Google’s $99 Fitbit Air Is The Screenless, AI-powered Fitness Tracker

Google officially unveiled the Fitbit Air on May 7, 2026, and it’s one of the more interesting product bets the company has made in the wearables space in years. Not because it’s more capable than a smart watch. Because it deliberately does less. Google’s Fitbit Air is a $99.99 fitness tracker that lacks a screen and is being marketed as its most budget-friendly, unobtrusive wearable to date that collects health information without the constant buzzing, flashing, and asking for attention. Google has also listed on Google’s official store 

The device is starting its pre-orders from May 7, and pre-orders are available till May 25, and will begin shipping on May 26. A Stephen Curry Special Edition is also available for $129.99. The hardware is kept to a minimum. The tracker itself only weighs 5 g without the band and 12 g with the band. Battery Life is up to 7 days, with fast charging providing sufficient juice to last through a full day of use in 5 minutes. It monitors your heart rate, steps, estimated calories burned, blood oxygen, and temperature, and will store up to seven days of minute-by-minute data of your movement, which you can later sync to the companion app via Bluetooth.

This is the software, and the more important part of this launch. Google is changing the name of the Fitbit app to Google Health and introducing an artificial intelligence-based health coach as a service. Powered by Gemini, Google’s AI, the Coach acts as a virtual health and fitness advisor that can be accessed on demand and has everything you need to track. You can pose questions relating to your sleep, your recovery, your activity trends, or any health and fitness-related question; it will answer you with contextual answers based on your personal data. 

Bloomberg Google Health Coach combines the roles of fitness trainers, sleep specialists, and health and wellness consultants. Last year, the service was in public preview and has been undergoing enhancements in response to user feedback. The Fitbit Air’s 24/7 heart rate monitor enhances sleep tracking by up to 15%, and the wearable can identify naps of as brief as 20 minutes. Smart algorithms calculate the best time to wake up every day, for a better rested feeling.

Each Fitbit Air that is purchased comes with three months of Google Health Premium with full access to Coach. Premium is $9.99/month or $99.99/year after these three months. Google AI Pro or Ultra subscribers will have premium access automatically added to their account for free. Notably, the heart of the Fitbit Air’s tracking capabilities is non-premium subscription-dependent.

Google is aiming to compete with WHOOP, as per Techcrunch, a screen-free fitness band with a loyal base of athletes and fitness enthusiasts, by releasing the Fitbit Air. Google is now a player in the same space at a fundamentally different cost model – $99 up front with no subscription required, as opposed to WHOOP’s model, where the cost of the device is incorporated into a subscription. WHOOP 5.0 pricing: $239 device + $239/year subscription which is staggering in comparison to Fitbit Air.

A matter of practicality for current Google users, the Fitbit Air’s device switching feature does not appear to be something you have to manage too. Android’s Google Health app takes care of the switch for you, so you can wear the Pixel Watch during the day as a smartwatch, and then swap to the lighter Fitbit Air at night for sleep tracking. The devices share data with a single Google Health app, which pulls in the information and allows the Coach to use the data from both wearables.

Over the years, Fitbit shifted towards smartwatches with many options for the consumers. The Fitbit Air feels like Google taking a step back, getting back to the notion that wearables don’t always have to mount a bright display. The question now is whether consumers are really going to return to invisible fitness tracking. However, at $99 (with 3 months of AI coaching), Google is putting the case for a trial. The results and consumer feedback will be very crucial.