Cal AI is the photo-first calorie app, and scanning requires a subscription. MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, Cronometer and MyNetDiary also offer photo logging on paid tiers. Carby does not scan plates.
| App | Starter price | If you stay a year | Trial | Refunds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cal AI | Free to download. Scanning requires a paid plan. US App Store in-app items include Unlimited prices such as $2.99, $5.99, $9.99, $19.99, $29.99 and a $59.99 family plan. Read the paywall you see. | Depends on the Unlimited plan Apple shows you. The public site does not publish one yearly rate. Grocery is extra. | FAQ describes a free-trial page on family invites. Trial length is shown in the App Store paywall, not as a single public number on calai.app. | App Store and Google Play refunds go through those stores. Direct CalAI purchases: email support. Deleting the app does not cancel. Cancel in iPhone Settings → Subscriptions → CalAI. |
| MyFitnessPal | Free food diary. Premium $79.99 a year or $19.99 a month. Premium+ $99.99 a year or $24.99 a month, on MyFitnessPal’s Premium+ page. | $79.99 on Premium yearly. $99.99 on Premium+ yearly. $0 if you stay on the free diary. Grocery is extra. | 7-day Premium or Premium+ trial if you have never upgraded or redeemed a trial. First charge is after the trial unless you cancel. Auto-renews. | Cancel at least 24 hours before renewal to avoid the next charge. Premium features stay until the paid period ends. App Store or Google Play purchases follow those stores. |
| Lose It! | Free to download, with an optional Premium subscription. Lose It! does not publish a dollar price on the public Premium page; read the in-app checkout. | Free if you stay on Basic. Premium yearly cost is shown in the app, not on loseit.com/premium. Grocery is extra. | Free Basic needs no trial. Premium trial, if offered, is shown in the App Store or Google Play checkout you see. | App Store or Google Play purchases follow those stores. Deleting the app does not cancel a store subscription. |
| MyNetDiary | Free. Premium $8.99 a month or $59.99 a year. Premium Plus $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, on MyNetDiary’s about and AI scanner pages. | $0 on Free. $59.99 on Premium yearly. $99.99 on Premium Plus yearly. A $179.99 lifetime option is listed on the free-tracker page. | Free tier needs no trial. Premium trial on iOS is documented in MyNetDiary’s FAQ index; length is shown in the store checkout. | Premium can be bought on MyNetDiary.com (Paddle) or as an in-app purchase. App Store and Google Play refunds follow those stores. |
| Cronometer | Free Basic. Gold $4.99 a month billed annually at $59.99, or $10.99 a month billed monthly, on cronometer.com/gold. | $59.99 on Gold yearly. $131.88 if you stay on Gold monthly at $10.99. $0 on Basic. Grocery is extra. | Basic is free with no time limit. Gold checkout is on the Gold page and in the apps. | Web Gold: set Do Not Auto-Renew in Account Settings and access continues to the end of the term. App Store or Google Play Gold follows those stores. |
| Carby | $39.99/year after a 3-day trial on web yearly checkout | $39.99 if you stay on the web yearly plan after the 3-day trial | 3-day trial on the web yearly offer visitors actually see. Monthly ($9.99) and weekly ($4.99) plans also exist. Read the checkout. | Web Stripe charges: email within 30 days of the charge for a refund. App Store charges go through Apple. Cancel during the trial and you are not charged. |
Grocery purchases are extra. Tracker prices are from public vendor pages and US iTunes Lookup, checked October 20, 2026. Carby is a dinner planner, not a food diary.
FAQ: about 80% accurate. Paid scanning. 4.8 from 371,445 ratings.
Cal AI is for Logging calories by snapping a photo, if you will pay for scanning. Skip it if you need dinners planned before you shop, with estimated grocery costs.
Premium. Sits on top of the huge typed database.
MyFitnessPal is for Logging calories and macros in a huge food database, including restaurant items. Skip it if you need dinners and a shopping list built around a grocery budget, not a diary of what you already ate.
Premium. Pairs with a daily calorie budget.
Lose It! is for A simple daily calorie budget with barcode or photo logging on Premium. Skip it if you want next week’s dinners picked under a grocery spending cap.
Premium. Free typed diary and barcode remain without it.
MyNetDiary is for A free, ad-free calorie diary with a staff-verified database and a free barcode scanner. Skip it if you want the app to generate five family dinners under a grocery cap at Walmart or Aldi.
$59.99 a year. Identifies ingredients and servings, per the Gold page.
Cronometer is for A verified food diary when you care about vitamins and minerals, not only calories. Skip it if you want the app to pick this week’s family dinners under a store budget.
Not a photo tracker. Included to stop the mix-up.
Carby is for A household that shops a named US store and wants the week of dinners to start from a spending limit. Skip it if you need the planner to drop ingredients into a retailer pickup or delivery cart.
Cal AI if the whole product is snapping. MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, MyNetDiary or Cronometer if you want photos attached to a classic diary. All of those photo tools are paid. Carby is not in the running.
Cal AI’s FAQ says about 80% and that no tracker is perfect. Treat photo numbers as estimates.
No.
Sources checked October 20, 2026: Cal AI homepage · Cal AI FAQ · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 6480417616 · MyFitnessPal homepage · MyFitnessPal Premium · MyFitnessPal Premium+ · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 341232718 · Lose It! homepage · Lose It! Premium · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 297368629 · MyNetDiary homepage · MyNetDiary about · MyNetDiary free tracker page · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 287529757 · Cronometer homepage · Cronometer Gold · Cronometer subscription types · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 1145935738 · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 6779585429 · Carby billing policy · Carby refund help. Competitor facts come from those public pages and US iTunes Lookup. Missing cells were omitted, not guessed.