Strava introduces $12 monthly developer fee, tightens API

Strava, the popular fitness tracking and social networking platform, is implementing significant new restrictions on how third-party developers access its data, including introducing a monthly subscription fee for many developers. The changes, which began taking effect on June 1, 2026, are described by the company as necessary to combat unauthorized data scraping, particularly by artificial intelligence firms, and to protect system performance and user privacy.

The platform will now require users to be logged in to view certain information that was previously public, including user profiles and club listings. For developers, a new paid tier is being introduced. New developers on the "Standard" access tier must now hold an active Strava subscription, priced at approximately $11.99 per month with potential geographic variations. Existing Standard-tier developers have until June 30, 2026, to obtain a subscription to maintain their access. Developers on a higher "Extended" tier are not affected by the new fee.

These measures follow an update to Strava’s API agreement in November 2024, which prohibited developers from using API data to train AI models and limited third-party apps to...