Even if you’re stuck at home, the best GPS tracker for kids can come in handy for whenever your child happens to go outside. Whether schools have re-opened in your area or your kids just wants to get some fresh air, equipping them with an easy-to-carry tracker can let you know their whereabouts. And who doesn’t want one less thing to worry about?
Whether you pick a kid-sized watch or something that clips to a backpack, look for a device that accurately updates about your child’s location when you need them. Other features — whether it’s an SOS alarm that can alert parents and other family members when there’s a problem or two-way calling — can separate the best GPS trackers for kids from the also-rans.
We consider all these factors when testing GPS trackers for kids to come up with the best devices for locating your child at a moment’s notice. (And if it’s an aging relative and not a youngster you want to keep track of, these devices — or variations aimed at older users — will work just as well.) Here’s what we found in our search for the best GPS tracker for kids.
What is the best GPS tracker for kids?
Jiobit is the best GPS tracker for kids, thanks to a kid-proof design that can withstand the elements. This tracker also pairs seamlessly with the smartphones your or a caregiver might carry around, so you not only know the location of your child but who they’re with as well — a valuable feature if you rely on a nanny or babysitter and want to check in on how everyone is doing.
If you prefer a watch to a clip-on tracker, Lil Tracker is not only comfortable for kids to wear, it’s also affordable. That said, the Lil Tracker app is pretty confusing and detracts from using the device. PocketFinder had been one of our favorite GPS trackers for kids, and it continues to offer good power management features. But the supporting app for the updated PocketFinder+ isn’t that well organized, which can be frustrating for parents.
The Apple Watch SE is an intriguing option thanks to Apple’s Family Setup feature for tracking the location of someone wearing an LTE-enabled model of the smartwatch. Given the Apple Watch’s cost, though, we’d only recommend it for older kids or aging parents who’d benefit from a tracking device and want something that looks stylish.
You may consider getting a standard GPS tracker instead of one designed specifically for kids, but we’d caution against that. The best GPS trackers for kids are designed specifically to be worn and sometimes operated by children. Dedicated GPS trackers, which may be more fully featured, can be overwhelming for youngsters to use. For example, the Spot Gen3 ($150) offers pinpoint accuracy in a durable device, but younger kids would have a hard time knowing which button was which — including an emergency button that sends location data to rescue personnel.
The best GPS trackers for kids you can buy today
The Jiobit is small and light, about 2 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches and 0.6 ounces, with a loop that lets you attach it to a backpack, shoe, belt loop, keychain or necklace. After I tucked it inside an organizer pocket in my son’s backpack, I had to fish it out only every five days or so to charge it in the USB charging dock.
With no screen, microphone or speaker, the Jiobit feels very durable. It’s shock-resistant and waterproof with an IPX8 rating — I doubt my 6-year-old could destroy it without a dedicated, sustained effort. We threw it on the ground, stepped on it and left it on the driveway during a rain shower, and it kept working just fine.
The best part for parents is how the Jiobit app for iOS and Android lets you know not only where your child is but also who she’s with. If your child has multiple caregivers and they all use the Jiobit app, the tracker and the caregiver’s phone will connect with Bluetooth whenever they’re in range. That way, you can see in the app that your son left school at 3 p.m., accompanied by his dad, or his stepmom, or his babysitter, or whoever was supposed to pick him up.
Even better, you aren’t notified when your child arrives at or leaves a trusted place with you. After all, you don’t need a push notification to tell you that you just picked up your kid from school. But you do want a notification if she leaves school alone or with someone else. Trusted Places are easy to set up in the app, and you can choose to be notified when the tracker enters, leaves or both.
You add other caregivers to your Care Team by phone number. They’ll receive a link over SMS (text) to download the Jiobit app, and when they set up an account, they enter their own phone number. Care Team members can choose to be notified when the Jiobit enters and leaves the trusted places you’ve set up, and they can see the Jiobit on the map and which caregiver is in range. They just can’t set up additional trusted places or change any of the Jiobit’s settings.
With a combination of Bluetooth, GPS/GLONASS and Wi-Fi, the Jiobit got a good signal indoors and outdoors — the app always found it within a second or two of launching. Tapping the top of the smartphone screen lets you enter tracking mode, where the location updates on the map as the tracker moves, leaving a track between points. Live tracking for long periods will wear down the Jiobit’s battery, so the app asks you after 2 minutes if you want to keep tracking or go back to the map, which still refreshes every few seconds if the tracker is moving, just without creating a trail.
Even though Jiobit’s app looks great, it could have a few more features. There’s no History to show where the tracker has been during the day. Nor does Jiobit have an SOS button your child can press if there’s trouble. PocketFinder, another GPS tracker that’s similar but slightly larger than the Jiobit, has an SOS button, and the dated-looking-but-functional app can replay its movements from any point in time. Plus, PocketFinder has a web app, which Jiobit also lacks.
