Here’s Everything You Get With a Garmin Connect+ Subscription

Garmin watches have never required a subscription to access basic features, and that hasn’t changed. However, starting in 2025, Garmin will offer a Connect+ subscription for $6.99 per month, which provides premium features, including artificial intelligence, in addition to what you already get for free in the Garmin Connect app.

So far, none of the existing features have become paid, despite concerns from some Garmin users. But what does Connect+ offer, and is it worth it? I signed up to find out.

How does the Connect+ subscription work?

A Connect+ subscription costs $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year. Again, it simply adds features to those already available in the Garmin Connect app; in almost a year , none of the previously free features have become paid .

Garmin previously teased that “premium enhancements may be made to existing features,” leading users to speculate that any new features coming later might be exclusive to paid subscribers. Garmin has a habit of frequently adding new features, often including them even on older watches. In the last year alone, we’ve gotten strength training, a new running workout type , and the ability to determine lactate threshold without a chest strap—all of which only appeared once on my watch or in the app. I wouldn’t expect firmware updates to affect the watch—it’s a premium phone app subscription—but I wonder if these new app features will become less available to free users as the number of Connect+ subscribers grows.

Connect+ isn’t Garmin’s first subscription service. The company has long offered a range of services for various specific purposes , including hiking and hunting maps, marine charts, search and rescue insurance, dog tracking, tracking of children’s smartwatches, and much more. But this is certainly Garmin’s first foray into premium subscription health and fitness features, in the same vein as, say, Fitbit.

What does Connect+ include?

Here’s what you get for $6.99 a month:

• Active intelligence (AI analysis of your actions; requires your consent). Looks pretty dull .

• Enhanced LiveTrack feature (also available with an Outdoor Maps+ subscription) allows you to text contacts when you start an activity or set up a public tracking page

• Live Activity , which lets you track your workout from your phone, not just your watch.

• Web -based performance dashboard with new charts and comparison features

• Social features , including double points for badges and the ability to earn badges from anywhere (some badges are only available in certain locations). Immediately after signing up for Connect+, I noticed a small yellow star in the corner of my profile photo in the app.

• Additional training suggestions if you’re following the Garmin Coach program (mostly in the form of additional videos)

• Garmin Trails is a feature that looks set to compete with AllTrails, but it doesn’t seem to have enough data to do so (yet?)

• 3D maps of events, courses and routes

• Garmin Connect’s end-of-year report brings all your stats together for you to view together.

Of all these features, Live Activity and Performance Dashboard seem to be the most useful, so I’ll cover them in more detail.

What you get with Live Activity

Until now, workout data completed on a Garmin watch was stored on the watch at least until the end of the activity. After that, the data was synced to your phone, where you could view and edit it.

But thanks to the Live Activity feature, you can now use the Garmin Connect app while exercising on your watch. This is especially useful for strength training , which previously required adjusting the weight and number of reps after each set through the watch’s clunky interface.

To test this, I ran a few quick workouts on my Garmin Forerunner 265S watch. One of them was a mini-workout with kettlebell swings and squats that I created in the app and sent to the watch.

I started a workout on my watch. Nothing happened on my phone—I was probably expecting a notification—but when I opened the Garmin Connect app on my phone, a Live Activity tile appeared on the home screen. I tapped it, and the same workout I’d been doing on the watch appeared. I saw my heart rate, the elapsed time, and the name of the exercise I was supposed to do.

I didn’t immediately see the promised exercise videos, but as it turns out, you need to swipe left on the heart rate graph. There you’ll see the exercise video (or rest timer, if applicable). Swipe again, and you’ll see your heart rate zone. The bottom half of the screen displays your current stats, including reps, sets, heart rate, and a timer.

Important: If you disabled rep counting or weight editing on your phone (because they’re incredibly annoying during normal use), you should re-enable them. The watch counted my kettlebell swings and prompted me to change the number of reps and weight at the end of each set. This editing screen was displayed on both the watch and the phone, and, of course, it was easier to edit this information on the phone.

With Live Activity, you can do the following from your watch or phone:

• Pause or resume training

• Change the number of repetitions or weight in strength training

• Move on to the next set (strength) or start a new circuit (in activities like running)

• View stats such as heart rate, elapsed time, reps, pace, and more.

But only a watch can do the following:

• Start training

• Complete and save your workout

• Create custom data screens

The Live Activity feature definitely makes the watch more convenient for strength training. I’m not entirely sure what the point of running is, but maybe there’s another option I haven’t thought of yet.

What’s in the Performance Panel?

One of Garmin’s best-kept secrets is its web dashboard. You canlog in here and view all your workouts and data—essentially, it’s a web version of the app’s entire content.

The Performance Dashboard is a new element in the sidebar of the web dashboard. To customize it:

1. Hover your cursor over the black sidebar on the left side of the screen.

2. Select Performance Dashboard , which I see as the last blue item, just below Reports.

3. Click “Add Dashboard” and choose whether you want a running, cycling, multisport, or custom dashboard. (You can create multiple dashboards.)

Some of the charts in the Performance Dashboard are also available in the free Reports tool, although it only displays one chart at a time. The Performance Dashboard is definitely the best tool if you want to truly understand your data.

For example, I can get a simple report from the Reports tool that shows my mileage for the past six months. It’s a bar chart with one column per month. The Performance Dashboard, on the other hand, can show a column for each week, and I can choose a custom time frame rather than just one of several options. There are also more options for viewing the data. You know how your watch asks you at the end of each run how hard it was? Now you can see this in the “perceived effort over time” graph.

What you get with Active Intelligence

Good news for those who want AI in everything, and for those of us whose reaction is “Oh my god, not here ” ( that meme sums up my personal position). AI (“active intelligence”) is the only Connect+ feature that requires your consent, even after subscribing to the full suite.

But I did it, dear readers. I signed up for this for you, to tell you what AI can really tell you about your workouts—and whether it’s better than Strava’s notoriously clueless AI.

Unfortunately, there’s not much to say yet. When I first tried it, the “prompts” on the main screen (which, by the way, can be turned off even with AI enabled) initially simply suggested I check back later. My recent runs weren’t accompanied by any AI feedback. Garmin states: “As customers use Garmin Connect+ more often, the prompts will become more tailored to their needs and goals.”

I wrote a bit more about the AI ​​feature here . As expected, it generalizes, sometimes creates hallucinations, and tends to repeat information that’s more readily available elsewhere in the app. I’m not impressed.

The AI ​​feature is in beta status and has a thumbs-up/thumbs-down icon that allows me to rate the information I just read. I can say whether an article is interesting or uninteresting, or I can “report a problem” if it’s inaccurate, disappointing, or poorly written. (You can also provide your own feedback.) I’ll monitor these notes and report them as the AI ​​gets to know me better.

At the very least, Garmin asks for your permission to train its AI on your data.

To enable AI features, you must enter into an agreement granting the AI ​​access to your workout and health data for analysis. This will also allow your data to be used as training data for the AI.

I asked Garmin if this meant the AI ​​was only trained on consenting users. A representative confirmed: “We only train on consenting users.” The existing model was trained on users who had previously consented to using their data to improve the product. Garmin has a brief AI transparency policy here.

You can revoke permission at any time in your Connect+ settings, which will also disable your access to AI features.

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