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A used ARX bought from a private seller will not run. That is not a warning about wear; it is how the product works. Every ARX machine needs an active software license, ARX states that without one the machine will not run at all, and the license does not transfer with the hardware. What you are buying on a private sale is a 655-pound or 680-pound machine and an application to ARX for a new license, which ARX reviews serial number by serial number and does not always approve.
This piece is a cost-of-ownership check on that transaction. A new ARX Alpha is $43,000 and a new ARX Omni is $46,000, both verified 2026-09-17, and both come with a one-year warranty, the ARX Certified Course, delivery and install arranged with ARX, and a license you simply subscribe to. A third-party used machine gives up all four, and adds a mandatory training requirement, a move that ARX has to be consulted on, and the risk that the serial number fails review. The discount has to cover every one of those before the used machine is the cheaper one, and three of the costs are not published anywhere we can verify.
Quick answer
- Budget-first buyer: the ARX Alpha at $43,000 new, verified 2026-09-17, is the figure any used asking price has to beat after a new license, mandatory training, an ARX-consulted move and no warranty.
- Full-library buyer: the ARX Omni at $46,000 new, verified 2026-09-17, sixteen cable exercises against the Alpha's six, under exactly the same license rules used or new.
- Used-or-nothing buyer: the ARX Alpha or ARX Omni through ARX's own used-machine waitlist, at a price not in our verified data, because it is the only used route where the seller also controls the license.
- License-averse buyer: the AEKE K1 at $3,598 to $3,898, verified 2026-08-14, up to 220 lb of digital resistance with the coaching library included and no subscription; the Speediance Gym Monster 2 from $3,272 and the GMWD SM12 2.0 from $1,149.99, both verified 2026-08-14, are the other two machines in this piece that never ask for a license.
At a glance: the two ARX machines, new
| Machine | New hardware price (verified) | Software | Exercises | Footprint and weight | Included with a new machine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARX Alpha | $43,000 (verified 2026-09-17) | $200/mo home, $400/mo commercial, lifetime licenses available | 6 on a guided sled | 21 sq ft, 655 lb | 1-year warranty, ARX Certified Course, delivery and install with ARX, 2 to 4 week lead time |
| ARX Omni | $46,000 (verified 2026-09-17) | $200/mo home, $400/mo commercial, lifetime licenses available | 16 through a cable system | 37 sq ft, 680 lb | 1-year warranty, ARX Certified Course, delivery and install with ARX, 2 to 4 week lead time |
Both are the hardware figures ARX publishes. ARX quotes third-party financing at about $1,200 a month and does not finance in-house; a lender payment is never the price. The purchase runs through a Talk to ARX call.
What changes when the machine changes hands
| Line item | New from ARX | Third-party used |
|---|---|---|
| Software license | Subscribe at $200/mo home or $400/mo commercial | Does not transfer; a new license needs ARX serial review, and not every machine qualifies |
| Warranty | 1 year, complimentary | Ends on resale |
| Training | ARX Certified Course included | ARX Certified Training mandatory before use; cost not in our verified data |
| Delivery and install | Arranged with ARX, 2 to 4 week lead time | Moving the machine requires consulting ARX; cost not in our verified data |
| Purchase path | Talk to ARX call | Private seller; ARX asks you to submit the serial number for verification before money moves |
| Hardware price | $43,000 Alpha, $46,000 Omni (verified 2026-09-17) | Not in our verified data |
The right-hand column is the whole story, and the software line decides whether the machine is a machine, so it comes first.
The license is the machine
ARX does not sell a weight stack. A computer-controlled motor pushes back with the force you produce at every point of the rep, including the lowering phase, and the drive system and load cell feed the motor controller and the software in a feedback loop. The software is what turns that loop on, and it is a separate subscription on both machines: $200 a month for home use, $400 a month commercial, with lifetime licenses available per ARX's site. It also records the per-rep force data to an online dashboard.