If you’re trying to locate the Jiobit, there’s no augmented-reality view to guide you to its exact spot — a feature we appreciated on the Trax Play GPS Tracker. But when you’re paired by Bluetooth, you’ll notice a little bar in the app that connects your photo, representing your phone, to your child’s photo, representing the Jiobit. That bar grows longer or shorter based on how close you are, which can help you home in on the device. Then, you can tap the little bell icon, and the Jiobit will make a noise and flash its LED, in case you’ve lost it under the bed, for example.
The Jiobit costs $149, with a service contract available for $14 a month. Sign up for two years of service and you lower the cost to $9 a month. (In either case, your first 30 days are free.) Additional Jiobit trackers can be added to either plan for $6 a month, with the same pricing for the device. The tracker uses AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s networks to send the GPS data.
The Jiobit is the best GPS tracker for kids, with a long battery life and an easy-to-use app that make this device easy to recommend. I love the way the Bluetooth pairing works, letting you know who your child is with and where they are.
The Lil Tracker is a full-featured GPS watch aimed at kids, but it may be a little too full-featured once you get a look at the app. You have to provide your own SIM card (more on that in a bit), but that enables GPS tracking, as well as two-way voice calls, texts and one-way calls in which you can just listen to what’s going on at your child’s location.
Weighing only 1.5 ounces, the watch is light, with a comfortable silicone band and a metal buckle. It has a 1.2-inch color touch screen with a friendly animated monkey that accompanies the time display. It’s rugged and splash-proof, and there’s also a completely waterproof version for $20 more. Battery life depends on how much you use the device, of course, but the Lil Tracker is designed to last 12 hours; I had to recharge it every night.
The Lil Tracker stands out from other trackers with its two- and one-way calling. For two-way calls, you call the watch from the app on your smartphone; the watch accepts calls only from numbers you’ve authorized in the app. Kids can call those approved contacts too, by swiping and tapping the touch screen. Holding down the SOS button on the side of the watch will call up to three preprogrammed numbers, in order, until someone answers. (We reviewed the classic version of the Lil Tracker, but there’s a waterproof version available for $20 more. As for seniors, there’s a $99 version of the watch available in more mature colors.)
Calls between the watch and the app connected quickly in my tests. The sound quality was only so-so, but it was good enough for a quick check-in. My 6-year-old son could understand me just fine over the watch’s speaker, but I sometimes had a hard time telling what he was saying when he was outdoors. When he was indoors and speaking right into the watch, the call sounded a lot better.
One-way calls, called “Sound Guardian” in the app’s menu, are kind of like the Drop In feature on Amazon Echo devices. Parents use the app to call the watch, and they can hear what’s going on around it, but the watch doesn’t ring or make any indication that someone is listening in. This worked well: My son’s watch called me right away, and I could tell he was at school — but he didn’t know I was calling, so he didn’t say anything to me. The sound quality was only so-so and varied based on ambient noise.
The app (which, weirdly, is called SeTracker2, not Lil Tracker, on iOS and Android) has a lot of other features, too. Some are a lot more important than others. Useful features include the ability to set multiple geofences, track route histories and remove detection alerts (though mine went off when my son took off the watch because his wrist was getting sweaty). The watch can track steps taken and distance, estimate calories burned and count how many times your child turns over in her sleep. (But the watch is pretty bulky to keep on at night, and you need to charge it overnight.) You can send text chats to the watch, including emoji if your child isn’t a reader yet. They can’t text you back, though.
Unfortunately, the app is riddled with spelling errors and messages that make no sense. (An item called Make Friends brings up a message that reads: “Note: app delete function only for friends to pay a single friend devices; devices can cross multiple friends need to device the end delete.” Huh?) Time zone selection is confusing, as you have to calculate how far away you are from Greenwich Mean Time. And the app’s main screen has a decorative banner above the map that flips through five images that don’t add anything to the app — they’re just distracting. Worse, though, is that the app often displays an actual full-screen ad upon launching, even if you’re launching it by tapping a push notification.
The watch runs on the 2G network, which means it’s using GPRS in the U.S. because 2G networks are being shut down. (The company told us it plans to release a 3G version of the watch.) For a SIM card, any GSM/GPRS network should work. Cheap SIM cards from US Mobile, Ting, or SpeedTalk are a good bet, but Lil Tracker leaves the research and purchase entirely up to you; the company doesn’t offer a package that includes a SIM card or service. (However, our review unit came with a SIM installed and pre-activated.)
