Free AI workout coaching, and what it really costs

The short answer

• SayLift: per-exercise progression advice with the actual working weight, calculated from your own logged sets. $49.99 a year after a 3-day trial, which is the cheapest ongoing coaching here.
• Fitbod: generates the whole session, adapting to recovery and equipment. The most complete version of this, at $12.99–$15.99 a month.
• Alpha Progression: the most rigorous about progression schemes and deload timing. $12.99 a month or $79.99 a year.
• Dr. Muscle: auto-regulating programming, aimed at people who want the decisions removed entirely.
• Hevy's HevyGPT: generates a program through ChatGPT. Plan creation, not week-to-week coaching.
• Strong, JEFIT, Liftoff: charts and history. You are the coach.

Three things sold as "AI coaching"

Session generation. The app writes today's workout: which exercises, how many sets, what weight. Fitbod is the clearest example. Powerful if you do not want to think, but it means giving up the program you may already like.

Progression advice. You keep your own program, and the app decides what to do with the numbers: add weight, hold, back off, deload. This is the part most experienced lifters actually want, because programme design is the fun bit and arithmetic in a rest period is not.

Chatbot on top of your data. A text box that answers questions about your training. Impressive in a demo, rarely load-bearing, and the easiest thing to ship.

What each one gives you

The honest answer: no ongoing AI coach is free

Start with the disappointing part. Every app that reads your logged sets each week and tells you what to lift next charges for it. The free options are HevyGPT, which writes you a plan once in ChatGPT and imports it into Hevy's free tier, and the charts in Strong, Hevy or JEFIT, which show you the trend and leave the decision to you. Those are useful, and they are not coaching.

This site is run by the people who make SayLift, so the disclosure matters: SayLift used to give its coach away and moved to a subscription in August 2026. It is now $49.99 a year after a 3-day free trial, with no free tier. We think it is still the cheapest real answer here, at roughly $4.17 a month against $12.99 to $15.99 for the others, but it is no longer the free one.

What it does: SayLift does not try to write your program. It assumes you have one, and answers the question you actually have standing in front of a rack, which is what to put on the bar today.

For each exercise you are about to train, it returns exactly one instruction, computed from your own logged sets. Increase when you hit the top of the rep range. Hold and chase more reps when you did not. Decrease when reps are slipping, deload when performance has been flat or falling for weeks, restart slightly lighter after a long break from that movement, or calibrate when it has no history yet and needs a first session. Each comes with the working weight and, for holds, the rep count to beat.

Because it is derived from your history rather than generated, it also works with no internet, since the numbers are computed on the device. One subscription covers the coach, the Today page, the progress dashboard, voice logging and all 873 exercises.

The honest limits. It is arithmetic on your logged sets, not a coach. It does not know you slept badly, that your shoulder hurts, or that you are cutting. It cannot design a program, periodise a training block, or fix your technique. It is iPhone-only, and it is a subscription with no free tier, so a trial that lapses locks the app. If you want the app to decide *what* to train rather than *how heavy*, Fitbod does that properly and SayLift does not.

#2 Fitbod: if you want the whole decision removed

Fitbod is the most complete version of AI programming on the App Store, with 280,106 ratings at 4.81 stars. Tell it your equipment and it builds each session, tracking which muscles are recovered and rotating movements accordingly. For someone who does not want to design anything, it genuinely works.

It is also the most expensive here at $12.99–$15.99 a month or $79.99 a year, it is not really usable offline because sessions are generated server-side, and it takes the program out of your hands. If you like your split, that is a cost rather than a feature.

#3 Alpha Progression: the specialist

Alpha Progression is the most serious app here about progression theory: how to structure a mesocycle, when to deload, how to advance each lift. Its 4.92 rating comes from a smaller base of 2,089 ratings, and its users tend to be people who care about this precise problem.

If you want the reasoning as well as the number, it goes deeper than SayLift does. It costs $12.99 a month or $79.99 a year.

How to pick

• You want AI coaching and will not pay: HevyGPT on Hevy's free tier, accepting that it writes a plan once rather than coaching you weekly.
• You have a program and want the weights decided: SayLift, at $49.99 a year.
• You do not want to design anything: Fitbod.
• You want progression theory, deloads and mesocycles: Alpha Progression.
• You want a plan written from a description: HevyGPT.
• You are the coach and just want records: Strong or Hevy.
• You have an injury or a medical condition: none of these. Talk to a physiotherapist; every app here is doing arithmetic on numbers, not assessing you.