Vagus Nerve Device Statistics (2026)

Last updated October 8, 2026. Next update January 2027.

Everyone selling a vagus nerve gadget has a statistic. We wanted some of our own. So we turned our 36 published reviews into a dataset: every price, subscription, return window, FDA status and study we checked, for 26 devices, 9 apps and 1 book. Then we added public data from PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, the NIH, the FDA and Google. The first half of these numbers comes from our own reviews, so you won't find it anywhere else. Use them freely; just cite us.

On this page: Key findings · Prices · Evidence · FDA and safety · Research growth · Search interest · Full dataset · Methodology · How to cite

Key findings

• Median price: the 24 devices in our directory with a US price have a median list price of $312 (range $52.99 to $941), as of October 2026. Electrical stimulators have a median of $369.
• Subscriptions: 52% of devices (13 of 25) come with a paid app subscription, required or optional.
• Return windows: the median return window is 30 days; 4 of 25 devices with a stated policy give you longer than 30 days.
• Evidence: 54% of the 35 devices and apps (19 of 35) have at least one peer-reviewed study of the product itself. Only 23% (8 of 35) have a trial against a sham or placebo, and 34% (12 of 35) have a study with no company funding or company authors.
• Electrical vs the rest: 7 of 13 electrical stimulators have a sham-controlled trial. Among the other 22 products, only 1 does.
• Claims vs evidence: 31 of 35 products make at least one marketing claim that, when we checked, was overstated, didn't match the study it cited, or had no published study behind it.
• Women in midlife: none of the 35 products has a peer-reviewed study in women going through perimenopause or menopause, the group most likely to be buying them for 3am waking and palpitations.
• The vagus label: 23 of 36 products market a link to the vagus nerve. 4 of the 16 devices that do don't use electricity at all; they vibrate or emit a field.
• FDA: 15% of devices (4 of 26) are FDA-cleared for any medical use. Under the FDA's product codes for non-invasive vagus nerve stimulators, every clearance belongs to one device family: electroCore's gammaCore.
• Safety reports: 5 products in our directory appear in the FDA's adverse event database (MAUDE), with 19 reports in total. Pulsetto has the most, and the most recent: 7 reports filed between Nov 2025 and Jun 2026.
• Research: PubMed added 312 papers on non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation in 2025, up from 41 in 2015. 2026 has already passed that, with 335 by October 8, 2026.
• Clinical trials: 590 studies of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation are registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. 117 started in 2025, against 29 in 2019. Only 9% have posted results.
• Search interest: US Google searches for "vagus nerve" in 2026 (January to September) ran at 3.4 times the level of the same months in 2019, and 27% above 2025. Interest peaked in March 2026.
• What people search for: over the last 12 months, US searches for "vagus nerve reset" rose 145% and "vagus nerve stimulation device" rose 54%, while plain "vagus nerve" searches were flat.
• Most-searched brands: of the device brands we track, Pulsetto and Apollo Neuro are the most searched in the US, at about 37,000 and 36,000 searches a month over the last year.

What we analyzed

Our directory covers the tools people buy when they want to calm their nervous system, whether or not they touch the vagus nerve. That includes 13 electrical stimulators, plus vibration wearables, breathing devices, biofeedback sensors, light and sound devices, field wearables, apps and one book. Each one has a full research review, and each review is the source for its row in the dataset. 15 of the 36 come from US companies; the rest come from 11 other countries, from the UK and Canada to Lithuania, Turkey and Hong Kong.

What vagus nerve devices cost

Prices are regular US list prices for the base kit, as stated in each review as of October 2026, not sale prices. 2 devices without a US dollar price are left out of the price figures: gammaCore, Nurosym.

Light & sound$483.50

Electrical (ear)$449

Electrical (other)$424

Vibration$299

Breathing device$264.50

Biofeedback$249.99

Field/PEMF$249

Electrical (neck)$242

Watch for subscriptions. 13 of 25 devices sell a paid app subscription. For 2 (Apollo Neuro and BrainTap) it's needed for core features; for the rest it's optional extras. The median subscription across devices and apps is $99 a year, which adds up: over three years, a $448 Apollo Neuro costs $646.

