VO2 Max Calculator
See where your VO2 max ranks for your age and sex on US lab norms, whether it comes from a lab, your watch, a 12-minute run, a mile walk or your resting pulse. Watch readings show how far off they can be.
Key facts
- On the FRIEND registry’s treadmill norms, the median VO2 max is 48.0 mL/kg/min for men aged 20 to 29 and 37.6 for women, falling to 24.4 and 18.3 at 70 to 79.
Where is your number from?
Or work it out from a test
Health app → Heart → Cardio Fitness. It updates after outdoor walks, runs or hikes.
ExampleAn Apple Watch reading of 41 for a man of 42
61stpercentile
Above average for your age. A VO2 max of 41.0 is higher than about 61 in 100 men 40 to 49 in the FRIEND registry.In a lab study the Apple Watch missed by 6.9 on average, so this could be anywhere from the 34th to the 81st percentile (19 times in 20, the 16th to the 92nd).
- VO2 max
- 41.0 mL/kg/min
- Median, men 40 to 49
- 37.8 mL/kg/min
- High from
- 45.0 (+4.0)
Stop if something hurts, and check with a doctor before starting if you have a health condition, are pregnant or are recovering from an injury. Percentiles are research norms, not a diagnosis. SourcesTerms
VO2 max by age: the full tableFRIEND percentiles for men and women, 20 to 79
| Age | 5th | 10th | 25th | 50th | 75th | 90th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20–29 | 29.0 | 32.1 | 40.1 | 48.0 | 55.2 | 61.8 | 66.3 |
| 30–39 | 27.2 | 30.2 | 35.9 | 42.4 | 49.2 | 56.5 | 59.8 |
| 40–49 | 24.2 | 26.8 | 31.9 | 37.8 | 45.0 | 52.1 | 55.6 |
| 50–59 | 20.9 | 22.8 | 27.1 | 32.6 | 39.7 | 45.6 | 50.7 |
| 60–69 | 17.4 | 19.8 | 23.7 | 28.2 | 34.5 | 40.3 | 43.0 |
| 70–79 | 16.3 | 17.1 | 20.4 | 24.4 | 30.4 | 36.6 | 39.7 |
Tests per group: 513, 963, 1327, 1078, 593, 137 (ages 20–29 to 70–79). Apparently healthy adults tested in US labs.
How accurate is a watch?Apple Watch and other brands against lab tests
Watches estimate VO2 max from your heart rate and pace on walks and runs. Against a treadmill lab test, Lambe et al. (PLoS ONE 2025) found the Apple Watch missed by 6.92 mL/kg/min on average (13.31%) in 28 adults, and 19 in 20 lab results were between 6.11 below and 18.26 above the watch. A larger study of the Series 10 (Lambe et al. 2026, 40 adults) found 6.79 on average, and the watch put only 14% of people in their right FRIEND percentile band.
Both studies mostly tested fit volunteers, and the watch read low for them, by about 6. Caserman et al. (2024) found it tends to read high for people with low fitness and low for very fit people. Because the direction depends on you, this page doesn’t shift your number; it shows the spread.
For other brands, a 2022 meta-analysis of 14 studies (mostly Garmin, Polar and Fitbit) found that watches estimating from exercise had almost no average bias but 19 in 20 readings within about ±9.8 of the lab; tests taken lying still at rest did worse (about −13 to +17).
A watch is good for watching your own trend over months, on the same device and routes. For a number you can rely on, a lab test measures it directly.
How each test is worked outThe published equations
- 12-minute run (Cooper, 1968)
- VO2 max = (metres − 504.9) ÷ 44.73. Cooper reported a correlation of 0.897 with treadmill tests in 115 US Air Force men.
- 1.5-mile run
- VO2 max = 3.5 + 483 ÷ minutes, the equation in ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription (6th edition).
- Rockport 1-mile walk (Kline et al., 1987)
- VO2 max (L/min) = 6.9652 + 0.0091 × weight (lb) − 0.0257 × age + 0.5955 × sex (1 man, 0 woman) − 0.2240 × time (min) − 0.0115 × heart rate, then divided by your weight in kg. Built on 343 adults aged 30 to 69; cross-validated standard error 0.355 L/min.
