What Garmin’s new Connect+ subscription actually gives you
Unfortunately, that time has come. Garmin has introduced Connect+ – a paid upgrade inside the existing Garmin Connect app. It goes live today, with a free 30-day trial and monthly or yearly plans.
The basics stay the same
First off, Garmin isn’t locking away the features you already have. That’s important to note. The base Garmin Connect experience stays untouched.
This means you’ll still get your activity tracking, sleep data, VO2 max estimates, and all the historical graphs you’ve grown used to. Garmin says Connect+ isn’t about replacing the app—it’s an added layer for those who want more depth, structure, or polish in their training data.
The pitch from Garmin is clear: pay a bit, and get smarter insights, better motivation, and tighter integration between your watch and phone, especially during workouts.
But does it really need to be a paid tier? The likes of Whoop have introduced some of these features for free. We are sad to see a company which never had a paid tier – go down that route.
What you actually get with Garmin Connect+
The biggest change is something called Active Intelligence. This is Garmin’s AI-driven feature, and it’s currently in beta. It tries to spot patterns in your training and recovery data and then offers nudges or observations that, over time, should get more personal.
Think “here’s why you might be feeling flat today” or “your pace on Tuesdays has been gradually climbing.” That kind of thing. The long-term value here depends entirely on how good Garmin gets at understanding individual users. Right now, we’re still in the early days.
There’s also a new Performance Dashboard. This is more about presentation—better graphs, more flexible ways to slice and compare data across time. It’s not a reinvention of the wheel, but it should make it easier to spot trends, which is what a lot of people want when they’re trying to figure out if a training block is working. But couldn’t this have been roled out to all users?
Anyway, let’s continue.
Live Activity is another new piece. During indoor workouts, you can now view real-time heart rate, pace, reps, and workout videos directly from your phone, using the data from your watch. It’s mostly aimed at people using gym routines or treadmill sessions where visual feedback is helpful. Not a must-have, but it does pull Garmin a bit closer to what Apple and Samsung are doing in the fitness space.
Garmin has also expanded its Run Coach and Cycling Coach programs. With Connect+, they now include video tutorials and what they’re calling expert guidance. It’s not clear how deep this goes, but it’s likely helpful for newer runners and cyclists who want structure without paying a separate coach. That said, experienced athletes might find it a little light.
One new social feature is the badge challenges. These aren’t radically different from existing Garmin badges, but they’re Connect+ exclusives with new types of goals, like vertical climbing totals or time spent in specific cycling power zones. There are also customizable profile frames if that sort of personalization appeals to you.
LiveTrack also gets a small but upgrade. You can set it up to send notifications to friends or family when you start an activity and create a public LiveTrack profile page with your current training info. This could be useful for races, solo trail runs, or just staying visible during long sessions outdoors.
Should you pay for it?
The bottom line is – these features are not essential. Garmin Connect+ doesn’t gate off any existing features, and it doesn’t add anything that radically changes the core experience. Having said that, an improved UI and AI insights would have been useful for all users. So it is something to think about if you want to shell out $6.99 a month—or $69.99 a year.
Anyway, you get a free trial of 30 days to see what it’s all about. As long as you cancel before the period is up you won’t be charged.
The AI component is the biggest unknown. If it works well, it could be the most valuable part. But right now, it’s still learning, and it will take time to judge how meaningful its insights really are.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
Sadly, we can’t help but feel the effort that has gone in developing a Plus tier should have gone towards improving the experience for all users. Surely if you are paying upwards of $1,000 dollars for a watch – you should benefit from all the insights it is capable of producing. That was always Garmin’s strong point.
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