Google announced the Fitbit Edge on Monday, Oct. 12, a $179.99 fitness tracker with a screen, built-in GPS, an electrocardiogram (ECG) app for heart rhythm assessments and a battery that owners can replace. Preorders are open on the Google Store and through retail partners, and Google says the device will be on shelves Oct. 27. Google’s AI health coach, called Health Coach, requires a Google Health Premium subscription. Three months of Premium come with the purchase, and Google’s Edge pages do not state a price for the time after that. Google says the ECG app is available only in select countries, and that repair options for the battery vary by region. Google’s launch pages do not list the countries or retailers where the Edge will be sold.
No hands-on review or independent test of the Edge had been published in the coverage available as of early afternoon Monday. The performance claims below are Google’s own, and the battery figure comes from testing on pre-production hardware.
What it is and what it costs
The Edge is a slim wrist tracker with one physical side button. Google puts the case at 11.5 mm thick and offers four finishes: Obsidian, Fog, Olive and Canyon. 9to5Google describes the display as pill-shaped. A Stephen Curry Special Edition costs $219.99.
Google Health Premium is the paid Google Health subscription. Google says Health Coach and Health Guardian need it, and its Edge support page says advanced health tracking features need it without listing which ones. The support page describes the three-month offer as an optional trial redeemed in the app.
After the trial, Google’s May 7 announcement of the service lists Premium starting at $9.99 a month or $99 a year, and says Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers get it at no extra cost. Gizmodo and Droid-Life both print the annual figure as $99.99, 99 cents above Google’s own. The arithmetic below uses Google’s $99 and assumes the trial is redeemed at once and Premium starts right after the three months end:
- Monthly plan after the trial: nine paid months at $9.99 is $89.91, so the first 12 months cost $179.99 plus $89.91, or $269.90, before tax, extra bands or a power adapter.
- Annual plan bought when the trial ends: $179.99 plus $99 is $278.99, which covers 15 months of Premium (three free and 12 paid).
- Over a full year of paid use, the monthly plan is 12 x $9.99, or $119.88, against $99 for the annual plan.
- Skipping Premium keeps the cost at $179.99, but Google says Health Coach and Health Guardian need the subscription.
Google’s Fitbit subscription terms say recurring billing starts after a free trial unless the subscription is canceled before the trial ends; the Edge pages do not describe the checkout terms separately. Google’s May offer on the Fitbit Air, a different device, renews automatically at $9.99 a month.
Google’s Edge support page does not list which features stay free. A general Google Health article from Droid-Life, dated May 15, 2026 and not specific to the Edge, listed Health Coach, adaptive fitness plans, detailed sleep insights, medical record summaries, proactive insights and an on-demand workout library as Premium-only. It listed activity tracking, sleep tracking, heart rate, heart rate variability, SpO2, readiness and health logging as free.
Extra bands are priced separately. According to 9to5Google, the Active Sport band is $39.99, the Performance Loop is $49.99, the Magnet band is $59.99 and the Metal Links band is $149.99. The box holds the tracker, a large and a small band and a charging cable.
Specs as Google states them
These figures are stated by Google; outlets attribute them to Google, and no independent test of them had been published in the coverage available as of early afternoon Monday.
- Display: 46% more viewing area than previous Fitbit trackers. Outlets including 9to5Google describe the panel as AMOLED.
- GPS: works without a phone, with accuracy up to 40% better than previous generations, according to Google. It also has an altimeter and 50 or more exercise modes, and Google says it recognizes up to 100 workout types automatically.
- Battery: up to seven days. A footnote says the figure comes from testing in California in 2026 on pre-production hardware at default settings, and that actual life may be lower. Google’s Edge support page lists up to two days with the always-on display, and its separate battery support article lists up to 10 hours of continuous GPS.
- Charging: about a full day of battery from five minutes of charging, per Google. The test used a USB-C cable and a 30W adapter, and the adapter is sold separately. 9to5Google and Engadget report a full charge takes about 90 minutes, and Engadget lists a 65 mAh battery; neither figure appears on Google’s blog or Edge support page.
- Water: Google’s page lists water resistance of 50 meters, with a footnote marked coming soon. Another footnote says the Edge is designed to meet 5 ATM (a pressure-based water-resistance rating) and IP68 (a code for dust and immersion protection) at the factory, and that it is not waterproof or dust proof. TechCrunch states the 50-meter figure without the caveat.
- Phones: most phones on Android 11 or later, or iOS 16.4 or later. A Google Account and the Google Health app are required.
What it has and what it does not
Google lists Maps turn-by-turn directions (marked coming soon on the Edge’s product page), weather, call and message notifications, heart rate broadcasting, up to eight silent alarms and timers, and SpO2 and skin temperature sensing at night, with SpO2 available only in select countries.