Pull the license and none of that happens. ARX's position, recorded in our catalog for both the Alpha and the Omni, is that without an active license the machine will not run at all: no workout, no force data. A used Smith machine or cable stack still lifts without anyone's permission. A used ARX is 655 or 680 pounds of drive system waiting for one. Whether a lifetime license behaves differently on resale is not in our verified data; ARX's statement is that the license is non-transferable, and any seller's claim otherwise is something to confirm with ARX in writing before a deposit.
What ARX does with the serial number
ARX reviews every serial number individually before it will sell a new license to a resale buyer, and not every machine qualifies. What the review looks at, how long it takes, and what disqualifies a machine are not in our verified data. What ARX has published is the process it wants buyers to follow: submit the serial number for verification before any money moves.
That is the most useful sentence in this piece. Get the serial from the seller, send it to ARX, and wait for the answer before a deposit, a wire, or a truck. A seller who will not share it before payment is asking you to buy a machine that may never turn on.
The warranty ends at the handshake
A new ARX carries a complimentary one-year warranty, and ARX states that the warranty ends when the machine changes hands. A resale buyer takes on a motorized machine with a load cell, a motor controller and a drive system, and no coverage for any of it. What a repair costs is not in our verified data, and neither is where a resale owner sources parts. What is in our data is the software side: the machine runs only on an active ARX license, and that license is non-transferable.
On a new Alpha the warranty covers the first year of a $43,000 purchase; on a new Omni, the first year of $46,000. A used buyer self-insures a machine of that value from day one, and that cost belongs in the same column as the training and the move.
Certified Training is mandatory for resale buyers
Every new ARX includes the ARX Certified Course, and ARX says personal onboarding through ARX Academy comes with the machine. Resale buyers do not get a pass. ARX requires anyone who buys a machine used to complete ARX Certified Training before use, and the cost, format and time involved are not in our verified data. It is the second figure to ask ARX for directly, after the serial review.
The requirement fits the product: the machine matches whatever force you produce, including on the lowering phase, and ARX describes its session as about 15 minutes, twice a week. That is ARX's framing of its own protocol, not something we have tested. Either way, the training is a condition of the license, not a line you can skip.
Moving a 655-pound machine needs ARX's say
Delivery and install on a new machine are arranged with ARX, and the machine ships with a power supply set to your outlet voltage at install. Moving a used machine requires consulting ARX; what that costs, and who does the lifting, are not in our verified data.
The electrical requirement does not change with ownership. Both machines need 110V on a dedicated 20A circuit or 220V on a dedicated 15A circuit, and ARX states its machines are not compatible with GFCI outlets, so budget an electrician either way. The Alpha is 21 square feet at 32 by 94 by 66 inches; the Omni is 37 square feet at 42 by 128 by 90 inches. ARX does not state which dimension is which, so measure the route in as well as the floor.
The math a used discount has to clear
Here is the new-machine baseline, using only verified figures. A new Alpha is $43,000 in hardware plus $200 a month in home software, which is $2,400 a year: $45,400 in year one before the electrician, and $55,000 over five years. The Omni runs $3,000 higher on every line, $48,400 in year one and $58,000 over five years. That is our arithmetic on ARX's published numbers, not an ARX figure.
On the used side, the $200 a month subscription is identical, so it cancels out of the comparison. What is left is the asking price plus three costs that are not in our verified data: whatever ARX charges a resale buyer for a new license beyond the subscription, whatever Certified Training costs a resale buyer, and whatever the ARX-consulted move costs. Against that sits the value of a one-year warranty you no longer have, and the possibility, which ARX raises itself, that the serial number does not qualify and the machine never runs.
So the test is simple to state and impossible to finish from a keyboard. The asking price plus three unpublished ARX charges has to come in comfortably under $43,000 for an Alpha or $46,000 for an Omni, with margin left for self-insuring a five-figure motorized machine. The only way to fill the blanks is a call to ARX with the serial number in hand, and the order matters: serial review first, training and move quotes second, price negotiation last.
ARX Alpha: the smaller machine, used or new
The Alpha is the smaller of the two machines ARX builds in Austin, Texas. Six exercises run on a guided sled that keeps every rep on one path: leg press, chest press, row, calf raise, torso flexion and torso extension. ARX calls it its easiest machine to learn, and it is the more space-efficient of the two at 21 square feet and 655 pounds. Adaptive resistance, the software and the data it records are identical to the Omni; only the delivery differs. At $43,000, verified 2026-09-17, it is $3,000 under the Omni.
