Promethease Review 2026: What It Is, What It Costs, and the Alternatives

Is Promethease worth it? Yes, if you want the longest possible list of SNPedia entries for your raw DNA file, for a one-time $25, and you will read the study links yourself. No, if you want a report you can hand to a doctor, or if you would rather not upload your DNA file to a server owned by MyHeritage.

What is Promethease?#

Promethease is what its own site calls a "literature retrieval system" (promethease.com, checked 14 October 2026): you upload a raw DNA file and get back a report that connects your genotypes to the research summarized on SNPedia, a wiki of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). MyHeritage has owned both since September 2019, when it bought River Road Bio, the company behind them (MyHeritage blog, checked 14 October 2026); Promethease still runs separately as a pay-per-report website. The home page names 23andMe, Ancestry.com, FamilyTreeDNA and Genos customers and links sample reports built from each. Entries cover health conditions, medicines, traits and a few ancestry markers.

How Promethease works#

1. Download your raw DNA data from your testing provider. Our guide to downloading raw DNA data from Ancestry, 23andMe and MyHeritage covers each one.
2. Upload the file on promethease.com and pay. The zip can be uploaded as downloaded.
3. Promethease matches your SNPs against SNPedia. Each entry cites the studies that link a variant to a trait or condition.
4. The report arrives by email as an .html attachment that opens in your browser; the browser's print function saves it as a PDF.

How much does Promethease cost in 2026?#

Price checked 14 October 2026 on promethease.com: most reports cost $25, and uploading an additional data file into the same report costs $4 more.

The same page says most reports are produced in under ten minutes. There is no subscription and no free tier. Older reviews still quote $12 or $15; $12 was the normal price when MyHeritage bought the service in September 2019 (MyHeritage blog, checked 14 October 2026).

What a Promethease report contains#

• Magnitude. SNPedia defines it as "a subjective measure of interest varying from 0 to 10", adjusted by the community: 0 is a common genotype with nothing interesting known, 2 is worth reading, 3 is probably worth your time, and 4 or above "should get your attention" (SNPedia: Magnitude, checked 14 October 2026). Sorting by it is the fastest way to find the entries worth reading.
• Repute. Good, Bad or not set, shown as green, red or gray outlines in the report. Many genotypes stay unset because their effects are mixed or the studies are unreplicated (SNPedia: Repute, checked 14 October 2026).
• Scientific references. Every entry links to a SNPedia page that cites the studies behind the association.
• Filters and views. You can search, sort and filter by topic, medical condition, medicine, magnitude and how common the variant is, and switch to a sortable table that can be exported.

How to read Promethease results#

Promethease results are research links, not a diagnosis, and the report is long: SNPedia's page on AncestryDNA files, last edited in January 2019, reports about 58,000 matched genotypes for the 2018 Ancestry chip (SNPedia: AncestryDNA, checked 14 October 2026). Most of those sit at magnitude 0 or 1. A working method:

1. Sort by magnitude, descending. Read 4 and above closely, glance at 2 to 3, and treat 0 to 1 as background. This cuts tens of thousands of lines to a few dozen.
2. Check frequency before reacting to color. A red entry carried by a large share of the population describes the population, not you.
3. Open the SNPedia page, then the study. Check the size of the study (a few hundred participants is weak evidence, tens of thousands is stronger), whether it has been replicated, and the ancestry of the participants: an effect found in one group often does not transfer to another.
4. Read the effect size, not the label. An odds ratio of 1.2 means roughly 20 percent higher odds than someone without the variant, on top of a baseline that is often small. Our guide to reading a DNA health report explains odds ratios and betas.
5. Remember that entries are not combined. Promethease lists variants one by one; it does not add up ten small effects for the same condition, so a column of red entries is not a risk score.
6. Treat it as a prompt for a conversation. Bring the few entries that stand out to a doctor or genetic counselor, who can place them in the context of your personal and family history. And save the .html file: Promethease deletes the report after emailing it.

Privacy: your file leaves your device#

Promethease needs your raw DNA file on its servers to build the report. Its privacy page, last updated 15 April 2025, says the DNA file and the report are deleted immediately once the report has been emailed, that uploads with no report generated are deleted after 24 hours, and that Promethease "no longer offers storage of DNA Data Files"; all previously stored files were permanently deleted on 8 April 2025 (promethease.com/privacy, checked 14 October 2026). The same page states that data is processed in the United States, with Amazon's cloud among its service providers, and that personal data would transfer with the business in a sale or merger.

