An accountability partner is someone who supports another person to keep a commitment or maintain progress on a desired goal. They will often be a trusted friend or acquaintance who will regularly ask an individual about their progress or receive confessions of moral wrongdoing. Accountability coaches, who are professionals specializing in accountability, also offer accountability partnership as a service for a fee. Accountability partners can interact through regular in-person meetings, through the internet, or through a mixture of interactions. Within evangelical Christianity, accountability partners and groups are used in efforts to resist sexual temptation, including masturbation, viewing pornography, or pre-marital sex. In recent years, numerous kinds of accountability software have been developed, surveillance apps which track a user's internet use and send reports to a predetermined accountability partner.
Outside of evangelical Christianity, accountability partners have been used in a range of contexts for individuals who want to keep commitments, improve their productivity, or maintain self-care routines. This includes use in health and wellbeing, business, and academia. Studies of accountability partnership programmes have found improved results in practices such as self-examination for skin cancer in at-risk groups or the production of scholarship in a university department.