Where it gives ground: used, the Alpha's price advantage is the same $3,000 it holds new, and every resale complication applies in full. Six movements on a single path is the whole library; if you want belt squat, deadlift or Romanian deadlift, no license upgrade adds them. It also needs the same dedicated non-GFCI circuit and the same ARX-consulted move as the bigger machine, so the smaller footprint saves floor, not process.
ARX Omni: the full library, used or new
The Omni is ARX's flagship. The same motor-matched resistance runs through a cable system with clip-on handles and attachments, which is how one machine covers sixteen exercises: belt squat, deadlift, Romanian deadlift, hamstring curl, calf raise, horizontal press, incline press, decline press, overhead press, pec fly, pulldown, pullover, row, high pull, biceps curl and triceps pressdown. ARX says it does the work of 10-plus machines. It is 37 square feet and 680 pounds, at $46,000 new, verified 2026-09-17.
Where it gives ground: the Omni is the machine more likely to surface used from a studio or clinic, because those are the buyers ARX names for it, and a commercial machine carries a different software history at $400 a month against $200 for home use. Whether a commercially licensed machine resets cleanly to a home license on resale is not in our verified data; it is a question for the serial review. The Omni also has more to move at 680 pounds, and the cable system, handles and attachments are more parts to inspect on a machine with no warranty.
ARX's own used-machine waitlist
There is a third route. ARX keeps a waitlist for used machines it sells directly. Pricing, wait times and what those machines include are not in our verified data, so we cannot put a number beside it. What we can say is structural: when ARX is the seller, the company that controls the license is also the company taking your money, and the serial review, the training and the move are ARX's to arrange rather than yours to chase. For a buyer who can wait, it is the route with the fewest unknowns.
If the license model is the dealbreaker: three machines that never ask for one
Every ARX carries a $200 a month home software subscription for as long as it runs, new or used, and a third-party used one adds a license ARX may decline to sell. If that structure is the reason you were reading about used machines at all, the three below are built the other way: you pay once, and the machine runs without a license from anyone. None of them is an ARX; what each one drops is the license. Prices are our catalog figures with their verification dates, and the most expensive machine in this section, the $4,649 top Speediance bundle, is a little over a tenth of a new Alpha's hardware price before ARX's software is counted.
The AEKE Smart Home Gym K1 is $3,598 for the Complete Set and $3,898 with the Bench B1, verified 2026-08-14, and AEKE states no subscription is required: the 320-plus movements and 200-plus courses come with the hardware. A digital servo motor delivers up to 220 lb of resistance across two cable arms in 1 lb steps, 42-point AI skeletal tracking gives form feedback during the set, and the unit auto-folds to roughly 0.3 square meters. The 220 lb ceiling will cap advanced lifters chasing heavy compound loads, and a screen-driven machine is more to maintain than a barbell, but the five-year software line is zero against ARX's $12,000.
The Speediance Gym Monster 2 runs $3,272 to $4,649 across seven bundles, verified 2026-08-14, from the $3,272 Basic to the $4,649 2S Family Plus. Two 800W motors generate up to 220 lb total, 110 lb per arm, in 1 lb steps, across four modes: Standard, Chain, Constant, and an Eccentric mode that loads the lowering phase heavier, the one feature among these three that speaks to the same idea ARX builds its pitch on. Speediance states that core training, all four modes and data tracking are free with no required subscription; the optional Wellness+ AI tier is $24.90 a month or $249 a year, and you can skip it. The included rowing bench ships only on the Works Plus and Family Plus bundles, and the warranty is two years.
