Garmin has just announced Garmin Connect+, a new paid subscription for users who want to squeeze a little more out of their Garmin smartwatch experience. The premium tier adds new features and AI-powered insights, and it’s available as of today.
While not unexpected, this decision might make some users worry about whether they’ll still get the full scope of features that Garmin Connect used to provide. Many users are already unhappy, with Garmin-centric communities buzzing with unsatisfied customers.
Below, I’ll walk you through all the changes so you can make an informed decision as to whether you should subscribe to Garmin Connect+ or not.
How much does Garmin Connect+ cost?
Garmin Connect+, or Garmin Connect Plus, costs $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year. Garmin offers a 30-day free trial that allows you to see whether the premium plan is worth paying for or not.
If you don’t want to upgrade to Connect+, no worries — the Connect plan will stay free. Garmin Connect+ is available as of March 27, 2025.
Can you still use all the features in Garmin Connect?
The good news is that all existing features in Garmin Connect will stay free. This means that the features you’re used to, including trackers for your health and fitness activities, will stay the same with no further changes.
Garmin Connect+ was made as an addition to the existing app and doesn’t replace it.
Will any existing features be moved to the paid plan going forward?
Many users are sharing a common concern: Will Garmin Connect ever lose any of its features? Will anything be moved behind a paywall?
As of right now, that is not the case. The Garmin Connect+ plan adds new features without taking anything away from the free plan.
We have reached out to Garmin for comment and received the following response: “All existing features and data in Garmin Connect will remain free. The Garmin Connect app is a free, personalized experience, and that’s not going away — but for those who want premium features and even more personalized insights, we’re introducing Garmin Connect+. Customers can opt-in to try GC+ for a 30-day free trial.”
What’s new in Garmin Connect+?
Garmin teased a bunch of new features in the new paid subscription tier, although a lot of them are still pretty vague — we’ll have to test them ourselves.
Here’s all that’s coming your way if you subscribe to Garmin Connect+.
AI-powered insights
No one is surprised to hear about more AI being added everywhere, so the fact that AI is a staple in Garmin Connect+ is not shocking at all. However, the exact nature of AI in Garmin is still a little unclear.
The company refers to this as “Active Intelligence, powered by AI.” Active Intelligence will help your Garmin watch gather insights based on your health and activity data, and will then be able to give you more personal suggestions as a result. “As customers use Germin Connect+ more, the insights will become more tailored to them and their goals,” said Garmin in the press release.
When I reached out to learn more about Active Intelligence, Garmin replied: “As customers use Garmin Connect+ more, the insights will become more tailored to them and their goals.”
It’s worth noting that the AI portion of Garmin Connect+ is currently in beta, but it seems to be available for testing to paid users.
LiveTrack gets a boost
LiveTrack makes up an important part of Garmin Connect, allowing you to keep your family members and friends notified when you’re doing a workout, including a link to help them track your location. This includes a bunch of different workouts, such as runs, hikes, and bike rides, and relies on GPS, so it works even in remote areas.
With Connect+, this key feature evolves in a way that makes it simpler to use. You’ll be able to get Garmin to auto-generate LiveTrack links and send them out the moment you head out for a workout.
You can also set up your own LiveTrack profile to share with others, which will make it easier for them to see all your activities in one place.
New challenges and badges
Who doesn’t love a boost to the aesthetic side of things? To that end, Garmin Connect+ lets you add new frames to your profile, but also earn badges for completing various challenges. Garmin teases that you’ll get a badge for completing the Running Climbs challenge, which includes recording a total of 500 meters of ascent throughout a month of running. There’s also the Power Cycling challenge, which will have you cycle as hard as you can — you’ll need to log at least four hours of biking in power zone 3.
Comprehensive look at your performance
Garmin Connect+ will whip up customizable graphs and charts for you, helping you keep track of your fitness and health data. I’m assuming this will later on tie-in with the AI-powered part of the app, but this is just a guess right now.
Over time, these performance charts should become a useful insight into your wellness journey.
Extra training tools
While you’re recording an indoor workout on your Garmin smartwatch, you’ll get access to real-time data on your phone all the while recording the workout. This includes things like heart rate and pace data, the number of reps you’ve completed, workout videos, and more.
Many customers aren’t happy with this change
Although Garmin Connect+ doesn’t actually remove any existing features, many users took to Reddit to express their concerns. This thread, which is currently pinned in the r/Garmin community, is sitting at over 7,000 upvotes at the time of writing, and there are hundreds of comments from Garmin owners. It seems that many aren’t happy with the change and are worried about what comes next.
The first poster is trying to rally the others, saying: “Do not sign up for Garmin Connect+. Unite to fight for our customers’ right to software as a service (SaaS) for a thousand dollars watch.” The poster then went on to clarify: “I wouldn’t object if Garmin introduced an affordable subscription model that provided all major software updates (including the operating system) for all of their watches in the future — not just limited updates for premium models or select features for a few years.”
Some users are claiming that they might choose to buy a different smartwatch the next time around if this situation doesn’t change. Another user admits that they chose Garmin precisely because of the lack of paid software, saying: “This is why I bought a Garmin and gave up on years of FitBit. SaaS is ruining everything.”
“You’re absolutely right,” said another user. “I’m getting tired of having more and more subscriptions.”
One user wrote a response, talking about Garmin’s values. They ended the post with: “Garmin, please stay Garmin. […] Keep Garmin Connect fully functional and free. Don’t trade long-term trust for short-term revenue.”
To that end, Garmin assures that the Connect app will remain unchanged, but the fact remains that Reddit is flooded with posts about these new changes.
Is Garmin Connect+ worth trying?
Without having tested the feature, it’s hard to judge just how useful it’ll be in the long run. The good thing is that with a 30-day free trial, most users will be able to make that decision for themselves, risk-free.
The additions provided in Garmin Connect+ may not be groundbreaking, but they target important areas of wellness. LiveTrack helps you stay safe and connected; AI-powered insights could prove to be useful over time; badges are fun and they help gamify the idea of working out, which can often help.
With nothing to lose, I say go ahead and give it a try for 30 days and see whether it’s worth the $6.99/month price tag.
