How much do pacing apps cost in 2026? Required devices, subscriptions and 3-year totals

Short answer

Pacing can cost nothing, or around $620 to $800 over three years — and the device, not the app, decides which. Every tool compared here has a free starting point: Visible's free app, Bearable's free tier, Welltory's free version, Rox's free tracking and a paper diary. The money starts when you want a heart-rate alarm during the day, because that needs something you wear. On US list prices checked October 22, 2026, Visible's paid membership with its band comes to $259.58 in year one and $619.34 over three years on the annual plan; Bearable's optional subscription is $34.99 a year; Welltory Premium is $99 a year (billed annually, auto-renews); Garmin's Body Battery comes with a compatible Garmin watch, with an optional Connect+ plan.

If you have spent money on tools that did not stop the crashes, that is not a failure of discipline. Post-exertional malaise usually arrives 12 to 48 hours after the effort, which no purchase fixes on its own. Before you blame yourself or buy something new, check what your body and the devices you already own have recorded.

Save your energy for the part that matters.

Working out pacing tools alone is tiring. Welltory runs Energy Lab, a paid, moderated online community for women aged 18 to 65 living with energy-limiting conditions such as ME/CFS, Long COVID, POTS and fibromyalgia, where members learn to read their own tracked data together. It is education and peer support, not medical care. Join Energy Lab here · what the community is, who it is for and what it costs

Note: this guide is published by Welltory, which makes one of the apps compared. Competitor prices are US list prices before tax, taken from each company's own website or help center and checked on October 22, 2026; they change and differ by country, so each company's own page is the source of truth. This is not medical advice: none of these tools diagnoses or treats ME/CFS, Long COVID, POTS or post-exertional malaise. Welltory is a general wellness product that helps you track and understand your data.

How much does each pacing app cost over one and three years?

The table below adds up list prices for the setups people ask about most. It assumes you renew at today's price, ignores tax, trials and discounts, and counts only what you would pay to the company. A phone is assumed in every row.

Two things the totals hide. First, the rows do different jobs: a band gives you an alarm while you are doing something, a morning reading tells you what kind of day you are starting, and a diary links Tuesday's activity with Thursday's crash. Our comparison of what each pacing app does covers that side in detail. Second, the shape of the cost differs: Visible's band and Garmin's watch are paid upfront, the memberships recur, and the free tiers never expire.

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What device does each pacing app actually require?

The hardware column is where most of the money goes, so it is worth being precise about what is required and what is optional.

Required: nothing beyond your phone. Visible's free app, Bearable, Welltory, Rox and a paper diary all work without buying anything. Visible's free app and Welltory both take a short reading with the phone camera: you rest a fingertip over the lens and flash while the app reads your pulse. That is a spot measurement, taken while you are still — not continuous monitoring. Welltory's Help Center also notes that camera readings are less reliable during movement, in people with arrhythmias, if you are under 18 or pregnant, and on some phones where the flash sits too far from the camera.

Required for the paid Visible membership: a compatible band. Visible's help center says the membership works only with the Visible Band 2.0 (also known as the Polar 360) or a Polar Verity Sense. The band is part of the checkout by default; if you already own one, you can set the band quantity to zero, which, per Visible's help center, works only in the app, not on the website. The membership and band are available in the US and the UK.

Required for Body Battery: a Garmin device. Body Battery is a feature of compatible Garmin watches and trackers, not a separate app, and Garmin advises wearing the device while you sleep.

Optional, but useful if you already have them: an Apple Watch, a Samsung Galaxy Watch, a Fitbit, an Oura ring or a chest strap. Bearable can pull heart rate, HRV and steps from Apple Health, Google Fit and Fitbit. Welltory can measure HRV with an Apple Watch, a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 or later, or a compatible chest strap, and read data from other devices. Rox lists Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin and Oura.

The practical rule is simple. You only need to buy hardware if you need an alarm during the day. Everything else — a morning check, a budget, a log of delayed costs — runs on what you already own.

How much does Visible cost, and do you need the armband?

Visible is the tool in this comparison built most specifically for pacing, and it has two very different price points.

The free app costs $0. Per Visible's help center, the free app "measures heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) once daily during the Morning Check-in," and lets you log symptoms, sleep and function. Visible's site says you can "start tracking your symptoms, morning stability score and enroll in research studies today without a membership."

The paid membership — called Visible Plus in Visible's help center — adds what the band makes possible: heart rate over the whole day, PacePoints, activity insights, pacing notifications and live heart rate. US prices on Visible's site on October 22, 2026:

• Annual membership: $14.99 a month, which Visible labels "Save 25%"; with the Visible Band 2.0 at $79.70, the total upfront cost shown is $259.58.

• Monthly membership: $19.99 a month; with the band, the first payment shown is $99.69.

Over three years, that is $619.34 on the annual plan or $799.34 month to month, including one band. If you already own a compatible band, take off $79.70: $539.64 or $719.64.

