The short answer

Both tools earn their money for the right player. GTO Wizard is the biggest name in poker study software: a browser-based platform with the largest presolved library available, a trainer, a hand-history analyzer, and custom solving on the upper tiers. GTO Preflop is a mobile preflop trainer and range viewer that costs $119.99 a year. One is a full study suite priced like a professional expense. The other does exactly one job, on your phone, better, for roughly a tenth of the price.

The decision comes down to two questions. Do you study postflop with hand histories at a desk, and will you use a 10-million-spot library enough to justify professional pricing? Then GTO Wizard fits that job. Is preflop the part of your game that leaks, and does your study happen on a phone? Then you don’t need to spend $468 to $2,748 a year to fix it — GTO Preflop was built for exactly you.

Note:

Full disclosure: GTO Preflop is our app. We’ll be specific about the categories GTO Wizard wins, because there are several, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.

GTO Wizard vs GTO Preflop at a glance

GTO Wizard GTO Preflop
Price $49–$279/mo; effective $39–$229/mo on annual billing, per format Free download; Pro $19.99/mo or $119.99/yr
Scope Preflop + postflop: presolved library of 10M+ spots, hand-history analyzer, custom AI solving and nodelocking on Elite+ Preflop only: range charts, multiway ranges, trainer, equity calculator
Formats per subscription One (Cash or Tournament) Cash, MTT and Spin & Go all included
Trainer Yes, with instant GTO and EV feedback Yes, with an ELO rating and achievements
Platforms Browser only for the study suite; no native mobile study app iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple Silicon Macs
Free version Yes, with daily caps on lookups and trainer hands Free to download; full ranges and trainer need Pro
Best for Online grinders studying one format deeply at a desk Phone-first players fixing preflop across formats

Who should pick which

Pick GTO Wizard if any of these describes you:

  • You upload hand histories and want software to find your postflop leaks.
  • You need custom solving or nodelocking to study specific opponents.
  • You play one format online at stakes where $588+ a year is a rounding error against your win rate.

Pick GTO Preflop if this is closer to your situation:

  • Preflop is your leak. Upswing Poker calls playing too many hands preflop the number one mistake among losing players, and it’s the cheapest leak to fix.
  • Your study time is phone time: commutes, breaks between live sessions, ten minutes before sleep.
  • You play cash and tournaments and spins, and paying per format twice or three times over feels absurd.
  • Your poker budget has a ceiling under $20 a month.

Put concretely: an NL500 online regular who reviews sessions in a browser should pay for GTO Wizard without flinching. A live $1/$2 player who studies on the train should not. The expensive tool isn’t wrong. It’s built for a different person.

What does each tool cover preflop?

First, why this fight matters at all. You make a preflop decision every single hand, and only reach the turn or river a handful of times per orbit. Solver-based estimates put 70–80% of Spin & Go winnings down to preflop play alone. And as Upswing Poker puts it, no amount of postflop skill turns a fundamentally bad preflop strategy into a winning one. In a BlackRain79 review of 609 players with 10,000+ hands, only 30% were profitable after rake. Preflop discipline is a big part of what separates the two groups.

GTO Preflop ships GTO-solved preflop ranges for every position from 2-handed to 8-handed, across three formats in one subscription:

  • Cash games: 50BB and 100BB regular tables, plus 100BB and 200BB with ante
  • MTTs: ChipEV ranges for every stack depth from 3BB to 100BB
  • Spin & Go: 2BB to 34BB, including asymmetrical stacks

On top of the charts you get a multiway range viewer that shows how GTO ranges shift with several opponents, RFI frequencies, 3-bet and squeeze ranges, and an equity calculator with EV visualization. If you want the theory behind those charts, our poker starting hands chart guide walks through the standard opening grid position by position, and our MTT stack size guide covers why a 20BB range looks nothing like a 60BB range.

GTO Wizard covers preflop too, and its preflop solutions sit inside a much bigger machine: third-party counts put the presolved library at over 10 million scenarios, spanning preflop and postflop, with more bet-size trees as you climb the tiers. Multiway preflop solving for up to nine players exists, but only on the Ultra tier. For pure preflop range lookup, both tools give you solver-approved answers. GTO Wizard gives you more surrounding depth; GTO Preflop gives you the preflop layer by itself at a price that matches its scope.

How do the trainers compare?

Charts don’t change behavior. Drilling does. David Peters, one of the winningest tournament players alive, reportedly spends 16 hours a day studying solver outputs. You don’t need his schedule, but you need reps.

GTO Wizard’s trainer is excellent. You drill any spot in your subscribed format and get immediate GTO and EV feedback on each decision. That feedback loop is the thing that separates training from guessing, and they ship it done right.

GTO Preflop’s trainer attacks the same loop from a different angle. Every drill decision feeds an ELO rating, so your number climbs when your folds, opens and 3-bets match the solution and drops when they don’t. Achievements mark milestones along the way. The rating gives you the one thing raw drilling lacks: a score that tells you whether this week’s preflop game is actually better than last week’s. Sessions fit in five minutes because the app was designed for a phone, and the trainer covers the same positions, stack depths and formats as the charts. If 3-bet spots are where you bleed, drill them after reading our 3-bet ranges guide.

Train preflop on your phone — Get the App

What do they cost in 2026?

GTO Wizard raised prices on March 31, 2026. As of August 2026 the tiers run $49/month (Starter), $99/month (Premium), $169/month (Elite) and $279/month (Ultra) on monthly billing. Annual billing brings those to an effective $39, $79, $139 and $229 per month, or $468 to $2,748 per year. Three details in the fine print matter:

  1. Each subscription covers one format. Cash and Tournament are separate purchases, so a player studying both pays double.
  2. You can’t see the prices without an account. The pricing page redirects into the app behind a login, which is why so many players search for the numbers.
  3. Ultra’s current prices are labeled Early Bird. GTO Wizard has announced they rise to $359/month ($289 annually) once ICM preflop solving ships.

