What Strava lets you export for free (and what needs a subscription)

Strava is free to record and share, and it is free to take your data out again. The subscription adds things on top. Here is the split as Strava describes it, because the two lists get mixed up in every forum thread about exporting.

Free: getting your data out

Everything on this list is on the website for a free account:

• Export GPX of any of your activities, from the more menu on the activity page.
• Export Original — the FIT (or other) file your device uploaded.
• TCX export, by adding `/export_tcx` to the activity's address.
• Bulk export — the archive of your whole account, requested from Settings → My Account → Download your account. Strava emails a link when it is ready.
• Exporting a public route as GPX or TCX from the route page's download arrow.
• Downloading a GPX from another athlete's public activity, stripped of the performance data.

None of these appear on Strava's list of subscription features, and the export options sit on the activity page regardless of plan. If a guide tells you export is premium-only, it is wrong or old.

Subscription: the things built on your data

Strava's subscription page lists, among others:

• Create routes — the route builder, on the website and in the app.
• Personal Heatmaps — the map of all the ground you have covered.
• Live Segments, segment leaderboards and the filtered leaderboards.
• Strava Beacon — live location sharing.
• Year in Sport — the yearly recap, which Strava's support page says requires an active subscription and at least three activities in the year.

Notice what the subscription list is: analysis, planning and presentation. Not access. Your recordings are yours on either plan.

The split, in one table

Source: Strava's own subscription-features and export support pages. Exporting is simply not on the subscription list.

What that means in practice

Two things follow for anyone who wants their routes on paper.

First, you do not need to subscribe to make a print. The GPX export is free, connecting the account to the configurator is free, and neither cares which plan you are on.

Second, the subscription features that people most want to keep — the heatmap and the yearly recap — are exactly the two that disappear when the subscription ends. The heatmap has no export at all, on any plan; the recap is an in-app experience that goes away each January. The activities behind both are exportable for free, which is why a heatmap made from your bulk export and a stats print made from your own numbers outlive the subscription that produced the originals.

A note on the route builder

Creating routes from scratch is a subscription feature. Exporting a route you already have is not. If you planned routes on a subscription and later let it lapse, the routes are still on My Routes, and the download arrow still works — export them while you remember.