Free Calorie Counter Apps in 2026: What You Actually Get for $0

How we checked (and who we are)

We make Thymi, so we are not neutral. To keep this fair, we checked each app's own website, help center or US App Store listing in October 2026 and only included features we could confirm there. Where a company does not say clearly whether something is free, we have left it out rather than guess.

"Free" also means different things in different apps. Some free plans are a full calorie tracker with ads. Others are closer to a long demo, with the fastest ways of logging behind a paywall. The features that make the biggest difference day to day are:

• Barcode scanning, which turns a packaged food into a log entry in a couple of seconds.
• AI logging, such as a photo of your plate or a typed or spoken description.
• Macro goals, so you can set protein, carbs and fat targets, not just calories.
• History and reports, because the useful patterns show up over weeks, not days.
• Ads, which do not change the numbers but do change how pleasant logging feels.

If you are still deciding what matters to you, our guide on how to choose a calorie tracker app walks through the full list of criteria.

Free calorie trackers compared at a glance

Prices are US prices at the time of writing (October 2026), from each app's own website or US App Store listing. They vary by country and change with promotions, so check the store before you subscribe. A dash means we could not confirm the detail from the company's own pages.

What each free plan includes

Thymi

We make Thymi, so weigh this section accordingly. Thymi is an AI calorie tracker, food diary and meal planner for iPhone and Android, with one account on both. The free plan, which we call "light bite", includes 3 AI logs a day, which cover a photo of your plate, a photo of a nutrition label, describing a meal in words ("two eggs on sourdough") and Fix it corrections. Barcode scanning, food search (13,500+ foods plus packaged products) and manual logging are unlimited. Water, weight and workouts, the daily Plate Score, streaks and today's meal plan are free too. Every item is matched to USDA FoodData Central or Open Food Facts and labelled Verified or Estimated. Limits: free history covers the last 7 days, and unlimited AI logging, weekly meal plans, long-range trends and full history are Pro.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal has one of the largest food databases and a very familiar food diary. Its own Premium page lists nutrition, weight and exercise tracking as free. Barcode scan, meal scan, voice logging, macro tracking with custom goals, ad-free logging, intermittent fasting and food insights are all listed as Premium. Barcode scanning moved to Premium in 2022, so older reviews that call it free are out of date. Its US App Store listing shows Premium at $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year, with a free Premium trial for new subscribers, and a Premium+ tier adds meal planning. If you are thinking of switching, our guide to MyFitnessPal alternatives goes deeper.

Lose It!

Lose It! is known for a friendly, simple setup and a clear calorie budget. Its US App Store listing describes calorie tracking and a basic weight loss plan as free, and lists the barcode scanner, photo meal logging, AI voice logging and macronutrient tracking among Premium features. Several Premium prices appear in the listing, including $39.99, plus lifetime options. If you mainly want to type in what you ate and stay under a daily number, the free version can still do that job.

Cronometer

Cronometer is the pick for people who care about micronutrients. Its free Basic account includes unlimited barcode scanning, tracking of up to 95 nutrients and compounds, meals and recipes, and a 7-day view of your nutrition data with two basic charts. Gold removes ads and adds AI photo logging, voice logging and unlimited history, at $10.99 a month or $59.99 a year according to its Gold page. Of the free plans here, Cronometer's is one of the most generous for detailed nutrition, provided you are comfortable searching and weighing rather than snapping photos.

Yazio

Yazio is a popular tracker in Europe with a clean design. Its help center says all calorie-counting functions will always be free, and its own site describes the barcode scanner as part of the free standard version. Yazio PRO adds AI photo tracking, fasting trackers, the recipe database, smart food ratings, weekly and monthly analysis, and an ad-free experience. The US App Store lists several PRO plans, with annual prices from $23.90 to $47.90 depending on the offer.

