually also buy three coins. Some of them stop using the apps.
Who it is for: everyone, eventually.
3. The comparison table
#
Tool
Platform
Price
Casting method
Changing lines
Interpretation
1
I Ching: App of Changes
iOS, Android
Paid (iOS); trial (Android)
Real yarrow algorithm, coins, manual, decimal entry
Yes, full library
Legge translation + original Chinese
2
YaoWise
iOS, Android
Free tier + paid
Touch-based (6 taps)
Yes
AI-assisted, follow-ups
3
Yilore
iOS
Free tier + subscription
Hold-and-flip, haptic
Yes
AI action plans + 384 line cards
4
I Ching Action
iOS, Android
Free tier + paid
Three coins
Yes
Action plans, check-ins
5
Eclectic Energies
Web
Free
Coin simulation
Yes
Modern translation, no signup
6
OnlineClarity
Web
Free articles; paid courses
None (companion)
Teaching focus
Expert written commentary
7
Facade.com
Web
Free
Coin simulation
Yes
Traditional text
8
梅花占卜
Android
Free + AI credits
Coin, yarrow, number, manual
Yes, full Liu Yao chart
AI chat + classical chart
9
HOROS
iOS, Android
Free every 3 days; paid
Mai Hoa number entry
Yes (+ mutual hexagram)
Zhou Yi grounded, Vietnamese
10
TripodTerra (ours)
Web
Free tier + paid plans
Generated
Yes
AI, context-aware, BaZi-informed
11
ctext.org / sacred-texts.com
Web
Free
None
N/A
Original Chinese; Legge translation
12
Coins and a notebook
—
Cost of three coins
Classical three-coin
You mark them yourself
You
4. How to choose
You want to learn the system. OnlineClarity for the teaching, plus the free public domain texts for the actual reading, plus three physical coins. Total cost: about two dollars for the coins. This combination outperforms every paid app in this list for learning purposes, and it is not close.
You want one serious app that does it properly. I Ching: App of Changes. It implements the real yarrow algorithm, ships multiple translations, journals your casts, and is the only app here that a long-term practitioner would defend without qualification.
You want a free cast with the changing lines shown. Eclectic Energies. No account, no upsell, changing lines handled correctly.
You want to ask follow-up questions about a hexagram. YaoWise, or our I Ching service if you also want the reading tied to your birth chart. Both generate commentary rather than giving you the text, which is the trade you are making.
You want a hexagram to turn into a concrete next step. I Ching Action. It is the most explicit about the productivity framing, for better and worse.
You want the fuller Liu Yao chart. 梅花占卜 if you read Chinese. It produces the stems, branches, six relatives, and moving lines that a simplified hexagram app omits.
You want the I Ching connected to a wider reading. That is TripodTerra's specific pitch, and it is why we built ours the way we did — a hexagram read against a BaZi chart has context a standalone app is not collecting. Judge that by testing it, not by reading our paragraph.
5. How to read app store claims
This category is small enough that vendor marketing does most of the talking, so it is worth knowing what the numbers on an App Store page actually mean.
Ratings counts are small and storefront-specific. The most-reviewed free option in this category sits around three thousand ratings; the most-reviewed paid app around two thousand; the specialist apps that people actually recommend are often in the low hundreds. A five-star average from five ratings is not a signal — it is an absence of data. And a rating count from the US storefront is not the count in your country's storefront; Apple reports them separately, and they can differ by an order of magnitude.
Age of the last update is a better signal than the star average. Several highly-rated I Ching apps have not had a real feature update since 2024, and at least one recent "update" was nothing but a store re-signing with a release note saying no new features were included. The hexagrams will not change, but the app has to keep working on the current OS, so check the date rather than the stars.
"Ranked by all major AI engines" means nothing. At least one I Ching app writes exactly that into its own App Store description. No AI engine publishes app rankings; a vendor claiming one is quoting itself through a chatbot, and it is the same move as the self-published "best tarot apps" listicles we criticise elsewhere on this site. Treat any authority claim you cannot check as decoration.
Numbers circulate that the stores themselves contradict. While verifying this article we found widely repeated figures for the major apps — prices, review counts, update dates — that the official store data did not support, in both directions. Whatever the page in front of you says is the thing to trust; this applies to our numbers too, which is why we sourced them from Apple's own lookup data and dated everything.
6. How to read a hexagram with changing lines
The single most common mistake in app-based I Ching, and the reason some readers conclude the system does not work.
A cast produces six lines. Lines that are old — traditionally 6 (old yin) or 9 (old yang) — change into their opposite. Those changes produce a second hexagram. So a complete reading has three parts:
The primary hexagram — the situation as it stands.
The changing lines — the specific line texts of the lines that are moving, which usually carry the most precise information in the whole cast. A hexagram with one changing line is often read mainly through that line.
The transformed hexagram — what the situation becomes. Not a prediction; a description of the shape the situation takes if the movement the changing lines describe goes through.
Reading only the primary hexagram, which is what most apps encourage by displaying it largest and hiding the rest, throws away roughly half the reading and most of its specificity. Our guide to changing lines goes through this with worked examples, and our hexagram 1 explainer shows the whole process on a single hexagram.
The other thing worth knowing: the interpretations in most apps are paraphrases. A hexagram's traditional reading is a short classical text, and the app's paragraph is somebody's summary of a translation of it. That is not a reason to avoid apps — it is a reason to know what layer you are reading, and to keep one of the public domain texts open when the answer matters to you.
7. Common questions
Are I Ching apps accurate?
None of them predict the future, and none of the honest ones claims to. What separates a good app from a bad one is whether it implements a real casting method, shows you the changing lines and the transformed hexagram, and labels the interpretive layer honestly.
What is the best free I Ching app?
Eclectic Energies for a web-based cast with changing lines and no signup, and ctext.org or sacred-texts.com if you want the actual public domain text. Both are free and neither will upsell you.
Do I need the yarrow stalk method?
It is the classical method and the one with the long pedigree, and its probability distribution differs from the coin method's — the yarrow method produces changing lines more often. That said, the coin method is centuries old, is what most contemporary practitioners use, and requires nothing but three coins. Having a real implementation available is a mark of quality; insisting on it is optional.
Which app shows changing lines properly?
I Ching: App of Changes and Eclectic Energies both do. Many AI-driven apps show a primary hexagram prominently and handle changing lines poorly or not at all — check before you commit to one.
Should I use an AI I Ching app?
Yes, for applying a hexagram to a specific situation, which is what AI is genuinely good at. Not as a replacement for the text — a model generating commentary on a hexagram is not the same as reading Wilhelm or Legge, and the difference matters if you are trying to learn the system.
Is there a real difference between the apps, or is it all the same 64 hexagrams?
The sixty-four hexagrams are the same everywhere. The differences are everything else: whether the casting implements a real method, whether changing lines are read, which translation you are reading, and whether the app still works next year.
8. The short version
Learn with OnlineClarity and a free public domain text. Cast somewhere that shows the changing lines — Eclectic Energies free, or I Ching: App of Changes if you want the real yarrow algorithm in your pocket. Buy three coins; the slowness is the point. Use an AI tool when you want a hexagram applied to a live question you are actually sitting with, and remember that the transformed hexagram is half the reading most apps never show you.
Try a free I Ching reading on TripodTerra and see how a cast reads when it is interpreted against your question and your birth chart together. If you want the method properly first, read the changing lines guide or work through hexagram 1, and if you are comparing divination tools generally, the tarot meanings list covers the other major system in the same register.
Best I Ching Apps 2026: 12 Yijing Tools Compared — TripodTerra
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