ProductOctober 21, 2026·7 min read·By Ossian

RP Hypertrophy App Review: Is It Worth $299.99 a Year?

The RP Hypertrophy app is worth $299.99 a year if you train for muscle growth, will rate your pump, soreness and workload after each workout, and want the app to decide how many sets you do. It isn't if you train mainly for strength, want the same number of sets every week, or want a free version, which RP's site and listings don't describe. I used it for what I think was a few months before I built GainsLog, a competing app, and liked that it set the targets for my next workout.

Is the RP Hypertrophy app worth it?
What RP Hypertrophy costs, as of October 2026
How RP Hypertrophy decides your sets
How it sets your weights and reps
What I liked, and why I stopped
Ratings, and what happens to your data
Who should pay for RP Hypertrophy
Where GainsLog differs
If you'd rather see your weekly sets before you start
How this article was made
Sources

Is the RP Hypertrophy app worth it?

It depends on how much you want the app to decide for you. RP Hypertrophy suits a lifter who wants muscle growth, can pay $299.99 a year or $34.99 a month (as of October 2026), and will rate pump, soreness and workload honestly so the app can add or remove sets. It suits you less if you want a free version, train mainly for strength (RP points those users to Juggernaut AI), or would rather keep a fixed number of sets each week. For cheaper apps that set your next weight, see the progressive overload app comparison.

I build GainsLog, which competes with RP Hypertrophy, so read this with that in mind. RP's features, rules and prices below come from RP's help center, its app page and its App Store and Google Play listings, read on 21 October 2026. Where I describe my own use of the app, I say so.

What RP Hypertrophy costs, as of October 2026

RP Hypertrophy on the US and Swedish App Store, 21 October 2026.
	US	Sweden
Monthly	$34.99	499 kr
Yearly	$299.99	3 995 kr
Free version	None described	None described

The download is free, but the listing describes the subscriptions as what gives you access to the app (App Store). RP's own site sells the yearly plan for the same $299.99, shown as $24.99 a month, and says it includes videos from Dr. Mike Israetel, a guided week-by-week plan and three eBooks. The site names no free trial (RP Strength). The listing's description mentions a six-month term, but neither the US nor the Swedish listing showed a price for one.

RP offers a no-questions-asked refund within 30 days, but only for purchases made on its website. If you subscribe through the App Store, the refund goes through Apple (RP refund policy). The policy allows one refund per product per customer and calls digital products such as eBooks final sale, without saying how that applies to the eBooks in the yearly plan. If you want the option of a refund in your first month, buy on RP's site.

The app runs on iPhone, on Android (Google Play) and in a web browser. Its native iPhone app reached the US App Store on 20 December 2025 (RP changelog), and it's on the Swedish App Store too (App Store). RP's help page on signing in, last updated in December 2025, tells people outside the US App Store to sign in to the web app, which works in any browser (RP help).

How RP Hypertrophy decides your sets

RP plans training in mesocycles, blocks of several weeks. You start one from a premade template, copy an earlier block, build it yourself, or use the Meso Builder, where you choose your training days and put each muscle under one of three priorities (RP help).

Emphasize "will add training volume whenever you are responding and recovering well, moving you from MEV (Minimum Effective Volume) up to MRV (Maximum Recoverable Volume)". Grow adds volume only when needed and keeps you closer to MEV. Maintain keeps the muscle at MV, maintenance volume (RP help). In plain terms, MEV is the smallest amount of training that still makes progress, and MRV is the most you can recover from.

The number of sets then moves with your answers after each workout. RP's help page gives the rules (RP help):

"Low pumps, barely sore, and rating workouts as easy" means more sets.
"Good pumps, soreness just healing on time, and your workload as pushing your limits" means no change.
"Amazing pumps, so sore that you can't heal on time, and too much volume" means fewer sets.

Your answers decide how many sets you do, and so how long your workouts take. RP's page on long workouts says the app "will only increase volumes if you tell it you can handle more", and that if your sessions run long, you may be doing too much work (RP help). If you tend to say a session was easy, expect more sets.