Return windows are short for something that takes weeks to judge. Of the 25 devices with a stated return policy, the median window is 30 days, and 21 allow 30 days or fewer. Only 2 give you 60 days or more. Many deduct shipping or a fee, or only take back unused items.

HSA and FSA: 13 devices are sold as HSA/FSA-eligible through a letter-of-medical-necessity service such as Truemed, and 5 are eligible directly as a prescription or cleared medical device. The IRS warned in 2024 that a letter based on a self-reported survey doesn't by itself make a wellness purchase eligible.

How much evidence is behind them

We counted peer-reviewed studies of each product itself, not studies of the general technique done with other equipment, and not company blogs, white papers, conference abstracts or user surveys.

54% of devices and apps (19 of 35) have at least one such study. Where studies exist, 63% (12 of 19) are mostly funded by the company or co-written by its founders, staff or inventors. The median largest study had 84 participants.

Electrical stimulators are the best-studied group. 7 of the 13 have at least one sham-controlled trial, against 1 of the other 22 products. Vibration, light, sound and field devices mostly rely on small pilots and their own surveys.

89% of products (31 of 35) make at least one headline claim that, when we checked, was overstated, didn't match the paper it cited, or had no published study behind it.

And the gap that matters most to our readers: none of the 35 products has a peer-reviewed study in women going through perimenopause or menopause, even though night waking, palpitations and anxiety are among the symptoms they're most often bought for. The closest: a Mayo Clinic pilot that gave Muse headbands to 31 women aged 45 to 65 (14 finished, no comparison group, results posted but not published in a journal), and a 2025 UK trial of HeartMath's sensor in 60 women after breast cancer treatment.

Notes: Truvaga's studies were done with gammaCore, the same company's prescription device using the same stimulation. Nuropod and Nurosym share the same research. Xen's sham-controlled trial tested language learning, not stress or sleep. A sham-controlled trial doesn't mean a product works for you; it means someone tested it fairly. Electrical stimulation as a technique has a much larger literature than any single consumer device. Our science page explains how to read these studies.

FDA status and safety reports

"FDA-registered" and "FDA-cleared" are not the same thing. Registration means the company told the FDA it exists. Clearance means the FDA reviewed the device for a specific medical use. Most products here are sold as general wellness devices, which need neither.

The FDA has two product codes for non-invasive vagus nerve stimulators (PKR and QAK, both for headache). According to openFDA, every clearance under them, 9 in total from 2017 to 2021, went to one company: electroCore, for gammaCore. Other cleared devices in our directory were cleared for other uses, such as pain, anxiety or insomnia.

So only one device in our directory is FDA-cleared for anxiety or insomnia, and it clips to the earlobes, not the vagus nerve. None is cleared for stress, sleep in general, or anything to do with "vagal tone."

We also searched the FDA's MAUDE database, where manufacturers, doctors and the public report injuries and malfunctions, for 29 product names in our directory, covering every device.

A MAUDE report is an unverified allegation, not proof that a device caused harm, and most problems never get reported at all. Zero reports doesn't mean zero problems, especially for wellness products that most people wouldn't think to report to the FDA.

The research boom

Whatever you think of the gadgets, the science underneath them is growing fast. Researchers are publishing more studies of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation every year, and registering more trials.

201541

201636

201750

201868

201977

2020110

2021131

2022177

2023182

2024220

2025312

2026335

20154

20168

201711

201817

201929

202024

202134

202262

202355

202478

2025117

2026135

PubMed now holds 1,589 records on non-invasive or transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation. On ClinicalTrials.gov, 590 studies are registered, 157 are recruiting, and 196 are marked completed, but only 51 (9%) have posted results to the registry. Many more publish in journals, but the gap is worth knowing when a company says a trial is "underway."

