Google’s Pixel Tag, its first own-brand item tracker, goes on sale on Wednesday, November 11, priced at $29.99 for a single tag or $99.99 for a four-pack, giving Android users their own answer to Apple’s AirTag.
What it does
The tag works with Google’s Find Hub network of more than a billion Android devices, and with almost any Android phone running Android 9 or later. It has ultra-wideband precision finding up close, a double-tap on its button rings the paired phone, and “left behind” alerts warn users when they walk away from a tagged item, with exclusion zones for places like home or work.
It is IP67-rated, uses a tool-free replaceable CR2032 battery that Google says lasts more than a year, and currently comes in one colour, Fog, a pale green. An NFC tap opens its Find Hub page and lets a finder contact the owner. It does not work as a tracker for iPhone owners.
A surprise inside
Reviewers found something Google never mentioned when it unveiled the tag in August alongside the Pixel 11 phones: an NFC chip under the battery door. 9to5Google called the Pixel Tag “the obvious gold standard” for Android Find Hub trackers after a week with it, while Android Authority’s real-world test found a left-behind alert arrived in under five minutes on a busy downtown street.
The catch
The tag does not come with a keyring loop or case, so buyers need a separate holder — two in a pack for $25, or a Bellroy silicone case for $24.99. Google sells no case of its own. Some coverage on Tuesday suggested the tracker was already on sale, but 9to5Google reported that neither the Google Store nor other retailers were taking orders yet, and Google’s own announcement puts the date at November 11. Google announced the Pixel Tag in August at its Made by Google event, alongside the Pixel 11 phones and the Pixel Watch 5, and the tag follows a day after Google’s November Pixel Drop began rolling out. It enters a market where Samsung, Motorola and Pebblebee already sell trackers, but it is the first own-brand option built for Google’s Find Hub network.
