Quick Answer: Yes. Your Peloton Tread keeps working without the All-Access Membership — the belt runs, the incline works, and "Just Run" mode shows your live speed, incline, and distance. What you lose is the class library, the leaderboard, and your saved history. If you want the screen to do more than that, a one-time hardware unlock turns it into a normal Android display that runs Netflix, YouTube, and running apps without the $49.99/month fee.
Table of Contents
- What You Lose and Keep When You Cancel
- Just Run Mode: What You Get for Free
- The Manual Route: Sideloading
- The Full Unlock: FitSwitch
- Running Apps and Your Watch
- Cost Comparison
- Does This Work on the Tread+?
- Frequently Asked Questions
What You Lose and Keep When You Cancel
The Peloton All-Access Membership is $49.99/month — $599.88 a year. Here is exactly what changes when it stops.
What You Lose
- Live and on-demand running, walking, and bootcamp classes
- The leaderboard and all social features
- Saved workout history and personal records
- Programs, challenges, and structured plans
- Instructor-led scenic runs
- Heart rate zone training and performance trends
What You Keep
- Just Run mode — open running with live metrics on screen
- The hardware — belt, motor, incline, and sensors all work normally
- Live metrics — speed, incline, distance, elapsed time, and pace
- Bluetooth heart rate — pair any strap and see your heart rate
- The screen itself — a 23.8" (Tread) or 32" (Tread+) touchscreen
Cancelling does not disable your treadmill. It is a software paywall, not a hardware lock. The machine underneath is a genuinely good treadmill with a slat belt or belt deck, a strong motor, and accurate sensors — none of that is subscription-gated.
Just Run Mode: What You Get for Free
"Just Run" is Peloton's free mode. Start it from the home screen and you get:
- Current speed and incline
- Distance and elapsed time
- Pace, calculated live
- Heart rate, if you have a strap paired
- Manual control of speed and incline through the knobs or the screen
That is a complete, usable treadmill. If you are self-motivated and happy running to your own music or a podcast on your phone, Just Run genuinely covers it, and it costs nothing.
The limitation is the screen. In Just Run, that large, high-quality display shows a metrics readout and nothing else. You cannot open Netflix on it, you cannot put a virtual route on it, and you cannot stream anything to it. For a long zone-2 run, you end up propping a phone or tablet in front of a screen you already paid for.
That is the gap worth closing.
The Manual Route: Sideloading
The Tread runs Android underneath. With developer access and a computer, you can install Android apps onto it yourself — the same approach covered in our guide to sideloading apps on a Peloton.
What it involves: enabling developer mode, connecting over USB or ADB, and pushing APK files to the device manually. The community project OpenPelo on GitHub automates parts of this and is a reasonable free starting point. We wrote an honest comparison of OpenPelo and FitSwitch if you want to weigh them directly.
Where it falls short:
- Peloton software updates can remove sideloaded apps, and you redo the work
- No metrics overlay — you get the app, but your speed and incline disappear behind it
- No broadcasting, so your watch and running apps still cannot see the Tread
- App compatibility is hit and miss, and some apps refuse to run at all
- It is genuinely possible to put the machine into a bad state if you push the wrong thing
Sideloading solves "I want Netflix on the screen." It does not solve "I want my Tread to behave like a modern connected treadmill."
The Full Unlock: FitSwitch
FitSwitch is a small hardware adapter that plugs into the Tread's USB port. It is $139.99 once, with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and no subscription of its own.
What It Does
- Runs any app on the Tread screen — Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Prime Video, Hulu, Spotify, a web browser, and 50+ more
- Keeps your metrics visible — a live overlay showing speed, incline, pace, and heart rate on top of whatever you are watching
- Broadcasts your run — over standard Bluetooth and ANT+ profiles, so watches and apps can read it
- Speaks FTMS as a treadmill — so compatible running apps can read speed and incline, and drive them during a structured workout
It detects that it is on a Tread and switches automatically from bike metrics to running metrics. There is nothing to configure.
Crucially, none of this requires a Peloton membership, developer mode, a computer, or any permanent change to the Tread. Unplug it and the machine is exactly as it was.
For the complete picture of what the adapter does on a treadmill, see how to use any app on a Peloton Tread.
Running Apps and Your Watch
This is the part Just Run cannot do at any price.
Training Apps
FTMS is the standard Bluetooth language for gym equipment, and it includes a treadmill profile. FitSwitch broadcasts your Tread as an FTMS treadmill, which lets a compatible app:
- Read your live speed and incline
- Record distance and pace into your training history
- Control the Tread during a structured session or a virtual route, where the app supports treadmill control
Kinomap is a good example — it is multi-sport and includes filmed real-world running routes, so the Tread's incline can follow the actual terrain of the route on screen. Check the current compatible apps list before buying any subscription, since treadmill support varies by app and is less universal than cycling support.
