The Smart Ring Market in 2026: Oura, Samsung Galaxy Ring, Ultrahuman, RingConn and Garmin's Cirqa

Smart rings are the fastest-growing wearable category that most people still do not own. About 4.3 million shipped worldwide in 2025, up 49%, against about 163 million smartwatches [1]. That is roughly one ring for every 38 watches.

At that size, one company can own the category, and one does. Oura shipped about three of every four rings in the first half of 2025 [2]. It has used a single patent to push one rival out of US imports, license two others, and send a third out of the market entirely [5][6][7]. It is due to begin trading on the Nasdaq this week [17].

This post is the map as of September 2026: how big the market is, who sells what, why Oura’s lead has held, where Samsung and Garmin are, and the part most market pieces skip. If your product wants ring data, each ring gets it to you by a different route, on different terms.

How big is the smart ring market in 2026?

Short answer: a few million rings a year, most of them Oura’s.

IDC put 2023 shipments at about 880,000, with Oura at 80% and Ultrahuman at 12% [4]. Omdia’s series runs about 850,000 in 2023, 1.8 million in 2024, and 1.6 million in the first half of 2025 alone [2]. IDC’s full-year 2025 figure is about 4.3 million [1].

Oura’s own filing gives the other side of the same number. It sold 3.6 million rings in the twelve months to June 2026 and had 5.0 million paying members at 30 June, double a year earlier [3]. The periods do not line up exactly with IDC’s calendar year, so do not divide one by the other. But they tell the same story: this is Oura’s category, with a handful of challengers each holding single digits.

For scale against the rest of wearables, rings are still a rounding error in unit terms. What makes them interesting is what they are worn for. A ring stays on overnight, has no screen to charge daily, and on Oura’s Ring 5 runs six to nine days per charge [8]. That makes it a sleep and recovery device first, which is where the most valuable consumer health data sits.

Who makes smart rings, and what do they cost?

Two patterns are visible in the table. First, only Oura charges a subscription, and it is also the only one with a public cloud API. That is not a coincidence. A company that sells a membership has a reason to run a cloud, and a cloud is what makes a server-side API possible. Second, the cheapest route to ring data for most products is the phone’s health store, because every ring here writes one. How that route behaves, and why it is slower, is covered in why wearable data arrives late.

Why has Oura’s lead held?

Three reasons, in order of how hard they are to copy.

A patent that covers how rings are built. In September 2025 the ITC found that Ultrahuman and RingConn infringed an Oura patent on ring construction, and exclusion and cease-and-desist orders took effect on 21 October 2025 [5]. That is an import ban, not a damages award. It is the reason a well-funded rival can be removed from the largest market in a single ruling.

A subscription that pays for the software. About 94% of Oura ring buyers take the membership, and membership revenue grew 121% in the nine months to June 2026 at an 89% gross margin [3]. Competitors that sell rings without a subscription have to fund their app, their cloud and their science out of hardware margin. The price map of health subscriptions shows how unusual a $6 monthly tier with that attach rate is.

A customer base the rest of wearables underserves. Oura’s members are 72% women, according to its filing [3]. Most wrist wearables were designed around training. Oura was designed around sleep, cycles and recovery, and it sells through channels that reach that customer.

The Oura IPO analysis covers the business in detail. For the market question, the short version is that Oura’s lead rests on a legal moat and an economic one, not only on a better sensor.

The patent campaign, in order

The pattern matters for anyone planning around a specific ring. Supply risk in this category is legal, not only commercial. A ring your users wear today can become unavailable to new US buyers because of an ITC order, and the existing rings keep working while the new ones stop arriving. Both outcomes of the Samsung and Oura dispute are still open.

Where are Samsung and Garmin?

Samsung is the only large platform company with a ring, and it is waiting. The Galaxy Ring launched in July 2024 at $399.99 with no subscription [9]. It has been repeatedly discounted to $299.99 through 2026 [10]. ETNews reported in May 2026 that a second-generation ring in 2026 was virtually impossible and that Samsung was aiming for early 2027, with longer battery life and a thinner design [9]. For now the ring is Android-only and its data lives in Samsung Health.

