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# Real Goblin Tools Review: Does this AI tool work for ADHD?
- URL: https://adhdproductivity.org/goblin-tools-review/
- Published: 2026-08-18T21:14:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-09T08:28:44.000Z
- Author: Matt Elior
- Tags: AI, ADHD, Tools

## Key takeaways

- Goblin Tools is a free web app built for neurodivergent brains. Its main feature, Magic ToDo, breaks an overwhelming task into steps using an adjustable "spiciness" slider.
- It solves the "what do I do" problem well. It does nothing for the "why can't I start anyway" problem, which is a different failure point.
- The real goblin.tools is free with an optional $3/month Pro tier.
- Best paired with something that remembers the list after you close the tab, since Goblin Tools itself doesn't.

---

I stared at "clean the kitchen" on my whiteboard for four days last month 😢 Not because I didn't know how to clean a kitchen. I've done it hundreds of times. I just could not locate the door into starting it.

That's the problem Goblin Tools was built to solve, and for that one narrow job, it's genuinely good. This is my full walkthrough after two weeks of actually using it, not skimming the homepage.

### What is Goblin Tools, actually?

![Goblin tools](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/b0/99b001cf-099d-4600-ba8b-c373f317b704/content/images/2026/09/image-12.png)

> Goblin Tools is a free collection of small, single-purpose AI tools built by Bram De Buyser, a Belgian software engineer, specifically for people with ADHD, autism, and executive function difficulties. No account. No onboarding. No tutorial popup asking you to "take a quick tour." You land on the page and there's a text box.

For a brain that abandons apps at the first extra click, that's not a small detail. It's the whole design philosophy.

The suite includes six tools:

- **Magic ToDo** — breaks a big task into smaller steps
- **Formalizer** — rewrites text into a different tone
- **Judge** — reads a message and estimates how it'll land emotionally
- **Estimator** — gives a rough time estimate for a task
- **Compiler** — turns a messy brain dump into an organized list
- **Chef** — suggests a recipe from whatever's in your fridge

Most people use exactly two of these regularly. I'll get to which ones and why.

### Important: there are two apps named "Goblin Tools," and one of them is a mess

Before anything else, I need to flag this, because it tripped up reviewers I read while researching this piece and it'll trip you up too if you're not careful.

The real thing is the free website at **goblin.tools**, made by Bram De Buyser. It has stayed free since launch and the developer has said publicly it's staying that way.

Separately, there's an iOS app called "Goblin Tools - AI ADHD Planner" from a different developer, unaffiliated with the original. App Store reviews for it are rough:

- One user called the pricing "ABSOLUTELY CRIMINAL" after being charged $13 every six months
- Another wrote: "They make you answer all the questions, take that information and then make you pay for a subscription. There is a free trial but hellooooo with adhd you can't always remember to cancel on time."
- A third said tasks kept disappearing between the app's own screens

**Conclusion:** use goblin.tools directly in your browser, or download the official mobile app confirmed on the developer's own site. Skip anything else with "Goblin" in the name until you've checked who made it.

## Goblin tools features

### Magic ToDo: the feature that carries the whole product

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/b0/99b001cf-099d-4600-ba8b-c373f317b704/content/images/2026/09/image-13.png)

This is why people know Goblin Tools exists. You type a task, hit the magic wand, and it splits into subtasks. A slider marked with chili peppers controls how granular the breakdown gets, from one pepper (a few broad steps) to five (fifteen-plus micro-steps like "pick up the sponge" and "turn on the hot water tap").

Task initiation is governed by executive function circuits that ADHD measurably disrupts, not by willpower ([Barkley, 1997](https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.121.1.65?ref=adhdproductivity.org)). And there's imaging evidence that ADHD brains show reduced activity in the dopamine reward pathway that normally makes starting a task feel worth doing ([Volkow et al., 2009, JAMA](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2958516/?ref=adhdproductivity.org)). 

\>> Our brain isn't generating enough "worth it" signal to open the loop on its own. Shrinking the first step until it's almost insultingly small lowers the bar the dopamine system has to clear.

Breaking tasks down isn't just an internet productivity hack either. It's a documented piece of the cognitive behavioral therapy protocol that beat an active control condition in a randomized clinical trial for adult ADHD ([Safren et al., 2010, JAMA](https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.1192?ref=adhdproductivity.org)). 

*👉 I go deeper on the technique itself in* [*how to use AI to break down overwhelming tasks*](https://adhdproductivity.org/ai-to-break-down-tasks/)*, if you want the full method instead of just this one tool.*

**What I like about Magic ToDo:**

- It doesn't ask why you can't just do the thing. It meets you exactly where you are.
- The spiciness slider lets you request humiliating levels of detail without explaining yourself to a human
- Speech-to-text input means you can dump the task in verbally when typing feels like one more wall

**Where it falls apart:**

- It hands you the list, then walks away. No timer, no "do this one now" mode, nothing that walks you through execution
- Close the tab and the breakdown is gone. No history, no save. For a tool built for people with working memory challenges, that's a strange gap
- The steps are generic. "Clean the kitchen" gets the same five steps whether your kitchen has one dirty mug or a science experiment growing in the sink

If task initiation is your specific wall, this piece alone is worth bookmarking. Read more on the mechanics in [ADHD task initiation](https://adhdproductivity.org/adhd-task-initiation/) if you want to understand why starting is hard before you try to fix it.