Do you need the Visible armband? Only if you want the in-the-moment alarm. If your crashes follow physical effort you do not notice while doing it — standing to cook, carrying laundry — a worn sensor is the thing that can catch it. If you mostly want to know what kind of day you are starting, the free app's morning check-in may be enough. A 2025 feasibility study of pacing with a heart rate monitor in 47 people with ME/CFS or Long COVID found 89% still using the monitor at 8 weeks and 66% at 6 months; it was too small to show whether monitoring improves outcomes.

Two details worth knowing before you buy: Visible's help center says that, for hygiene reasons, it cannot refund the device cost unless the armband is faulty, and that you can cancel the membership before your next renewal payment.

Is Bearable free, and what does the subscription cost?

Bearable describes itself as "a freemium app" with an optional subscription, and says you can "track unlimited symptoms, treatments, medications, and triggers for free," with weekly reports, timelines, calendars and charts included in the free version.

On Bearable's pricing page on October 22, 2026, the subscription is $34.99 a year or $6.99 a month. That is $104.97 over three years on the annual plan, or $251.64 paying monthly. Bearable also says it "frequently" discounts the annual subscription to $18.99, and runs a sponsorship programme, Bearable Heroes, for people who cannot afford a subscription.

Bearable needs no hardware. For pacing, it is mainly a delayed-cost log: you record energy, symptoms and activities, and look back at what tends to come before a bad day. If you already wear a watch, its heart rate and HRV can come in through Apple Health, Google Fit or Fitbit at no extra cost.

How much does Welltory cost for pacing?

The free version costs $0 and does not expire. After a three-day trial, Welltory's Help Center says you are "limited to one per day" HRV measurement, "analyzed with five core scientific indexes," and that "data older than 30 days will be deleted" — so export anything you want to keep. For a pacing routine, that is one morning reading a day with the phone camera, a watch or a chest strap.

Premium is $99 a year on welltory.com/plans (checked October 22, 2026), billed annually and renewing automatically unless you cancel. That is $297 over three years. A lifetime option also exists — see the plans page for the current price. Premium adds unlimited measurements, 21 metrics, sleep analysis, weekly and monthly trends, and keeps your full history. Prices in the App Store and Google Play can differ from the website. The full breakdown is on our Welltory pricing page, and what stays free is covered in is Welltory free. Blog readers get a discount on Premium with the code `well_blog`; the current figure is shown on screen before you pay.

What Welltory does not do for pacing: it does not sound heart-rate ceiling alarms during activity. Its all-day stress, recovery and Battery screens on iPhone need an Apple Watch or an Oura ring; with the phone camera alone, you get the morning reading, not a full-day picture.

Do you have to pay for Garmin Body Battery?

Not separately. Body Battery comes with compatible Garmin watches and trackers; Garmin's manual describes it as working "like a gas gauge on a car," indicating "your amount of available reserve energy" on a scale from 5 to 100.

The cost is the watch. Garmin's site does not show a single price for every model, and prices change, so we use one example: Garmin announced the vívosmart 5 tracker, which includes Body Battery, at a suggested retail price of $149.99 in April 2022. Check garmin.com for today's price of the model you are considering.

Garmin Connect+ is optional. When Garmin introduced it in March 2025, it was priced at $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year after a 30-day trial, and Garmin stated that "all existing features and data in Garmin Connect will remain free." Body Battery is not something you lose by skipping it. If you add Connect+, the example setup comes to $219.98 in year one and $359.96 over three years.

Body Battery was designed around typical daily drain and recharge. In ME/CFS and Long COVID, a crash often arrives a day or two after the effort, so treat the number as one personal trend next to a diary rather than as a verdict on how much you can do. Our Body Battery explainer goes into what the score measures.

What do Rox and a paper diary cost?

Rox says on its FAQ that "the app is free to download, and the tracking is free to use," covering symptoms, medications, wearable data, patterns and doctor reports, and that "talking to Rox, the conversational part, is the paid feature," with a free trial. Its site did not list the price of that paid feature on October 22, 2026, so we do not put a number on it. Rox is iOS only for now; its site says Android "is in the works."

A paper or spreadsheet diary costs a notebook, or nothing. It is also the lowest-energy option for many people with severe ME/CFS, because it costs no screen time. A good pacing diary records each block of activity, its length and your position, then adds a note 24 and 48 hours later. Our activity and symptom diary guide and energy envelope guide show how to set one up, and pacing without a wearable walks through a full routine with what you already own.

What if you already have a watch or a phone?

Then you may not need to buy anything this season. The UK's NICE guideline on ME/CFS asks clinicians to "make self-monitoring of activity as easy as possible by taking advantage of any tools the person already uses, such as an activity tracker, phone heart-rate monitor or diary." That is also the cheapest route.

If you have only a phone: a morning camera reading in Visible's free app or Welltory's free version, plus an energy and symptom log in Bearable, Rox or a paper diary. Total: $0.

If you have an Apple Watch: it already records heart rate through the day. Bearable can pull that data in; Welltory can measure HRV with the watch and, on iPhone, show all-day stress, recovery and Battery. For a heart-rate alert during activity, check what your watch's own settings offer before buying another device. Our heart rate pacing guide covers how people set a ceiling.

