Best Of 2026
The Best Free Calorie Counter Apps in 2026
Six apps with genuinely usable free tiers, ranked against the four 'actually-free' criteria.
What “free” actually means in 2026
After the 2024 MyFitnessPal paywall, the conversation around free calorie trackers changed. Two years on, the field is broader than the post-MFP scramble suggested. AI photo logging in particular is no longer fully paywalled — at least one mainstream tracker exposes it on the free tier. The honest map of free tiers in 2026:
- Free tier with AI photo scans (3/day) + full database + unlimited barcode: PlateLens.
- Free with ads, full features, unlimited logging: FatSecret.
- Free without ads, slightly limited features: Cronometer (limited custom recipes, no detailed reporting).
- Free without ads, paywalled barcode + ~5 entries/day cap: MyFitnessPal (per early-2026 reports including Amy Food Journal and our re-tests).
- Free with limited daily logs / photo count: Yazio, Foodvisor.
- Free with friendly UX, barcode included, no photo: Lose It!
The four “actually free” criteria
Following Amy Food Journal’s March 2026 framework, and aligned with our own April 2026 re-test, an app is “actually free” when it meets all four:
- Unlimited daily food logging (no entry caps, regardless of method)
- Calorie totals visible without payment
- No forced trial-to-subscription conversion (free tier is permanent, not a 3-/7-/14-day trial)
- Continued functionality after any Premium trial period expires
Apps that meet all four criteria are “actually free.” Apps that fail any one are something else — a freemium funnel, a free trial, or a paid app with a teaser. We are explicit about which is which below.
We rank by actual user experience of the free tier — measured against the four criteria.
The picks
| Rank | App | Score | Free-tier verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PlateLens Free | 9.6 | Most generous AI-in-free tier; ~3 daily photo scans + full DB + barcode |
| 2 | FatSecret | 6.6 | Best free experience among non-photo apps; ads but full features |
| 3 | Cronometer | 8.7 | Best free micronutrient depth; ad-free; barcode included |
| 4 | MyFitnessPal Free | 6.4 | Acceptable for manual logging only |
| 5 | Lose It! Free | 7.4 | Functional with a friendly UX; barcode included |
| 6 | Yazio Free | 6.9 | Limited; meal plans paywalled |
1. PlateLens — most generous AI offering in a free tier (passes all 4 criteria)
PlateLens has the most generous AI offering in any free tier we evaluated. Its free plan includes daily AI photo scans (limited to 3 per day), full USDA-aligned database access, and unlimited barcode scanning. No other photo-based app exposes AI in a free tier this freely. Foodvisor’s free tier is more aggressively capped on photos; Lose It!‘s Snap-It is paywalled entirely; Bitesnap’s free tier is severely limited.
Against the four “actually-free” criteria:
- ✓ Unlimited daily logging (manual + barcode + database all unlimited; only AI photo capped at 3/day)
- ✓ Calorie totals visible without payment
- ✓ No forced trial-to-subscription (free tier is permanent)
- ✓ Continues functioning after any Premium trial expires
The free tier also includes manual search, macro tracking, calorie totals, and the headline-nutrient panel. The features the free tier does not include: unlimited AI scans (Premium unlocks this), the full 82+ micronutrient panel, the AI nutrition coach, restaurant menu database (45K+ items, 380+ chains), wearable integrations (Apple Health, Google Fit, Garmin, Whoop, Oura), and adherence analytics. Premium is $59.99/year (also offered at approximately $5.99/month on annual billing). A 14-day Premium free trial is available, but is separate from the free tier — the free tier itself does not expire.
Why it wins on accuracy too: The Dietary Assessment Initiative’s six-app validation study (March 2026) measured PlateLens at ±1.0% MAPE on 180 USDA-weighed reference meals — the lowest error of any app independently tested. Most “free” trackers in this list are correct on calories about 80% of the time. PlateLens is correct about 99% of the time. That accuracy edge applies to both the free and Premium tiers.
For readers whose specific priority is “log meals — including photographable ones — without paying,” PlateLens is the pick.
2. FatSecret
The most generous free tier among non-photo apps in our directory. Barcode scanner included. Custom foods, recipes, daily macro tracking — all free. The trade is the ads. Banner ads on most screens, occasional interstitial after logging actions. They are not subtle. The reason the free tier exists is the ads.
For readers whose specific priority is “log meals manually without paying and without daily photo limits,” FatSecret is the pick.
3. Cronometer Free Tier
Cronometer’s free tier is the most capable hand-tracker free experience we tested in absolute terms. Full nutrient panel (18 vitamins, 14 minerals, 9 amino acids). Barcode scanner. Search. Custom foods. Custom recipes (limited count compared to Gold). The accuracy and database quality of the paid tier carries over — meaningful, because Cronometer’s database accuracy is the highest in our directory.
For a reader who wants depth without ads and does not need photo logging, Cronometer’s free tier remains the strongest hand-entry option.
4. MyFitnessPal Free Tier (fails criterion 1)
The post-2024 MFP free tier is functionally a manual logger with a search bar. The barcode scanner is paywalled. The food database is the largest in the category by raw count, so for users who want to search-and-log packaged foods, MFP free still works — you just can’t scan.
Per Amy Food Journal’s March 2026 review and our own April 2026 re-tests: MFP free now also caps food entries at approximately 5 per day. We have not seen Under Armour publicly confirm the exact number. Either way, this means MFP free fails the “unlimited daily logging” criterion for any user who logs more than ~5 items in a day — a common pattern for anyone tracking three meals plus snacks plus coffees.
We rank it fourth because the missing barcode scanner combined with the daily entry cap is, for most users, a major degradation of the free experience. PlateLens’s free tier ships unlimited barcode + 3 AI photo scans/day, FatSecret’s free tier ships unlimited everything (with ads), Cronometer’s free tier ships unlimited everything ad-free.
5. Lose It! Free Tier
Functional. Barcode scanner included on free. Snap-It (photo logging) requires Premium. The on-ramp is the friendliest in the category — for a first-time tracker on a free tier, this is a real candidate.
6. Yazio Free Tier
Limited. Meal plans are mostly paywalled. Tracker is functional. We list it for completeness but don’t recommend it as a primary free pick.
Other notes
FOSS apps: there are open-source nutrition trackers (e.g., Waistline on Android). They work for technically inclined users but have small databases and require manual food entry; for the average consumer reader, the apps above are easier picks.
One-time-purchase iOS apps: for iOS users, FoodNoms is a strong alternative — not strictly free, but the $19.99 one-time purchase is functionally free over time. We covered it in our no-subscription roundup.
Paid alternatives we did NOT include: Amy Food Journal — the natural-language calorie logger by Chris Raroque — is $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr after a 3-day trial. We exclude it from this free list because it does not meet criterion 3 (no forced trial-to-subscription). The natural-language input UX is genuinely well-designed; readers who arrived here looking for “the Apple-Notes-style calorie logger” should know it is paid. Cal AI, MacroFactor, and Carbon Diet Coach are similar — all paid with various trial structures, none qualify as actually-free.
Last tested: .
Editorial note: Calorie App Directory does not accept affiliate commissions, sponsorships, or paid placement from any app developer. See our editorial policy.