The Best Free Calorie Counter App in 2026

Calorie counter apps compared

Prices change often and may differ by country and by promotion, so check the app store before you subscribe. Where an official site didn't show a price, we say so instead of guessing.

How we compared the apps

We're not sponsored by or affiliated with any of these apps. We compared them on what matters for someone trying to eat in a calorie deficit or hit a protein target:

• What's free. Can you log food, see calories and macros, and set goals without paying?
• Logging speed. Barcode scanning, photo or voice logging, saved meals and recent foods.
• Food data. Verified databases like USDA's are more reliable than entries added by users.
• Macro and nutrient tracking. Protein targets, fiber and micronutrients.
• Price and privacy. What the paid tier costs, and whether you need an account.

All facts come from each app's official website or its official US App Store listing, read in November 2026. We didn't test long-term accuracy ourselves; for that we point to published research below.

Cronometer: best free app for nutrition tracking

Cronometer's free Basic account tracks up to 95 nutrients and other compounds, includes unlimited barcode scanning, and uses a database of over 1 million lab-analyzed or verified foods. Its data comes from more than 10 sources, including the Nutrition Coordinating Center Food & Nutrient Database (NCCDB) and USDA's Standard Reference database, rather than crowd-sourced entries. That makes it the best free app for nutrition tracking if you care about vitamins, minerals and fiber as well as calories.

• Free: food diary, 95 nutrients, barcode scanner, 7-day reports, repeat items.
• Gold ($10.99 a month or $59.99 a year): photo and voice logging, fasting timer, macro scheduler, nutrition scores, custom charts and no ads.
• Platforms: web, iOS and Android.

Best for: anyone who wants a free fiber tracker app or micronutrient detail. Less ideal for: people who want the fastest possible logging; the detail can feel like a lot at first.

FatSecret: simple and free, with a barcode scanner

FatSecret describes itself as free, and its App Store listing includes a food diary, a barcode scanner, an exercise diary, a weight tracker, and reporting and goals for calories and macros in the free version. Premium adds meal planning, custom meal headings and water tracking, with monthly, quarterly and annual options; the App Store lists monthly plans from $10.49 to $14.99 and annual plans from $38.99 to $59.99.

Best for: people who want a straightforward free diary with barcode scanning and macro goals. Less ideal for: detailed micronutrient tracking.

MyFitnessPal: the biggest food database

MyFitnessPal's home page lists 20.5 million foods (another part of the site says over 18 million), the largest database of the apps here. The free version covers nutrition and weight tracking and exercise tracking. Barcode Scan and Meal Scan, voice logging, custom macro goals, intermittent fasting and ad-free logging are Premium features.

• Premium: $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial.
• Meal Scan: uses your camera to recognize the foods on your plate (Premium).
• Platforms: iOS and Android apps.

A huge database means you'll find almost any restaurant meal or packaged food, but many entries are added by users, so choose entries that match the label and double-check common foods. Best for: people who eat a lot of branded and restaurant food. Less ideal for: free users who want barcode scanning.

Lose It!: friendly design and weight loss focus

Lose It! describes itself as a calorie counter, diet planner, food tracker and weight loss progress app. On its App Store listing, calorie tracking, a weight loss plan and community support are free, while photo meal logging, AI voice, the barcode scanner, advanced tracking, intermittent fasting, meal planning and fitness app syncing are Premium. The App Store lists Premium options from $9.99 to $79.99, including lifetime purchases. It has one of the highest ratings of the apps here, 4.8 from about 784,000 ratings.

Best for: beginners who want one of the best weight loss apps with a simple, encouraging design. Less ideal for: free users who want barcode scanning.

MacroFactor: best macro tracking app

MacroFactor is a paid app with no free version, only a 7-day free trial. It estimates your real calorie burn from your logged intake and weight changes, then adjusts your calorie and macro targets every week, which is useful because the energy you burn changes as you lose weight. It also has barcode and nutrition label scanning and photo or text meal logging.

• Price: $11.99 a month, $47.99 every 6 months, or $71.99 a year.
• Platforms: iOS and Android; no desktop version yet.

Best for: the best macro tracking app if you're willing to pay, and anyone frustrated by fixed calorie targets. Less ideal for: anyone looking for the best free macro tracker app.

Carb Manager: best for keto and low carb

Carb Manager calls itself a low-carb and keto diet app and focuses on net carbs. The Basic account is free; Premium costs $3.33 a month billed annually and adds the barcode scanner, photo logging and voice logging. It's available on iOS, Android and the web.