The last week of every block is a deload, a lighter week, and the app can also cut volume mid-block if your feedback points that way (RP help). RP suggests blocks of up to 8 weeks for beginners, and for intermediates 4 to 7 weeks of what it calls accumulation, 3 to 6 for advanced lifters (RP help).

How it sets your weights and reps

You pick the starting weights yourself. Choosing loads isn't part of building a block. In week 1 each set shows a target RIR (reps in reserve, the reps you could still have done), and RP's advice is a weight you can lift with about 3 reps left within your chosen rep range (RP help, starting weights). RP's recommended range is 5 to 30 reps (RP help). Don't log warm-ups, because the app treats every logged set as a working set.

After that, the help page says the weight "is increased by a few percentage points each week", and when the next step is too big, "like going from the 10lb to the 15lb dumbbells", the app adds a rep to each set instead (RP help). You can overwrite a weight or add and delete sets at any time, and later sessions build on your change. Reps falling from your first set to your last is expected; RP's help center says "Seeing reps decline over sets is normal and expected" (RP help).

What I liked, and why I stopped

I used RP Hypertrophy for what I think was a few months, before I built GainsLog and before RP's native iPhone app reached the App Store. What I liked was that it set the targets for my next workout. Its progression system was one of the three things I wanted in the app I went on to build. I stopped because it wasn't flexible enough and wasn't nice to use back then. I don't remember whether its targets followed a fixed progression or my last performance, so the rules above come from RP's help center, not from my memory.

The app has changed since. RP's changelog lists the Emphasize, Grow and Maintain priorities and a new mobile planning flow in September 2025, and the native iPhone app in December 2025 (RP changelog).

Ratings, and what happens to your data

On 21 October 2026 the app had 4.3 stars from 243 ratings on the US App Store (App Store) and 4.3 stars from 151 reviews on Google Play, with more than 10,000 downloads (Google Play).

You can export your training data (More, then Profile and Settings, then Your Data, then Export), but RP says data can't yet be imported into the app (RP help). If you come from another app, you start a new log.

Who should pay for RP Hypertrophy

You train for muscle growth and will answer the feedback questions honestly after each workout: it's built for you. Buy on RP's website if you want the 30-day refund.
You want to bring up one or two muscles: the Meso Builder's Emphasize priority adds sets to them as long as you recover, and RP advises specializing in one or two muscle groups at a time (RP help).
You train mainly for strength: RP says strength is a secondary outcome and recommends Juggernaut AI (RP help).
You want a free app: RP's site and listings describe no free version. Hevy and Strong log a program you already have for free; see Hevy vs Strong.
You want the same sets every week and targets set from what you logged: look at an app that fixes the plan up front.

Where GainsLog differs

GainsLog, which I build, is a workout app for iPhone and iPad that plans a weekly program and sets each set's weight and rep targets from what you logged. It takes the other approach to volume. Its program builder asks for your equipment, experience, the muscles you want to prioritize, your schedule, session length and split. Before you start, it shows each muscle's weekly sets and checks them against fixed ranges, such as 10 to 15 sets a week for a muscle you prioritize. You can check your own week with the volume calculator. The sets then stay the same each week unless you change them, and the app doesn't ask about pump or soreness.

The weight and rep targets come from the weight, reps and RIR you logged last time, and they're free for every exercise you've logged before. Programs are Premium, at $5.99 a week or $39.99 a year (Premium), about 13% of RP's yearly price. The trade-offs: no Android app outside a closed beta, no web app, no feedback-driven volume, and far fewer ratings than RP, with 3 on the US App Store against RP's 243 and 7 on the Swedish one on 21 October 2026 (App Store). The progressive overload app comparison shows how each app picks the next weight, and the training volume guide covers how many sets to do.

If you'd rather see your weekly sets before you start

See how GainsLog shows your weekly sets before the first workout.

How this article was made

Researched and drafted with AI assistance from RP's help center, app page and store listings and from GainsLog's code, checked against those pages on 21 October 2026, with my own experience of the app from before I built GainsLog. Prices change, so the pages used are listed below.

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RP Hypertrophy App Review: Is It Worth $299.99 a Year?

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