Get these two fitness behemoths working together for your workouts
If you’re a Fitbit or Google Pixel Watch owner who uses Strava, you’ll be pleased to know it’s easy to connect the two services and enjoy tons of benefits.
Google supports two-way integration with Strava, which means when you head out running with your Fitbit fitness tracker or smartwatch the session will appear within your Strava workouts. You can even check how many records you smashed on your weekly route.
Perhaps even better, your active minutes and calories will count into Fitbit’s daily goals if you go on a Strava workout, as well. If you’ve ever been frustrated by burning a thousand calories running but not getting the credit on your Fitbit, then linking your accounts is the answer.
Follow these steps for connecting Fitbit and Strava, and getting your fitness data working between the two.
- Complete guide to Strava – wearables, data and features
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Reasons to connect Fitbit/Google and Strava
If you connect the two services you’ll get the following benefits:
- Outdoor, GPS-tracked workouts recorded on Fitbit shown in Strava
- Strava recorded workouts, not tracked on Fitbit, shown in your Fitbit exercise list
- Steps, calories, and active minutes added from Strava to Fitbit
How to connect your Fitbit/Google account to Strava

1. Link accounts
While you can fiddle around in the companion smartphone or web app to do it, the easiest way is to head to the dedicated page and click the connect button.
2. Log into Strava
You’ll be prompted to log into your Strava account. Type in your details here, or choose to log in via Facebook and Google. Whichever way you log into your Strava, do that here.
3. Authorize
You’ll then need to authorize Strava to connect to your Google account. Once that’s done you’ll get a reminder of the types of data that will be shared.
You can only have GPS-tracked activities sync from Fitbit to Strava. Firstly, that means that walks and general daily activity won’t appear within Strava, nor will gym sessions, for example. It has to be a run or cycle.
Manually share historic Fitbit workouts to Strava
The historic activity also won’t be uploaded automatically. However, you can export runs from your Fitbit web dashboard and load them into Strava.

1. Log into Fitbit
Log into your Fitbit dashboard and click Activities from the list. You might need to trawl a little bit as every single walking workout is recorded here – which typifies a reason why Fitbit users might want to use Strava in the first place.
2. View a workout
In your Activity History, find a workout you want to export and click the View Details button, which reveals the full summary of your workout. That file must have GPS data to enable exporting.
3. Export
In the upper right corner are three dots. Click these and choose to Export as TCX file from the resulting menu.
4. Head to Strava
Head to the Strava dashboard, log in and then head to the plus button in the top right. Click and choose Upload Activity and then choose File from the menu on the left.
5. Load your TCX file
Click browse and upload the TCX file you just extracted from the Fitbit site – probably in your downloads folder. The run will then be loaded into your Strava stream.
These are the main ways in which the Strava and Fitbit apps work together. We’ll be exploring more ways to deal with and extract data in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back for those.