- Resting pulse (Uth et al., 2004)
- VO2 max = 15.3 × maximum heart rate ÷ resting heart rate. Without a measured maximum the page uses Tanaka’s 208 − 0.7 × age. Uth et al. tested it in 46 well-trained men: standard error 2.7 mL/kg/min with a measured maximum, 4.7 with the age formula.
Fitness and long-term healthMandsager et al. 2018, 122,007 adults
Mandsager et al. (JAMA Network Open, 2018) followed 122,007 adults who had a treadmill test at Cleveland Clinic for a median of 8.4 years. They grouped people by fitness for their age and sex: low (under the 25th percentile), below average (25th to 49th), above average (50th to 74th), high (75th to 97.6th) and elite (97.7th and up). The groups on this page are theirs; the FRIEND table stops at the 95th, so high and elite share one group here.
After adjusting for age, sex and other risks, the low group’s death rate was about 5 times the elite group’s (hazard ratio 5.04), and below average carried a risk 1.41 times above average, similar to smoking (1.41) or diabetes (1.40). The study saw no upper limit to the benefit.
This is an association in one health system’s patients, measured with treadmill time rather than gas analysis. It can’t say how long any one person will live, or how many years a higher VO2 max would add.
Where the numbers come fromFRIEND registry, field-test papers and watch studies
- Percentiles by age and sex: Kaminsky LA, Arena R, Myers J. Reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with cardiopulmonary exercise testing: data from the Fitness Registry and the Importance of Exercise National Database (FRIEND). Mayo Clin Proc 2015;90:1515–1523, Table 3. The editors of ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription chose the FRIEND reports as their reference standards.
- The 2022 update: Kaminsky LA et al. Updated reference standards, Mayo Clin Proc 2022;97:285–293: treadmill standards 1.5 to 4.6 mL/kg/min lower than 2015. We couldn’t open its tables, so none of its numbers are used.
- Fitness groups and mortality: Mandsager K et al. JAMA Netw Open 2018;1:e183605.
- Field tests: Cooper KH, JAMA 1968; ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 6th ed. (2000); Kline GM et al., Med Sci Sports Exerc 1987; Uth N et al., Eur J Appl Physiol 2004; Tanaka H et al., J Am Coll Cardiol 2001.
- Watch accuracy: Lambe R et al., PLoS ONE 2025; Lambe R et al., Mayo Clin Proc Digit Health 2026; Caserman P et al., JMIR Biomed Eng 2024; Molina-Garcia P et al., Sports Med 2022.
How this works: Method, 12 sources, Checked against 9 worked examples,
How this works
Method
Your VO2 max is placed among apparently healthy US adults of your sex and age group on the FRIEND registry’s treadmill percentiles (Kaminsky et al. 2015), reading straight between the two nearest published percentiles; groups follow Mandsager et al. 2018. Field tests use each paper’s equation: Cooper’s 12-minute run, the 1.5-mile run, the Rockport walk (Kline et al. 1987) and the heart rate ratio (Uth et al. 2004, with Tanaka’s maximum heart rate). A watch reading shows the error measured against lab tests instead of a single verdict.
Sources
- Reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with cardiopulmonary exercise testing: data from FRIEND (Kaminsky, Arena and Myers) (Mayo Clin Proc, 2015)
- Updated reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with cardiopulmonary exercise testing: data from FRIEND (Kaminsky et al.) (Mayo Clin Proc, 2022)
- Association of cardiorespiratory fitness with long-term mortality among adults undergoing exercise treadmill testing (Mandsager et al.) (JAMA Netw Open, 2018)
- A means of assessing maximal oxygen intake: correlation between field and treadmill testing (Cooper) (JAMA, 1968)
- ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription (the 1.5-mile run equation) (American College of Sports Medicine, 6th edition, 2000)
- Estimation of VO2max from a one-mile track walk, gender, age, and body weight (Kline et al.) (Med Sci Sports Exerc, 1987)
- Estimation of VO2max from the ratio between HRmax and HRrest: the heart rate ratio method (Uth et al.) (Eur J Appl Physiol, 2004)
- Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited (Tanaka, Monahan and Seals) (J Am Coll Cardiol, 2001)
- Investigating the accuracy of Apple Watch VO2 max measurements: a validation study (Lambe et al.) (PLoS ONE, 2025)
- Accuracy of VO2 max estimates from Apple Watch Series 10 (Lambe et al.) (Mayo Clin Proc Digit Health, 2026)
- Assessing the accuracy of smartwatch-based estimation of maximum oxygen uptake using the Apple Watch Series 7 (Caserman et al.) (JMIR Biomed Eng, 2024)
- Validity of estimating the maximal oxygen consumption by consumer wearables: a systematic review with meta-analysis (Molina-Garcia et al.) (Sports Med, 2022)
How it’s tested
9 worked examples for this page are checked by automated tests before every release: given the inputs, the tool must show the expected answer.
