Frequently asked questions

Badgehero.io is a community database for Garmin Connect badges. It lists every known badge with its description, points, availability window and rarity, shows the public collections of the Garmin users taking part, and turns all of that into leaderboards, statistics and comparisons. It is a private project run by bensch777 ↗.

No. Badgehero.io is an independent community project, neither affiliated with nor endorsed by Garmin. The badge data comes from Garmin Connect, and all trademarks and images belong to Garmin. If a badge does not trigger in Garmin Connect or is credited incorrectly, only Garmin support can sort that out.

Nothing. There is no paywall, no advertising and no premium tier. Server costs are covered by voluntary donations – and if you donate, you get a supporter heart on your profile.

No, Badgehero.io has no user accounts. To make your collection show up you simply join the Garmin group – step by step instructions are under Connect your profile. Personal preferences such as your marked profile, watchlist and language stay in your browser only.

Eleven: English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian and Malay. By default the site follows your browser language, and you can pin one under Settings. Badge names and descriptions come translated from Garmin.

Two steps: join the Garmin Connect group ↗, then in Garmin Connect set Settings → Profile & Privacy → Achievements to "Everyone" or "My Connections and Groups". That is all – the illustrated walkthrough is under Connect your profile.

Almost always because of achievement visibility in Garmin Connect. Set to "Only me" we cannot read anything; set to "My Connections" you also have to add Badgehero.io as a connection. Check that your group membership is actually confirmed, and give the next sync up to three hours.

Automatically about every three hours. A newly joined profile usually appears within a few minutes of joining the group. Independently of that, the badge data itself – new badges, changed windows, points – is kept in sync with Garmin continuously.

That you are in the group, but your badges could not be read. The cause is virtually always a too restrictive visibility setting in Garmin Connect. Change it and the next sync picks your collection up on its own – nothing else to do.

Every profile page has that button. It stores the profile in your browser only – no login, and we never learn about it. After that the leaderboard highlights your position, missing badges can be marked in the grid, comparing yourself to someone else is one click, the calendar subscription can filter down to badges you are missing, and a donation finds your profile automatically. On a new device you mark the profile again.

Leave the Garmin group – at the next sync your profile stops updating and is removed from the lists. Alternatively it is enough to restrict achievement visibility in Garmin Connect again. If you want it gone faster, drop a note on Discord or via the imprint.

Awards that Garmin Connect hands out automatically: for athletic feats such as a certain distance or amount of climbing, for challenges like the monthly step and running events, and occasionally for social actions. Every badge is worth points and stays in your collection for good.

The points come from Garmin and roughly track the effort involved – a month-long challenge is worth more than a small starter task. On Badgehero.io you see them on every badge page and totalled up on profiles. The leaderboard itself ranks by number of badges collected.

As the share of collectors tracked on Badgehero.io who do not own a badge. The fewer people have it, the rarer it is – from "Common" up to "Legendary". Note that this is based on the profiles tracked here, not on all Garmin users worldwide. The most extreme cases are listed as "Unicorns" in the statistics.

Four: unlimited badges without an end date that you can earn any time; time-limited badges with a fixed window; yearly badges that come back every year; and premium badges that require a Garmin Connect+ subscription. The home page lets you filter by exactly these types.

Badges only accounts with a Garmin Connect+ subscription can earn. They are marked with a star everywhere, and the "Hide premium" filter takes them out of the list if you do not have a subscription.

Because they are tied to a country: Garmin only shows them to accounts whose profile country matches. The badge page then carries a note listing every country affected, and country badges gives each country its own overview.

From Garmin data, as soon as a window is stored there. Garmin often publishes new badges at very short notice, so this list is a projection rather than a guarantee. If you want to know first: new badges are reported immediately on Discord ↗.

Every badge – as a grid or as a compact list. You can search by name, sort by newest, oldest or alphabetically, and filter by availability: available now, upcoming, time-limited or unlimited. On top of that come filters for premium, month and end date. Badges expiring today sit right at the top.