Training apps connect through the free FitSwitch Bridge companion app on your iPhone or Mac, which relays the connection.
Garmin
Garmin watches and head units read the broadcast the same way they read a footpod, so your run flows into Garmin Connect with full pace, distance, and training load. ANT+ is built in, so there is nothing extra to buy.
Apple Watch
Apple Watch is the one with a caveat. watchOS natively supports Bluetooth heart rate and cycling sensors, but not running sensors or treadmills. Use a workout app that connects to FTMS treadmills itself and your Apple Watch records the full run — speed, distance, pace, incline, and heart rate — closing your rings and landing in Apple Health. Without such an app, the watch still tracks the run from its own motion sensors, just without the Tread's speed and incline.
Any ANT+ or Bluetooth heart rate strap works alongside all of this.
Cost Comparison
Over one year, starting from a Tread you already own.
| Setup | Year one | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Keep All-Access | $599.88 | Classes, leaderboard, history, scenic runs |
| Cancel, Just Run only | $0 | A working treadmill with a metrics screen |
| Cancel + FitSwitch | $139.99 | Streaming on screen, metrics overlay, watch and app broadcasting |
| Cancel + FitSwitch + a running app | $139.99 + app | All of the above plus guided or virtual-route running |
FitSwitch pays for itself against All-Access in under three months, and there is nothing to renew. Third-party app subscriptions, where you want them, are separate and not included.
The honest caveat: if what you actually value is Peloton's instructors and the class library, none of this replaces that. Peloton's running content is good, and no third-party app reproduces it. This is about getting full use of the hardware, not about pretending the classes do not matter.
Does This Work on the Tread+?
Yes. The Peloton Tread+ — the larger slat-belt model with the 32" screen — works the same way. So does the standard Tread. Both run the same underlying software, both have a "Just Run" mode, and both broadcast speed and incline once unlocked.
The practical differences are screen size and belt type, not capability. Pick the matching option on the product page so you get the right fit, and everything described above applies to either machine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you use a Peloton Tread without a subscription?
Yes. The treadmill runs normally without an All-Access Membership, including the motor, incline, and the "Just Run" mode that shows live speed, incline, distance, and pace. You lose the class library, the leaderboard, and saved workout history, but the hardware is fully functional.
What is Just Run mode on the Peloton Tread?
Just Run is Peloton's free open-running mode. It shows your current speed, incline, distance, elapsed time, pace, and heart rate if a strap is paired, with manual control over speed and incline. It needs no subscription.
How much is the Peloton Tread subscription?
The All-Access Membership is $49.99 per month, which is $599.88 a year. It covers all members of a household on the same equipment.
Can I watch Netflix on my Peloton Tread without a subscription?
Not with Peloton's own software, which locks the screen to Peloton content. Adding a FitSwitch adapter turns the display into a standard Android screen that runs Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Prime Video, and other apps, with your running metrics overlaid on top.
Will my runs still record if I cancel?
Not to your Peloton profile — saved history ends with the membership. They can record elsewhere: with FitSwitch broadcasting, a Garmin watch or a compatible running app captures the run with full pace, distance, and incline, and it syncs to Garmin Connect, Strava, or Apple Health instead.
Does cancelling damage or disable the treadmill?
No. Cancelling only removes access to Peloton's class software. The belt, motor, incline, sensors, and screen all keep working, and you can resubscribe at any time.
Do I need developer mode or a computer?
No. FitSwitch plugs into the Tread's USB port and needs no computer, no developer mode, and no permanent change to the machine. Manual sideloading does require those things, which is the main reason people choose the adapter instead.
Does this work on the Peloton Tread+?
Yes. Both the Tread and the Tread+ are supported and behave the same way. The differences between them are screen size and belt construction, not software capability.
Can running apps control my Tread's speed and incline?
Yes, where the app supports treadmill control. FitSwitch broadcasts the Tread as an FTMS treadmill, so a compatible app can set target speed and incline during a structured workout or follow the gradient of a virtual route.
Run Your Way
A Peloton Tread without a subscription is still a very good treadmill. Just Run proves that for free, and for some people it is genuinely enough.
But the screen is most of what you paid for, and leaving it showing a speed readout while you prop a phone against the console is a waste of good hardware. FitSwitch is $139.99 once, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee, and it turns that screen into the thing it always looked like it should be — while sending your run to your watch and your training apps at the same time.
No membership. No monthly fee. No computer required.