The exposure is short, but it is real: while the report is being built, the most identifying file you own sits on a third party's server, and genetic data cannot be changed like a password. Keep an encrypted copy of your file and save the emailed report, because you cannot ask for it again. If you would rather not upload at all, our security page explains how Full Human reads the file in your browser tab and how to verify with the network tab that nothing leaves it.

Limitations and considerations#

• Not a diagnostic tool. The information is based on statistical associations and does not confirm the presence of a disease or condition.
• Uneven evidence. Some SNPedia associations rest on preliminary or small studies, so individual entries deserve a careful read.
• An aging database. When we queried SNPedia's recent-changes feed on 14 October 2026, the 50 most recent edits stretched back to August 2023, and only eight were dated 2024 or later (SNPedia: Recent changes). Studies published since then are unlikely to be in your report.

Promethease pros and cons#

Pros

• The broadest list: tens of thousands of matched genotypes from one consumer file.
• One payment of $25, no subscription; $4 adds a relative's file to the same report.
• Accepts 23andMe, AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA and other files, zipped or not.
• File and report deleted once the report is emailed, per the privacy page.

Cons

• Upload required, processed in the United States by a MyHeritage-owned service.
• The price has roughly doubled since 2019, from $12 to $25.
• A dense, technical list ranked by a community-assigned magnitude; nothing is combined per condition, and you do the interpreting, so it is easy to over-read a single entry.
• SNPedia editing has slowed, so recent studies are missing.
• No storage: lose the emailed report and you upload and pay again.
• Not a document a doctor can work from.

Promethease alternatives in 2026#

Prices were checked 14 October 2026 on each provider's website and change often. The full comparison, including the free and open-source Allelix and snp-browser, is in our guide to Promethease alternatives in 2026; the wider field of twelve tools is in best raw DNA data analysis tools.

If you want the breadth of Promethease without uploading anything, Full Human builds its report from the same raw file entirely in your browser, using the NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog, and links every row to its study; the methodology page explains the scoring and the sample report shows the result.

Verdict#

Promethease remains the quickest way to get the broadest list of research hits for your SNPs, and it suits people who are comfortable reading study abstracts. It is the wrong choice if you want a report you can hand to a doctor, if you need recent studies, or if you would rather not place your DNA file on someone else's server. In those cases, a report generated on your own device is the better fit.

FAQ#

Is Promethease free?

No. promethease.com states that most reports cost $25, plus $4 per additional data file in the same report, with no free tier (promethease.com, checked 14 October 2026). It was free for a few months after the MyHeritage acquisition in late 2019, which is why some older posts say so. SNPedia, the wiki behind it, is free to browse by rsID.

How much does Promethease cost?

$25 for most reports and $4 for each extra data file in the same report, paid once with no subscription (promethease.com, checked 14 October 2026). Because Promethease no longer stores files, a second report from the same file later means uploading and paying again. In 2019 the normal price was $12.

Is Promethease safe?

Its privacy page says your file and report are deleted once the report has been emailed, unused uploads after 24 hours, and that it no longer stores DNA files (promethease.com/privacy, checked 14 October 2026). The file still has to be uploaded and processed in the United States, and personal data would transfer with the business in a sale or merger.

Does Promethease work with AncestryDNA?

Yes. promethease.com names Ancestry.com customers and links four sample reports built from Ancestry files (promethease.com, checked 14 October 2026). Upload the zip as downloaded; SNPedia's AncestryDNA page says there is no need to unzip it. Genetic Lifehacks reports that "Ancestry changed its data files in March 2026 and now covers fewer variants" (geneticlifehacks.com, checked 14 October 2026), which would shorten any tool's report, ours included.

Can I give the Promethease report to my doctor?

You can, but expect limited use. The report is an .html list of thousands of SNPedia entries ranked by a community-assigned magnitude, with no summary per condition and no combined risk. Doctors usually want a clinical test before acting on a consumer chip result. Bring the few entries that stand out, with the linked studies, and ask whether confirmation is warranted.