Best pet GPS trackers

The Tractive GPS Tracker is a perfect fit for most pets. Especially dogs who love to spend their summers outside, doggy paddling to their heart's content. The Tractive is durable, waterproof, and built to withstand whatever your pet throws at it. 

Not only can it track your dog’s location, but it can monitor their wellness too. In the Tracktive app, you can create and track goals for your pet's wellness and compare this data with other dogs of the same age and breed. This data can be shared among other family members in the Tractive app.

The Tracktive GPS Tracker lasts up to 10 days on a single charge, and the subscription service covers all fees with the built-in SIM card. The basic plan gives you access to regular location updates, unlimited live tracking and wellness features like activity and sleep tracking. It's $20 per month when you choose monthly billing, but only $12 per month billed yearly or $8 per month billed every second year.

Tack is one of the most versatile pet GPS trackers we've came across. Like the AirTag, its use case isn't limited to pets or possessions. A one up Tack has on the AirTag is it's pet mode. Pet mode optimises the tracker's battery when worn by your furry family member. Its sole purpose (until you turn off pet mode) is to keep track of your pet. Every other fancy feature stays on the backburner. 

It also has an SOS button. If a neighbour or good Samaritan comes across your lost pet and presses the button, it'll ping your phone with your pet's location. 

Its relatively budget friendly, with the tracker costing under $100, and the subscription about $5 a month after the free 30-day trial. Included in the price of the tracker is a SIM card with unlimited roaming data across over 30 countries.

The Tack is great value for money and an excellent choice for pet owners that also has the versatility of tracking your kids and possessions.

Retailing for under $50, the Apple AirTag is a versatile and budget-friendly tracker. There are no subscription fees, and it can last over a year on a single battery. If you decide to part ways with it as a pet tracker, the AirTag can still be used to keep track of material possessions, like car keys or mobile phones.

However, its not inherently designed to track pets. It doesn't allow geo-fencing and doesn't have any smart features like some of our other picks. It doesn't really have any defining features except live location tracking. You can get a pretty precise location (within a metre) if you have an iPhone 11 or above, which can be better than using a GPS which gives you a rough location of about five metres. 

The Apple AirTag can be a great tracker on a budget, even if there are better options available. It's a versatile, long-lasting tracker you can use for your pet if you don’t want to fork out for all the extrabells and whistles. 

The NutTAG Spot is our favourite pet tracker for pets that can’t get enough of all that nature has to offer. This GPS tracker is waterproof and durable, perfect for your adventure buddy who can’t resist a pile of mud or a puddle of rainwater. 

Like other picks on our list, you can establish a geo-fence that sends an alert once your fury friend leaves the safe zone.

This is perfect for pets that go wandering on a hike, or that little escape artist that always seems to squeeze through the back door when you’re not home. While you can see where they are currently with live GPS tracking, you can’t see where they’ve been previously with location history.

The SIM card for this tracker must be purchased separately, which is why it's not higher on our list. Many of our other picks have the SIM included in the price. NutTAG retails for about $180, and the extra cost of a SIM card might deter some people. 

You can supply your own SIM card, or go with the one-year plan for an extra $66, or the two-year plan for an extra $111.

The My Buddy Gard Pet GPS Tracker is perfect for those mini escape artists.

Its defining feature is the SOS button. Commonly found in children’s trackers, the SOS button notifies the child's parent. 

While our pets don't have the opposable thumbs to push a button and tell us they need help, if somebody finds your pet, they can press the SOS button and contact you directly. The SOS button on the front of the tracker allows that good Samaritan to talk directly to you, and vice versa. 

Like our other picks, you can set safe zones or geo-fences that send you an SMS or notification the instant it has been crossed. We love that the Buddy Gard has three months of stored location history, so you can easily see where they have a habit of going when they escape.

If your pet has a habit of visiting a particular location, you can go back to where they went the last time they escaped.