Photograph your fridge.
Get dinner instantly.
RecipeScan is the AI app that turns a photo of your pantry into recipes you can cook tonight — and a grocery list for what's missing. Free on iPhone & iPad.
The fastest way to cook from what you already have
Every feature designed around one question: what should I make tonight?
Pantry Scan
Photograph your fridge, pantry, or cabinet shelves. AI identifies every item with quantities and storage locations in seconds — adds them all to your inventory in one tap.
AI Grocery Lists
Pick recipes for the week. AI compares them to your pantry and tells you exactly what to buy — grouped by aisle, duplicates merged, shareable with the family.
Five Ways to Scan
One camera, five superpowers: scan a single ingredient, a whole pantry shelf, a barcode, a plated meal, or a grocery receipt. AI does the rest — recipes, inventory, calories.
Snap a Meal, Get the Recipe
See a dish you love — at a restaurant, a friend's place, anywhere? Photograph the plate and AI writes the full recipe: ingredients, steps, and timing, ready to save and cook.
Receipt → Pantry in One Tap
Scan your grocery receipt after shopping. Every line item is extracted with quantities and prices, then bulk-added to your pantry — no typing a single item.
AI Meal Planning
Auto-fill a whole week in seconds, then drag recipes into any slot. Generate a grocery list straight from the plan, and see weekly nutrition and cost insights at a glance. Plan 3, 5, 7, or 14 days.
Hands-Free Cooking Mode
Step-by-step instructions in large, easy-to-read text. Each step shows the ingredients it uses with exact amounts. Swipe between steps, use voice commands, and run multiple timers in parallel.
Personalized From Day One
A quick 7-step setup learns your cooking goals, dietary needs, and skill level. Every recommendation feels tailor-made.
iPad-Optimized
Multi-column layouts that take advantage of the larger screen. Pantry, scan results, goals, and onboarding all redesigned for iPad.
Apple Watch & Widget
Grocery list on your wrist, cooking timers that sync, quick calorie logging, plus water tracking and a fasting timer — all on Apple Watch. The Home Screen widget shows your streak, XP, and tonight's meal.
AI Calorie Tracker
Snap a photo and AI estimates calories with a per-item breakdown, an estimate range, and a confidence level — then edit items, adjust portions, or refine it in plain language before saving. Scan a barcode, or describe a meal by text or voice. Best of all, log a recipe you cooked in one tap using its real calculated nutrition — more accurate than guessing from a photo. Get "fits your remaining calories" recipe ideas, plan a week around your goal, and sync to Apple Health — with a daily ring, macros, streak, and weekly recap.
Trending Now
Browse this week's viral recipes right in the app — a hand-picked selection blended with fresh, popular cooking videos from YouTube. Videos play inline next to the full recipe — no account, login, or social API key needed.
AI Cooking Assistant
A chat that knows cooking: ask what you can make from your ingredients, find a substitute mid-recipe, get budget or kid-friendly meal ideas, check calories, or learn a technique — one tap from almost any screen.
Import Any Recipe
Six ways to bring recipes in: scan a cookbook page with the camera, import from any recipe website, paste a TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, or Facebook link, paste plain text, import a Paprika/JSON/CSV export — or share straight into RecipeScan from another app.
Skill Tree — Learn to Cook
Cooking, gamified: earn XP for every recipe you cook, level up your rank, collect badges, and take on challenges like "cook 5 different recipes this week." Watch yourself go from beginner to Skilled Chef.
Flavor Pairing
Type any ingredient and discover what it pairs with — and why, backed by flavor science. Chili enhances chocolate's bitter notes; citrus oils complement cocoa. Unexpected combos that actually work.
Transform Leftovers
Tell the app what's left from last night and get three creative recipes that use it up — day-old rice becomes fried rice, roast chicken becomes quesadillas or soup. Less waste, zero "what do I do with this?"
Nutrition & Sustainability
See each recipe's carbon footprint and water usage. Budget tracking shows food spending by week and month.
Make It Yours
Scale any recipe with one tap (½× to 3×). Jot private notes on individual ingredients or steps — "use half the salt," "took 5 min longer." It's all remembered next time.
Follow Creators & Recipe Reels
Follow your favorite recipe creators and get their new dishes in a personalized feed. Swipe through Recipe Reels — a full-screen, video-first way to discover what to cook.
Never Lose a Recipe
Deleted something by accident? Recently Deleted keeps it for 30 days so you can restore it any time. On iPad, drag recipes onto cookbooks and run two windows side by side.
Shared Cookbooks
Build a family cookbook together. Create a shared cookbook, send the share code, and everyone who joins can open every recipe in full — ingredients and steps sync, not just the names — so grandma's classics live safely in one place.
iCloud Recipe Backup
Your recipes, favorites, cookbooks, and meal data back up to your private iCloud automatically — and restore on any iPhone or iPad you sign in on. Switch devices without losing a single recipe.
From "what's for dinner?" to cooking in 30 seconds
Photograph your pantry
Open the app, tap Scan Pantry, and snap a photo of your fridge or shelves. AI identifies every item — no typing required.
Get instant recipe ideas
See recipes you can cook right now with what you already have. Pick what you want for tonight, this week, or the month.
Cook with guidance
Tap Start Cooking for hands-free, voice-guided step-by-step instructions. Built-in timers keep multiple dishes synced.
See RecipeScan in action
Ten real screens from the latest build — swipe through.
More features. Half the price.
