Strava is adding a $11.99 monthly fee for developer API access and moving public profiles and fitness club listings behind authentication to combat AI scraping (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Strava is implementing monetization and access controls for its developer API ($11.99/month) while restricting public data access to combat unauthorized AI training data scraping, signaling a broader industry shift toward protecting proprietary data assets. This move reflects growing tension between AI companies' data acquisition needs and platform providers' IP protection, forcing IT organizations to reconsider API strategies, data governance, and third-party integration dependencies. Technology leaders should anticipate similar access restrictions and monetization models across other platforms as companies prioritize data control over open accessibility.