If you haven’t seen it, I’ve been recording my daily steps and activity (or lack thereof) at Mr. T’s Fitness Tracker. The step data comes from my Withings account, and the activity data comes from my Strava account. All of that gets pulled automatically into a Google Sheet using an Apps Script, which then powers the dashboard on my site.
At least, that’s how it works for now. Strava sent an email today with this key line buried in the details:
Effective June 30, 2026: A Strava subscription will be required to access the API as an existing Standard Tier developer. Extended Access Tier developers are not affected.
Strava is effectively introducing a Strava API paywall — a subscription requirement just to access data that comes from my own walks.
In other words, if I want to keep using their API to pull my own data into my own dashboard, I’ll have to start paying them. Every month.
Boo, Strava. It was already annoying that every time I saved a walk in the app, I had to dismiss yet another “upgrade to paid” prompt. Now they want me to pay just to access data that comes from my own walks, on my own legs, on my own time. No, thanks.
I understand that APIs cost money to maintain. But Strava isn't a nonprofit — they (likely) monetize user data, run sponsored challenges, and sell subscriptions to athletes who want premium features. The API already exists. I'm not building a product or reselling anything; I'm just one person reading my own history. Lumping me in with commercial developers and charging accordingly isn't "covering costs." It's a revenue grab dressed up as policy.
Their subscription pricing? $80/year for an individual plan. All for the privilege of accessing my own data. Here it is, straight from their website:
I already left MapMyWalk because they don’t offer programmatic access to the data (and they were showing ads in the app, too). Strava was the better option because I could automate things. But if the price of automation is a recurring subscription just to read my own history, that’s a line I’m not crossing.
So, come June 30, I’ll be done using Strava to track my walks. I’ll have to find another platform that respects the idea that my data should be accessible to me without a toll booth in front of it. Copilot recommended OpenTracks, which I’ll probably be investigating soon. It's free and open-source, but getting it requires installing F-Droid — an alternative Android app store for open-source apps that aren't in the Play Store. A small extra step, but a smaller hurdle than paying a subscription just to read my own history and keep my automation alive.
If I don’t get everything migrated before June 30, I’ll either have to take Strava up on their “3 free months of API access” offer (from the email) or let my automated activity dashboard go dark for a bit while I rebuild on a different platform.
Either way, the direction is clear: if a service puts a toll booth in front of my own data, I’ll find a road that doesn’t.
