Strava's heatmaps turn millions of recorded activities into a picture of where people actually move. But there isn't just one heatmap—there are four, and each is built for a different moment: exploring somewhere new, checking what's active this week, planning around daylight, or looking back at your own history.
Here's what each one does, what's free versus subscriber-only, and how to make your view your own.
The Four Heatmaps
Heatmap | What it's for | Access |
|
Global | Discover popular routes and trails anywhere in the world, based on aggregated public activity over the past year (updated monthly). Best for exploring a new city or neighborhood. | Free — all users |
|
Weekly | See what's active right now. It draws on the last 7 days of community activity and refreshes daily, so it's your best read on current trail and road conditions after weather or seasonal changes. Calculated at a lower resolution so the data reaches you as quickly as possible. | Subscribers only |
|
Night | Find the most-traveled areas between sunset and sunrise—ideal for planning early-morning or evening routes with confidence. | Subscribers only |
|
Personal | A private map of everywhere you've ever logged a GPS activity. Great for reliving your history, tracking your own coverage, or making GPS art. Updated continuously. | Subscribers only |
|
The short version: reach for Global when you're somewhere unfamiliar, Weekly when recency matters, Night when you're mapping out low-light routes, and Personal when the story you care about is your own.
Customizing Your Heatmap
All customizations live under the Edit subheader. Options fall into three groups: how the heat looks, what it includes, and a few controls specific to your personal data.
Appearance
Color
Choose your heat color. On Light or Winter base maps, darker shades mean higher heat. On Dark, Satellite, or Hybrid base maps, that relationship flips—lighter means hotter. Switch to the "Contrast" color option to make low-heat areas stand out even more. Available on the Personal heatmap (Mobile) and the Global and Personal heatmaps (Web).
Opacity
Adjust how strongly the heat stands out against the base map. Available on the Global, Weekly, and Night heatmaps (Web only).
Filtering
Activity type
Narrow the map to a single sport, such as Run, Ride, Hike, or Ski. For Global, Weekly, and Night, use the Sport Picker on the Web. For Personal, use the Sport Picker on the Web or the Edit button on Mobile.
Date range
Set a window of time to filter which activities appear. Available for the Personal heatmap only, on both Mobile and Web.
Other Controls
These apply to your Personal heatmap, giving you control over exactly which of your activities show up.
Private activities
Choose whether activities set to "Only You" are included.
Commutes
Choose whether activities tagged as commutes are included.
Hidden areas
Toggle your privacy zones on or off. This setting appears as "Areas hidden to others" on Mobile and "Show Hidden Addresses" on Web. Privacy zones—like your home address or the start and end points of activities—are set under Settings > Privacy Controls > Map Visibility.