LA Fitness offers a 3-day free trial pass for first-time visitors and a paid day pass for anyone who needs occasional access without a membership.
However these solve two different problems, and mixing them up wastes either your time or your money.
I did a clear breakdown of both, what the process looks like from request to first workout, how to make the most of the 3 days if you’re looking for LA membership, and when buying a day pass makes more sense.
Key Takeaways
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How long is the LA Fitness free trial? | 3 consecutive days (7 days through some corporate programs) |
| Is it free? | Yes for first-time visitors, no ID-on-file required |
| How do I get it? | Request at lafitness.com/pages/freepass.aspx |
| How long to activate it? | Within 30 days of receiving the email |
| What does a day pass cost? | $10 to $25 depending on the club |
| Can anyone get a free trial? | First-time visitors only, 16 or older |
Free Trial vs Day Pass: Which One Applies to You
You can’t just swap these two options, because they are meant for totally different situations.
Get the free trial if:
- You’ve never been to LA Fitness before and want to try it before committing
- You’re comparing gyms and need a few days to test equipment, class times, and crowding
- You can schedule 3 consecutive days at the same club
Buy a day pass instead if:
- You’ve already used a free trial at any LA Fitness or City Sports Club location
- You were a member before and want occasional access without rejoining
- You’re traveling and want one workout at the club closest to your hotel
- You need to use multiple different LA Fitness clubs across separate days
Day passes also work for members at Signature Clubs who want to bring a non-member guest during peak hours when VIP guest privileges have a charge applied.
Pricing runs $10 to $15 at most standard clubs, $20 to $25 at Signature locations.
You can call the specific club to confirm before walking in, since LA Fitness doesn’t publish a flat day pass rate.
How to get the LA Fitness free trial
- Step 1: Go to lafitness.com/pages/freepass.aspx and fill in your name, email, and zip code.
- Step 2: Select the specific club you plan to visit. This matters, because the pass is locked to that one location and will be rejected at any other club.
- Step 3: Check your email for the pass confirmation, which typically arrives within a few minutes.
- Step 4: Visit that specific club within 30 days of receiving the email. Bringing your phone with the email pulled up or a printed copy both work.
- Step 5: At the front desk, present your government-issued photo ID (driver’s license, passport, or state ID with your date of birth visible).
- Step 6: Sign the liability waiver and complete a mandatory fitness analysis with a membership counselor before your first workout.
This orientation runs 20 to 45 minutes and includes a club tour plus a membership pitch, It happens before every free trial regardless of the club, so factor it into your first-day time budget.
Your 3-day clock starts on the day you walk in and check out the club, not on the date you requested the pass, days run consecutively from there.
7-day LA Fitness Free Trial
A 7-day version of the trial exists but isn’t publicly available through the standard website form.
Getting one requires either a corporate partnership code from an employer (companies that include gym access as an HR benefit sometimes provide LA Fitness trial codes) or a referral link from an LA Fitness member who received a promotional week-pass to share.
If your employer offers any kind of wellness or fitness benefit, you can check with HR.
Some corporate plans through companies like Gympass or Active&Fit partner with LA Fitness in ways that provide longer trials or reduced-cost access.
Seven-day trials follow the same rules as the 3-day version: first-time visitors only, one specific club, consecutive days, and you must activate within 30 days of receiving the code.
What Happens During the Orientation
Before a single step on the gym floor, every free trial visitor goes through a sit-down with a membership counselor that runs 20 to 45 minutes.
During this session:
- The counselor asks about your fitness background, goals, and schedule
- You get a walkthrough of the club’s main areas and equipment
- A brief assessment sometimes happens (body composition measurement or movement screen depending on the counselor)
- Membership plans and pricing get presented
- Personal training packages are mentioned
This is a sales meeting, and it doesn’t mean it has no value, since the club walkthrough is useful for evaluating the space.
But the goal from the counselor’s perspective is to get you to sign up before you leave.
Saying you want to try the club for a few days before deciding is a acceptable answer and won’t cost you access to the trial.
You should arrive early on day one because the orientation means you won’t be working out immediately
Plus, expect follow-up calls during your trial, some Reddit threads report daily calls from the club during the 3-day window.
What to Evaluate During Your 3 Days
Three days are enough to make a well-informed membership decision if you use them deliberately.
Day 1: Visit during your workout window:
If you’d normally train at 6 p.m. on weekdays, do the orientation and first workout at 6 p.m. on a weekday.
Peak crowding, equipment wait times, and locker room conditions during your actual schedule are what matter, not the mid-morning quiet period.
Day 2: Test the amenities you’d use:
Swim a lap if you care about the pool, shoot around on the basketball court, sit in the sauna.
Take a group class that matches what you’d attend as a member.