According to 9to5Google, the Edge has no NFC chip, so it cannot make Google Wallet payments, and quick replies work on Android only. According to Gizmodo, it has no microphone or speaker, so there is no on-wrist dictation, and calls are limited to an incoming-call notification. Gizmodo also reports one physical control and says that, unlike the Pixel Watch 5, the Edge has no hands-free Gemini on the device. Gemini features live in the Google Health app and are relayed to the watch.
Health features and Google’s own limits
The Edge has continuous optical heart rate, a skin temperature sensor, sleep stages and heart rate variability, meaning the variation in time between heartbeats, which Google uses for a morning recovery score. It also has an on-wrist ECG app. Google’s support page says the ECG app is available only in select countries and is not intended for people under 22. A footnote on the launch post says accuracy depends on physiology, placement and movement.
Google’s launch post does not state a regulatory clearance for the ECG on the Edge. A U.S. FDA premarket submission number, K200948, appears in a National Library of Medicine device record for a Fitbit ECG app, described as software for Fitbit wrist wearables that uses a single-channel ECG to determine atrial fibrillation or sinus rhythm. That record belongs to the earlier Fitbit ECG app, and the Edge’s own listing is not confirmed. Google’s regulatory page, last updated May 19, 2026, says its irregular-rhythm features are medical device software authorized in select countries and regions, that its devices and algorithms are not cleared by health authorities for medical purposes unless specifically listed, and that reports from regulated features are not a diagnosis.
Health Guardian covers blood pressure trends, insulin resistance trends and high or low heart rate alerts. Google says it is for general wellness and information only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any condition. Google also says it is not a prescreener for diabetes or hypertension, not for real-time clinical readings, not for adjusting medication and not for pregnant users, and that availability varies by region, country and device. Google’s companion post says Health Guardian reaches the Edge for Premium subscribers later in October, along with upgraded automatic activity detection.
Health Coach needs Premium, the Google Health app and an internet connection. Google says responses should be checked for accuracy and that the coach is not medical advice.
Repairability
Google calls the Edge its first repairable fitness tracker, with a modular internal design and a user-replaceable battery. The conditions are these. Google’s support pages say repair options vary by region and advise against self-repair unless an adult has the technical expertise to do it safely. Google’s battery article lists two sizes of Torx screwdriver (a star-shaped screw head), sizes 1IP and 2IP, anti-static handling tools and a replacement battery. It says not to try to remove or repair a battery that is swollen, leaking or overheating, and to contact Google support instead. It also says battery replacement is currently available only for the Edge, and that availability may vary by region.
Google’s Edge announcement, support pages and battery article do not state what a replacement battery costs, where it will be sold or what warranty covers the device.
Privacy, as Google states it
Google’s privacy policy, which treats health information as a sensitive category that is not used for personalized ads. Google’s May announcement of Health Coach also committed not to use Fitbit users’ health and wellness data for Google Ads.
Health Coach has its own help page, which describes the AI features as experimental and advises against entering confidential information. It says conversations are not read by human reviewers unless a user submits feedback or opts in to research, and that automated processing checks conversations for safety and policy. It also says that a reviewer of submitted feedback may see related health data and activity logs, and that data users opt in to share, with identifiers removed, may be used to train the AI model. Once Health Coach is enabled it can access the health and activity data on the account, and deleting a data category does not remove it from conversation history. The help page lets users delete specific conversations or delete all conversation history and interactions. When a user enables location, it is collected in the foreground and background, and coarse location is deleted after 30 days.
Where it fits
TechCrunch describes the Edge as a middle ground between the screenless Fitbit Air, which Google announced on May 7 at $99 (the Google Store lists $99.99), and the Pixel Watch 5, which starts at $399 for the 41 mm model and $429 for the 45 mm model. Google lists the Edge at up to seven days, or up to two days with the always-on display, against 30 hours for the smaller Pixel Watch 5 and 40 hours for the larger one; both sets are Google’s own figures, and Google’s pages do not say whether the test conditions match. Android Headlines called the Edge the successor to the Fitbit Charge 6, the 2023 Fitbit tracker. 9to5Google says the Edge works on the same account as the Fitbit Air and Pixel Watch 5.
Google teased the Edge on Oct. 9, after a marketing leak on Aug. 15 and leaked images on Oct. 4. On Oct. 6, 9to5Google reported a leak from Dealabs listing 179 euros and 159 pounds, and estimated about $180. The announced $179.99 price and seven-day battery claim are in line with that leak.
What is not known
- Which countries and retailers will carry the Edge: Google’s launch pages do not list them.
- Whether the ECG app on the Edge has regulatory clearance, and in which countries it works.
- Which health tracking features need Premium: Google’s Edge support page lists the ECG app, sleep stages and recovery metrics as device features but does not label every feature as free or paid.
- The price and sales channel for a replacement battery, and the warranty terms.
- How the battery and accuracy claims hold up outside Google’s own testing: no independent test of the battery, GPS or ECG had been published in the coverage available as of early afternoon Monday.
Google says the Edge goes on sale Oct. 27, with Health Guardian arriving for Premium subscribers later in October.