Best for: keto and low-carb dieters who want net carbs front and center. Less ideal for: people who don't count carbs.

Cal AI: an AI calorie counter app with photo scan

Cal AI is one of the newer AI calorie counter apps with photo scan. You snap a photo, scan a barcode or describe your meal; the app says it uses your phone's depth sensor to estimate food volume and an AI model to break down calories, protein, carbs and fat. It offers a 3-day free trial and is managed as a subscription through your app store, but its official site doesn't list a price. On its own FAQ, Cal AI says it is "about 80% accurate."

Best for: people who will log consistently only if it takes seconds. Less ideal for: anyone who needs precise numbers; photos can't see cooking oil, butter, sauces or what's inside a sandwich.

Noom: coaching more than counting

Noom is a weight loss program rather than a simple calorie counter. Its App Store listing describes AI food logging with over 1 million foods, protein and calorie tracking, daily lessons on habits and behavior change, meal plans, fitness classes, optional one-to-one coaching and access to GLP-1 medication for eligible users. It's a subscription: the listing says plans start at $39 a month, with some plans as low as $17 a month.

Best for: people who want structure and behavior coaching. Less ideal for: anyone who just wants a free calorie tracker; it's among the best weight loss apps for guidance, but you pay for it.

Which features actually matter?

Barcode scanning

Barcode scanning is the first feature to look for in a best free calorie counter app. Scanning a package fills in the label's numbers in a second, and it's the feature that most speeds up logging packaged foods. It's free in Cronometer and FatSecret, and part of the paid tiers of MyFitnessPal, Lose It! and Carb Manager. If most of what you eat comes in packages, a free scanner is worth prioritizing.

Photo and voice logging

In an app that scans food for health, photo logging is the fastest way to record a home-cooked or restaurant meal, but it estimates portions and can't see hidden ingredients. Voice logging ("two eggs and a slice of toast") sits in between: quick, and usually more precise than a photo because you name the amounts. Both are paid features in most apps.

Food database quality

For the best free app for nutrition tracking, database quality matters. A bigger database finds more branded and restaurant foods; a verified database gives more reliable numbers for whole foods. Cronometer leans toward verified data from sources like USDA and NCCDB; MyFitnessPal leans toward size. For whole foods like chicken, rice, fruit and vegetables, either approach works if you pick entries carefully.

Adaptive targets

Most of the best apps for calorie deficit tracking set a fixed calorie target from an equation. MacroFactor instead recalculates your expenditure from your real intake and weight changes each week. You can get a similar effect in any app by recalculating your target every few weeks with the TDEE calculator and comparing your weight trend with what you logged.

Protein and fiber tracking

Every app on this list shows protein; fewer show fiber prominently. If fiber matters to you, Cronometer's free version tracks it along with 95 nutrients, or you can check your day with our fiber calculator.

Free vs paid: is Premium worth it?

For calorie counting itself, no app requires payment: every app here except MacroFactor, Cal AI and Noom lets you log food and see calories and macros for free. What you pay for is speed and extras. Here's what a year of each paid tier costs at the prices we found:

Even among the best weight loss apps, Premium is worth it only if a feature makes the difference between logging and not logging. If you eat mostly packaged foods and your free app lacks a scanner, a paid tier may pay off in time saved. If you mostly cook the same meals, saved meals and recent foods in a free app are often enough.

How to set up any app for weight loss

1. Enter your own calorie target. App defaults are often aggressive. Use the TDEE calculator and subtract about 500.
2. Set a protein goal of 1.2 to 1.6 g per kg of body weight, from the macro calculator.
3. Save your regular meals so breakfast or a usual lunch takes one tap.
4. Turn off "eat back exercise calories" or eat back only part of them; tracker estimates can run high.
5. Log before you eat where possible; it's easier to adjust a portion than to undo it.
6. Review your week, not your day. Weekly averages show whether you're really in a deficit.

Privacy and your data

Food logs and body weight are personal data, whichever of the best weight loss apps you choose. Most calorie apps need an account, and some sync with other health apps and devices. Before you sign up, read the app's privacy policy: check what it collects, whether it shares data with partners or advertisers, and how to delete your account. If you'd rather keep your food diary off any server, a browser-based tool that stores data only on your device, like our calorie counter, is the simplest option.

How accurate are calorie counting apps?

Apps are only as good as their food data and the entries you choose. A 2021 study in the journal Nutrition compared five leading nutrition apps, including MyFitnessPal and FatSecret, with a reference food composition database using 3-day food diaries. The apps tended to underestimate energy intake slightly per item, and underestimated fat and, to a lesser extent, carbohydrate and fiber. The authors linked the differences to databases that weren't country-specific and to user-customized food lists. The study was done in Italy, but the lesson applies everywhere: the data source matters.

