How challenges work, what counts as a workout, when your card gets charged, and how to turn consistency into a gift card or a donation — all in one place.
Workout Pledge is a fitness accountability app. You set a weekly goal — say, four workout days a week — and put a small amount of money on the line for each missed day. Apple Health verifies that you actually moved, and at the end of each week the app settles up: hit your goal and you earn points, miss it and your pledge is forfeited.
It's a commitment device, not a workout plan. You bring the activity; we bring the accountability.
Decades of behavioral research (Kahneman & Tversky's Prospect Theory) show that people are about twice as motivated to avoid losing something as they are to gain something of equal value. A $10 pledge you'd lose by skipping feels more urgent than a $10 reward you might earn.
Workout Pledge channels that instinct into a habit you actually keep — the stake is small, but the nudge is real.
Most fitness apps reward you with badges, streaks, and pep talks. Workout Pledge gives you a real consequence for skipping and a real reward for showing up. No workout plan to follow, no coach yelling in your ear, no calorie tracking — just clean accountability and the freedom to move however you want to move.
Anyone 18 or older with an iPhone running iOS 17 or newer who lives in the United States, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. Pledges are charged in your local currency — USD, CAD, AUD, or NZD — and gift cards are issued in the same currency.
We plan to expand to additional countries over time.
An iPhone is all you need. Workout Pledge reads from Apple Health, so anything that writes to it counts: workouts logged on an Apple Watch, walks tracked by your iPhone, sessions from a Peloton, a connected treadmill, or third-party apps like Strava and Nike Run Club.
An Apple Watch makes things smoother — workouts get logged automatically — but it's not required. An Android version is on the way — join the Android waitlist to be notified when it lands on Google Play.
Workout Pledge is live now on the iOS App Store — download it and set up your first pledge today. An Android version is in the works; join the Android waitlist and we'll email you the moment it launches on Google Play.
Challenges run in one-week cycles, Monday through Sunday, and you can pledge for as many weeks as you'd like in a row. Each week settles independently, so a tough week doesn't drag down a good one.
Your week is anchored to your local timezone at the time you create the pledge, so traveling won't accidentally cut a day short.
You choose. Pick anywhere from 1 to 7 days a week based on what's realistic for your life. The app doesn't care which specific days you work out — just that you hit your target count by Sunday night.
Most people start with 3 or 4 days. You can always raise it later once you've proved to yourself that you'll show up.
Anything Apple Health recognizes as a workout. That includes — but isn't limited to — running, walking, hiking, cycling, swimming, strength training, yoga, Pilates, dance, pickleball, tennis, rowing, HIIT, and elliptical sessions.
If your watch or phone tracks it (or you log it in a connected app), it counts. The goal is to make movement easy to earn credit for, not to force you into a specific routine.
A day counts as "completed" once you log at least 30 minutes of movement. Good news: it doesn't have to be in one go. A 15-minute morning walk plus a 20-minute evening yoga session adds up to 35 minutes — that's a qualifying day.
Different workout types stack too, so a swim and a strength session on the same day both count toward the same daily threshold.
Yes. You can pause a pledge if you're traveling, recovering from an injury, or just need a breather, and resume whenever you're ready. You can also cancel at any time from inside the app.
Important nuance: the current week you're already in still settles normally — pausing or cancelling stops future weeks, not the one already in progress. If you've missed days in the current week, those still count against you.
You set the amount. The minimum pledge is $1 per missed day and the maximum is $100 per missed day, in your local currency (USD, CAD, AUD, or NZD depending on your country). So if you pledge $5 a day on a four-day-a-week goal and miss two days, you'd forfeit $10 for that week.
We recommend starting small — enough that missing actually stings, but not enough to derail your finances if a hard week happens.
You add a card to your account up front (handled securely by Stripe — we never see your card number), but your card is only charged at the end of a week, and only for days you missed. If you hit your weekly goal, nothing is charged. Complete every week and you'll never see a charge.
Forfeited pledges go into a shared rewards pool. At the end of the week, half of that pool is distributed as points to the people who did hit their goals, and the other half covers payment processing and keeps the platform running.
In other words: your missed day funds someone else's gift card or charitable donation. It's a small extra nudge to be on the winning side of the pool.
No subscription, no sign-up fee, no monthly cost. The only money you'll ever spend is the pledge you set — and only on days you actually miss. The app is otherwise free to use.
You earn points by completing your weekly goal. At the end of each week, the forfeit pool from people who missed days is distributed proportionally to everyone who finished — the more days you pledged and completed, the bigger your share.
Points are valued at 1 point = 1 cent, so 1,000 points equals $10. You can see your balance any time on your profile.
You've got two options:
We're adding more gift card brands and donation partners over time. There is no cash-out or PayPal option — by design, the rewards are meant to be either a small treat or a meaningful contribution.
The moment you tap "redeem," your points are deducted and the request enters our queue. Gift cards typically arrive by email within 1–3 business days, and charitable donations are batched and sent to the nonprofit on a regular schedule.
You'll get a confirmation in the app when your redemption ships. Points never expire while your account is active, so there's no rush — stack them for a bigger reward if you'd prefer.
Yes — and it's one of the best parts. You can add friends in the app, see each other's weekly progress, send friendly nudges (we call them pokes) when someone's been quiet, and get real-time notifications when a friend finishes a workout.
Each person sets their own pledge and goal, so you don't have to be on the same plan to push each other forward. Shared accountability without the awkward group-chat guilt.
Every workout comes through Apple Health, and every submission is signed by your device using Apple's App Attest framework — the same technology banks use to make sure their app is talking to a real iPhone, not a script on a laptop. We also screen for telltale signs of faked data (impossible durations, missing heart rate, etc.) and flag them for review.
The short version: the system is built so everyone plays by the same rules, and the points pool stays fair for the people putting in the real work.
If we missed yours, send it our way — we read every message and we'll answer fast.
Email usReady to dive in? Download on iOS → · Join the Android waitlist →