activeEnergyBurned: HealthKit quantity type
HKQuantityTypeIdentifierActiveEnergyBurned · read from Apple’s documentation on 2026-10-02
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.activeEnergyBurned (Objective-C HKQuantityTypeIdentifierActiveEnergyBurned) is a HealthKit quantity type in Apple's "Activity" group. Apple's abstract: “A quantity sample type that measures the amount of active energy the user has burned.” Apple's discussion says its samples use energy units and measure cumulative values, so in HKStatisticsQuery it takes .cumulativeSum. It is available from iOS 8.0 and watchOS 2.0. This site's verified cross-platform matrix lists it in its Calories row, beside ActiveCaloriesBurnedRecord, TotalCaloriesBurnedRecord on Android Health Connect, with the caveat “Modelled estimates, not measurements.”
What Apple says activeEnergyBurned is
A quantity sample type that measures the amount of active energy the user has burned.
Apple’s abstract, quoted from its activeEnergyBurned reference page, read 2026-10-02. Apple’s discussion of the type runs 96 words.
- Swift
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.activeEnergyBurned- Objective-C
HKQuantityTypeIdentifierActiveEnergyBurned- Family
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier- Apple's topic group
- Activity
- Group page
- Activity
- Apple's reference
- activeEnergyBurned on developer.apple.com
Availability
The versions Apple’s documentation data gives for activeEnergyBurned, platform by platform, as read on 2026-10-02.
| Platform | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---|---|---|
| iOS | 8.0 | — |
| iPadOS | 8.0 | — |
| Mac Catalyst | 13.0 | — |
| macOS | 13.0 | — |
| visionOS | 1.0 | — |
| watchOS | 2.0 | — |
The rest of that release: HealthKit Types Introduced in iOS 8.
Sum or average, and in which units
Apple states both of these in the prose of the type’s discussion, not as properties, so they are derived from Apple’s sentence and the sentence is shown with each.
Aggregation style
cumulative — in an HKStatisticsQuery, use .cumulativeSum. Apple’s sentence:
Active energy samples use energy units (described in ) and measure cumulative values (described in ).
Unit family
energy — every type in this family is on the HKUnit reference.
Apple states it in the same sentence as the aggregation style, quoted above.
Empty parentheses and a dangling “described in” mark links in Apple’s sentence to other documentation pages: the generator keeps the sentence’s text, not its links, and the quote is left as stored rather than repaired.
Can apps write activeEnergyBurned?
Apple’s documentation for activeEnergyBurned does not state that its samples are read-only. Apple states read-only status only in prose, and its silence is not a statement either way, so this page makes no claim that apps can save it.
On Android Health Connect
activeEnergyBurned sits in the verified cross-platform matrix’s Calories row, which names HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.activeEnergyBurned, .basalEnergyBurned on Apple and ActiveCaloriesBurnedRecord, TotalCaloriesBurnedRecord on Android. The row groups the metric; it does not pair each Apple type with one Android record.
Modelled estimates, not measurements. Note the asymmetry: Apple splits active/basal, Android offers active and total — don't add active to total.
The metric guide for this row: Calories on every platform.
Questions
- Should I sum or average activeEnergyBurned in HealthKit?
- Sum it. Apple's documentation for activeEnergyBurned describes it as measuring cumulative values, so an HKStatisticsQuery over it takes .cumulativeSum. Apple's sentence, as read on 2026-10-02: "Active energy samples use energy units (described in ) and measure cumulative values (described in )."
- Which unit family does Apple give activeEnergyBurned?
- Energy. Apple's discussion of activeEnergyBurned says its samples use energy units: "Active energy samples use energy units (described in ) and measure cumulative values (described in )."
- Does activeEnergyBurned have a Health Connect equivalent?
- This site's verified cross-platform matrix lists activeEnergyBurned in its Calories row, which groups HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.activeEnergyBurned, .basalEnergyBurned on Apple with ActiveCaloriesBurnedRecord, TotalCaloriesBurnedRecord on Android; the row groups the metric and does not pair each Apple type with one Android record. The caveat recorded with that row: Modelled estimates, not measurements. Note the asymmetry: Apple splits active/basal, Android offers active and total — don't add active to total.
- Which iOS version added activeEnergyBurned?
- iOS 8.0. Apple's availability data for activeEnergyBurned lists iOS 8.0, iPadOS 8.0, Mac Catalyst 13.0, macOS 13.0, visionOS 1.0 and watchOS 2.0.
Sources checked
- Apple — HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.activeEnergyBurned · read 2026-10-02
- Apple — HKQuantityTypeIdentifier · read 2026-10-02
Apple’s abstract and sentences are quoted for identification; the page layout, the capsule and the cross-platform pairing are AIFitnessAPI’s. Generated from Apple’s documentation by scripts/fetch-healthkit-identifiers.mjs, not typed by hand — the same data as the full identifier table.