If you have a Garmin: Body Battery is already on the watch. Welltory's Help Center lists Garmin sleep, heart rate, stress level and energy level among the data a direct Garmin connection sends; Garmin watches with an HRV function are not supported for Welltory's own HRV measurements, per its gadget compatibility page, while Garmin chest straps such as the HRM-Dual and HRM-Pro are.

If you have a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 or later, a Fitbit or an Oura ring: Welltory measures with a Galaxy Watch 4 or later and reads Oura data; Bearable syncs Fitbit; Rox lists Fitbit and Oura.

If you already own a Polar Verity Sense: Visible's help center says its membership works with it, so you can join without buying the Visible Band.

Before buying anything new, a two-week test with what you own answers the real question — what you actually check, and on which days you have the energy to check it. Our hub on whether you need a new wearable walks through that decision for every kind of tracker, and the real cost of health tracking does the same arithmetic for rings and bands.

Which costs more: the subscription or your energy?

For people with energy-limiting conditions, the price tag is only half the cost. Every tool also costs attention: charging a band, opening an app, answering prompts, reading a chart. The authors of a 2026 article on digital pacing tools in PLOS Digital Health warn about "data overload, where many prompts or alerts can worsen symptoms through overstimulation or fixation," and note that a 6-month randomised trial of one digital pacing platform in Long COVID found it safe and feasible, "but no added benefit over usual care for PEM over 6 months." Pacing is the recommended approach; the apps that support it are still early.

So a sensible way to compare is energy per useful answer:

• The cheapest answer to "am I over my line right now?" is a worn sensor with an alert, if physical exertion you do not notice is what drives your crashes.

• The cheapest answer to "what kind of day is this?" is a one-minute morning reading, which both Visible and Welltory offer free.

• The cheapest answer to "what did Tuesday cost me?" is a diary with a 24–48 hour column, free in Bearable, Rox or on paper.

Tracking in seasons — a couple of weeks when something changes, then a break — keeps the useful pattern without making the app another thing to manage. Skipping tracking on a bad day is part of pacing, not a failure of it.

Before you blame yourself, check what your devices already recorded

Many people with ME/CFS or Long COVID end up with a drawer of trackers and a feeling that they failed each one. Usually the tool was answering a different question from the one they had, or the bill for an activity came two days later, where no single reading could see it.

Before you buy the next thing, look at what is already there: the resting heart rate your watch has been logging, the nights your phone counted, the notes in your diary. Put one week of mornings next to how you felt 24 and 48 hours later. If the pattern is visible, you have your tool. If it is not, you know which question is still unanswered — and only then is new hardware worth its cost.

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How Welltory helps — and what it cannot do

The limits first. Welltory is a general wellness product, not a medical device. It does not diagnose, predict, prevent or treat ME/CFS, Long COVID, POTS, post-exertional malaise or any other condition, and it does not sound heart-rate ceiling alarms. If you need an in-the-moment alarm, pair it with a wearable whose own app has one.

What Welltory adds is a record of your physiology next to your own account of the day, using hardware you already own. A low-effort routine:

Take one morning reading the same way each day. Phone camera (fingertip over the camera and flash, still for the whole reading), a compatible chest strap, an Apple Watch or a Samsung Galaxy Watch. On the free version, that is your one measurement a day.

Tag what came before a crash. On an iPhone with an Apple Watch or Oura ring, when Welltory flags a stress stretch and asks "What happened?", tap a suggested tag, type a few words or say them: "crash," "PEM," "long call," "shower," "short night." You can add a note any time; notes go to your Journal.

Check My Patterns after two to three weeks. Once a tag has appeared at least 7 times in a month, with some history from the month before, My Patterns shows which tagged situations tend to come before stressful stretches, rare tags that hit hard, and day-of-week trends. See how My Patterns works.

Bring a short log to your doctor. Your usual morning heart rate, how your worst days compare with it, and what came 24 to 48 hours before a crash. Export a CSV from the Welltory web app (Dashboard → choose a chart → Export) — on the free version, before data passes 30 days.

Patterns in Welltory are associations to discuss with your doctor, not proof of a trigger and not a warning system.

Where you can learn this with other people. Reading your own data while you are ill takes energy, and most people do it alone. Energy Lab is Welltory's paid, moderated online community for women aged 18 to 65 living with energy-limiting conditions such as ME/CFS, Long COVID, POTS and fibromyalgia. You keep collecting data with whatever you already own, and the Lab is where members learn to read it together. Welltory's health educators and medical board answer the group's questions in plain language; there are no one-to-one consultations. It is education and peer support, not medical care, and it does not replace your own clinician. Read what the community is, who it is for and what it costs.

A note for Black Friday: from November 25 to December 1, 2026, Welltory users can use the code WelltoryBF40 at checkout for a special Black Friday discount on Welltory Premium. Premium is billed annually and renews automatically until you cancel, and the checkout page shows the final price before you pay. See the Black Friday offer

How we made it

Made with AI tools, then edited and fact-checked by the Welltory team. See our Editorial & AI policy.

Jane Smorodnikova, co-founder of Welltory, built the methodology behind how we read physiological data.

Written by Tatsiana Yashyna.