Apple Watch period trackers: what works with your watch

What Apple Watch adds to period tracking

On Apple Watch Series 8 or later and all Apple Watch Ultra models, a wrist temperature sensor takes readings while you sleep. Apple uses the small temperature rise that typically follows ovulation (the biphasic shift) to estimate, after the fact, when you likely ovulated, usually once you've worn the watch to sleep for about two cycles. Temperature can also refine period predictions. Other apps can read that temperature data through Apple Health if you allow it.

Apple Watch period trackers compared

From Apple Support and each app's App Store listing, October 2026.

Who each suits

• Apple Cycle Tracking if you want the most native experience, logging from your wrist, for free.
• Natural Cycles if you're looking for hormone-free contraception and already wear an Apple Watch. It's the only app here cleared for that use.
• Flo if you want a dedicated watch app inside a broad period and pregnancy app.
• Clue if you wear several devices and want them all in one place.
• Lulu if you want your watch's temperature data alongside a mood forecast: Lulu brings in wrist temperature and shows how you usually feel each cycle day, with a heads-up before harder days.

Setting it up

1. On your iPhone, open Health and set up Cycle Tracking with fertility predictions on.
2. Turn on Sleep with Sleep Focus, and wear your Apple Watch (Series 8 or later, or Ultra) to bed.
3. Log your periods accurately for about two cycles while the watch learns your baseline.
4. In any third-party app you choose, allow it to read wrist temperature in Apple Health when it asks. You can change this any time in the Health app.

What wrist temperature can't do

• It can't predict ovulation in advance. The shift shows up after ovulation, which is why Apple calls its estimates retrospective.
• It isn't a medical thermometer. Apple says its temperature sensing isn't intended for medical use, and readings vary with alcohol, illness, room temperature and sleep.
• It isn't contraception on its own. Apple says Cycle Tracking should not be used as birth control. Only an app specifically cleared for contraception, used as directed, should be relied on for that.

More in can Apple Watch detect ovulation? and Apple Watch wrist temperature explained. For the full Apple comparison, see Lulu vs Apple Cycle Tracking.