How to use the Garmin Personal API with Claude and ChatGPT (2026)
6 min read · Updated 27 Oct 2026On 21 October 2026 Garmin opened a free Personal API: a key that lets you read your own Garmin Connect data from your own code. It’s a real step forward for runners who tinker. Here’s what it reads, how to set it up with Claude or ChatGPT, and where it stops.
What the Personal API gives you
- Activities: summaries as JSON, and the original .FIT files with the full second-by-second record.
- Health: daily summaries, sleep, HRV, stress, Body Battery and more, as JSON.
- Women’s health data, as JSON.
It’s free, self-serve and covers your own account only. Garmin hasn’t published rate limits or exactly how far back each kind of data goes, so expect to find those out as you use it.
What it can’t do
- It’s read-only. Nothing goes back to Garmin: no structured workouts, no training plans, nothing on your watch. That needs Garmin’s business tiers.
- It’s for you alone. The key reads one account, yours, and is meant for tools you run yourself.
- It doesn’t plug into ChatGPT or Claude by itself. You need an MCP server in between (below).
- Keys expire. You pick 30, 90 or 180 days or a year, then make a new one.
Get a key
- Sign in to Garmin Connect on the web and open Settings.
- Choose Personal API Key, near the bottom of the list.
- Press Create Key, accept the terms, and pick how long it lasts.
- Copy the key straight away. Garmin shows it once; keep it somewhere safe, like a password.
The key doesn’t fetch data itself. Your code trades it for an access token at Garmin’s token endpoint (sent as Authorization: ApiKey <your key>), then calls the data endpoints with Authorization: Bearer <token>. Tokens last 24 hours, or until the key expires, and there’s no refresh token: you ask for a new one with the key. Garmin publishes the endpoints in its Personal API documentation and an official Python client.
Use it with Claude
Claude reads other services through MCP servers. Several open-source ones already wrap the Personal API, for example kruku89/garmin-personal-mcp, Shape-Calendar/garmin-personal-mcp and zigmund/garmin-papi-mcp. The usual steps:
- Install Claude Desktop on your computer.
- Install the MCP server you picked, following its README (most need Python or Node).
- Add it to Claude Desktop’s config file with your key as a setting, then restart Claude.
- Ask Claude about last night’s sleep or this week’s runs.
It runs on your computer, so it’s there when Claude Desktop is, not on your phone.
Use it with ChatGPT
ChatGPT only connects to MCP servers on the internet, not ones on your computer. To use your key with ChatGPT you’d host one of those servers yourself, on a small cloud server with a public HTTPS address and your key kept private, then add it under Plugins as a custom MCP server. It works if you’re comfortable running a server; for most people it’s the point where the Personal API stops being the easy route.
The Personal API or a hosted connector
If you want to build with your own data, the Personal API is the right tool. If you want your training in the chat, and plans on your watch, a hosted connector such as Daash does that without a key:
| Personal API + your own MCP server | Daash | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Create a key, install and configure a server | Add one address, sign in to Garmin |
| Claude | Claude Desktop on your computer | Claude anywhere, phone included, free Claude too |
| ChatGPT | Only if you host the server | Yes |
| Workouts and plans on your watch | No, read-only | Yes |
| Upkeep | Renew the key; update the server | None |
| Cost | Free (plus hosting, for ChatGPT) | Free |
Connect Garmin to ChatGPT or Claude →
Questions
Is the Garmin Personal API free?
Yes. Any Garmin Connect user can create a Personal API key in Garmin Connect's settings, with no application or approval. It covers your own account only.
Can the Personal API send workouts to my watch?
No. It is read-only: activities, health data and women's health data. Writing workouts or training plans to the Garmin calendar is part of Garmin's business tiers, not the Personal one.
Can I use it with ChatGPT or Claude?
Yes, through an MCP server you run yourself. Claude Desktop can start one on your computer. ChatGPT only connects to servers on the internet, so you would have to host one. Neither app reads the API on its own.
Should I paste my Personal API key into a website?
No. Treat it like a password. Reports of Garmin's terms say the key is for tools you run for your own use, not for a hosted service that collects other people's keys.
Does Daash use the Personal API?
No. Daash is a hosted connector that signs you in either on Garmin's own page, through Garmin's developer programme, or with your Garmin email and password. You never handle a key or a token.
Sources: Garmin’s Personal API FAQ, the5krunner, Tredict. Checked 27 October 2026.