Pet ownership is no walk in the park. Your pet can also go missing no matter how close an eye you keep on them. Moreover, dogs and cats can become overweight just like humans, especially when they are older. It’s our duty to keep them happy, healthy, and safe, so if you’re searching for technology to help you care for your furbaby, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve been reviewing pet tech for over a decade to help you select the best pet tracker for your furry friend. The Fi Series 3 Smart Dog Collar is our top pick for its durability, long battery life, and speedy location updates if your pet goes missing. Whether you want to track your pet’s location, activity, or health trends like scratching, licking, and sleep changes, you’re sure to find the right pet tracker in our list below.
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
Most Durable
Fi Smart Dog Collar Series 3
- Smaller than the Series 2
- More frequent location updates in Lost Dog Mode
- Stainless steel case for improved strength
- Cellular subscription includes hardware
- Long battery life
- Seamless setup process
- Slower Escape Alerts than the last generation in testing
The Fi Smart Dog Collar makes it easy to track your dog’s location, activity, and sleep from your phone, and the third-generation model introduces major changes inside and out. Its smaller, lighter tracking module can accommodate tiny dogs, its more durable build fares better against chewers and leash pullers, and its improved waterproofing means you can keep a closer digital eye on adventurous pups. Escape alerts took longer to arrive in testing than with the previous model, but the Series 3’s overhauled GPS and cellular radios deliver quicker location updates in the crucial Lost Dog Mode without killing the battery. As for the tracker’s style, you can now choose between patterned and solid designs in blue, gray, pink, or yellow, as well as from a selection of compatible third-party bands. Current Fi users who want to upgrade from an older model to the Series 3 can do so within the Fi app or by contacting the company’s customer service team.
The Fi Series 3 is the best GPS tracker for most dogs thanks to its durable build, long battery life, and reliable Lost Dog Mode. The new extra-small size (for necks measuring 9.5 to 11 inches in circumference) is suitable for breeds like miniature dachshunds, maltese, pomeranians, toy poodles, and Yorkshire terriers, while the extra-large option (for necks between 20 and 30.5 inches in circumference) should suit breeds like great danes, bloodhounds, and mastiffs. For those whose main priority is escape alert speed, the Tractive tracker might be a better choice.
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Fastest Escape Alerts
Tractive GPS Dog LTE Tracker
- Fast escape alerts
- Attaches to your pet’s existing collar
- Tracks activity, sleep, and calories
- In-app activity leaderboards
- Minimal social features
- Doesn’t track steps or sleep interruptions
The Tractive GPS Dog LTE Tracker, which conveniently and securely attaches to your dog’s existing collar with a rubber clip, offers the fastest escape alerts of any tracker we’ve reviewed. In testing, it typically took about one minute to send me an escape alert when my dog Bradley exited and entered a Safe Zone. That’s at least a full minute faster than the Fi Series 3. Although its battery life could be longer and we’d like to see more health and social features, the Tractive still offers top-notch GPS tracking for a reasonable price.
Tractive sells two versions of its GPS and LTE pet tracker, one for dogs and one for cats. The canine version is meant for dogs that weigh at least 8.8 pounds. If your dog likes to roughhouse, the Fi Series 3 is a more durable option because the tracker is built into the collar.
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Best for Small Cats and Dogs
Whistle GO Explore
- Excellent battery life.
- No base station required.
- Multiple safe zones.
- Night light for visual tracking.
- Works for cats and dogs.
- Lag for initial notification when pet is out of safe zone.
- No web interface.
The Whistle Go Explore makes it easy to track your pet’s whereabouts and health stats like calories burned, distance traversed, and hours at rest each day. In testing, it usually took 4.5 minutes to send a notification (text and push) when a pet left the safe zone. The Tractive delivered faster escape alerts, but the Whistle Go Explore lasts longer on a charge.
Weighing just 1.3 ounces, the Whistle Go Explore is the best dedicated pet tracker for smaller dogs and even cats. It attaches to any collar, unlike the Fi, which requires one that is specifically compatible with it.
