Practical guide · checked on 3 November 2026
Use ChatGPT as your running coach
Ask about last month, get this week adjusted, and see the sessions land on your Garmin, COROS or Suunto. ChatGPT reads your real training through OpenAthlete's connector, then plans straight into your calendar.
- Free OpenAthlete account
- Garmin, COROS, Suunto, Polar
- Five steps to set up
Check your plan first: ChatGPT limits custom MCP servers by plan, and only some plans allow write actions.
How did October go? Then lighten this week, my legs are heavy.
- get_athlete_contextzones, form, last 4 weeks
- get_calendar1–31 October
- get_training_loadform −18
- update_sessionThu → 40' easy
October: 17 runs, 182 km, two Wednesday sessions skipped. Your form is at −18 after Sunday's 28 km, so I moved Thursday's 5 × 4' at threshold to Saturday and made Thursday 40' easy. Both are updated in your calendar and on their way to your watch.
Why real data
Without your data, a chatbot makes up your numbers
Ask a plain chatbot how your training is going and it guesses: a weekly volume you never ran, zones from a formula, a taper for a race it knows nothing about. With the connector, ChatGPT reads what your watch recorded and what sits in your calendar before it answers.
Without your data
Is my form right for Saturday's half marathon?
For a runner doing around 40 km a week, a 3 to 4 day taper is usually enough. You should be fine.
40 km a week? It made that up.
With OpenAthlete connected
Is my form right for Saturday's half marathon?
get_training_loadget_calendar
You ran 58 km last week and your form is at −9. With what is planned until Saturday it climbs to +4. If your legs feel heavy on Thursday, drop the strides and keep the 30' easy.
What it should do
- Read your calendar, load and recent activities before suggesting anything.
- Tell you what it is about to change, then make the changes in one go.
- Set targets from your own zones, paces, or % of VMA, FTP or max heart rate.
- Rework the plan when life gets in the way: a cold, a work trip, a bad week.
What it shouldn't do
- Decide for you. It suggests; you, or your coach, decide.
- Diagnose pain or illness. A calf that stays tight is a job for a physio or a doctor.
- Rewrite your history. Completed sessions and recorded activities are read-only: OpenAthlete does not let any agent change them.
- Spare you a look. Models make mistakes: check the week in your calendar before you run it.
Setup
Five steps, about ten minutes
You need an OpenAthlete account, a connected watch and ChatGPT. Menu names below are the English ones as of 3 November 2026: they may differ in your language or after an update.
Before you start
Which ChatGPT plans work
- Business, Enterprise and Edu: full support, write actions included (in beta, on the web).
- Pro: read only when we checked. ChatGPT can review your training but can't plan or move sessions.
- Free and Plus: custom MCP servers were not offered when we checked.
OpenAI changes these rules often. Your Plugins page has the final word.
No write access on your plan? Claude's free plan can plan sessions into your calendar.
Read the Claude guide- 1
Step 1
Create a free OpenAthlete account
Sign up with your email. No card, no trial that runs out: the connector and all its tools are on the free plan.
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Step 2
Connect your watch
In Settings › Connectors, connect Garmin, COROS, Suunto or Polar. What comes in on the first connection: COROS brings your whole history (over a few days), Garmin and Suunto the last 30 days, Polar starts from the day you connect. You can also upload FIT, GPX or TCX files.
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Step 3
Add OpenAthlete as a custom MCP server
On chatgpt.com, open Plugins, select the + button, then Add custom MCP server. Name it OpenAthlete, paste the server address under Connection and choose OAuth for authentication. Accept the warning, select Create as a plugin, then install it from your personal plugins.
Business, Enterprise and Edu: only admins and owners, or roles an admin allows, can create the plugin for the workspace. OpenAI has renamed this menu several times (connectors, apps, plugins): if yours looks different, look for “custom MCP server” in the settings.
Server addresshttps://api.openathlete.org/mcpSelf-hosted instance: https://<your domain>/api/mcp
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Step 4
Allow access in OpenAthlete
ChatGPT sends you to an OpenAthlete page. Sign in if needed, read what it asks for (read, and write so it can plan), then choose Allow. ChatGPT never sees your password, and you can revoke the access at any time in Settings › AI agents.
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Step 5
Send your first prompt
Start a new chat, type @ and pick OpenAthlete, then ask about your own training. By default ChatGPT asks you to confirm every write action; you can remember your choice for the rest of the conversation.
“Look at my last 4 weeks and tell me what you would change in next week's plan. Don't change anything yet.”
“Don't change anything yet” is a good habit for a first run: you see how it reasons before it touches your calendar.
