In a wearables market saturated with wristwear, the Oura Ring 3 is small but mighty. Easily the most popular smart ring currently available, the device offers a petite alternative to bulky smartwatches, without sacrificing key health measurements. It’s also one of the most powerful sleep trackers we’ve tested. With its lead in the ring race, we don’t expect Oura to slow down anytime soon. While we’ve yet to see any official Oura Ring 4 announcement or teases, recent rumors and leaks have us confident the device is in the works. Find out everything we know about the potential Oura Ring 4.

We absolutely think there will be an Oura Ring 4. Between the growing Oura Ring 4 rumors and the company’s teasers, a follow-up to the successful Oura Ring 3 is only a matter of time. Compared to the smartwatch market, smart rings may be few and far between, but the form factor is growing in popularity (and competitors).

When is the Oura Ring 4 release date?

• Oura Ring: 2015
• Oura Ring 2: 2018
• Oura Ring 3: 2021

The original Oura Ring launched with a Kickstarter campaign in 2015. Three years later, the Oura Ring 2 arrived with improved specs and new features. In 2021, Oura announced the Oura Ring 3, the company’s most advanced model yet. Since releasing the device in October 2021, Oura has continued to roll out additional features including Oura Circles and third-party integration.

So where does that leave us in terms of when to expect an Oura Ring 4? Based on the company’s three-year pattern, shoppers may see a new model hit shelves in 2024. Rumors suggest a new Oura Ring is not only in the works, but arriving imminently. On the other hand, the consistent three-year gap may only be a coincidence. It’s unlikely Oura will release a new generation without significant hardware changes when it’s clearly comfortable upgrading the current model’s software. We’re certainly hoping 2024 sees a new Oura Ring, but we’ll keep this hub updated as we learn more.

Given the massive success of the Oura Ring 3, we expect a follow-up device to offer many of the same powerful features. The current generation Oura Ring brought important upgrades to sleep tracking, including overnight blood oxygen monitoring, as well as improved heart rate monitoring, and a focus on women’s health. It added green LEDs to monitor heart rate around the clock, uses body temperature readings to provide sleep and cycle insights, and boasts significantly more memory for data processing.

The Oura Ring 4 will likely offer all of these advanced features and more. We anticipate comprehensive Readiness, Sleep, and Activity scores to remain central to the Oura Ring 4 experience. We also expect automatic activity detection and automatic nap detection.

In terms of specs and design, the Oura Ring 4 will no doubt still offer a finger-based tracking experience. The subtle, jewelry-inspired design of the Oura Ring line is a major distinguishing factor within the wearables market. While we hope to see some minor aesthetic tweaks, we don’t expect a major overhaul. We would also be surprised if the Oura Ring 4 offers anything less than a week-long battery life.

Recently, Oura published a blog post announcing its acquisition of Proxy, a digital identity signal platform. This suggests the company aims to include digital payment support in future Oura Ring iterations, including possibly the Oura Ring 4.

What will the Oura Ring 4 price be?

Pricing for the Oura Ring 3 starts at $299 and rises based on the finish you choose. The ring then requires a monthly subscription (currently $5.99) to access its full feature set.  As much as we would love to see Oura move away from this pricing structure, it’s very unlikely. Subscription-based wearables are, unfortunately, here to stay.

The new Oura Ring 4 will likely land at a consistent price point of around $300. Even if the company packs in a ton of new features and tools, we don’t anticipate the cost skyrocketing. We are also hopeful that the cost of the subscription will not go up significantly (though we sincerely wish that it would go down).

Without a better idea of exactly when we can expect the Oura Ring 4, it’s hard to recommend shoppers wait around for it. This is especially true when we consider how beneficial an Oura Ring 3 ($299.99 at Oura) can be right now for someone’s health. If you’re committed to the ring form factor, you can’t go wrong with the current model.

If you don’t need a device right away, keep checking back with this hub to see what else we learn about the Oura Ring 4’s timeline. Digital payment support alone is well worth waiting for, and we doubt that will be the only new feature added to the next generation. As Oura Ring 4 leaks continue to spill, we’re hopeful more hardware upgrades will be unveiled.

If you are open to a wrist-based wearable, there are plenty of other options to consider. The Whoop 4.0 ($300 at Best Buy) offers a similarly screen-free experience. Alternatively, a device like the Fitbit Charge 6 ($159.95 at Amazon) still provides advanced sleep tracking but packs a ton more smart features and a colorful display.

Of course, there’s also the very real prospect of a Samsung Galaxy Ring on the horizon, which could appeal more to those already embedded in the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem. If that’s you, waiting to see how a next-gen Oura Ring and first-gen Galaxy Ring stack up might not be a bad idea.

I rated the Oura Ring 3 very highly in my review. Since then, I’ve rarely taken it off my finger, especially at night. However, there are a few improvements I’d be eager to see in the next generation.

With its focus on heart rate monitoring and temperature tracking, the Oura Ring 3 offers a fantastic holistic approach to health monitoring. Where the device doesn’t measure up is fitness tracking. Inconsistent activity stats and limited training metrics keep the ring off many shoppers’ radars. Though we value the lack of a distracting display and are happy to forego onscreen stats, there are plenty of other tools worth adding that would make the ring a better gym companion.

More smart features

Oura cannot afford to hang its hat on its laurels. Competition in the smart ring arena is heating up with rumors regarding both the aforementioned Samsung Galaxy Ring, but also an Apple smart ring. To stay ahead of the pack, Oura needs to push the envelope beyond health tracking. Recent Oura Ring 4 rumors suggest the company is working on contactless payment support, and that’s a solid start, but we also wouldn’t shy away from haptic alarms or a Find My Device feature.

It’s hard to complain about the wizardry that is the Oura ring when we consider how much tech is packed into such a tiny form factor. Yet, we’d love to see Oura go even smaller. All the current Oura Ring 3 design options closely resemble a traditional men’s wedding band. Those of us with petite digits (hello, it me) would like to see something thinner and more feminine. Additional colors would also be nice, but we’d settle for the same old neutral metallics with improved scratch resistance.

The fall of the paywall

The Oura Ring 3 introduced a nearly mandatory subscription structure we would love to see crumble. Wearables grow more expensive every year, and it’s so much worse to have to continue forking over cash all year long. We would rather see the Oura hike its one-time price and drop the practice. It’s a long shot, but we’re not above crossing our fingers anyway.