FatSecret

FatSecret has been free at its core for a long time, and its own site says the app and its core features are completely free, including calorie and macro tracking, weight logging, the barcode scanner and the community. Premium adds Smart Food Scan (photo logging), the Smart Assistant for voice or text logging, dietitian-designed meal plans, a meal planner, custom meals, copy food, a water tracker and up to 10 meal types instead of 4. The US App Store lists monthly, quarterly and annual Premium plans, with annual options at $38.99 and $59.99.

Free is enough if…

Plenty of people track successfully for years without paying anything. A free plan is usually enough if:

• You eat mostly packaged foods or repeat meals, and your app scans barcodes for free. Saved meals and recent foods do the rest. Our guide to barcode scanning for calories covers the common pitfalls, such as serving sizes that do not match yours.
• You are tracking calories, not every nutrient. Every app here tracks calories for free. If you just want a daily number and a rough sense of protein, you do not need a paid tier.
• You are building a habit for a few weeks. A short run of honest logging teaches you a lot about portions and where your calories come from. See how to count calories for a simple way to start.
• You only need recent history. If you look at this week rather than last spring, a 7-day window is fine. You can also note your weekly average weight somewhere else.
• You do not mind a few ads. They are irritating rather than harmful, and they are the trade-off that keeps many free plans free.

When paying is worth it

A subscription is worth it when it removes friction you feel every day, not because a feature list looks impressive. Paying tends to make sense if:

• Logging is the reason you stop. If typing in a home-cooked meal ingredient by ingredient wears you down, AI photo or describe logging can be the difference between tracking and quitting. Our explainer on how accurate AI calorie counters are sets realistic expectations, and logging food with a photo shows how to get better estimates.
• You want long-range trends. Weight and intake are noisy day to day. Months of history make it much easier to see whether a plateau is real.
• You need specific targets, such as custom macro goals, and your app keeps them behind a paywall.
• You want planning, not just tracking. Weekly meal plans and grocery lists live in paid tiers in most apps, including Thymi Pro.

A useful rule: pay for one month (or use a trial) only after you have logged for at least a week on the free plan. By then you know exactly which limit annoys you, and you can check whether the paid tier actually fixes it.

How to avoid free trial auto-renew surprises

Most app trials turn into a paid subscription automatically, often for a full year. That is standard practice, not a trick, but it catches people out. A few habits keep it on your terms:

1. Read the screen before you tap. Check the trial length, the price after the trial, and whether it bills monthly or yearly.
2. Set a reminder for two days before the trial ends. App store subscriptions generally renew unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the period.
3. Know where to cancel. On iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. On Android, open the Google Play Store, tap your profile icon, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions.
4. Deleting the app does not cancel the subscription. Only cancelling in your App Store or Google Play account does.
5. Cancelling early is usually fine. On iPhone, cancelling a free trial can end it straight away, so if you want the full trial, cancel near the end instead. Either way, you will not be charged once it is cancelled.
6. Check what happens to your data. In most apps, your log stays when you go back to the free plan, but paid features (such as older history) may be hidden again.

Thymi's 7-day free trial applies to the yearly Pro plan and renews into it unless you cancel, the same way other app store trials work.

Getting the most from a free plan

Whichever app you choose, a few free habits make it faster and more accurate:

• Save your regular meals. Most people eat a rotation of 10 to 20 meals. Saving them once turns a three-minute log into a single tap.
• Log as you go, not at the end of the day. Memory is the least accurate food database.
• Create custom foods for family recipes. Weigh the ingredients for a pot of soup or curry once, and you can reuse the entry for months.
• Watch your weekly average, not each day. Our food diary guide explains how to review a week without getting lost in the details.
• Be kind to yourself on messy days. A rough estimate logged is more useful than a perfect log abandoned.

In Thymi, the free AI logs suit the meals that are hardest to enter by hand, like a mixed home-cooked plate, while barcode and search cover everything else without limits.

This article is general information for healthy adults, not medical or nutritional advice. Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before changing how you eat, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have or have had an eating disorder, have a medical condition, or take medication.