The GMWD SM12 2.0 is the iron answer: a half rack, a Smith machine and a dual-cable functional trainer on one 14-gauge steel frame, $1,149.99 rack only, verified 2026-08-14. That figure excludes the barbell and plates; the rack with aluminum pulleys is $1,349.99, and the fully loaded configuration with a bench and 230 lb of plates is $2,439.99. There is no motor, no software and no serial review, and ARX's own concession that barbells win on cost and track record is the argument for it. If you take the rack-only variant, the Keppi Bench6000 X at $679.99, verified 2026-08-14, a Type 304 stainless frame with 11 backrest and 8 seat angles, is the bench our all-in-one home gym comparison adds to either frame.
Verdicts by buyer type
- You want an ARX at the lowest verified all-in and can pay now: buy new. The Alpha at $43,000 or the Omni at $46,000 comes with the warranty, the Certified Course, install and a license you subscribe to, and each of those is a cost or a risk on the used side.
- You have a used machine in front of you and a serial number: send the serial to ARX before a deposit. If it qualifies, get the license, training and move figures in writing, add them to the asking price, and hold the total against $43,000 or $46,000 with the warranty gap in mind. If it does not qualify, walk away; there is no license workaround in our verified data.
- You want used with ARX behind it: join ARX's waitlist for the machines it sells directly. It is the only used route where the seller owns the license question, and the price is the number to ask for.
- You want a serious home strength machine and the license model is the dealbreaker: ARX itself concedes that barbells win on cost and track record. The AEKE K1 at $3,598 to $3,898, the Speediance Gym Monster 2 at $3,272 to $4,649 and the GMWD SM12 2.0 from $1,149.99, all verified 2026-08-14, run without a license from anyone. Our best home gym equipment guide sorts them by job from $679.99 to $4,649, our all-in-one home gym comparison prices the digital cable trainer against the Smith machine, and our no-subscription smart gym piece covers machines that never ask for a monthly payment.
Bottom line
A third-party used ARX is hardware plus an application, and ARX decides the application serial number by serial number. The new-machine baseline is $43,000 for the Alpha and $46,000 for the Omni, verified 2026-09-17, with the warranty, the Certified Course, install and a subscribable license included, and the used route trades all four for a discount that has to cover three costs ARX has not published plus a machine that might never run. Submit the serial to ARX before money moves, get the license, training and move figures in writing, and only then decide whether the discount is real. If you want used with fewer unknowns, ARX's own waitlist is the route, and the ARX brand page holds both machines and our verified figures for each. And if the license was the reason you were shopping used at all, the AEKE K1, Speediance Gym Monster 2 and GMWD SM12 2.0 above run without one, at $1,149.99 to $4,649, verified 2026-08-14.
Will a used ARX work without a software license?
No. ARX states that without an active license the machine will not run at all: no workout and no force data. The software license is non-transferable, so a third-party used Alpha or Omni arrives as hardware only. The buyer applies to ARX for a new license, and the subscription is the same as on a new machine, $200 a month for home use.
Does ARX approve every used machine for a new license?
No. ARX reviews every serial number individually before it will sell a new license, and not every machine qualifies. What the review checks is not in our verified data. ARX asks buyers to submit the serial number for verification before any money moves, the one step that protects you from paying for a machine that lists at $43,000 to $46,000 new and can never run.
Does the ARX warranty carry over when I buy used?
No. New machines come with a complimentary one-year warranty, and ARX states the warranty ends when the machine changes hands. A resale buyer owns a 655-pound Alpha or 680-pound Omni with a motor, a load cell and a drive system and no coverage. Repair costs are not in our verified data, so count them as an open line item.
Do I have to take ARX training if I buy used?
Yes. ARX requires resale buyers to complete ARX Certified Training before using the machine. A new Alpha or Omni includes the ARX Certified Course at no extra charge with the $43,000 or $46,000 hardware price, verified 2026-09-17. The cost and format of the training for a resale buyer are not in our verified data, so ask ARX for that figure before you agree a price.
Is there a way to buy a used ARX from ARX itself?
Yes. ARX keeps a waitlist for used machines it sells directly, and that is the one used route where the seller is also the company that controls the license. Pricing and wait times are not in our verified data. For comparison, a new Alpha is $43,000 and a new Omni is $46,000, both verified 2026-09-17, and both include a one-year warranty and the Certified Course.
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