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Best for iPhone Owners
Apple AirTag
- Accurate and reliable
- Gives directional cues
- Can send location from a distance
- Replaceable battery
- No Android compatibility
- No way to ping a phone from the tag
- No hole for a lanyard or keyring
- Anti-stalking tools are limited
Apple’s AirTag tells your other Apple devices exactly where to find your lost objects (or pets), even if they’re miles away. To find the AirTag via your iPhone or iPad, you can instruct it to make a little piping sound or play a game of hot-and-cold with distance. If AirTags are more than 30 feet from your phone, they leverage Bluetooth connections with strangers’ iPhones to tell you where they are. That said, Apple doesn’t recommend using it for pets.
The AirTag is compatible with any iPhone or iPad running iOS or iPadOS 14.5 or later. It’s important to note the limits of the AirTag: It’s not a true GPS tracker, as it relies on being within 30 feet of someone’s iPhone to deliver its location to the network. This works well in dense cities full of iPhone users, but it’s much less useful in rural areas.
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Best for Hybrid GPS Tracking
Jiobit Smart Tag
- Accurate and dependable tracking
- Compact, lightweight, and rugged design
- Doubles as a proximity leash and GPS tracker
- Comes with an abundance of accessories
- No calling capabilities
- Real-world battery life falls short of estimates
The Jiobit Smart Tag is a true GPS tracker and Bluetooth tether that works well for locating pets (or humans). It uses secure cellular, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connections for real-time location tracking, making it a lot more reliable than the AirTag and Tile trackers. In testing, its GPS mode reported extraordinarily accurate location data in a remote location, exceeding the performance of an iPhone’s built-in tracking feature. Jiobit says the device should last roughly 20 days on a charge for tracked pets (or 10 days if a child is wearing it), but our test unit, worn on a child, dropped down to 79% after just one day of use. Expect to charge it every four to six days if you use the device frequently.
The Jiobit Smart Tag is an excellent tracking option regardless of what phone you use, though it does cost a bit more than some competitors and lacks pet-specific features. Apart from the $129.99 upfront cost, you must also subscribe to a monthly service plan. A no-contract plan costs $14.99 per month, but six-month and two-year contract plans are more affordable at $12.99 and $8.99 per month, respectively. If price is not a concern and you value accuracy above all else though, this is among your most versatile options.
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Best AirTag Alternative
Tile Pro
- Good connectivity
- Replaceable battery
- Loud speaker
- Durable build
- More expensive than competitors
- App doesn’t offer precise location data
The Tile Pro is the best alternative to Apple’s AirTag. The roughly 75 feet of Bluetooth range we got in testing won’t help much if your dog escapes your yard, but like Apple, Tile leverages its third-party device network to help you locate missing items. Just put the tracker in Lost mode via the app, and it sends you a notification as soon as another Tile user is within range. That nearby Tile user does not get a notification unless you send an anonymous thank you.
Tile’s lineup offers excellent alternatives to AirTags for Android users, as well as for iPhone owners who don’t mind leaving Apple’s walled garden. Neither are true GPS trackers, so they won’t work well in rural areas, however. The $40 Tile for Cats combines the tiny Tile Sticker with a silicone collar attachment to help keep tabs on sneaky felines, but for medium- and large-size pets, we prefer the Tile Pro for its longer range and replaceable battery. If you need to track your pet where no phones go, look to one of the other options on this list, including the Jiobit, which uses GPS and a built-in cellular radio.
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Best for Samsung Phone Users
Samsung Galaxy SmartTag 2
- Compact design
- Rugged IP67 rating
- Long battery life
- Replaceable battery
- Easier to attach to objects than previous model
- Works with Samsung Galaxy devices only
- Alert could be louder
The Samsung Galaxy SmartTag 2 easily clips to your pet’s collar via a larger, metal-reinforced cutout and uses Bluetooth Low Energy and ultra-wideband tech to help you locate them. Its durable IP67 rating (an improvement from the original SmartTag’s IP53) makes it a good fit as a pet tracker.