Garmin has a band and, probably, a ring. In July 2026 Garmin launched the Cirqa Smart Band, a screenless wrist tracker for sleep, HRV and Body Battery, at $199.99 with no subscription [13]. A Cirqa ring then appeared in an Indonesian certification filing on 12 August 2026, withdrawn within a day, followed by filings in China on 1 September and Brazil on 6 September covering at least ten size variants [13]. Garmin has not announced it, and price and timing are speculation. If it follows the band, its data will sync to Garmin Connect, which matters because Garmin’s developer program is paused to new applicants; see what Garmin’s pause means.

Apple and WHOOP do not make rings. Both have argued, in effect, that the wrist is enough. Apple’s September 2026 update put a readiness score on the Watch rather than a new form factor; see Apple’s September health announcements.

What changed with Oura Ring 5

Oura announced Ring 5 on 28 May 2026 and began shipping on 4 June [8]. It is about 40% smaller than Ring 4, runs six to nine days per charge, and starts at $399.

The software additions matter more than the size. Health Radar watches background signals and flags changes, including blood pressure patterns during sleep and nighttime breathing disturbances over a rolling 30 days [8]. Neither is presented as an FDA-cleared diagnostic. They sit in the space the FDA’s January 2026 wellness guidance widened, covered in whether your health app is a medical device. The same features appear on watches with very different regulatory status; this week’s posts on smartwatch sleep apnea detection and cuffless blood pressure cover what each one is cleared to claim.

How does smart ring data reach a product?

This is the practical question for anyone building on wearable data, and the answer differs by ring.

• Oura runs a public cloud API (v2) with OAuth and webhooks for sleep, readiness, activity, stress and more [14]. Oura also writes to Apple Health and Health Connect. Its API agreement changed in June 2026, and the rules on passing Oura data to AI models now depend on whether you are an aggregator; see what the API terms say about AI.
• Samsung Galaxy Ring has no cloud API. Data syncs to Samsung Health on the phone. From there it reaches other apps through Health Connect, once the user links the two, or through Samsung’s Health Data SDK, which reads Samsung Health directly on the device [16].
• Ultrahuman offers a Partner API with OAuth for approved partners, covering sleep, HRV, heart rate, skin temperature and related metrics [15]. It also writes to Apple Health.
• RingConn syncs to Apple Health and Health Connect. We could not find a public developer API.
• Garmin, if its ring follows the band, will sync to Garmin Connect. Garmin’s Health API is closed to new applicants while the program is paused, which leaves new apps with whatever Connect writes into Apple Health or Health Connect.

The consequence for coverage is simple. A product that reads only Apple Health and Health Connect can see every ring on the market, but only the data each vendor chooses to write. Readiness, resilience and stress scores usually stay in the vendor’s app. A product that wants those needs the vendor’s API, where one exists, and has to accept that vendor’s terms.

What to watch in the next six months

• Oura’s first weeks as a public company. Trading is expected to begin this week [17]. Public quarterly reporting will give the first regular disclosure of ring units and membership retention in this category.
• Samsung versus Oura at the ITC. Either side could come out with an import ban against the other. Galaxy Ring 2’s reported early-2027 timing sits on top of that dispute [9][11].
• Garmin’s ring. Certification filings usually precede a launch by weeks or months, not years. A Garmin ring would bring a large installed base of Connect users to the category, without a subscription.
• Blood pressure and breathing features on rings. Oura’s Health Radar puts cardiovascular and breathing signals on a device worn all night. How regulators, clinicians and payers treat those signals will shape what ring data is worth to health plans.

The short version

About 4.3 million smart rings shipped in 2025, a small category growing about 50% a year [1]. Oura shipped about three in four and has used a construction patent to ban, license or remove its rivals in the US [2][5][6][7]. Samsung’s ring is waiting for a second generation and a patent outcome. Garmin’s is in certification filings. For a product, the question is not which ring is best but how each one’s data reaches you: Oura and Ultrahuman through APIs with terms, everyone through Apple Health or Health Connect with less data and more delay.