Best free calorie counter apps in 2026: what "free" actually includes

Four calorie counter apps are still genuinely free for everyday logging in 2026: Cronometer, Yazio, MyFitnessPal and Lose It. All four will log a home-cooked dinner and a supermarket lunch without charging you. What changed since the last time you looked is how you log: barcode scanning, photo logging and custom macro targets have moved behind paywalls in most of them, and the free tiers now carry ads.

The two apps people ask about most often after those, MacroFactor and Cal AI, are not free at all beyond a trial. And HeyCoach, which is what we make, is not free either: it gives you seven days of everything with no card, then costs $4.99 a month. We will be plain about that below, because a comparison that hides its own price is not worth reading.

The quick comparison

US prices, checked against each app's official pricing page or store listing on September 21, 2026. Promotions, countries and the version of the app you are shown can change any of this, so the checkout in front of you is the one that counts.

Sources for each row are listed at the end.

What "free" stopped including

Three features quietly crossed the line in the last few years, and they are the three that decide whether a free app is actually usable for you.

Barcode scanning. MyFitnessPal moved it to Premium in 2022. Lose It followed for new accounts. If most of your lunches come in a packet, the free tier of either app now means typing the product name and hoping the right entry is at the top of the list. Cronometer is the notable holdout: its scanner is still free. Cronometer's free features · MyFitnessPal plan comparison

Photo logging. Every app that offers a camera estimate charges for it: MyFitnessPal's meal scan, Lose It's Snap It, Cronometer's Photo Log, and Cal AI, whose entire product is the photo. Note that an August 2026 NIH study found photo estimates in four popular apps ran about a third low on average, so this is a convenience feature, not an accuracy one. Which calorie counter app is most accurate?

Custom macro targets in grams. Free tiers let you see protein, carbohydrate and fat; setting your own gram targets is usually paid. If you are tracking protein for weight loss, that matters more than the calorie ring. How much protein to lose weight

And ads. All four free tiers show them. That is not a moral problem, but on a phone it is a friction problem: every extra second between opening the app and logging the meal is a reason not to.

Which free app for which person

Cronometer if you want the most complete free tier in 2026. Verified database rather than user-submitted entries, working barcode scanner, and micronutrients if you care about them. The diary is more clinical than friendly, which some people like.

Yazio if you want the simplest free diary and do not scan barcodes much. The free tier has no time limit and covers the basics. PRO is cheaper than the others if you upgrade.

MyFitnessPal if your food history or your friends are already there. The free database is the largest, but it is also crowdsourced, so the top search result is not always the right one. Without the scanner, expect to check entries. MyFitnessPal alternatives

Lose It if you like a clear daily budget and a friendly interface, and you eat mostly unpackaged food. Long-standing accounts may still have the scanner; new ones do not.

None of them if the reason you stopped tracking last time was opening a separate app at all. A free tool you do not open costs more than a paid one you use, in the only currency that matters here, which is days logged.

A 20-minute test before you commit

Do this with any free tier on day one, before your food history piles up in an app you will leave.

1. Scan or search a packaged food you actually eat. Time how long it takes to get the right entry. If it is a search, check the calories against the packet.
2. Log a home-cooked meal with three ingredients and a cooking oil. This is where diaries get tedious. If you gave up before adding the oil, the app will under-count you every night.
3. Log a restaurant meal. Chain restaurants are usually in the database; independents are not. See how the app handles a guess.
4. Set a protein target. Find out whether you can, and in grams.
5. Count the ads you saw doing the four steps above.

If step two took more than two minutes, the free tier is not free; it is paid in evenings you will skip.

When paying is worth it

Pay when the paid feature is your main logging method. If you scan five packets a day, the scanner is worth $60–80 a year. If you cook, it is not, and Cronometer's free tier or a notebook does the job. How to track calories without an app

Do not pay for accuracy. No subscription tier makes a database entry or a photo estimate more correct; you are buying speed and fewer taps. Buy those only where they remove the step that made you quit.

Where HeyCoach fits, honestly

HeyCoach is not a free calorie counter app. It is a coach in WhatsApp that counts calories: you send a photo, a voice note or "two eggs and toast", it replies with a meal card you confirm or fix, and it keeps your targets, weight and evening check-in in the same chat. There is no app to install and no database to scroll.

The trial is seven days of everything with no card, and after that it is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, with local prices in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Argentina. If you decide not to subscribe, the coach pauses and your log stays. We charge because there are no ads and no free tier to fund, and because the thing you are paying for is not the calorie count, which is an estimate in every app, but the fact that logging takes one message. What it does and does not do

FAQ

Is MyFitnessPal still free in 2026?

The diary, database and exercise sync are free with ads. The barcode scanner, photo meal scan, voice logging and custom macro targets require Premium at $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year.

Which free calorie counter app has a barcode scanner?

Cronometer's free tier still includes the scanner. MyFitnessPal and Lose It have moved theirs to paid plans, though older Lose It accounts may keep it.

Is there a free AI photo calorie counter?

Not really. Cal AI is free to download but the photo estimate is paid; MyFitnessPal, Lose It and Cronometer charge for their camera features. Some apps offer a handful of free scans as a trial. Photo estimates also tend to run low, so treat any of them as a starting guess you confirm.

Is HeyCoach free?

Free to start: seven days of Pro with no card. Then $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. There is no permanent free plan.

Sources

• Cronometer, free features and subscription types
• MyFitnessPal, Premium and Premium+ comparison
• Lose It, membership tiers and pricing
• Yazio, why YAZIO PRO costs money
• MacroFactor, how subscriptions work
• TechCrunch, MyFitnessPal has acquired Cal AI, March 2026
• Hengist A et al., AI photo-based calorie tracking tools underestimate energy by about a third, American Society for Nutrition annual meeting, July 2026 (conference abstract, reported by Healio)

The easy way to do this

Say hi to HeyCoach on WhatsApp and the setup questions take a minute. Send a photo of the next thing you eat and the calories come back as a card you can confirm or fix. There is nothing to install, no ad to close and no scanner to unlock, and for seven days it costs nothing to find out whether one message a meal is the habit you can keep.