Garmin Connect+ subscriptions are growing. Why? A: CIRQA

Garmin says Connect+ is growing faster than it expected for one reason: CIRQA. On the Q3 2026 earnings call, CEO Cliff Pemble said renewals after free trials are “very strong” and that “people are also signing up for Connect+ to get more out of CIRQA”. That is quite a turnaround for a subscription almost nobody wanted 18 months ago, and it makes sense, because CIRQA is the first Garmin product built with Connect+ in mind.

A subscription nobody asked for

Connect+ launched on 27 March 2025 at $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, and owners were furious. The launch bundle was thin: AI prompts from Active Intelligence, a performance dashboard, Live Activity workout mirroring, LiveTrack text alerts, extra Garmin Coach content, badges and a star around your profile photo – a very limited set, some of which (AI) were very poor in use.

Garmin promised that every existing feature would stay free, but said new ones could go behind the paywall. A year later, I still found Connect+ not worth paying for, except for gym users and food loggers.

What Garmin has added since

The items marked “CIRQA” arrived with the band or were built for it.

• 22 May 2025: Trails+, which sends curated trails to compatible watches.
• 18 November 2025: 3D Maps for activities, courses and trails in the Connect app.
• 3 December 2025: Connect Rundown, a shareable year-end summary.
• 5 January 2026: Nutrition tracking, with barcode scanning, photo recognition and calorie targets that adjust to your training.
• May 2026 (CIRQA groundwork): Phone-side workout controls and device selection in Connect, which let the phone run a workout for a sensor with no screen.
• July 2026 (CIRQA): CIRQA launches. Connect+ unlocks its indoor workout library, Garmin Coach strength and fitness plans, manual laps and the live heart rate graph.
• 23 July 2026 (CIRQA): After complaints, Garmin made live heart rate free during CIRQA workouts.
• September 2026: Live Activity for outdoor workouts, for subscribers only.

Before July, the additions were extras for watch owners who already had a screen on their wrist. CIRQA has no screen, so the phone is its display, and the features that make it useful in the gym are behind the paywall. That’s why I’d call it the first Garmin device built for Connect+.

CIRQA is the only driver of subscriptions that Garmin named

Asked by JPMorgan about Connect+, Pemble said it “has outpaced our expectations” and has grown faster than the segments it serves, although he conceded that it is “growing from a smaller base”. The one product he named was CIRQA. He also confirmed that new features can be limited to subscribers, citing nutrition, and said Garmin has “a long-term roadmap to further expand” Connect+.

Good news if you want new features. Bad news if you want them for free.

Better than which expectations?

Pemble did not say what Garmin expected when Connect+ “outpaced our expectations”.

Garmin has never published Connect+ subscriber numbers or revenue, which sit inside its Fitness segment, and I don’t expect it ever will. “Outpaced our expectations” could describe ten thousand subscribers or two million. After the launch backlash, those expectations may not have been high.

The same applies to CIRQA, whose demand also “exceeded our expectations”. Again, nobody outside Garmin knows what the expectations were. That said, if it really has sold out all CIRQA units produced then the production expectations were either too low or HAVE been exceeded! I’ll give Garmin that one 🙂

What Pemble said before

• April 2025 (Q1 2025 call): “So far the response has been positive.” Connect+ was “a long-term thing for us”, and some new features “we will likely reserve for premium offerings”. I covered it in Garmin CEO confirms Connect+ paywall will get new features.
• February 2026 (Q4 2025): Connect+ came up only as the home of the new nutrition tracking and Active Intelligence insights.
• April 2026 (Q1 2026): Subscriptions became “an area of enhanced focus”, and Pemble promised 2026 launches in new categories. See my Q1 2026 analysis.
• July 2026 (Q2 2026): CIRQA sold out its first production run, with demand ahead of Garmin’s plans, but there was no claim about Connect+ growth. See my Q2 2026 analysis.
• October 2026 (Q3 2026): Connect+ is beating expectations, and CIRQA is the reason given.

This is the first time Garmin has claimed Connect+ growth in anything more than general terms, and it came in the first quarter that CIRQA was on sale.

My take

Most people with a half-decent Garmin watch can ignore Connect+, because the watch already does almost all of what you want.

A CIRQA owner who trains in the gym mostly can’t, so every CIRQA sold is a strong subscription lead. Garmin will want the same effect from the leaked CIRQA Pro and CIRQA ring, so expect more screenless hardware and more features behind the paywall.

Quick answers

Why is Garmin Connect+ growing?
Garmin CEO Cliff Pemble named CIRQA owners as the driver on the Q3 2026 earnings call. CIRQA has no screen, and Connect+ unlocks its workout library, coaching plans and other features in the Garmin Connect app.

How many people subscribe to Garmin Connect+?
Garmin has not published subscriber numbers or Connect+ revenue. It says only that Connect+ has beaten its own expectations, without saying what those were.

Do you need Connect+ for Garmin CIRQA?
No. Core health and training metrics are free. Connect+ adds the indoor workout library, Garmin Coach strength and fitness plans, manual laps, nutrition tracking and Active Intelligence.

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Last Updated on 28 October 2026 by tfk the5krunner