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After some 7 months of being \u2018closed\u2019 to new entrants, Garmin has re-opened and revamped the Garmin Connect API developer program<\/a>, focused specifically on 3rd-party platforms that want to receive data files from Garmin devices via Garmin Connect, or send certain types of data to Garmin devices. Things like receiving your completed activities\/workouts, sending routes\/courses or structured workouts to Garmin devices, receiving general health\/wellness data, and so on. All of these leverage the Garmin Connect API today, and have for many years.<\/p>\n Before we get into the details of the new program, Garmin closed it to new applications back in March due to an overwhelming number of inbound applications. With the rise of AI-generated apps, Garmin went from a handful of (mostly legit) applications each week to a tsunami of new AI vibe-coded applications each day. Fun fact: Less than half of all applications that were requesting access even bothered to use them, once granted.<\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019d be easy to blame vibe-coded AI apps for everything, but the reality was Garmin\u2019s process was equally to blame. They treated every inbound request as if it were an enterprise-level company, rather than perhaps just a hobbyist developer or early-stage startup. That meant that everything from business case validation, policy validation, and such was all done at a level far beyond any other wearable in the space. Applications could take weeks to months (easily), compared with sometimes instant access to credentials from other companies like Polar, Wahoo, Suunto, and more. Garmin didn\u2019t differentiate between the credential types: Everyone got the same full-fledged access, whether they really needed it or not.<\/p>\n That changes today, with three distinct tiers that essentially allow an app to \u2018grow\u2019 from hobbyist level, to startup level, to full \u2018enterprise\u2019 level access with 24\u00d77 support\/etc\u2026 The first two tiers are free, and greatly expand access to individuals wanting instant access to Garmin\u2019s platform, effectively creating an MCP level of sorts\u2026minus actually creating an MCP.<\/p>\n With that, let\u2019s dive into it.<\/p>\n What Changes:<\/p>\n In short, Garmin Connect now has three different API levels, versions the previous level that required a bunch of paperwork and verifications. These three levels are now:<\/p>\n \u2013 Personal: Designed for a single person to have access to their activity and health data via the Connect API All of this is best shown in the chart below, which I\u2019ve copied from Garmin\u2019s Connect API site<\/a>, but we\u2019ll keep it here for long-term historical reference. Cause, if we know anything from the past, it\u2019ll probably change again.<\/p>\n The key thing here is that both the Personal and Startup levels get both JSON summaries (which is what that means in this context), as well as full .FIT file with the activity data in it. Though, it does sound like Garmin is annoyingly stripping out some data they consider proprietary, whereas if you upload it manually from your watch\/device, that data is there. I\u2019m hoping they\u2019ll change that, partially because it\u2019s dumb, and partially because it just increases the ways things can go wrong and is overly complicated.<\/p>\n Still, I\u2019m glad to see they\u2019re offering the full .FIT file, as anything less would have mostly been useless when you start talking more interesting application ideas. Beyond that, you also get both general Health Data and Women\u2019s Heath Data JSON summaries (which is fine in this context, I think).<\/p>\n The process to create a Personal API key takes a few seconds in total.<\/p>\n I just did it again, end to end; maybe 8 seconds?<\/p>\n Meanwhile, stepping up to the \u2018Starter\u2019 level adds the Courses & Training API\u2019s. These allow developers to *push* \u00a0routes\/courses to Garmin Connect, which can in turn end up on your device. And the same is true for structured workouts. Think things like Strava and Komoot Routes use this for routes, and TrainingPeaks or Final Surge uses this to send planned workouts. It sounds like approvals for this tier should be virtually instant.<\/p>\n Which then takes us to the \u2018Enterprise\u2019 level, which adds the Golf API that does small ball things, as well as more notably, the Historical Data backfill. This means when someone connects a new account up to their app, it\u2019ll allow the user to backfill a predefined amount of historical data, versus just data from that moment forward. Further, it provides technical support and allows for more than 1,000 users.