Keel vs. the MoCA Test: Which Is Right for You?
The MoCA is the most widely used clinical cognitive screening test. Keel is a daily personal tracking tool. They measure similar things in fundamentally different ways — here is how to think about both.
What each tool does
The MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) is a 30-point clinical screening test designed to be administered by a healthcare professional. It takes about 10-15 minutes and assesses visuospatial abilities, naming, memory, attention, language, abstraction, and orientation. It is widely used in clinical settings as a first-line screen for cognitive impairment and is considered the gold standard for brief clinical cognitive assessment.
Keel is a self-administered daily cognitive monitoring tool. Five brief tests each morning build a personal trend across five cognitive domains. Unlike the MoCA, Keel produces no absolute clinical score — it produces your personal trend relative to your own baseline. Keel is not a diagnostic tool and is not designed to replace clinical assessment.
Key differences
The MoCA and Keel are different in almost every dimension except the broad goal of assessing cognitive function.
- MoCA: administered by a clinician, interpreted by a clinician; Keel: self-administered at home, no clinician required
- MoCA: produces a score compared to clinical cutoffs (normal ≥26/30); Keel: produces a trend compared to your own baseline
- MoCA: single session, periodic use; Keel: daily use, longitudinal trend
- MoCA: 10-15 minutes with a healthcare provider; Keel: four minutes on your own device
- MoCA: a diagnostic screening tool; Keel: a personal wellness monitoring tool
- MoCA: does not track change over time between visits; Keel: built entirely around tracking change over time
Who each is best for
The MoCA is unambiguously better for clinical evaluation. If a doctor is assessing whether cognitive impairment is present, the MoCA or a similar clinical tool is what they should use — not a consumer app. The MoCA has decades of validation behind it, established clinical cutoffs, and the benefit of professional interpretation.
Keel is better for the period between clinical assessments — the weeks and months when you are not sitting in a doctor's office. Daily monitoring builds a longitudinal record that makes your next MoCA result much more interpretable: was this score always where it is, or does it represent a change from where you were six months ago?
The case for daily baseline tracking
The fundamental limitation of the MoCA — and it is not a design flaw, it is simply what a periodic screening tool is — is that it cannot detect change over time on its own. A score of 26 today means something different if the person scored 30 two years ago versus if they have always scored 26.
Without a longitudinal baseline, even a good clinical tool is working from a single data point. Keel's daily tracking provides the context that makes clinical assessment more powerful. When your parent goes for a MoCA, you arrive at the appointment with months of trend data showing when performance started changing and across which domains.
The MoCA and Keel are genuinely complementary. A clinical snapshot and a longitudinal personal trend together answer the question much better than either can answer alone.
Frequently asked questions
Should I take a MoCA online myself?
The MoCA is designed to be administered and interpreted by a trained clinician, not self-administered online. An online version lacks the clinician who can correct for administration errors, interpret borderline scores in context, and follow up appropriately. If you want to self-monitor at home, Keel is designed for that; if you want a clinical evaluation, ask your doctor for a proper MoCA or equivalent assessment.
If my MoCA score is normal, do I still need daily tracking?
A normal MoCA score is reassuring — it means no significant cognitive impairment was detected on that day. But it does not tell you whether your cognition will stay the same over the next year. Daily tracking builds the baseline that makes future comparisons meaningful. Many people with a completely normal MoCA use Keel to stay aware of their cognitive trend over time.
Can Keel detect the same things the MoCA detects?
Keel and the MoCA cover overlapping cognitive domains but are not equivalent instruments. The MoCA is a validated clinical screening tool with established cutoffs for impairment. Keel is a personal monitoring tool that tracks your own trend, not your score against clinical norms. Keel can identify that something has changed; it cannot tell you what that change means clinically. That interpretation requires a clinician.
Related resources
Start tracking your cognitive baseline
Four minutes a day. Five short tests. One trend line that builds over weeks and months so you can see where you stand — and separate a bad day from a real change.
Free to start. No account required. Not a diagnostic tool.