Day 3: Check the things most people don’t:
Parking situation during peak hours, locker room cleanliness specifically (this is the biggest maintenance indicator in the entire club).
Hot water in the showers, whether machines were fixed or still showing “out of service” tape from Day 1, and How staff responds when you have a question.
Before leaving on Day 3, compare what you experienced against your actual fitness habits, a pool that’s only open until 8 p.m. on a night you train at 8:30 p.m. matters.
When LA Fitness Day Passes Make more Sense than a Membership
Some situations where paying per visit beats joining, even at $15 to $25 per day:
- Training fewer than 3 times per month (at $15 per day pass, monthly cost stays below the cheapest LA Fitness membership)
- Only needing the gym when traveling to certain cities
- Returning after a gap and wanting to test whether the habit is back before committing monthly fees again
- Comparing multiple gym chains before settling on one
At 4 or more visits per month, the math flips decisively in favor of membership even at the lowest tier.
Four day passes at $15 each equals $60, while LA Fitness Single Club membership runs around $29.99 to $40 monthly.
| Monthly Visits | Day Pass Cost ($15 each) | LA Fitness Single Club (~$35/month) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15 | $35 | Day pass |
| 2 | $30 | $35 | Day pass (barely) |
| 3 | $45 | $35 | Membership |
| 4+ | $60+ | $35 | Membership |
LA Fitness Free Trial in Canada
Canadian residents access the free trial through the same lafitness.com website with Canadian club options available in the location selector.
Ontario has the largest concentration of LA Fitness clubs in Canada, and trials there follow the same 3-day consecutive structure as the US version.
One advantage specific to Canada: Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act 2002 includes a 10-day cooling-off period for personal development services contracts, so anyone who completes the trial and signs up for membership on the spot can still cancel within 10 days for a full refund of any fees paid.
What the LA Fitness Free Trial Doesn’t Tell You
A few things that 3 days of trial access can’t reliably reveal:
- Long-term class quality: Group fitness instructors rotate and vary significantly in quality, the yoga teacher during your trial might be the club’s best or worst.
- Club maintenance trends: Equipment that was working during your trial can be out of service two weeks after you join. you can read the most recent 6 months Google reviews of that specific club.
- Crowding at specific times: Weeknight 6 to 8 p.m. traffic varies week to week, January, just after New Year’s, and just before summer are the three peak crowd periods at most LA Fitness clubs.
- Staff turnover: Operations Managers at LA Fitness clubs turn over at a fairly high rate, and club often tracks with who’s running the location. A strong manager means cleaner facilities, faster equipment repairs, and better class scheduling, you can ask how long the current OM has been in the role takes 30 seconds and tells you more than a facility tour.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the LA Fitness free trial work?
Request it at lafitness.com/pages/freepass.aspx, receive the pass by email, activate at the selected club within 30 days, complete a mandatory fitness orientation, then use the club for 3 consecutive days.
Days start from the first time you check in. Photo ID is required and the pass is locked to the one club you chose during signup.
How long is the LA Fitness free trial?
3 consecutive days for the standard public trial, some corporate programs and member referral promotions offer a 7-day version.
Days run from the moment you first check in and cannot be paused or split across non-consecutive days.
Can I get a 7-day free trial at LA Fitness?
Not through the main website, seven-day trials come through employer wellness programs that partner with LA Fitness, specific member referral promotions, or corporate partnership codes.
Does LA Fitness have a day pass?
Yes, Day passes run $10 to $15 at most standard clubs and $20 to $25 at Signature locations.
Call ahead to confirm pricing at your specific club since LA Fitness doesn’t list day pass rates publicly.
How do I get a free trial if there’s no LA Fitness near me?
If the club selector during signup doesn’t return results within your search area, you can adjust the zip code radius or search by city.
If no LA Fitness operates within a reasonable distance, the trial option doesn’t help because the pass is location-specific.
LA Fitness’s location density is highest in California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, and Minnesota, so coverage depends heavily on where you live.
Is the LA Fitness free trial available in Canada?
Yes, primarily through Ontario locations, you can request through the same lafitness.com website by selecting a Canadian club in the location dropdown.
The same 3-day consecutive structure applies, nsignups in Ontario benefit from a 10-day cooling-off period under provincial consumer law if they join during or right after the trial.
Can I use the day pass at any LA Fitness club?
Day passes are purchased at a specific club and grant access to that location for one day.
Multi-Club day access at multiple locations in the same day is generally not available under a single day pass.
Travelers needing access at a specific club for a one-day visit should call ahead to confirm the club’s day pass policy and pricing.
Abraham is a fitness and consumer finance writer with a passion for helping people make smarter decisions before signing gym contracts. After spending years researching gym membership costs, hidden fees and cancellation policies across major gym chains, he created GymMembershipPricing to give people the honest information they need before signing up. Every guide on this site is independently researched and verified.