<\/p>\n But of course \u2013 there\u2019s a catch. Once you hit that 1,000-user realm, you\u2019re now in \u2018pay-for-play\u2019 land. Garmin is joining Whoop in charging a fee here. There\u2019s essentially an initial $1,000 entry fee, which is a credit towards your monthly active user bill. That means as a company you\u2019ll pay on a per-user basis, for \u201cactive monthly users\u201d that are connected. That\u2019s a big shift from the current \u2018totally free\u2019 realm that\u2019s been the case for Garmin Connect since 2019, when they dropped the previous $5,000 entry fee<\/a>.<\/p>\n Garmin is essentially saying they\u2019re trying to recoup some of the costs of supporting the platform, while also being able to provide support at this higher tier. There\u2019s also a reality here that many other companies are trying to build full businesses of the backs of Garmin\u2019s platform (e.g. Bevel), and Garmin basically feels like if they want enterprise level support, they should pay for it.<\/p>\n So what does that \u2018monthly active users\u2019 fee cost? Well, that\u2019s to be negotiated on a per-company basis. It sounds like what Strava or Komoot would pay is undoubtedly different than what a smaller company would pay. However, for funsies, you may not know that the DCR Analyzer<\/a> actually supports the Garmin Connect API today (along with Amazfit, COROS, Hammerhead, Polar, Suunto, Wahoo, Google Health, and Apple Health via HealthFit). So I asked for what it\u2019d cost us. We have roughly 20,000 total users, but a much smaller portion of those are monthly active users with Garmin Connections. While I can\u2019t share the exact amount, it\u2019s fair to say it falls within the rough category of \u2018pennies on the dollar\u2019.<\/p>\n This brings the next question: when will companies start to pay this? By April 1st, 2027. Between now and then, Garmin will work with existing Garmin Connect API partners to sort out that financial piece. By default, though, all existing partners become \u2018Enterprise\u2019 automatically. Further, no existing partner has to pay the $1,000 Enterprise entry fee.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t love the idea of Garmin charging anything to access this data, and I largely feel like this should simply be the cost of doing business in 2026. If not, stick that cost into the marketing budget, because that\u2019s what it is. It\u2019s marketing for Garmin devices. Every single 3rd party platform that integrates with Garmin is marketing for Garmin. That said, if I put on my DCR Analyzer hat, the cost here is pretty negligible \u2013 at least for one company. If a user wants to connect all of these platforms, then perhaps it\u2019s slightly more notable, but even then, it still wouldn\u2019t really matter to the bottom line.<\/p>\n Oh, and for lack of a better place to stick it, the existing Garmin Connect IQ program remains free and unchanged (that\u2019s for widgets\/apps\/etc on Garmin devices).<\/p>\n The Enterprise Competitive Landscape:<\/p>\n So what does the \u2018API\u2019 competitive landscape look like? Well, it depends. There\u2019s no real question here that Garmin provides the most robust API in terms of features (e.g. routes, structured workouts, completed activities, health data, women\u2019s health, etc\u2026). That part honestly isn\u2019t really debatable \u2013 it\u2019s factually true. Equally, while platforms like Apple provide free access, they don\u2019t have any web-based API for pushing into Apple Health. Meaning, a partner *has* to develop an iOS app to push\/pull it there. That\u2019s why for the DCR Analyzer we use HealthFit <\/a>as our partner to pull data from Apple Health. The last thing I wanted to do was develop an app simply to get my Apple Fitness data; that solved our need.<\/p>\n Anyways, as for other device platforms \u2013 like COROS, Suunto, Wahoo, Polar, Amazfit, etc\u2026 All of them today provide some level of API, but whether or not they provide it for the end-user to do something is heavily mixed. For example, COROS rolled out their MCP access for free for all COROS users. And Suunto announced the same thing last week for some time in the future. Wahoo and Amazfit have programs for companies, but those aren\u2019t really available for individuals. Suunto and Polar also have programs for companies too, and both of those are pretty easy to access. In fact, fun tidbit: Out of all of the API partners we implemented for the DCR Analyzer, by far Polar was the fastest and easiest to do.