last updated september 29, 2026
both offer online therapy and online psychiatry with licensed providers, both take insurance, and both say they don't prescribe controlled substances. they're built differently. Talkspace is therapy-first: weekly subscription plans built around messaging plus short video sessions, with psychiatry sold per visit. Cerebral prices therapy per session and sells medication care as a three-month plan, with its own mail-order pharmacy. every figure below is from the two companies' own sites, checked on 2026-09-29, and the one enforcement record is stated from justice.gov. this page compares services, not medications — which medication, if any, is for you and a prescriber.
checked on 2026-09-29 against talkspace.com (home, pricing and psychiatry pages) and cerebral.com (home page and plans page; Cerebral's pages load their text with JavaScript, so we read them through a rendering fetch of cerebral.com itself). Cerebral's therapy price appears two ways on its own site — $175 per session on the plans page, and $795 for three months on the home page.
| Talkspace | Cerebral | |
|---|---|---|
| therapy, out of pocket | $69/week messaging; $99/week video + messaging; $109/week with workshops | $175 per session, or $795 for 3 months (home page) |
| therapy sessions | up to four 30-minute video sessions a month on video plans | weekly video sessions "up to 60 minutes" (typically 45–60) |
| medication care, out of pocket | $299 initial evaluation (one hour); $175 per follow-up | $180 every 3 months ("an average $60/month"), includes a 40-minute initial evaluation |
| controlled substances | "Talkspace does not prescribe controlled substances." | "We do not prescribe controlled substances." |
| insurance | in-network with many plans; Medicare, Medicare Advantage and TRICARE listed; "most insured members have a $0 copay" | "Yes, we take insurance"; partners include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Optum, UnitedHealthcare |
| if a claim is denied | not stated on the pages we read | most you'd pay per session: medication intake $290, follow-up $180; therapy intake $250, regular $205 |
| messaging | unlimited; replies "within a day or two, five days per week" | message your care team; "Responses may take up to 2 business days" |
| pharmacy | pharmacy of your choice | local pharmacy or CerebralRx mail order (CerebralRx doesn't take insurance; HSA/FSA accepted) |
| availability | therapist licensed in your state; "access to a licensed therapist in 2 days (or sooner)" | "Available in all 50 states"; 600+ therapists and prescribers; same-day intake in some states |
| teens | ages 13–17 with parent or guardian consent | not stated on the pages we read |
| couples | $109/week video + messaging | couples therapy plan listed |
for therapy alone, out of pocket: Talkspace's video plan is $99 a week, roughly $430 a month for messaging plus up to four 30-minute sessions. Cerebral at $175 a session is about $700 for four full-length sessions a month, or $795 for three months on its home-page offer — the two pages don't match, so confirm at checkout. for medication care alone: Cerebral's plan is $180 every three months; at Talkspace a first year of evaluation plus quarterly follow-ups is $299 plus $175 each time. with insurance, both bill your plan and the answer is your copay — ask your insurer about each by name.
from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, on justice.gov, 2024-11-04: Cerebral, Inc. entered into a non-prosecution agreement and agreed to forfeit $3,652,000 "for engaging in practices that encouraged the unauthorized distribution of controlled substances from 2019 to 2022." the agreement set a fine of $2,922,000 that the office determined Cerebral could not then pay, deferred for the agreement's term of at least 30 months and waived at the end if Cerebral complies. the release says the company "has cooperated fully and taken significant steps to remediate." Cerebral's site now states it does not prescribe controlled substances. this page reports this record because it's the one we verified from the source; it is not a statement that Talkspace has no regulatory history.
choose Talkspace if therapy is the main thing and you want to message your therapist between sessions; if you're on Medicare, Medicare Advantage or TRICARE; if the care is for a teen aged 13–17; or if you want a flat weekly price. its live sessions are 30 minutes on the standard plans, which suits some people and not others.
choose Cerebral if you want full-length therapy sessions, if ongoing medication care is the main thing and a three-month plan suits you, or if you want to see calendars and book an intake directly, sometimes the same day. check whether your plan is one of its insurance partners before you start.
if neither fits — you can't pay for therapy right now, you're on a waitlist, or you want to talk to people who've been through the same thing before deciding — veisund is a free app for peer support by post and reply. you post under a handle (an email makes the account and is never shown), other members reply when they read it, and you can mark the post resolved and credit the reply that helped. it is not live chat, the community is still small so replies can take a while, and it is not therapy: no licensed clinicians provide care, nothing is prescribed, no insurance is billed. the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and Crisis Text Line are in the app.
It depends what you need. For therapy out of pocket, Talkspace's weekly plans ($69–109) cost less per month than Cerebral's $175 per session, though Talkspace's live sessions are 30 minutes. For medication care, Cerebral's plan is $180 every three months; Talkspace charges $299 for an evaluation and $175 per follow-up. With insurance, compare your copays.
Both say no. Talkspace: "Talkspace does not prescribe controlled substances." Cerebral: "We do not prescribe controlled substances."
Yes, both. Talkspace lists many plans including Medicare, Medicare Advantage and TRICARE. Cerebral lists Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Optum and UnitedHealthcare among its partners and publishes the most you'd pay if a claim is denied.
Per justice.gov (2024-11-04), Cerebral entered a non-prosecution agreement with the Eastern District of New York and agreed to forfeit $3,652,000 over practices from 2019 to 2022 that encouraged the unauthorized distribution of controlled substances; a $2,922,000 fine was deferred based on its financial condition.
Talkspace is built around therapy with messaging and 30-minute video sessions on a weekly plan. Cerebral offers full-length sessions priced per session. If you want to write to your therapist between sessions, Talkspace; if you want longer sessions, Cerebral.
Not for licensed care. For free support that isn't therapy or prescribing, veisund is peer support by post and reply under a handle.
veisund is free peer support under a handle: post what you're carrying, and people who've been through it reply. it isn't therapy or a crisis service — in the US, call or text 988.
get veisund — it's freenot sure whether what you need is a therapist or people? six questions, two minutes — no diagnosis, no email.