How fast do you actually walk?
Most people guess wrong. The textbook 5 km/h describes a purposeful adult on a flat pavement carrying nothing. Not a walk to the shops, not a hill, not a stroll with a dog. This measures what you really do, in km/h and in minutes per kilometre.
The scale is built for walking, so it tops out around 10 km/h instead of 240 and a 5.2 km/h walk sits comfortably in the middle.
Typical walking speeds
| Pace | Speed | Per km | Per mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strolling | 3.2 km/h | 18:45 | 30:10 |
| Relaxed | 4.0 km/h | 15:00 | 24:08 |
| Average adult | 5.0 km/h | 12:00 | 19:19 |
| Brisk | 6.4 km/h | 9:22 | 15:05 |
| Power walking | 7.5 km/h | 8:00 | 12:52 |
| Race walking | 11 km/h+ | under 5:27 | under 8:47 |
What changes your speed?
- Hills. A 5% incline usually costs about a fifth of your speed, and going down steeply costs nearly as much as going up.
- What you're carrying. A loaded rucksack slows most people by half a km/h or more.
- Company. Walking with someone means walking at the slower person's pace, whichever of you that is.
- Surface. Sand, snow and rough trail all cost more than pavement. Sometimes a third of your speed.
- Age and height. Stride length falls with age, and comfortable walking speed drops steadily after about sixty.
Is it accurate at walking speed?
Walking is the hardest case for GPS, because the error doesn't shrink just because you slowed down. Half a km/h barely registers in a car. On foot it's a tenth of your total speed.
You'll see it as a reading that dances between 4 and 6 while you walk perfectly steadily. Nothing is broken. Use the average over a few hundred metres, which is a real measurement over real ground.
- Walk at least 400 m before you believe the average.
- Keep the accuracy filter at ±10 m. Drift is worse at walking pace, where real movement between fixes is small.
- Open ground beats a city street by a long way, and indoors gives you nothing.
- Hold the phone or use an armband. In a swinging hand it moves as fast as you do.
Splits and distance
Every kilometre gets a row, timed from moving time so waiting at a crossing doesn't count against you. Compare Moving with Elapsed to see how much of the walk you actually spent walking. On an urban route it's often a quarter of the total.
Planning a route
Once you know your own pace, planning stops being guesswork. Measure yourself over a normal walk, then use the speed, distance and time calculator to work out how long a route takes. Add a fifth for hills, and add stops separately, because that's the bit people forget.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average walking speed?
About 5 km/h (3.1 mph) for a healthy adult on flat ground, which is 12 minutes per kilometre. Brisk is around 6.4 km/h. Comfortable pace varies by roughly a km/h either side.
Why does the reading bounce while I walk steadily?
GPS error stays roughly the same size whatever your speed, so at walking pace it's a big fraction of the total. Read the average over a few hundred metres instead of the live number.
Does it count my steps?
No. It measures ground covered by satellite rather than motion by accelerometer, so you get distance and speed rather than steps. A pedometer counts steps and can't tell you how far each one went.
Can I use it in a shopping centre?
No. Indoors there are no satellites, and your phone falls back to Wi-Fi positioning, which is accurate to tens of metres and useless here.
Is 5 km/h enough to count as exercise?
Most guidance counts moderate activity as brisk walking, around 6.4 km/h, fast enough that talking takes effort. Measure yourself and you'll know rather than guess.