Limits
Stop if something hurts, and check with a doctor before starting if you have a health condition, are pregnant or are recovering from an injury. Percentiles are research norms, not a diagnosis.
Privacy
On your device. Nothing you enter or open leaves this browser. About privacy labels
Changes
- First published.
What VO2 max is
VO2 max is the most oxygen your body can take in and use during hard exercise, in millilitres per kilogram of body weight per minute. It is the standard measure of cardiorespiratory fitness: how well your heart, lungs and muscles work together. It falls with age, by about 13.5% (4.0 mL/kg/min) a decade on treadmill tests in FRIEND’s 2022 update, so the useful question is how yours compares with people of your age and sex.
A lab measures it on a treadmill or bike with a mask that analyses your breath. Everything else, watches and field tests included, estimates it from heart rate, speed or distance. This page ranks any of them on the same table, and says how far off each kind of estimate tends to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good VO2 max for my age?
It depends on age and sex, so the answer is a percentile. On the FRIEND registry’s treadmill norms the median (50th percentile) is 48.0 mL/kg/min for men aged 20 to 29, 42.4 at 30 to 39, 37.8 at 40 to 49, 32.6 at 50 to 59, 28.2 at 60 to 69 and 24.4 at 70 to 79. For women it is 37.6, 30.2, 26.7, 23.4, 20.0 and 18.3. Above the median is above average for your age; the 75th percentile and up is what Mandsager et al. called high fitness.
What is the average VO2 max by age?
In FRIEND’s 2015 treadmill data the mean VO2 max was 47.6 mL/kg/min for men in their 20s and 37.6 for women, then 43.0 and 30.9 in their 30s, 38.8 and 27.9 in their 40s, 33.8 and 24.2 in their 50s, 29.4 and 20.7 in their 60s, and 25.8 and 18.3 in their 70s. The 2022 update of the registry, with more labs, came out 1.5 to 4.6 lower for treadmill tests.
How accurate is the Apple Watch VO2 max?
Reasonable for a group, loose for one person. In a 2025 study of 28 adults the watch’s Cardio Fitness number missed a treadmill lab test by 6.92 mL/kg/min on average (13.31%), and 19 in 20 lab results were between 6.11 below and 18.26 above the watch. A 2026 study of the Series 10 found much the same (6.79 on average) and that the watch put only 14% of people in the right FRIEND percentile band. Both mostly tested fit volunteers, and the watch read low for them; a 2024 study found watches tend to read high for people with low fitness. So this page shows the range your number could stand for instead of one verdict.
How can I measure VO2 max without a lab?
With a field test and a published equation. The Cooper 12-minute run (distance in metres minus 504.9, divided by 44.73), the 1.5-mile run (3.5 plus 483 divided by your time in minutes), the Rockport one-mile walk (which also uses your age, sex, weight and heart rate at the end) and the heart rate ratio method (15.3 times your maximum heart rate divided by your resting heart rate). All are estimates. The runs are hard efforts: warm up first, and ask a doctor before a maximal test if you have a heart condition.
Does a high VO2 max mean I will live longer?
Not for any one person, but fitness and survival are strongly linked. In 122,007 adults who had a treadmill test at Cleveland Clinic, those with low fitness for their age and sex (under the 25th percentile) had about 5 times the death rate of the fittest 2.3% over a median 8.4 years, after adjusting for other risks, and below-average fitness carried a risk similar to smoking or diabetes. It is an association from one health system’s patients, not proof that raising your VO2 max adds a set number of years.
Why does my VO2 max rank differently in other apps?
Apps use different reference tables. This page uses FRIEND’s 2015 treadmill percentiles from lab tests of apparently healthy US adults. The 2022 update of the same registry is 1.5 to 4.6 mL/kg/min lower, so the same number would rank a little higher there; other tables, such as Norway’s HUNT study, come from fitter populations and rank you lower.
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