Garmin connect plus inital review: A clumsy start

Garmin recently unveiled Garmin Connect Plus on March 27, 2025, a new subscription tier bringing enhanced AI-powered features to its ecosystem. While the move to a paid model surprised some users, I want to share my detailed thoughts as a tech reviewer who has been closely following AI developments. While I believe the current implementation might be clumsy, it represents an inevitable and potentially exciting future for personalized health and fitness technology.

The Subscription Surprise That Wasn't

Unlike many commentators expressing outrage on Reddit and other forums, I wasn't shocked by the subscription model for Garmin Connect Plus. Having followed AI development closely since the advent of ChatGPT, I understand the significant underlying costs involved. Running AI models isn't cheap – API costs for models like Claude can range from $1 to $5 per million tokens, and whether Garmin is paying for API access to large providers like Google, Anthropic, or OpenAI, or bearing the compute costs of running models on their own servers, there's a tangible expense involved.

This cost is likely what many critics overlook when questioning the $6.99 monthly or $69.99 annual subscription fee. From my perspective, offering such compute-heavy features entirely for free might not have been feasible for Garmin at this stage.

Critiquing the Current Offering

Despite understanding the potential costs, I want to clarify that I'm not currently endorsing the Garmin Connect Plus model in its present form, particularly because it isn't free. I believe an alternative approach could have been a beta program, perhaps initially limited to users with premium devices, although I acknowledge Garmin likely aimed for a broader release.

The core issue I see is the perceived value proposition right now. The AI component, called "Active Intelligence," is currently in beta, and while other features like the Performance Dashboard and enhanced LiveTrack might potentially justify a "Plus" tier for users with specific needs, the overall package feels like a potentially clumsy start. We don't have full transparency on how Garmin is implementing the AI or leveraging specific features, making a definitive judgment difficult.

The Bigger Picture: AI's Future Role with Garmin

My critique of the present is heavily balanced by optimism for the future. I envision Garmin playing a pivotal role in the evolution of smart devices that guide users through daily life, specifically in health, fitness, and outdoor activities. The introduction of AI, even if imperfect now, is what I see as the next big thing for the company.

This Garmin Connect Plus represents what I consider the very first spark of what could become a sophisticated AI agent – a future "Garmin Coach 2.0" or even more. I imagine an AI assistant that could function akin to a personal psychologist, physiotherapist, or doctor – not necessarily replacing human professionals entirely, but providing incredibly valuable, data-driven support and knowledge. I foresee myself interacting with these AI models conversationally, receiving personalized insights based on my historical data, and even consulting them for specific issues like minor injuries. The potential, in my view, is huge: the sky is the limit as we are in the early days of the Ai-revolution. I consider my self in the opsite scale as all the ai-doomers and see this is another part where ai will aide us and give us more knowledge than before.

DIY Alternatives and User Empowerment

There are a few ways of making your own tailor made ai experiance, but it not as automated and seamless as Garmin Connect plus. The best way I have found is to screenshot your current activity stats and allow the AI to oranize it to a preset CSV, or spredsheet freindly format that you can paste into a masterdocument consisting of all your data. But that takes time to set up, needs to manually done per workout, and is just another datainput you have to add. I already track my nutriotion and calories with Myfitnesspal and find that tedious on a day to ady basis. Getting a Garmin index scale weight also removed the process of having to manually enter my weight everytime I use it. So the track Garmin is on here is interesting, but they could suffer in either the short term or the long term if, say Google, Samsung and Apple offer similar features for free. And given how much Google is on fire these days in terms of Ai and how cheap their Gemini models are compared to the competition, I will not be surprised if that is exactly what will happen. Hopefully Garmin will learn from that. Most likely not.

Conclusion: An Exciting, Imperfect Beginning

Ultimately, I view Garmin Connect Plus as a significant, albeit flawed, first step into a future where AI deeply integrates with personal health management. The subscription cost is something I frame as a likely necessity due to the inherent expenses of AI, but the current iteration may not yet deliver sufficient value for everyone to justify the price.

What concerns me is that Garmin executives have already confirmed that new features will indeed be added to this premium tier in the future, which could further frustrate the loyal user base that has already expressed significant backlash.

I have been using connect plus for a few month now and there I dont find it very usefull. The Ai summaries are a beet meh, and makes conclusions I can make my self. The live heart rate is a bit usefull for spinning as I can constantle keep track of my heart rate as a tool for my exercise. This move, however clumsy, signals the dawn of personalized AI life assistants focused on well-being, a development I clearly welcome and believe holds immense promise. My key takeaway is that while Garmin Connect Plus might be imperfect today, it points towards a fascinating and potentially transformative future for wearable technology and personal health.