GPS Speedometer & Odometer

Review by eFreeware

Most vehicles have a speedometer, but plenty of the ways people move around do not. A bicycle, a jogging route, a boat, a motorcycle with a broken gauge cluster, a rental car whose dial you keep misreading: all of these leave you guessing how fast you are going and how far you have gone. Phone GPS can answer both questions, and that is the gap this app sets out to fill.

GPS Speedometer & Odometer comes from the developer listed on Google Play as QR & Barcode Scanner, which publishes it in the Maps & Navigation category. It is free to download, it carries ads, and it offers in-app purchases. It has been installed more than five million times and holds a 4.7 average across 69,264 ratings, with 2,255 written reviews. The app was released in August 2023 and was last updated in August 2026.

What the developer promises is a dashboard for almost any form of transport: a live speed readout, distance and trip time, route recording, and a warning when you exceed the speed limit. Everything runs from the phone's GPS. That combination is what makes it worth a closer look.

The speed readout, and the three ways it is shown

The central feature is real-time speed tracking. As you move, the app displays your current speed along with average and maximum speed for the trip, which is a more useful trio than a single number. A maximum figure tells you what your fastest stretch actually was on a descent or a straightaway, and the average is the honest number for a ride or a run.

Digital is the plain numeric readout, gauge mimics the dial of a car instrument panel, and map view puts your speed alongside your position on a map. I like that the choice is left to the user rather than fixed, because a runner checking a number at arm's length and a driver glancing at a dashboard want very different things from the same screen.

Units can be switched between miles per hour, kilometers per hour and knots, which covers road use in most countries plus marine and aviation-style measurement. The app also supports both portrait and landscape orientation, and the developer offers a set of theme colors so the display can be adjusted to taste. None of this changes what the app measures, but it makes the readout easier to live with on a daily basis.

HUD mode and the floating window

The feature the developer leads with is the head-up display. In HUD mode the app shows your current speed in a way meant to be reflected onto the car's windshield, so you can keep your eyes on the road instead of looking down at a phone. It is the kind of feature that sounds like a gimmick until you consider how much time a driver spends glancing between a dashboard and the road ahead.

There is also a window mode that pops the speedometer out as a small floating panel over other apps. The developer pitches this for use alongside navigation, and that is the scenario where it makes the most sense: you keep turn-by-turn guidance on screen and still have a speed figure visible in a corner. It is a thoughtful piece of design for anyone who runs two things at once while driving.

Both of these are display options rather than separate measurement systems. Whether HUD mode works well depends on your windshield, the lighting and where you place the phone, so it is worth trying before you rely on it.

Route recording, travel modes and the notification readout

Beyond the live number, the app records what you did. It tracks distance traveled and trip duration, draws your route on a map, and lets you mark and save routes for later access. The developer also says you can switch the tracker off whenever you want, which matters if you would rather not have a record of a particular journey.

The app is built around different travel modes, with driving and jogging given as examples. It covers cars, motorcycles and bikes, and the activities listed include cycling, running, walking, flying and sailing. In practice this means the same app can serve a weekend ride, a delivery shift and a morning run without you needing to change tools.

One smaller feature worth noting is the notification readout. Your speed and tracking controls appear in the notification bar, so you can check the figure or stop recording without reopening the app. For anyone who mounts a phone and would rather not unlock it mid-journey, that is a convenient shortcut.

Overspeed alerts and what they are for

The safety feature the developer emphasizes is the speed limit alert. When you go over the limit, the app sounds an alarm and vibrates to warn you. That is a straightforward idea, and it is the sort of nudge that helps most when your attention has drifted on a long, familiar stretch of road.

It is worth being clear about what this is: a warning tied to a speed limit, not a substitute for watching signs or knowing the rules of the road where you are driving. It works as a safety aid to keep you aware of your speed. Used that way, an audible and vibrating reminder is a reasonable backup rather than something to depend on.

The same alerting behavior is less obviously useful for slower activities. A jogger or cyclist is unlikely to have a posted limit to exceed in the same way, so this part of the app is most relevant to motorized travel.

What the app asks of you

The app is free to download and contains ads and in-app purchases. Anyone deciding whether to install it should weigh those terms alongside the feature set rather than assume an entirely free run.

On the technical side, the core measurement relies on GPS, and the app works offline.

The app is rated for Everyone and is compact in size. It is said to draw little power while tracking speed and distance, which is the kind of claim that depends heavily on your phone, your settings and how long you leave tracking running. A battery saver mode is part of the pitch, and for long trips that is the sort of thing worth watching on your own device.

How I would use it

The most natural fit is a phone mounted where you can see it, running the app in gauge or digital mode with the floating window switched on beside a navigation app. That setup gives you speed, distance and directions at once, and the notification readout means you can pause tracking without reaching for the screen.

For cycling and running, the digital display is likely the better choice: a large number is easier to read at a glance than a dial, and the average and maximum figures are the interesting part of the record afterward. Saving the route means you can compare the same loop on different days, which is where a speedometer app starts to earn its place beyond a single trip.

If you drive a vehicle with a working speedometer, the appeal is narrower but still real: the overspeed alarm, the trip distance, and the route record are things a dashboard gauge does not give you. If you drive something without a reliable gauge, or you want a record of where you went and how long it took, the case is stronger.

I would treat HUD mode as something to try on a quiet road before trusting it on a highway, and I would keep the phone charged on longer journeys regardless of the battery saver claim. The app is simple enough that there is little to learn, which is a virtue in a tool you glance at while moving.

A dashboard for bikes, boats and borrowed cars

GPS Speedometer & Odometer is a focused tool. It measures speed, distance, time and route from GPS, shows them in three display styles, warns you when you exceed a limit, and adds a windshield HUD and a floating window for use alongside other apps. It is free, ad-supported and offers in-app purchases, and it has been downloaded more than five million times with a 4.7 average rating.

The people I would point to it are cyclists, runners, motorcyclists, boaters and drivers of vehicles whose own instruments are unreliable or absent. Anyone who wants a straightforward speed and distance readout without a subscription-grade fitness platform or a dedicated navigation unit will find the essentials here.

The caveats are ads, in-app purchases, and a dependence on GPS for the measurements themselves. Within those terms, it is an easy app to recommend to anyone who needs a speedometer on a phone.