Benchmarks & standards
What Is a Good FTP?
A good FTP depends on your body weight, age, and goals — but here is what the numbers actually mean. Enter yours to see where it lands.
Not sure? Estimate it with the FTP calculator first.
Your category
Experienced
An FTP of 250 W (225–265 W) — Consistently trained and comfortably strong on fast group rides, including on rolling terrain.
These are absolute-power bands. Because rider weight matters too, your watts per kilogram tells the rest of the story — see below.
Short answer
As a coaching reference for trained male amateurs at the 75 kg reference weight: 190–225 W is intermediate, 225–300 W is experienced to advanced, and 300 W and up is competitive-racer territory. New riders often start below 150 W and climb quickly.
But raw watts ignore body weight, so the honest answer is that a good FTP is one that suits your size and is trending upward. Divide your FTP by your weight in kilograms and read what a good W/kg is instead — that is the number cyclists actually compare.
What a good FTP looks like, by level
Each level, in absolute watts and in the power-to-weight it represents. Most riders sit between two bands rather than neatly inside one.
| Level | FTP at 75 kg | W/kg |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | Under 150 W | Under 2.0 |
| Recreational | 150–190 W | 2.0–2.5 |
| Intermediate | 190–225 W | 2.5–3.0 |
| Experienced | 225–265 W | 3.0–3.5 |
| Advanced | 265–300 W | 3.5–4.0 |
| Competitive | 300–340 W | 4.0–4.5 |
| Elite amateur | 340–375 W | 4.5–5.0 |
| Elite | 375 W+ | 5.0+ |
What these numbers are: These watt figures are not a survey result — they are the site's single W/kg scale projected onto a 75 kg reference rider, which is why the two columns can never disagree. The numeric ranges here are referenced to trained male recreational and amateur cyclists — the population the underlying coaching convention was built around. Female cyclists should not read them as a percentile or reference table: the physiology differs, and we do not publish separate numeric ranges for women because we do not yet have a source we consider solid enough to stand behind. Full methodology and sources.
Your own weight is almost certainly not 75 kg. See the FTP you need at every body weight for the figure that applies to you.
Is 200, 250, or 300 W a good FTP? It depends on your weight
This is the part most FTP charts leave out. The same wattage moves a rider through two or three levels depending on what it has to carry:
- 200 W — 3.1 W/kg at 65 kg (experienced), 2.7 W/kg at 75 kg (intermediate), 2.2 W/kg at 90 kg (recreational).
- 250 W — 3.8 W/kg at 65 kg (advanced), 3.3 W/kg at 75 kg (experienced), 2.8 W/kg at 90 kg (intermediate).
- 300 W — 4.6 W/kg at 65 kg (elite amateur), 4.0 W/kg at 75 kg (competitive), 3.3 W/kg at 90 kg (experienced).
A 65 kg rider at 250 W and a 90 kg rider at 250 W have identical FTPs and are two full levels apart on any climb. That is the whole reason cyclists quote power-to-weight. Work out yours with the W/kg calculator, then read what a good W/kg is.
Raw watts are not useless, though. On the flat, in a time trial, or driving a paceline into a headwind, absolute power is what moves you — which is why a heavier rider with a big FTP is often the one you want on the front. FTP vs W/kg works through why the two behave differently and which one to track for your riding.
How quickly can FTP improve?
Almost entirely a function of where you start. A rider in their first structured year can expect a double-digit percentage gain; someone several seasons in is fighting for low single digits, and that smaller gain is just as much of a win. Judging progress in watts rather than percentages is what makes experienced riders feel stuck when they are not.
How much your FTP can improve in 3, 6, or 12 months has the realistic ranges by training history. If yours has gone flat despite consistent work, the cause is usually diagnosable — see why an FTP stops improving.
Why “good” also depends on age and goals
- Age. Sustainable power tends to peak in the 20s to mid-30s and ease down from the late 30s. A good FTP for a masters rider is rightly judged against their peers — see FTP by age.
- Goals. The FTP that makes you competitive in a local race is far above the FTP that makes social rides enjoyable. A good number is the one that serves what you actually want to do on the bike.
- Test protocol. A ramp-test FTP and a 20-minute-test FTP are not interchangeable, and the gap between them can be larger than a year of training. Compare like with like — see ramp test vs 20-minute test.
How to find — and then raise — your FTP
If you do not have a number yet, the FTP calculator estimates it from a 20-minute test. Once you have it, the cycling power zone calculator turns it into a full set of training zones, so the work you do lands where it should — and how to improve your W/kg lays out the level-by-level path from there.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good FTP in watts?
- For a trained male amateur around 75 kg, roughly 190–225 W is intermediate, 225–300 W is experienced to advanced, and 300 W and up is competitive-racer territory. Newer riders often sit below 150 W. Watts alone ignore body weight, though, so the same FTP can be average for a large rider and excellent for a small one — power-to-weight (W/kg) is the fairer comparison.
- Is 200 FTP good?
- A 200 W FTP is a solid intermediate figure that handles social and endurance rides comfortably. Weight decides how good: at 65 kg that is 3.1 W/kg, which is genuinely strong club-ride fitness; at 90 kg it is 2.2 W/kg, which is a recreational level with plenty of room to grow. Either way it is a good base to build from.
- Is 250 FTP good?
- Yes — 250 W is a strong amateur FTP that holds the pace on most fast group rides. At 70 kg it is 3.6 W/kg (advanced); at 95 kg it is 2.6 W/kg (intermediate). Those two riders have identical watts and perform very differently on any climb, which is why cyclists compare W/kg rather than raw watts.
- Is 300 FTP good?
- Very. A 300 W FTP is reached only through consistent structured training. At 75 kg that is 4.0 W/kg, the conventional gateway to competitive amateur racing. Heavier riders producing 300 W will see a lower W/kg and should judge themselves on that number rather than the watts.
- What is a good FTP for a beginner?
- Beginners commonly test somewhere between 120 and 180 W, and that is completely normal. FTP also rises fastest at the start — a newer rider training consistently can add 20–40 W over a few months. Your trend matters far more than the first number you record.
- What is the average FTP for a cyclist?
- We are not aware of an authoritative population average, and a precisely quoted one is worth treating with suspicion: cyclists who record an FTP are a self-selected, already-training group, so any figure drawn from app data is biased upward. Recreational and intermediate amateur men commonly fall somewhere around 190–260 W, but treat that as orientation rather than a statistic.
- Does a good FTP depend on age and sex?
- Yes. Sustainable power tends to peak in the 20s to mid-30s and declines gradually from the late 30s. Sex matters too: the reference ranges on this page are drawn from male amateur riders, and they should not be read as a female reference table — we do not publish separate numeric ranges for women because we do not have a source solid enough to stand behind. Compare yourself against similar riders, and above all against your own past results.
- How often should I test my FTP?
- Every 4 to 8 weeks during consistent training, or after a notable training block, is typical. Testing more often adds fatigue without much new information; testing rarely lets your training zones drift out of date as your fitness changes.
More on FTP
Keep going with the rest of the FTP guides.
Related tools
Find your number, then turn it into training.
FTP Calculator
Estimate your FTP from a 20-minute test and get your seven cycling power zones in watts.
W/kg Calculator
Turn FTP and body weight into watts per kilogram and see where you sit against performance categories.
Cycling Power Zone Calculator
Generate a full training-zone table from your FTP — percentages, watt ranges, and what each zone trains.
SmarterTraining builds each session around your current FTP and recovery, then adapts as you improve — so a good FTP keeps getting better.