#1PlateLens
Best AI calorie tracking app overall
PlateLens is the AI calorie tracker we would hand to almost anyone. You photograph the plate, it identifies the foods and estimates portions, and when the photo is ambiguous it asks you to confirm instead of guessing. Every ingredient and every portion stays editable before you save, so the entry in your diary is the meal you actually ate. PlateLens reports an average calorie error of ±1.2% on its own site.
The photo is only one of four ways in. Voice logging handles “a flat white and a banana” while you walk. The barcode scanner draws on 820K+ branded products with barcode data, typed search covers 1.2M+ verified foods, and 45K+ restaurant menu items are in the same database. Everything lands in one diary with 82+ nutrients, including the vitamins and minerals that photo-only apps rarely show, plus net carbs for low-carb eaters.
The free plan never expires and needs no card: 3 AI photo scans a day, unlimited barcode and typed logging, five AI-coach messages a day, the browser web app at platelens.app/web and the intermittent-fasting timer (16:8, 14:10 or custom windows, with reminders and a home-screen widget). Premium unlocks unlimited photo scans and coach messages for $34.99 a year or $9.99 a month, the cheapest paid tier among the major trackers.
Around the food log, PlateLens covers the rest of a routine: two-way Apple Health and Health Connect sync, water and weight logging with a weight trend and progress photos, blood glucose and ketone logging, alcohol tracking, a recipe and meal planner with grocery lists, adaptive TDEE that learns your real expenditure from intake and weight trend, a 3D Body Scan that turns 12 photos into waist, hip and chest measurements, JSON data export and a read-only MCP server for AI assistants. It is available in English and Spanish.
4 ways
Photo, voice, barcode, typed
Choose PlateLens if:
- you want AI photo logging without paying first;
- you eat packaged food, restaurant meals and home cooking in the same week;
- you care about protein, fiber, sodium or iron, not just calories;
- you want one app for food, fasting, weight and glucose.
#2Cal AI
Best for photo-only simplicity
Cal AI is one of the best-known names in AI calorie tracking, and its appeal is focus. The app is organised around one action: take a picture of the meal and get calories and macros back. For someone who has never tracked food and is put off by search boxes and serving-size menus, that single-button design is the whole point.
It is a subscription app that starts with a trial, so plan on paying to keep using it (check the App Store for the current price in your country). Its strength is the first impression; the question for week three is what you do with the meals a photo handles badly, such as a sealed protein bar, a smoothie or a bowl of soup.
Choose Cal AI if:
- you only ever want to photograph meals, and
- you are happy to pay for that after the trial.
Choose PlateLens instead if you want photo logging on a free plan that never expires, voice and barcode in the same diary, a confirmation step when the photo is unclear, 82+ nutrients or a web app. Our wider AI calorie tracker ranking on AI Food Tracker covers more photo apps.
#3MyFitnessPal
Best for existing MyFitnessPal users
MyFitnessPal has the largest crowd-sourced food database in the category and the widest restaurant and packaged-food coverage, which is why so many people already have years of history in it. Its AI photo feature, Meal Scan, sits inside that familiar diary, and so do the recipes and community features long-time users rely on.
Meal Scan is a Premium feature, and MyFitnessPal Premium costs $79.99 a year, more than twice PlateLens Premium. Because the database is crowd-sourced, the same food often appears many times with different numbers, so it pays to pick entries carefully.
Choose MyFitnessPal if:
- your logging history and friends are already there, and
- you are willing to pay Premium for the AI photo feature.
Choose PlateLens instead if you want AI photo logging without paying, a verified database instead of a crowd-sourced one, or the lower Premium price. Read our PlateLens vs MyFitnessPal comparison for the details.
