Withings now charges new accounts up to $99.99 a year to sync with Apple HealthWithings now charges new accounts up to $99.99 a year to sync with Apple Health

Withings has made automatic syncing to Apple Health part of its paid Withings+ subscription for anyone who creates a new account.

The change applies to accounts opened on or after 13 October 2026, according to a Withings staff reply in the company's support community reported by MacRumors on 15 October. It covers every third-party destination the Withings app sends measurements to, not only Apple's: iPhoneSoft names Google's Health Connect and Strava as well. Accounts created on or before 12 October keep automatic syncing at no charge, and the reply was blunt about it: "If you already have a Withings account, nothing changes."

The rule follows the account, not the hardware. MacRumors notes that an existing customer who buys a new Withings scale, watch or blood pressure monitor and adds it to their old account is not affected.

How much is Withings+?

The figure depends on where you look. MacRumors reports $99.50 a year in the US, which is the price on Withings' own website. The Withings app's App Store listing in the US, which we checked on 16 October, shows the in-app subscription at $99.99 a year or $9.99 a month. iPhoneSoft gives 99.99 euros a year or 9.99 euros a month in France.

A trial is reported but not consistently: Tech Between the Lines says the in-app paywall offers 14 days, and other coverage mentions a free month with a new device. Withings says sync works during the trial, and if a subscription lapses, syncing pauses rather than deleting anything already sent.

Where the change first appeared

The first report came from Gadgets & Wearables on 13 October, which quoted Withings' developer API plan wording that Withings+ becomes required on its free Start for Free plan from 12 October 2026, including for third-party apps already live. Its Enterprise plan lifts the requirement for specific uses. Withings also says users cannot avoid the charge by routing data through Apple Health or Health Connect to reach another app. That developer wording says 12 October; the support reply and MacRumors say accounts created on or after 13 October. Anyone who set up an account on the 12th should check the app rather than assume.

According to Gadgets & Wearables, Withings says subscription revenue funds clinical validation, regulatory work and the infrastructure behind its health platform. iPhoneSoft reports the company presenting it as a privacy measure. Withings+ already included cardiologist review of ECG readings and AI health features, per the App Store listing.

What can new Withings owners still do for free?

Per Withings' support reply, as quoted by Tech Between the Lines, every user can still export their full history as CSV or PDF, import data from other apps and share reports with a doctor. Data from Apple Health also keeps flowing into the Withings app without a subscription. What a new account cannot do for free is send its readings outward automatically.

Our take

From where we sit as people who build iOS apps, the cost argument does not hold up for Apple Health. Writing a weight reading to HealthKit is a local call the Withings app makes on the iPhone, with the user's permission, once it already holds the measurement for its own display. No new server or AI processing is involved in that last step. Health Connect works the same way on Android. Withings is charging for the absence of a restriction, not for a service.

The asymmetry is what stands out. Importing from Apple Health stays free, exporting to it does not, so Withings keeps every input to its own app and charges to let readings leave. For someone who chose a Withings scale because it fills the weight gap in Apple Health, which Apple has never filled with hardware of its own, that is the purchase reason being sold back to them every year, for roughly what a basic smart scale costs. Apple's own Health app is meanwhile being rebuilt and was pulled from the iOS 27.2 beta, so the hub this data feeds is itself in flux.

It is also a pattern worth watching. Health data has become a revenue line for more than one company, Apple included, which has been testing lab test ordering through Quest Diagnostics inside the redesigned Health app. The difference is that Apple is selling something new, while Withings is charging for what its devices did for free until this week.

Two things are still unknown. Withings has not said whether existing accounts will stay free indefinitely, and "nothing changes" is a statement about today, not a promise. Nor is it clear whether Apple's App Review has a view on a HealthKit write sitting behind a subscription; nothing in its rules we know of forbids it. For new buyers, the sensible move as APPDOOK sees it is to count Withings+ into the price of the scale before checkout, or to keep an old account alive if you have one, since the free sync goes with the account and not the device.