Use the search box in the header – it searches badges and profiles at the same time and shows matches as you type. You can also browse profiles via the leaderboard.

Themed collection pages under badge categories: running, cycling, steps, health and more, plus the always-available and the rarest badges. Every category carries the same availability filter as the home page – handy when you want to know what is earnable today in your sport.

The description in your language, points, rarity with its percentage, the availability window, any country restrictions and the list of collectors. From there you can put the badge on your watchlist or generate a share image.

A profile's full collection: badge count, premium badges, leaderboard rank and badges grouped by month. Plus links to the Garmin profile, to a comparison with another collection and to a share image.

The leaderboard ranks every tracked profile by number of badges collected and is searchable. If you marked your profile in the browser, your own position is highlighted – even when it falls outside the page you are looking at.

Yes, under Compare. Pick two profiles and see which badges both of you have and what the other one is still missing. The "claimable now" filter narrows that down to badges still running – the ones where catching up is actually possible. From any profile page one click takes you into a comparison with your own.

The statistics show the most collected and the rarest badges, the "unicorns", freshly released badges, complete badge series along with the people who finished them, and charts of new badges and points per month. The site traffic of Badgehero.io itself is public too.

Country badges lists every country that has exclusive Garmin badges. Each country gets its own page with all of the badges available there – useful when you spot a badge that never appears for you.

Yes. The badge calendar can be subscribed to in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook; every new time-limited badge then lands there automatically. Optionally add your profile and only badges you are actually missing get in – yearly and Connect+ badges can be excluded separately.

With the star on any badge card. Saved badges show up as "Your favorites" and can be cleared again under Settings. On top of that you can switch on "Highlight missing badges" there: badges your marked profile does not have yet then get a coloured border everywhere.

Under Settings you manage your marked profile, turn the highlighting of missing badges on or off, clear the watchlist and pin a language. All of it stays in your browser and is never sent to us.

A few Garmin badges require other people to mark your trail review as helpful or to like your photos. Under Trails Reviews you share your Garmin Trails link and the community helps out – and you return the favour. Three links per day are allowed, and entries disappear by themselves after 30 days.

The blog has guides and news around Garmin – for instance a monthly preview of the badges coming up. You can subscribe via RSS feed. What changed on the site itself is listed in the changelog.

Yes. The share button on your profile generates an image of your badges – for the current or the previous month – ready to post on social media. Individual badges have such a share image too.

Yes, a public read-only JSON API without authentication – /api/badges.php returns every badge earnable today, optionally filtered to a Garmin profile so badges you already own drop out. It is meant for Connect IQ and other third-party apps; if you need details or another field, just ask on Discord ↗. For AI assistants there is also an llms.txt.

Only what your Garmin profile shows publicly while you are in the group: display name, profile picture, profile ID and your badges with the date you earned them. No activities, no health or training data, no email address and no password. The details are in the privacy policy.

There are no advertising cookies and no external analytics tool. We count page views ourselves, but in a way where the identifier behind them changes every day – across several days you are not recognisable through it. What comes out of that is public under traffic. A cookie is only set when you pin a language; every other preference stays in your browser.

Leave the Garmin group – your profile is removed at the next sync. Local preferences are cleared under Settings by removing the profile mark and emptying the watchlist. If you need it done right away, contact us via the imprint or on Discord.

The busiest place is the Discord server ↗ – new badges get reported there first. Besides that there is a WhatsApp channel ↗, a Facebook group ↗ and of course the Garmin Connect group ↗ itself.

With a donation via PayPal, one-time or monthly. It covers the server bills – and if your profile is marked or you paste your profile link, a ❤️ supporter heart appears next to your name automatically, usually within a minute. Recommending the site to others helps too, and is free.

Best on Discord ↗. For badges shown incorrectly or missing entirely, the badge name plus link helps; for display glitches a screenshot with your device and browser. What came of it can be followed in the changelog.