The bring-your-own-SIM model means you can shop around for cheap service. Your carrier may be able to add a SIM for this to your family plan, so check with them first. And keep in mind that Ting offers SIM cards where you pay only for the data you use each month, with plans as low as $9.
The Lil Tracker watch is passable — and affordable — but the app is disappointing and hampers the experience. It’s too bad, because with an all-new app, the Lil Tracker would be a contender for the best GPS tracker for kids. The one-way calling, which lets you listen in on what’s happening around your child, is a compelling feature for parents who want to know more than the kid’s location.
The Lil Tracker can be hard to find on online retailer sites like Amazon, but you can always buy directly from Lil Tracker itself if you decide that this is the GPS tracker for you. We reviewed the 2G version of the Lil Tracker, but there’s now a 4G version available for $129.
Getting an Apple Watch to serve as a GPS tracker for a kid may seem like overkill, and we certainly wouldn’t recommend it for keeping tabs on younger kids. However, two recent developments have made this a more appeal option for older tweens and teens. First, Apple added a Family Setup feature to set up and manage the watch for another person, like a child or older parent. Second, it released the Apple Watch SE, a less expensive version of its top-end Apple Watch 6 smartwatch.
The Apple Watch SE features an aluminum case with silver, gold and space gray finishes, and it comes in 40mm and 44mm sizes. Like the Apple Watch Series 6, the SE version has an accelerometer, gyroscope, and the always-on altimeter. Unlike the even cheaper Apple Watch 3, you get fall detection, noise monitoring, international emergency calling and emergency SOS. That latter feature will be particularly appealing to parents who see the Apple Watch SE as a potential tracking device.
To get the location tracking abilities for the Apple Watch, you’ll need to buy the LTE version, which costs $329 for the 40mm model and $359 for 44mm model (as well as the additional monthly fee from your phone carrier). With Family Setup enabled, you’re able to track the location of someone wearing an LTE-connected Apple Watch SE. You can also set fitness goals, send allowance money and limit features during school hours via Family Setup.
The Apple Watch SE can’t match other dedicated GPS trackers for kids in terms of battery life, as Apple only promises 18 hours of use. That means you’ll have to charge the Apple Watch SE every night. But the Apple Watch also offers more features than the typical kid tracker, including activity tracking, a dedicated Fitness app and a hand-washing guide. Apple’s annual watchOS updates should bring features for a few years, too.
The Apple Watch SE certainly isn’t the ideal solution for everyone who just wants basic tracking features. But for older kids who balk at some of the less sophisticated looks of dedicated trackers or for older parents who need to be monitored, the Apple Watch SE delivers a nice blend of fashion and functionality.
The PocketFinder+ device looks basic, a simple, black key-chain fob with a single silver SOS button. It pairs with a smartphone app that looks like it was designed five years ago, but it still packs a decent amount of functionality. The setup isn’t pretty, but it works for the most part.
PocketFinder+ measures 3 x 1.6 x 0.6 inches and weighs 1.7 ounces. With the attached keychain, you can hook the finder to a bag or belt loop. It’s a little larger than the Jiobit, but the PocketFinder+ also has an SOS button on the front, which the Jiobit lacks. Press and hold that button to send an SOS alert to email addresses and SMS phone numbers specified in the app. You can add as many contacts as you’d like.
PocketFinder’s battery life varies widely based on how often the device pings the server with its location, a frequency you can set. By default, when the tracker is moving, it sends its location every 10 seconds for 3 minutes straight, then takes a 10-minute break. When it’s not moving, PocketFinder goes to sleep.
When I stashed the PocketFinder+ in my son’s backpack, which stays put in his cubby while he’s at school, the battery lasted nearly two full days. But when he kept the finder in his pants pocket instead, we had to charge it each night. You can customize when you want the tracker to remind you to charge it, to avoid sending your kid off with a tracker battery that won’t last all day.
Even if the tracker is asleep, you can always press Track Mode in the app’s Power Management menu to wake and start locating the tracker within 2 minutes. You can also save battery life by having the tracker take 20-minute breaks between “locates.” Or you can locate more frequently, including every 4 minutes or even constantly, which is a nice option to have in an emergency.
The worst part about the PocketFinder+ is its smartphone app. The interface looks very dated, with an iOS 6-era design and a letterboxed layout. Menus display features that aren’t available yet, like one that will alert you when the PocketFinder exceeds a certain speed limit. Other tools are buried; for instance, you set up SOS Alerts in the Power Management section but add the contact details for those alerts in the Account section. The iOS app also crashed every time I tried to add an email address or a phone number from my device’s built-in contacts, forcing me to type those in manually.