Prompt library
Prompts to copy, grouped by what you want
Change the dates, distances and names, and write in your own language. Under each prompt: the OpenAthlete tools ChatGPT usually calls to answer it.
Review a block
“Review my last 4 weeks against the plan. What did I skip, and did my form move the way it should?”
get_athlete_contextget_calendarget_training_load“Look at my last three long runs lap by lap. Did my pace or heart rate fade in the second half?”
get_activitiesget_activity
Plan the next 4 weeks for a race
“My half marathon is on 7 December. Plan the next 4 weeks: 4 runs a week, intervals on Tuesday, long run on Sunday, targets from my zones. Show me the plan before you add it.”
get_athlete_contextget_training_volumeget_training_loadplan_sessions“I ran a 30-minute test this morning at 4:12/km. Update my threshold pace, then rework next week's quality sessions with it.”
update_training_zoneget_calendarupdate_session
Adapt to illness or travel
“I've had a cold since Monday. Block out this week and ease me back in next week.”
create_periodget_calendarupdate_session“I'm in Lisbon for work from the 12th to the 15th, hotel treadmill only. Move what doesn't fit and turn the hill session into a treadmill session.”
create_periodget_calendarmove_sessionsupdate_session
Compare with last year
Needs history: COROS imports all of it, Garmin and Suunto the last 30 days. Upload older FIT files to fill the gap.
“Compare my volume and long runs over the last 12 weeks with the same 12 weeks last year.”
get_training_volumeget_activities“What are my best efforts at 5 km, 10 km and half marathon, and which ones are more than a year old?”
get_records
Coach several athletes
For coaches: the agent reaches the athletes you coach, with the same rights as in the app.
“Which of my athletes missed more than two sessions this week? One line each, with their form.”
list_athletesget_calendarget_training_load“For Léa and Tom, copy this Tuesday's 6 × 800 m to next Tuesday and move Sunday's long run to Saturday.”
list_athletescopy_sessionsmove_sessions
What it costs
You don't need Supporter for this
The connector works on a free OpenAthlete account, with all 23 tools. Supporter (€5 a month or €50 a year) adds two things that have nothing to do with ChatGPT: AI inside OpenAthlete on our keys, and unlimited coached athletes instead of 5. You pay for ChatGPT with OpenAI, not with us.
See pricing| On openathlete.org | Free | Supporter |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT connector, all 23 tools | ||
| AI inside OpenAthlete | With your own key | On our keys, monthly allowance |
| Coached athletes | 5 | Unlimited |
Self-hosted: everything, no limits, no plan.
Limits and privacy
What ChatGPT sees, and how to cut it off
What goes to OpenAI
Only what the tools return in your conversation: the weeks of calendar it asked for, your zones, the activities it opened. Never your password or your watch connections. Whether OpenAI keeps it or trains on it depends on your ChatGPT plan and privacy settings, not on OpenAthlete.
Revoke in one click
In OpenAthlete, Settings › AI agents › Revoke: access stops at the next request. On ChatGPT's side, remove the plugin from your Plugins page.
Your history stays yours
Done sessions and recorded activities can't be changed or deleted through the connector. Agents can't touch your password, your connected devices or your subscription.
Watches it plans for
Planned workouts reach Garmin, COROS and Suunto watches. Polar brings your activities in, but workouts don't go back to it. Units are metric only.
Self-host it
Run OpenAthlete on your own server and point ChatGPT at https://<your domain>/api/mcp. Your training stays on your server; what the tools return in a chat still goes to OpenAI.
Self-hosting guideKeep going
Related guides
Questions
On 3 November 2026, OpenAI offered full custom MCP servers, write actions included, on Business, Enterprise and Edu (in beta, on the web). Pro could connect them read-only. Free and Plus could not. These rules change often: your Plugins page has the final word.
No. The MCP server and its 23 tools work on a free account. Supporter only adds AI inside OpenAthlete on our keys and unlimited coached athletes.
OpenAthlete marks its read tools as read-only, so ChatGPT treats everything else (planning, moving, deleting) as a write action and asks first. You can remember your choice for a tool until the end of the conversation.
No. With write access it can move, change or delete planned sessions, but done sessions and recorded activities are out of reach. Anything it planned can be edited in your calendar.
On Garmin, COROS and Suunto, yes, provided your ChatGPT plan allows write actions. Polar only sends activities in.
OpenAI documents the setup and custom MCP servers on the web, and we have not been able to confirm mobile support. Set it up on chatgpt.com in a browser.
Use the same connector from another client. Claude's free plan allows one custom connector with read and write, and Cursor, VS Code or your own agent work with a personal token from Settings › AI agents.
Give ChatGPT your real training
Create a free account, connect your watch, add the connector. Your first prompt is ten minutes away.
Free forever. No credit card.