Why pay $50/year for less?
| Feature | RecipeScan | Mealime | SideChef |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual price | $29.99 | $49.99 | $54.99 |
| Photograph pantry → instant recipes | Yes | No | No |
| AI-generated personalized recipes | Yes | Limited | Limited |
| AI grocery list from pantry | Yes | No | No |
| Calorie tracking from a photo (+ log by cooking) | Yes | No | No |
| Hands-free cooking mode with voice | Yes | No | Yes |
| AI cooking assistant chat | Yes | No | No |
| Import from TikTok / Instagram / YouTube links | Yes | No | No |
| Gamified cooking skills (XP, badges & challenges) | Yes | No | No |
| iPad multi-column layouts | Yes | No | No |
| Apple Watch app | Yes | No | Yes |
| Free trial | 7 days | 14 days | 7 days |
Try Premium free for 7 days
Cancel anytime. Free tier never expires.
Monthly
- Unlimited Pantry Scan
- Unlimited AI recipe generation
- AI-powered grocery lists
- Voice-guided cooking mode
- Advanced nutrition tracking
- iCloud recipe backup & restore
- Shared cookbooks & grocery lists
- Priority support
Annual
- Everything in Monthly
- Save $30 vs. monthly
- Locked-in price as long as active
- Best value
Questions, answered
How does Pantry Scan work?
Open RecipeScan, tap Scan Pantry, and photograph your fridge, pantry, or cabinet shelves. AI identifies every item with quantities and storage locations, then loads them all to your inventory in one tap. You can immediately get recipe ideas from what you have and a grocery list for what's missing.
Is RecipeScan free?
Yes. The free tier includes nearly 1,000 curated recipes with photos, unlimited favorites, basic meal planning, manual grocery lists, and free trial uses of every premium feature. Premium is $4.99/month or $29.99/year — with a 7-day free trial.
Does RecipeScan work on iPad?
Yes. RecipeScan is optimized for iPhone and iPad. The iPad version uses multi-column layouts to take advantage of the larger screen, supports multiple windows side by side, and lets you drag a recipe straight onto a cookbook to organize your collection.
Can I follow recipe creators?
Yes. Tap Follow on a recipe video's creator and their new recipes show up in a "From creators you follow" row on the Discover tab. You can also swipe through Recipe Reels, a full-screen video feed for discovering what to cook.
Can I import recipes from TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube?
Yes. Paste a TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, or Facebook link into Add Recipe and RecipeScan imports it as a full, structured recipe. You can also scan a cookbook page with the camera, import from any recipe website, paste plain text, bring in a Paprika/JSON/CSV export, or share a link or screenshot straight into the app from anywhere with the share sheet.
What is the Skill Tree?
The Skill Tree turns learning to cook into a game. Every recipe you cook earns XP toward your chef rank, and you collect badges and complete challenges like "cook a recipe featuring vegetables" or "cook 5 different recipes this week." It's a fun way to build real kitchen skills — and it pairs with your cooking streak on the widget.
I deleted a recipe by mistake — can I get it back?
Yes. Deleted recipes move to Recently Deleted (in Settings) and are kept for 30 days, so you can restore them any time within that window. You can also adjust servings with quick ½×–3× multipliers and attach private notes to individual ingredients or steps.
How is RecipeScan different from Mealime or SideChef?
RecipeScan is the only app that lets you photograph your pantry to get instant AI recipes and grocery lists. It's also half the price ($29.99/year vs $49.99–$54.99/year) and includes more AI features — Pantry Scan, AI grocery lists, personalized recipes, and hands-free cooking mode.
Will RecipeScan help reduce food waste?
Yes. Pantry Scan keeps your inventory current, expiration alerts highlight items about to spoil, and the Leftover Wizard generates recipes from what you already have. The app tracks how many dollars of food waste you've avoided over time.
How does the AI calorie tracker work?
Snap a photo of your meal and AI estimates the calories, protein, carbs, and fat — with a per-item breakdown, an estimate range, and a confidence level so you know how sure it is. You can also scan a barcode for packaged food, describe a meal by text or voice, or log a recipe you cooked in one tap using its real calculated nutrition. Track it all against your daily goal with a calorie ring, macros, streak, and weekly recap. Because RecipeScan is a full cooking app, it also gives you "fits your remaining calories" recipe suggestions and calorie-goal meal planning — not just a number.
Can I edit the AI's calorie estimate?
Yes. AI photo estimates are approximate, so before you save you can edit the identified items, adjust portions, and refine the estimate in plain language — for example, "add a tablespoon of olive oil" or "this was a large serving." The most accurate option of all is logging a recipe you actually cooked in RecipeScan, which uses its real calculated nutrition instead of guessing from a photo.
Does the calorie tracker work with Apple Health?
Yes. RecipeScan can sync your logged calories and macros to Apple Health, so your nutrition stays consistent with the rest of your health and fitness apps. You can also set a daily calorie goal, get "fits your remaining calories" recipe suggestions from your library, and plan a whole week around your target.
Are my recipes backed up if I get a new phone?
Yes. With Premium, your recipes, favorites, cookbooks, and meal data back up to your private iCloud automatically and restore on any iPhone or iPad you sign in on — so you can switch or upgrade devices without losing a single recipe.
Does it work offline?
Browsing saved recipes, meal plans, and pantry inventory works offline. AI features (Pantry Scan, AI recipe generation, AI grocery list) need an internet connection.
How do I cancel my subscription?
Open iPhone Settings, tap your name (Apple ID), then Subscriptions. Find RecipeScan and tap Cancel. You'll keep Premium access until the end of the current billing period.
Ready to cook smarter?
Free on iPhone & iPad. 7-day free trial of Premium. No credit card to start.
Download on the App Store