Free calorie counter with a barcode scanner that stays free

What happened to the free scanners

For years, barcode scanning was the standard free feature in every calorie counter. In late 2022 MyFitnessPal moved it behind its Premium subscription, and because MyFitnessPal was the default choice for a very large number of people, "free calorie counter with barcode scanner" went from an unremarkable description to something people actively search for.

The change made commercial sense. Scanning was the feature people used most, which made it the most effective thing to charge for. But it is worth being clear that it was not driven by cost: barcode lookups are among the cheapest operations a food app performs. The decoding happens on your phone and the lookup is a database query costing a fraction of a penny.

What is free here

The one metered feature is AI photo scanning, which costs real money per image. Everything built on the barcode database is free because it costs us close to nothing, and we would rather explain that than invent a reason to charge.

Counting calories without a subscription

Scan the packet before you open it

Once the wrapper is gone you are working from memory, and own-brand products vary more between retailers than people expect.

Check the portion every time

The most common source of error in calorie counting, by a distance. Database figures are per 100 g; the packet's stated serving is often smaller than what you actually pour. Our scanner shows the assumed portion and recalculates live when you change it.

Log the whole day, or do not bother

A partial log is worse than none, because it looks like information. The foods people skip — the oil in the pan, the handful from the bag, the second drink — are systematically the calorie-dense ones, so a partial record does not just lose precision, it biases low.

Weigh things for one week only

Not forever. A week of weighing calibrates your eye more or less permanently, and afterwards estimating is close enough. This is the highest-value week you will spend on tracking.

Use the weekly average, not the daily number

Daily intake swings enormously for ordinary reasons. The seven-day average is the figure that actually corresponds to what your body is doing.

Where a paid app is genuinely better

In the interest of not overselling: paid apps do several things we do not. Recipe importing from a URL, integration with fitness trackers and smart scales, barcode scanning that works offline against a cached database, and daily reminder notifications are all real advantages, and some of them matter a lot to some people.

What you should not pay for is the scanner itself, or the macros behind it. Those cost nothing to provide, and any app charging for them is charging because it can rather than because it must.

Take your free scan — no card, and unlimited scanning from $5.00 a month.