The Samsung Galaxy Ring might come with a subscription

The Samsung Galaxy Ring might end up costing around $300 to $350. As far as smart rings go, that’s par for the course. It might also come with a monthly subscription of $10 or less. That, unfortunately, is also increasingly common for wearable tech.

None of this is official yet. The rumored prices were posted by leaker Yogesh Brar on X and have been making the rounds in the hours since. But say it were true, it mostly shows that Samsung is looking to follow market trends rather than buck them.

Right now, the Oura Ring Gen 3 is the smart ring that most people have heard of. That starts at $299, with the fully round Horizon version starting at $349. And while you can buy the ring as a standalone device, the vast majority of its features are paywalled with a $5.99 monthly or $69.99 yearly subscription.

Oura, for instance, didn’t launch with a subscription. That was only introduced with the Gen 3 model, albeit to significant customer backlash. When I spoke with the company about why it had decided to introduce a subscription, I was told that it was, in part, to fund the company’s ongoing scientific research and one-time hardware sales weren’t cutting it.

Samsung has yet to introduce a wearable health subscription, but that doesn’t mean its competitors haven’t. Google has Fitbit Premium for its Pixel Watch lineup, which costs $9.99 monthly. Apple also has its Fitness Plus service, also $9.99 monthly, which gives access to prerecorded exercise classes that integrate with your Apple Watch or iPhone. On the more niche side of the spectrum, the Whoop 4.0 doesn’t charge for hardware. You just sign up for a $30 monthly subscription.

Given that context, it’s unsurprising to see price rumors in this range. The only thing that’d make me do a double take is the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 starts at the same price but would be able to do a lot more. For some folks, that’s always been the primary drawback with smart rings. You’re paying a premium to technically get less.

What’ll be more interesting to see is what sort of bundling or promotional deals Samsung offers whenever the Galaxy Ring launches later this year. Unlike its smart ring rivals, Samsung already has an ecosystem of wearable gadgets. It can afford to bundle a smartwatch and a smart ring to entice existing users to upgrade. We also have no clue yet as to what that subscription would entail or whether a free tier would be enough for most smartwatch users who primarily see a smart ring as a means to more comfortably track sleep.

Wearable subscriptions are on the rise, even if customers largely hate them. The bigger question is if Samsung can offer enough, either through bundles or features, to make it worth it.