This tracker is meant solely for Samsung users because it only works with Galaxy devices and Samsung’s SmartThings Find network. If you’re in that camp, the SmartTag 2 is a solid option for tracking your pet.
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Buying Guide: The Best Pet Trackers and GPS Dog Collars for 2024
How Pet Trackers Connect
All the trackers we’ve tested use apps for Android and/or iOS devices that give you a quick read on the data they collect. Some also provide a web interface.
Certain models use a base station to establish a line of communication between the tracker and your phone. These base stations come in lots of shapes and sizes, and sometimes double as battery chargers. Trackers typically use Bluetooth to talk to your smartphone and their base station/charger—as long as it’s within range of either, it’s likely that your pet is in a safe zone. It isn’t until your pet wanders out of range that the alerts arrive. Just keep in mind that if you have a large house, you might need multiple base stations to provide coverage.
The Whistle Go Explore doesn’t come with a separate base station; it has a built-in Wi-Fi radio and uses your home router to create its own base station. The third-generation Fi comes with a Bluetooth-enabled charging base and also supports Wi-Fi, with the ability to connect to up to six networks at a time.
As a lower-tech option, home security camera maker Ring offers a $10 QR code pet tag that will bring up information about your pet when scanned.
Can You Track Your Pet’s Activity?
The very first pet trackers were all about activity like fitness trackers—we viewed them as “Fitbits for pets,” and that description still largely stands. Most of the trackers we test quantify activity to varying degrees. Some generate fitness reports, showing various movement levels from resting to high activity, plus pulse and respiration.
A few of these devices try to track more than just activity and location. Temperature comes up a lot because hot cars are killers. Don’t leave your dog or cat inside a car, even with the windows down! That said, we’ve found temperature readings to be fairly inaccurate, be it from dogs sitting close to wood-fired stoves on a cold day, laying in the sun by the window, or just folding the tracker up into their neck while they sleep. It might not be a bad feature to have, but the warnings sometimes take on a kid-who-cried-wolf aspect.
Fi Smart Dog Collar Series 3 (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)
How to Find Your Pet Via GPS
GPS location is a primary reason for getting a tracker. Note that you should use trackers in conjunction with microchips in a pet, not as a substitute. Most vets charge less than $50 to put the rice-sized permanent chip inside a pet and practically all shelters and vet clinics have scanners. It’s nearly a foolproof way to ensure you can reunite with a pet if they ever go missing.
If you’re in an area with coverage, the tracker sends your pet’s whereabouts to its companion app. It’s not always instantaneous—there might be a slight delay before the device realizes your pet is out of the safe zone. That’s enough time for a fast pet to make a getaway, but that’s still better than not knowing at all that Fido jumped the fence.
Note that GPS tracking typically involves monthly or annual fees; we break them down in each of our reviews.
Do Pet Trackers Work for Cats?
Many of the devices available in the market are a bit too big to effectively work on cats, or their algorithms just don’t take the slinky movements of felines into account the way they do dopey, lumbering canines. We’ve highlighted which devices work for cats in the chart below. Be sure to consider the size and weight of the tracker for different breeds.
Recommended by Our Editors
Can You Use Bluetooth Trackers for Pets?
Bluetooth trackers from Apple, Samsung, and Tile are becoming popular ways to find lost keys, phones, remotes, wallets, and anything else that’s easy to lose. And in some cases, that applies to pets.
As mentioned above, Apple says AirTags aren’t meant for pets. That statement ultimately seems like it’s for liability reasons more than anything else, as many people still use them for this purpose. Tile, on the other hand, encourages pet owners to attach the Mate and Pro to their creatures. “Many people have had great success using Tile as a Bluetooth pet tracker to help them locate dogs, cats, bunnies, and even tortoises!” Tile says.
A general-purpose Bluetooth tracker is definitely a good way to test the waters before diving into a pet-specific model, so we’ve included our favorites here.
Finally, for more on taking care of your furry little friends, check out our picks for the best dog NDA testing kits.
