Zwift Ends Monthly 25km Free Trial — 14-Day Trial Now Exclusive for New Users
Zwift just discontinued its monthly 25km free trial for returning users, effective immediately. This change limits free access for paused or cancelled accounts, leaving only a 14-day unlimited-distance trial for brand-new users across all platforms.
We’re writing to let you know about a forthcoming change to simplify our free trial offerings.
Effective from August 1st, the current 25km free trial offered to paused, or lapsed, Zwift members will be discontinued. We want to thank all our members who took advantage of this offering in the past.
Please note that we will continue to offer a 14-day free trial for new members to discover the benefits of our platform. [Zwift]
Key Changes
- What’s Ending: The 25km monthly free trial, previously available to users with paused or cancelled subscriptions.
- When: Effective August 1, 2025.
- What Remains: A 14-day unlimited-distance trial for first-time users, available on all devices (mobile, desktop, etc.).
- Unaffected Features: Zwift’s running mode remains free, and hardware features like Wahoo KICKR RUN’s incline functionality are unchanged.
Why It Matters
The 25km monthly trial allowed occasional users to ride up to 25 kilometers for free each month after pausing their subscriptions—a popular option for off-season or casual cyclists who effectively only did one ride per month. Its removal means returning users must now subscribe to ride, potentially impacting those who used Zwift sporadically, such as in summer months.
I don’t care about the freeloaders getting cut off [Paul Southworth.User, via Zwift forums]
The 14-day trial for new users is a sound way to explore Zwift’s immersive cycling worlds, group rides, and training plans. Zwift stated that this change simplifies its trial structure, addressing past confusion over eligibility rules that varied by platform or billing method.
Community Reactions
The Zwift community on its forum, X and Reddit have mixed feelings on this one, ranging from those who are glad it simplifies the offering to those who are glad to see the backs of freeloaders.
Various workarounds are discussed, but creating a new account for each 14-day trial period seems the only way to enjoy Zwift without paying. Of course, that means you lose any kit and levels you may have previously gained.
Summary of Changes
| Feature | Before August 1, 2025 | After August 1, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 25km Free Trial (Monthly) | Available for paused/lapsed users | Discontinued |
| 14-Day Trial (New Users) | Available on all platforms | Still available |
| Zwift Run (Free Mode) | Unlimited | Still unlimited |
My Thoughts
This is one of those decisions that probably won’t significantly affect the number of people using Zwift. At least not in the short term,
Whether or not you like Zwift, it is a compelling platform and the only real choice if you want to cycle virtually with many other people. On the face of it, ot is such an excellent platform that justifies paying to use it.
That said, Zwift will want to maintain subscriber growth momentum, and discouraging any potential new subscribers is a poor move. Perhaps people’s circumstances change in one year…is it really the end of the world that Zwift gives everyone one free 25km ride per month? Is someone using Zwift as infrequently as that, for now, really getting the benefit that justifies them having to pay the monthly fee?
Now there is the MyWhoosh free alternative; this move will surely send some people in that direction.
Companies must realise that there comes a point where they start to alienate their customers by trying to eke out ever higher revenues. There are only so many people who will ever subscribe at a given price.
I think the old free trial of 25km was a perfectly reasonable offer for all concerned. Zwift should have kept it.
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The last time I paid for Zwift was in 2023. Since then, I have been sporadically using the 25km monthly trial (which actually allowed to ride more than 25km…) to test my fitness on Alpe du Zwift.
I guess it’s time to uninstall it.
I’ve taken advantage of the 25km freebe a few times during the warmer months when there is no way I could justify the monthly fee. This will just cause me to look at alternatives if I need to get a quick trainer ride in, and maybe find one I like better.
Overall, I think this is likely to drive more people away than to get people to pay for a month when they only want to do a short ride a couple times during the summer. I always felt like Zwift would have done well to basically sell an annual subscription at half the monthly fee to more align with how most people use the service.
Pretty funny all those people that are happy to see the “free loaders” go. In what way were they being harmed?
I feel that was such a bad decision in terms of a company numbers… will show them less daily users (paid or not) and investors don’t like that if they see a decrease
Many people don’t use zwift on a daily basis but if they download and install even one time each month they will get some extra “downloads” , advertisement as well if people post their Alpe du Zwift monthly ride or even increase the daily user numbers.
On the other side doing this will not increase their subscriptions… people who were using it sporadically for the 25km will not pay a full “really expensive” month to ride 1 or 2 days and will just try a new free platform and never look into Zwift again
People who were paying and paused only on summer probably were not that many since if they pay the full year they kinda get some discount to compensate it
I think at the same time TrainingPeaks doing their “free Tuesday” was a smart move, i think Zwift should do something similar if they don’t want to just drop number of subscribers because investors will not be happy for sure
Overall i think TrainingPeaks (with a more gamified graphics and free day to ride and get good numbers on users) and MyWhoosh with their free option and good graphics are really increasing their space here and Zwift with these decisions is just throwing them free subscribers
I usually use Zwift from October until the end of April then cancel it for the milder months, it’s a shame they’ve stopped people using the 25k for free once a month, it probably will alienate some riders from rejoining, but it’s all about the money for Zwift