Public funding grew too, then dipped. NIH-funded projects mentioning transcutaneous or non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation:

Source: NIH RePORTER, projects whose title, abstract or terms mention transcutaneous, auricular or non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation. Recent years can be revised as records are added.

Search interest has more than tripled since 2019

Interest in the vagus nerve isn't a TikTok blip. Google Trends shows US searches for "vagus nerve" rising almost every year since 2010, with the steepest climb from 2022.

201013

201116

201216

201317

201417

201518

201619

201721

201824

201926

202026

202131

202245

202348

202448

202571

202687

2026 so far (January to September) is running at 3.4 times the 2019 level and 27% above the same months of 2025. Searches peaked in March 2026 and have cooled since, but September 2026 (62) was still higher than any month before 2025 (previous high 57).

Underneath that, the language is shifting from curiosity to shopping. Google Keyword Planner data for the last 12 months shows plain "vagus nerve" searches roughly flat, while "reset", "regulation" and device terms grew:

Source: Google Keyword Planner (US), via Keywords Everywhere, retrieved October 8, 2026. Keyword Planner rounds volumes into bands, so read the change column as direction, not precision. It compares the average of the first three months with the last three.

The full dataset

One row per product, as of October 2026. Click a name for the full review, with sources. The book in our directory is left out of this table.

List prices are regular US prices for the base kit. "Required" subscription means core features need it. Return windows are the company's stated money-back or return period. Peer-reviewed studies count published studies of that product or the company's identical technology.

Methodology

Directory data. Each of our 36 reviews was researched from primary sources: the company's own site, terms and safety documents, the published studies, regulatory databases and public owner reviews. No product was tested by us. We coded every review into the same fields (price, subscription, returns, FDA status, studies, sample sizes, funding, claims) using a fixed codebook, with a quoted line from the review backing each value. An editor then reviewed every borderline call and applied the same rule across products.

What counts as a study. A peer-reviewed, published study of that product (or the same company's identical technology). Conference abstracts, white papers, company blog posts, user surveys and studies of the general technique with other equipment don't count. "Independent" means no company funding and no company founders, staff or inventors among the authors.

External data, all retrieved October 8, 2026: PubMed (title/abstract search for transcutaneous, auricular and non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation and their abbreviations); ClinicalTrials.gov API (same terms, grouped by study start date); NIH RePORTER (same terms, by fiscal year); openFDA 510(k), De Novo, classification and MAUDE adverse event data; Google Trends (US, web search, monthly); Google Keyword Planner via Keywords Everywhere (US, 12 months).

Limits. 36 products is a curated directory, not every product on the market, and it leans toward what our readers ask about. Prices and policies change. Counts from search queries depend on the query. We update this page every quarter and date every figure.

How to cite these statistics

You're welcome to use any figure on this page. Please link to this page as the source:

Vagus Nerve Relax. "Vagus Nerve Device Statistics (2026)." Updated October 8, 2026. https://vagusnerverelax.com/pages/statistics/

The dataset table above is free to reuse with the same link. Figures are dated; if you're reading this after the next update date, check back for fresher numbers.

FAQ

How much does a vagus nerve stimulator cost?

In our directory, electrical vagus nerve stimulators have a median list price of $369, ranging from $52.99 to $941 as of October 2026. Many add an app subscription, so check the first-year cost, not just the sticker.

Are vagus nerve stimulators FDA approved?

Most aren't. 4 of 26 devices in our directory are FDA-cleared for any medical use, and under the FDA's non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator product codes, every clearance belongs to gammaCore, a prescription device for headache. Most consumer stimulators are sold as general wellness products.

Is there scientific evidence for vagus nerve devices?

For the technique, a growing amount: PubMed added 312 papers on non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation in 2025. For individual consumer products, much less. 54% of the products we reviewed have a peer-reviewed study of the product itself, and 23% have a sham or placebo-controlled trial.

Is interest in the vagus nerve growing?

Yes. US Google searches for "vagus nerve" in 2026 are running at 3.4 times their 2019 level, and registered clinical trials of non-invasive stimulation rose from 29 starting in 2019 to 117 in 2025.