GTO Preflop is free to download. Pro costs $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year on the standard plan, and a $7.99 weekly option exists for short-term study bursts. We run pricing experiments, so the App Store listing shows a few higher price points too; $119.99 is the standard annual price, and exact prices vary a little by region. One subscription covers cash, MTT and Spin & Go together.

Bar chart comparing annual preflop study costs in 2026: GTO Wizard Ultra 2,748 dollars, Elite 1,668 dollars, Premium 948 dollars, Starter 468 dollars, GTO Preflop Pro 120 dollars

Annual cost of study by tool and tier, 2026. One GTO Wizard subscription covers one format; GTO Preflop Pro covers cash, MTT and Spin & Go.

A budget note worth stealing: the two products stack cleanly. GTO Wizard’s free plan allows a capped number of daily lookups, enough for the occasional postflop question. Pair that with GTO Preflop Pro for daily preflop drilling and your total study bill is $119.99 a year. If even that’s more than you want to spend, our rundown of Equilab alternatives covers the free and one-time-purchase end of the market.

Which is better on mobile?

This one isn’t close, and it’s the reason this comparison exists.

GTO Wizard’s study suite lives in the browser and nowhere else. There is no native GTO Wizard study app; its one iOS app, PokerArena, is a separate product for playing 1v1 matches, not for studying. The browser version does load on a phone, but you’re pinching and zooming a desktop interface between hands.

GTO Preflop was built as a phone app first. It runs natively on iPhone and iPad (iOS 15.6+), on Android, and on Apple Silicon Macs. The interface, the trainer and the range viewer are all sized for a thumb and a two-minute window of attention. As of August 18, 2026 it holds a 4.8 out of 5 rating across 240 ratings on the US App Store.

Where you study decides this category. Desk: browser is fine, GTO Wizard loses nothing. Phone: one of these tools was designed for it and the other wasn’t.

Where GTO Wizard genuinely wins

Credit where it’s due. GTO Wizard wins these specific categories, and if one of them is the whole reason you’re shopping, it’s the tool for that job:

  • Postflop. GTO Preflop stops at the flop by design. GTO Wizard’s presolved postflop library, flop reports and bet-size trees have no equivalent here.
  • Hand-history analysis. Upload your hands, get your worst decisions flagged. Nothing in GTO Preflop does this.
  • Custom solving and nodelocking. Elite and up can solve arbitrary spots and force an opponent into a non-GTO strategy to study the punishment.
  • Library size. Over 10 million presolved scenarios against our preflop-only coverage. Different weight classes.

The honest framing: GTO Wizard is a study platform with a preflop section. GTO Preflop is a preflop tool, full stop. You’re paying $2,748 or $120 for very different surface areas, and the question is how much of that surface you’ll actually use.

Switching from GTO Wizard to GTO Preflop

What you keep: solver-approved preflop ranges for every position, a trainer with graded feedback, multiway spots, and coverage of cash, MTT and Spin & Go without a second subscription. Where your seat at the table matters most, our position strategy guide pairs well with the charts.

What you lose: everything postflop, the analyzer, nodelocking, and the depth of a 10M-spot library. If your study routine leans on any of those weekly, don’t switch; downgrade your GTO Wizard tier instead.

Time to set up: minutes. Install the app, pick your format and stack depth, and the trainer starts serving spots. The ELO rating calibrates itself as you play, so your first session doubles as a preflop skill test. Most players find out within twenty hands that their button opening range is wider than the solver’s and their blind defense is tighter. That first unpleasant number is the product working.

Tip:

Try it before deciding: Get the App and run twenty trainer hands. If your ELO holds steady, congratulations, your preflop game doesn’t need us.

GTO Wizard vs GTO Preflop: FAQ

Is GTO Preflop a real GTO Wizard alternative?

For preflop study, yes. GTO Preflop is a mobile GTO preflop trainer and range viewer covering cash games, MTTs and Spin & Go for $119.99 a year. It does not replace GTO Wizard’s postflop library, hand-history analyzer or custom solving. Players whose study is preflop-focused and phone-based get the relevant slice at about a tenth of the cost.

How much does GTO Wizard cost in 2026?

As of August 2026: Starter $49, Premium $99, Elite $169 and Ultra $279 per month on monthly billing. Annual billing drops those to effective rates of $39, $79, $139 and $229 per month. Each subscription covers one format, Cash or Tournament, so both formats means two subscriptions. A limited free plan exists.

Does GTO Wizard have a mobile app?

Not for studying. The GTO Wizard solver, trainer and analyzer run in a web browser only. Its single iOS app, PokerArena, is a separate 1v1 play product. On a phone you can reach GTO Wizard through the mobile browser, but there’s no native study app to install.

Is GTO Preflop free?

GTO Preflop is free to download. Full access to every position, stack depth and format comes with Pro at $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year on the standard plan, with a $7.99 weekly option. Prices can vary slightly by region and plan.

Which is better for tournament players?

Depends on where you study. GTO Wizard’s Tournament subscription buys deep MTT study at a desk, including postflop. GTO Preflop covers ChipEV ranges for 3BB to 100BB stacks plus Spin & Go ranges from 2BB to 34BB, including asymmetrical stacks, on your phone. Grinders reviewing sessions nightly want the former; live tournament players drilling shove ranges between levels want the latter.

Sources

All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners and are used for identification only. GTO Preflop is not affiliated with or endorsed by GTO Wizard. Pricing verified August 18, 2026 — check each vendor’s listing for current rates.