<\/p>\n Historically speaking, Whoop for example, has charged for more detailed API access (such as the full workout files), while allowing free summary information. As an example, in the case of the DCR Analyzer, that\u2019s not super useful, so we haven\u2019t pursued it. Perhaps the pricing is reasonable; historically it hasn\u2019t been.<\/p>\n In fact, one thing that Whoop specifically does is charge for \u2018aggregator\u2019 type platforms, such as Terra. Generally speaking, when I talk to platforms\/companies in the sports tech realm, most have a strong disdain for Terra. It\u2019s mostly for two reasons. The first is that most companies have felt that Terra consistently misleads their customers into thinking they have legit partnerships with the big platforms, when historically speaking, many of those platforms had never even heard of Terra. Second, Terra wasn\u2019t using proper API\u2019s (e.g. OAuth) for many of the sites they accessed, which makes it a notable security concern for the platforms in question. This 14-month-old community support question<\/a> best exemplifies the issue in one efficient thread.<\/p>\n We saw this play out recently when Terra got themselves in a pickle as Garmin shut off access to the API for them, until they followed the rules that had been in place for years. Terra responded by asking people to e-mail Garmin\u2019s CEO directly (and provided his e-mail address). Likewise, I got flooded with e-mails as well.<\/p>\n Still, Garmin\u2019s shift here towards charging for API access will set a dangerous precedent for the industry. Especially for a company that bills itself as a (or the?) premium sports hardware provider. On the flip side, there\u2019s simply no ignoring the flood of mostly AI apps that take up resources at Garmin and elsewhere to support. Heck, my inbox is flooded with these apps daily requesting reviews. It sounds like when Garmin shut off access to the API last spring, it was seeing inbound API requests at a daily scale that they\u2019d previously seen in many weeks. Simply put, there\u2019s no good answer.<\/p>\n Going Forward:<\/p>\n Ultimately, there\u2019s sorta a few groups of winners and losers here. For hobbyists, this is a huge win. A massive one. This is the first time that Garmin has provided access (and instant access to their API for individual users to grab and play with their own data without having to deal with manual .FIT file uploads\/management. Likewise, those users can easily\/instantly get into the \u2018Startup\u2019 category and do more things \u2013 all for free up to 1,000 users. So for companies trying to test out a theory, it\u2019s all good news there.<\/p>\n Where things get fuzzier is the bigger companies, though of course, 1,000 users is hardly \u2018big\u2019. Strava has 200 million users, for context. At least now the gates are back open again, and companies can start working there way through the process accordingly. It sounds like part of the goal here is that by offloading the lower-tier access, they can increase the response time for enterprise tiers, minimizing the delay to get through that paperwork approval pile. Plus, those bigger companies can get proper technical support too.<\/p>\n Anyways, interesting times indeed.<\/p>\n With that \u2013 thanks for reading!<\/p>\n P.S. \u2013 I found an old picture of Garmin\u2019s Connect Developer Summit from 2019 when they first abolished the API fee. Seems appropriate here, even above.<\/p>\n FOUND THIS POST USEFUL? SUPPORT THE SITE!<\/p>\n Hopefully, you found this post useful. The website is really a labor of love, so please consider becoming a DC RAINMAKER Supporter<\/a>. 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It could simply be buying toilet paper<\/a>, or this pizza oven<\/a> we use and love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After some 7 months of being \u2018closed\u2019 to new entrants, Garmin has re-opened and revamped the Garmin Connect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,103292,502845,292125,105],"class_list":["post-936155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-garmin-connect","tag-garmin-connect-api","tag-garmin-connect-iq","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/UntitledImage-11.png\" "\\"UntitledImage.png\\"")
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\u2013 Startup: Designed for organizations that need to support up to 1,000 users, adds more API areas
\u2013 Enterprise: Everything above, plus more API areas, technical support, and historical data. Oh, and it costs money.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GarminDeveloperAPI-720x472.png\")
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