The app’s main screen, however, does pack in a ton of information. It shows the tracker on a map, as well as how far away it is from you, which direction it’s moving (if it is moving), its signal strength and battery life, and what address it’s closest to, which you can tap to copy or open in your phone’s default mapping app.
You can tap the Instant Zone button on the map to add a zone around the tracker’s current location, so you’ll get a notification when the tracker arrives or leaves. Or you can tap Zones in the menu below the map to see the zones you already have and add new ones anywhere in the world. The app supports unlimited zones, and they’re very accurate, thanks to PocketFinder’s use of GPS, assisted GPS, 3G tower ID and Wi-Fi locating to track indoors and out. I was getting “out of zone” notifications when the tracker was just at a far end of my house, until I made the zone a little bigger.
The History feature lets you specify an exact period of time and see all the tracker’s locations during that time plotted on a map. This same feature works in the web app, where you can also download the history as a PDF or CSV file. The web app can also be used to locate the tracker, set up zones, view alerts and create Access User accounts that are limited to locating the tracker only — everything the smartphone app can do. This is a great feature in case you happen to misplace your phone along with the tracker.
PocketFinder+ requires a service plan of $12.95 per month, purchased through the company, and the tracker costs $159. That’s more than the similar Jiobit tracker. But PocketFinder has some extra features that Jiobit lacks, like the SOS button, web app and History feature.
PocketFinder+ has every feature you’d want in a pocket-size tracker, but the experience is marred by the clunky smartphone app.
How to choose the best GPS tracker for kids
Here are the criteria we consider when determining the best GPS tracker for kids.
Features: In addition to tracking location, many GPS devices offer a multitude of features, including one- and two-way calling and the ability to set up geofenced zones that alert you when your child has left a designated area. We look at which devices went beyond the basics and how those features were implemented.
Performance: You want a GPS tracker that accurately displays a person’s location, with frequent updates when he or she is on the move. We took note of how accurately each device pinpointed our location. We’ve found that generally trackers work better in wide-open locations, with less accurate signals when we tested in dense downtown areas.
Design: We considered the size of the GPS tracker and whether it was something a child could easily carry around. We also looked at durability: Could the device withstand rough-and-tumble trips to the playground?
Ease of use: We wanted to find devices that were easy enough for a small child to use, certainly, but also ones that wouldn’t give mom or dad fits during the setup and activation process. Here’s one universal tip: Make sure to activate your GPS tracker in as wide of an open space as possible — not from inside a building. Trackers hate being enclosed, especially at the beginning.
Price: In addition to paying up front for a GPS tracker, there are monthly service fees. We considered what each GPS tracker will cost you on a monthly basis and whether you’re required to sign a service contract. We also note when GPS trackers include the cost of service in the initial price tag, such as offering the first year of service for free.
Security: Check what security protocols your GPS tracker follows. And when setting up the device, make sure to change any default passwords or user names.
How we test GPS trackers for kids
In the past few years, we’ve tested a half-dozen kid-friendly GPS trackers; initially we also tested alongside a trio of generic GPS trackers. (Some of the kid trackers we initially tested are no longer available, as they relied on AT&T’s since-discontinued 2G network; we’ve removed reviews of those products from this guide for the best GPS tracker for kids.) We conducted tests in both New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, using trackers to follow young children both from afar and to find them in a crowd.
To see what each tracker offered, we enable all push notifications and test all voice features, except for ones that would trigger 911 emergency calls. We also keep an eye on how the batteries in each device held up as we traveled from spot to spot.
We go through the companion apps for each tracker, taking note of the features that are available and testing them with the GPS tracker itself. We also research the monthly service cost for each tracker we review.
Do these GPS trackers for kids also work for seniors and pets?
Kids aren’t the only members of your family that you may want to keep tabs on. Trackers can also help you be aware of where seniors and pets are. And as you might imagine, the companies that make the best GPS trackers for kids also have devices better suited for older members of the family or pets that might run off.
In the case of Jiobit’s tracker, it looks neutral enough so that either kids or grandparents can wear it without standing out, and so Jiobit sells the same device at the same price for people of all ages. For pets, Jiobit includes a fabric pouch attachment that can fasten onto a pet collar, but the tracker and service plan cost the same.
As noted above, Lil Tracker’s watch for seniors comes in a more conservative black color and costs a little more than the version for children, at least for the 2G version of the tracker. 4G Lil Tracker watches costs $129 for seniors and children alike. The company has a version of its tracker for pets, but it’s listed as sold out as of this writing.
The Apple Watch SE has a stylish design that appeals to seniors, and the LTE version of that smartwatch costs the same no matter who’s wearing it.
If you’re interested in reviews of dedicated products for pets, our sister site PetsRadar looks at the best pet trackers for cats and dogs.