To get the most accurate numbers from any app:

• Pick verified entries, or ones that match the package label, over user-added ones.
• Weigh foods for the first few weeks. Guessing portions is a bigger error than any database.
• Log cooking oils and sauces. A tablespoon of olive oil has about 119 calories, and photos can't see it.
• Use raw or cooked consistently. Cooked meat weighs less than raw, so match the entry to how you weighed it; our chicken breast calculator shows the difference.

For whole foods, you can check any app's numbers against USDA data on our food nutrition facts pages.

An app that scans food for health

Barcode scanners in these apps read the Nutrition Facts of packaged foods, while photo scanners estimate whole meals. Neither judges whether a food is "healthy" on its own; for that, look at protein, fiber, added sugars and sodium on the label. Our nutrition label maker page explains the label's lines and the % Daily Value.

Which app should you pick?

Apps for specific diets

• Vegetarian or vegan: Cronometer's free nutrient tracking helps you watch vitamin B12, iron, calcium and other nutrients that can run low on plant-based diets.
• Intermittent fasting: fasting timers are in MyFitnessPal Premium, Lose It! Premium and Cronometer Gold; you can also plan a window for free with our fasting calculator.
• Keto and low-carb: Carb Manager puts net carbs first; most other apps show total carbs and fiber, so you subtract yourself.
• High protein: any app with a custom protein goal works; set it from your body weight rather than a percentage.
• Diabetes: carb tracking apps can help, but agree carb targets with your health care team.

The best apps for a calorie deficit

Any of these apps can track a calorie deficit; the best one is the one you'll open every day. Before you start, set your target with the TDEE calculator rather than the app's default, then split it into protein, carbs and fat with the macro calculator. Most apps let you type in your own calorie and macro goals, even in the free version. If you'd like a plan to follow, our weight loss plan covers the steps and the 7-day meal plan gives you a week of counted meals.

The best diet application is the one you'll use

Consistency matters more than features: a simple app you open every day beats a powerful one you forget. Try one free version for two weeks. If logging feels like a chore, switch to a faster app or a paid tier with photo logging; if it's easy, there's often no need to pay.

Best weight loss apps vs calorie counters

The best weight loss apps fall into two groups. Calorie counters, like Cronometer, FatSecret, MyFitnessPal and Lose It!, give you a target and a diary and leave the decisions to you. Programs, like Noom, add lessons, coaching and a structured path, and charge for it. Neither is better in general. If you already know what to eat and need help keeping track, a counter is enough. If you've tried counting before and stopped, the habit work in a program may help, and it's worth weighing the monthly cost against what you'd pay for a few sessions with a registered dietitian.

Whichever you choose, weight loss itself still comes from a steady calorie deficit, enough protein and habits you can keep. Our balanced diet guide covers what to eat; the apps help you keep count.

Logging restaurant and home-cooked meals

• Chain restaurants: search for the exact menu item; many chains publish nutrition information, and large databases often include it.
• Independent restaurants: log the closest generic dish and add a tablespoon of oil or butter, since restaurant cooking usually uses more fat than home cooking.
• Home recipes: enter the recipe once as a recipe or saved meal, then log portions. Our recipe nutrition calculator gives you per-serving numbers you can type into any app.
• Mixed plates: log each part separately (protein, starch, vegetables, sauce) rather than one guessed total.

When a calorie app isn't the right tool

Tracking every bite helps many people, but not everyone. If counting makes you anxious, leads to skipping meals or feels obsessive, step back from detailed tracking; following a simple meal structure or working with a dietitian may suit you better. People with a history of eating disorders should talk with a health professional before using any calorie tracking app. Calorie targets in these apps are also designed for adults; children and teens should follow a doctor's guidance rather than an app's numbers.

Our free browser calorie counter

If you don't want another app on your phone, the CalorieBloom calorie counter runs in your web browser. You log foods from a built-in list of common foods or enter your own, add exercise, and see calories, protein, carbs and fat against your daily target. There's no account and nothing is sent to a server: your journal stays in your browser, and you can export it to a CSV file. It doesn't have a barcode scanner or photo logging, so it suits people who eat mostly home-cooked whole foods. It's also a handy way to try calorie counting for a week or two before deciding whether an app, free or paid, is worth installing; you'll know by then which features you'd actually use.

Calorie counter app FAQ