CPIBenchmarksforHealthandFitnessAppsin2026

Key takeaways

Health and fitness app CPI splits hard by geo tier, not by a single average. LTV decides whether a CPI is good, held to a 1.5x LTV-to-CPI floor. January lifts installs and competition together. And creative range, not bid tuning, is the lever that moves cost.

What health and fitness app CPI looks like in 2026

The global average sits around $2.24 on iOS and $1.12 on Android in 2026 (Searchlab, citing Adjust and AppsFlyer), with Western Europe higher at $3.40 iOS and $1.85 Android. Health and fitness rarely lives at the average though. Across our client portfolio the working ranges are Tier 1 markets £2 to £7, Tier 2 £1 to £4, and Tier 3 £0.30 to £2, with Day-7 ROAS between 100 and 120%.

The geo tiers underneath the average

Tier 1 is the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the Nordics: high intent, high LTV, and the most expensive installs. Tier 2 covers most of Western and Southern Europe. Tier 3 is where installs are cheap and LTV is thinner. UK CPIs typically run 20 to 40% below the US across most genres (Amps33 2026), which is why a blended global CPI tells you almost nothing about a single campaign.

Why CPI is the wrong number to optimise on its own

A £5 install is cheap for a subscription app that earns it back and expensive for one that doesn't. Health and fitness leads all subscription categories on unit economics: install LTV of $1.21, median Year-1 LTV of $27.21, and $49.30 on a hard paywall (RevenueCat State of Subscription Apps 2025). The rule we hold is a minimum 1.5x LTV-to-CPI ratio (FoxData 2026). Below that, a low CPI is still a losing campaign.

How your paywall changes the CPI you can afford

Monetisation design decides what CPI you can pay. Hard paywalls convert roughly 5.5x better than freemium with about 2x the LTV, at the cost of a 1.7x higher refund rate (Adapty 2026), and install-to-trial runs 14.5% in North America against 11.2% globally. A harder paywall lets you bid into more expensive installs, which is why two fitness apps in the same auction can rationally pay very different CPIs.

The January spike, and how to plan for it

Health and fitness has the sharpest seasonality in the store. The New Year resolution wave lifts install demand and auction competition at the same time, so CPI and volume rise together rather than cancelling out. We plan creative refreshes and budget headroom for December into January specifically, and we treat a quiet summer CPI as a poor baseline for a January plan.

What actually drives the variance

Beneath the tier, four things move health and fitness CPI most: platform (iOS installs cost more but usually monetise better), the strength of the paywall offer, creative freshness, and audience breadth. Bid caps and audience micro-tweaks move it least. In our experience health and fitness creative fatigues in roughly three to four weeks at scale, faster than finance or SaaS, so a CPI that looks stable can be one refresh cycle away from climbing.

Setting a target you can defend

Set the target from LTV, not from a benchmark table. Work back from a 1.5x floor and your real Year-1 value, then hold CPI against that per tier rather than against a global average. Protect the number with creative range rather than bid mechanics, since retrieval rewards genuinely different angles, and time your biggest pushes to the seasonal window when intent is highest.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good CPI for a health and fitness app in 2026? There isn't one number. Across our portfolio Tier 1 markets run £2 to £7, Tier 2 £1 to £4, and Tier 3 £0.30 to £2. A good CPI is any that clears a 1.5x LTV-to-CPI ratio for that market.

Why is iOS CPI higher than Android for fitness apps? iOS installs cost more, around $2.24 against $1.12 globally per Searchlab, because iOS users tend to have higher LTV and subscribe at higher rates, so the auction prices them up. The gap is usually justified by monetisation, not a reason to move budget to Android.

Is a lower CPI always better? No. A cheap install from a Tier 3 market with thin LTV can lose money while a £6 Tier 1 install is profitable. Optimise the LTV-to-CPI ratio, not the raw cost.

How much does January change fitness app CPI? A lot. The resolution wave lifts install demand and auction competition together, so expect higher CPIs alongside higher volume, and plan creative and budget for it in advance.

What actually lowers health and fitness app CPI? Creative range that gives Meta's retrieval genuinely different angles to test, a stronger paywall offer that supports higher bids, and refreshing before fatigue sets in at the three to four week mark. Bid tricks and audience micro-tweaks rarely move it.