*👉 If you want a more comprehensive way to manage task with ADHD, check out this* [*post*](https://adhdproductivity.org/best-adhd-task-management-apps/)

### Formalizer: Rewrite your email

![Goblin tools Formalizer: Rewrite your email](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/b0/99b001cf-099d-4600-ba8b-c373f317b704/content/images/2026/09/image-14.png)

You know the email. The one that starts as three exasperated paragraphs at 11pm. ADHD adults show markedly higher emotion dysregulation than the general population, with a large effect size across a meta-analysis of over 2,500 people ([Beheshti et al., 2020, BMC Psychiatry](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-2442-7?ref=adhdproductivity.org)). 

Formalizer takes your raw draft and rewrites it in whatever tone you pick: more formal, more casual, shorter, less snarky. I've used it the way it's meant to be used, which is: write the angry version to get it out of my system, then paste it in and send the version that won't require an apology tomorrow.

### Estimator, Judge, Compiler, and Chef: the supporting cast

![goblin tools Estimator, Judge, Compiler, and Chef:](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/b0/99b001cf-099d-4600-ba8b-c373f317b704/content/images/2026/09/image-15.png)

- **Estimator** gives a rough time guess for a task. Genuinely useful when paired with Magic ToDo, since seeing "15 minutes" next to a step makes it feel less like an infinite commitment. Time blindness (difficulty sensing how long something will take or has taken) is a well-documented part of ADHD, and giving time a visible number instead of a vague feeling is a real intervention, not just a nice-to-have.
- **Judge** reads a message you're about to send and flags how it might come across emotionally. Handy before hitting send on anything written while frustrated.
- **Compiler** takes a chaotic brain dump and turns it into an organized list. Good after a hyperfocus session leaves you with forty scattered thoughts and zero structure.
- **Chef** suggests a recipe from ingredients you already have. Not ADHD-specific, but decision fatigue around "what's for dinner" is real, and this removes one more decision from a day already short on decision-making fuel.

They're free and they're already there

### What users say

Real quotes, pulled from Product Hunt and the App Store

> "I loved it! It would be perfect if I could integrate with TickTick. Also, the measure time could be more accurate."

> "I've been using your To-Do tool lately. Unfortunately, in some cases the breakdown into tasks seemed excessive, but everything else has been like magic for my ADHD mind." 

> "Goblin Tools is an AMAZING app for NDs, in particular autistic people and/or ADHDers... I swear, this is a to-do list app unlike any you've seen." 

### Pricing

| Plan       | Price            | What you get                                                                 |
| ---------- | ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Web (free) | $0               | Every tool, no account, no limits                                            |
| Pro        | \~$3/month       | Synced lists across devices, your last 50 results saved, custom instructions |
| Mobile app | \~$3.99 one-time | Official iOS/Android wrapper, no subscription                                |

That Pro tier is a recent addition, so if you read an older review claiming Goblin Tools has "no paid tier at all," that's stale information now.

### Who should use this, and who shouldn't

**Use it if:**

- Your main problem is starting, not remembering or organizing
- You want zero setup and zero commitment before deciding if it helps
- You need to defuse an angry email before you regret it

**Skip it, or at least don't stop here, if:**

- You need the list to still exist tomorrow
- You want reminders, calendar sync, or anything that follows up with you
- The breakdown itself was never your problem, and the real wall is that you have a perfect five-step list and still can't touch it

Breaking a task into steps doesn't make you start it. Some days the gap between "I have a plan" and "I am doing the plan" is the entire disorder in miniature.

This is the limit of Goblin Tools, and it's also exactly where I've found the most value in something like [Saner.ai](https://saner.ai/?ref=adhdproductivity.org). Where Goblin Tools hands you a list and disappears, Saner.ai keeps the thread going: it remembers what you told it yesterday, turns a scattered brain dump into scheduled blocks, and proposes your day for you instead of waiting for you to remember it exists. 

I go deep on that one in [my honest Saner.ai review](https://adhdproductivity.org/best-ai-task-manager-for-adhd/) if the "then what" gap is your actual bottleneck.

One thing to notice, Saner.AI is also a sponsor of Goblin.tools.

### FAQ

**Is Goblin Tools actually free?** The website at goblin.tools is, completely, with no account required. A Pro tier around $3/month adds saved history and sync. Watch out for unrelated apps using a similar name that charge more.

**Does Goblin Tools work for autism, not just ADHD?** Yes. It was built with neurodivergent users broadly in mind, and autistic users report it useful for the same reasons: low friction, no social pressure, adjustable detail levels.

**What's the best Goblin Tools feature for ADHD specifically?** Magic ToDo, by a wide margin. It's the one addressing a documented executive function gap directly.

**Can an AI tool replace ADHD treatment?** No. Nothing in this review is medical advice or a substitute for diagnosis, medication, or therapy. See the full [medical disclaimer](https://adhdproductivity.org/medical-disclaimer/).

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### Sources

Barkley RA (1997). [Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: constructing a unifying theory of ADHD](https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.121.1.65?ref=adhdproductivity.org). *Psychological Bulletin*, 121(1), 65-94.

Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Kollins SH, et al. (2009). [Evaluating dopamine reward pathway in ADHD: clinical implications](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2958516/?ref=adhdproductivity.org). *JAMA*, 302(10), 1084-1091.

Safren SA, Sprich S, Mimiaga MJ, et al. (2010). [Cognitive behavioral therapy vs relaxation with educational support for medication-treated adults with ADHD and persistent symptoms: a randomized controlled trial](https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.1192?ref=adhdproductivity.org). *JAMA*, 304(8), 875-880.

Beheshti A, Chavanon ML, Christiansen H (2020). [Emotion dysregulation in adults with ADHD: a meta-analysis](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-2442-7?ref=adhdproductivity.org). *BMC Psychiatry*, 20:120.

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