Garmin Connect Plus subscription adds Active Intelligence, new workouts and coaching

What you need to know

• Garmin Connect Plus, a new premium plan with "personalized Active Intelligence insights," launches Thursday.
• The AI assistant will summarize the meaning of your recent workout or sleep data.
• Connect Plus also includes a new performance dashboard with customizable activity graphs, live workouts in the Connect mobile app, more coaching videos, expanded LiveTrack features, and exclusive badges.
• The service costs $6.99/month or $69.99/year after a 30-day free trial.

Garmin has announced a new Connect Plus subscription headlined by Active Intelligence, which provides "personalized insights and suggestions throughout the day based on health and activity data." And while this news will be polarizing to long-time Garmin users, the company promises that nothing your watch does now will end up behind a paywall.

"The Garmin Connect app is a free, personalized experience, and that's not going away," a Garmin rep told us, but Connect Plus will provide "premium features" for those willing to spend $6.99/month or $69.99/year.

Garmin's screenshots show how Active Intelligence will use data like your most recent activity, last night's sleep, and scheduled workout to provide an LLM-made summary at the top of the Home view.

Active Intelligence, not to be confused with Strava's Athlete Intelligence, is launching in beta. Garmin told me they "don't have a set timeline" for when it'll leave beta; they'll instead focus on "monitoring user feedback and performance" to see how well their AI performs in practice.

The Garmin Connect Plus AI beta seems like a more beginner-friendly, text-heavy version of training status and readiness underpinned by Firstbeat Analytics, explaining concepts newer users may not understand. But for long-time Garmin fans familiar with the jargon, Garmin is sweetening the pot with other perks.

Anyone following a Garmin Run Coach or Cycling Coach will now get access to "additional exclusive expert guidance from Garmin coaches" like "educational content and videos." So you're paying for more advice from real people, not just an AI.

If you regularly use LiveTrack for family members to see your progress on the trail, Connect Plus will let you make a personalized profile page with a custom URL where current and past sessions are visible, with a way to embed the LiveTrack on a website. Family and friends will also receive an automatic text when you start an activity.

While Garmin Connect already has ways to check your workout progress over time, Connect Plus has a revamped Performance Dashboard (see above) that lets you create "customizable graphs and charts over different periods of time to get a more comprehensive view of training progress" in terms of health and fitness trends.

If you like using your Garmin watch for indoor workouts, Garmin Connect Plus will let you see your watch's real-time heart rate and other data in the mobile Connect app. You'll be able to see animated previews of exercise reps for over 500 of the 1,600+ exercises that Garmin tracks on a larger screen than your watch, as well as use "workout videos" for guidance.

Finally, if you're really invested in the social side of Garmin Connect, then subscribing to Connect Plus will let you add a colorful frame to your Conect app profile pic and strive to finish exclusive challenges for extra points and badges.

Will Garmin fans accept a subscription?

Garmin has promised to give me access to Connect Plus starting today; I will write a follow-up on my hands-on impressions soon.

I'm not surprised by this development. Just last week, while writing about possible Garmin Forerunner 975 and 275 features, I predicted that Garmin would emulate rival brands and offer a paid "chatbot that inputs your fitness data and explains features for beginner runners." I swear that Garmin hadn't told me about Active Intelligence when I wrote that!

As I write this before the announcement, I'd predict that plenty of Garmin fans will feel some type of way about Connect Plus.

Garmin likes its subscriptions — see Outdoor Plus, InReach satellite messaging and SOSs, golf or boating premium features, etc. — but a big appeal to most Garmin watches was that you paid a high upfront cost and then got years of use with free analytics and coaching.

Garmin has stressed that no current features will fall behind a paywall, but it's fair to question how many future features will end up as Connect Plus exclusives to make the subscription more appealing years from now. But that's just conjecture, and Garmin watches aren't suddenly deficient because of this plan.

Garmin didn't have an answer when I asked if they'd give a complementary subscription to new Garmin watch buyers. Anyone who pays $1,000+ for a Fenix 8 can afford a subscription but would probably argue that they should get Connect Plus for free for a set time period — just as new Fitbit buyers get six months of Premium.

At the very least, a $6.99/month Connect Plus subscription is more affordable than most of the $10+ fitness subs out there, like Apple Fitness Plus, Fitbit Premium, or Strava Premium. But the AI novelty aside, I think Garmin's value will depend more on what kind of coaching content and workout videos it offers.

Basically, I'll need to be convinced that Connect Plus is something I need in my life, but as long as Garmin is being accurate that no current features will subtly sneak into the Connect Plus umbrella, then I'm not bothered by Garmin trying to make more money. The watches still work the same way they did yesterday.

That's why, even though some people's kneejerk reaction to Connect Plus might be outrage, I'm cautiously optimistic that Garmin's AI will make the brand's data-heavy app more accessible to casual users and curious to see whether the value lives up to the price for power users.