The Portable Air Quality Monitor We Couldn’t Find - Built Openly, Built Together

Interest in a portable AirGradient monitor has been building for a long time. We’ve heard it from customers who want something they can take with them day to day, from researchers who need a device that can move easily between environments, and internally from our own team. The idea kept resurfacing, and the same question always followed: if we were going to carry a portable air quality monitor ourselves, what would it actually need to be?

Eventually, that question stopped being hypothetical.

Somewhere over Africa, on a long flight back from Lagos, the discussion became unavoidable. We’d just spent time speaking with several groups looking for a portable air quality monitor, and the same theme kept coming up: nothing currently available quite fit their use case. That idea was still very fresh when Achim and myself became far too excited about the concept of a portable monitor for us to get much sleep. What was meant to be a quiet overnight flight quickly turned into hours of listing, debating, and refining ideas. By the time we landed, most of the core specifications were already there - far from polished, not final, but solid enough to build upon.

That flight marked the beginning of what we’re now calling AirGradient Go.

This isn’t a traditional product announcement, and it’s definitely not a launch. We’re sharing an early look because we’re deliberately taking a different approach. Rather than developing the device behind closed doors and revealing it only when everything is finished, we want to bring the community along as it’s being built.

Openness has always been central to how AirGradient operates - not just through open-source hardware and software, but through transparency around design decisions, trade-offs, and limitations. That philosophy applies fully to the AirGradient Go. We plan to share how and why key decisions are made, from airflow modelling and enclosure design to sensor selection, PCB layout, and even mould development.

There’s nothing we’re trying to hide. Every device involves compromises, and being clear about them leads to better products and better understanding. It also turns out to be a great way to attract the right people. Building openly has already helped us collaborate with talented contributors who care deeply about getting this right.

The AirGradient Go is being designed as a portable monitor we’d genuinely want to use ourselves. That includes things like having a built-in screen (something surprisingly rare in this category) but more importantly, it means thinking about the full experience: how the device is used, how information is presented, and how it fits into everyday life.

The key features that the monitor will have:

• Weatherproof
• Portable & Stationary
• Accurate sensors for PM, and CO2 (and a few more)
• Open source
• Display
• …

As development continues, we’ll be sharing regular updates on the blog, diving into specific challenges and decisions as they happen. If you’re curious about how a portable air quality monitor is actually built - and how we’re approaching this one - we’d love for you to follow along. We will be sharing the positives, but also be very open about our challenges, our errors, frustrations and potential compromises.

Some people might think, that’s a little crazy doing it this way?

But building openly, questioning assumptions, and involving the community has always been part of how AirGradient works. AirGradient Go will be no different: open-source, community-driven, and scientifically validated, just like the rest of our devices.

We’re excited to keep building. We’re even more excited to eventually get these into people’s hands and hear what they think.