Best Free Calorie Tracking Apps Without a Subscription

Breakfast is already in the diary when the word “free” usually changes meaning.

You search for the yogurt, add the granola, and reach for the barcode scanner on the milk. Instead of the camera, you get an upgrade screen. The app was free to install. Your ordinary breakfast was not free to finish.

A useful free calorie tracker does not need to give away every report, coaching tool, or AI feature. It does need to let you keep a basic food log without requiring a subscription.

The short answer

My broadest general-purpose recommendation is MyNetDiary. Its current product page assigns barcode scanning, calorie and macro tracking, and an ad-free experience to its permanent free tier. Choose Cronometer Basic instead when detailed nutrition targets and reusable recipes matter more. Choose Foodnoms when you want an Apple-only, no-account, ad-free tracker. Choose FatSecret when free macro tracking, barcode access, and community are the combination you want.

CalTrak is the one current candidate here that makes the stronger promise: its developer site and US App Store listing say there are no subscriptions, in-app purchases, ads, paid features, or accounts. It is also a new iPhone-only product that requires iOS 26 and had 18 US ratings when checked. I would treat it as the literal no-subscription candidate, not the established default.

MyFitnessPal remains a real manual food diary for free, but its current plan comparison puts barcode scanning, ad removal, macro goals by gram, and macros by meal in Premium. Lose It is difficult to recommend to a barcode-dependent free user because the company says scanner access currently differs between accounts during a transition.

These are editorial recommendations based on documented plan boundaries, not hands-on test winners.

App	Verified from current first-party pages	Important boundary	Amy editorial recommendation
MyNetDiary	Company says Free includes barcode, calorie and macro tracking, and no ads	AI tools, structured plans, and advanced reporting sit in paid plans	Best general starting point from the documented feature set
Cronometer Basic	$0 plan lists food logging, barcode, custom foods, meals and recipes, custom targets, and seven-day reports	Gold is the ad-free plan and adds longer history and advanced tools	Best documented free option for nutrition detail and homemade food
Foodnoms Free	Company says Free includes unlimited food tracking, calorie and macro goals, recipes and meals, Health export, and no ads; its barcode documentation says scanning is free	Apple platforms only; Foodnoms+ adds more nutrients, Health import, AI tools, recipe import, favorites, and longer-term analysis	Best documented Apple-only option when privacy and a calm interface matter
FatSecret	Company labels macro tracking and barcode scanning free; product/help pages describe calorie, weight, report, and community tools	Optional Premium exists; the public pages do not assign every described control to a plan	Best shortlist choice when community matters
CalTrak	Developer and App Store say every listed feature is free, with no account, ads, subscription, paid feature, or in-app purchase	Requires iOS 26; new and lightly rated; no hands-on workflow test was run for this guide	Most literal no-subscription candidate
MyFitnessPal Free	Food and exercise logging, custom foods, meals and recipes, macro viewing, percentage goals, progress, partner links, and a printable report	Barcode, ad-free use, gram goals, macros by meal, and data export are Premium	Best reason to stay is existing history or integrations, not a free scanner
Lose It Free	Company says all users can manually create recipes	Scanner access is moving to Premium and can differ by account	Do not choose it for free barcode access without checking your own account

Product facts rechecked August 16, 2026 against current US first-party pages. We did not create new accounts or observe onboarding, ads, scan results, prompts, or task completion for this recast.

Disclosure: I created Amy Food Journal. Amy is a paid iPhone food journal, so I excluded it from this list and do not recommend it as an answer to a free-tier search.

Four different products hide behind the word free

Before choosing an app, decide which promise you actually need:

Free to download means the App Store shows a Get button. It does not tell you what happens after onboarding.

Free to try means a paid plan is temporarily unlocked. A trial can be useful, but it is not a permanent free tier.

No subscription required means an ongoing $0 plan can perform the daily job you care about, even if the company also sells a better plan.

No subscription exists means there is no paid tier to encounter. CalTrak currently makes that stronger promise. The other apps retained here sell optional paid features.

Most recommendations here use “no subscription” in the third sense: you can keep using the free path. CalTrak uses the fourth. An app can still qualify for the broader list while charging for export, coaching, advanced targets, or an ad-free experience.

This definition is narrower than the best free calorie counter apps for iPhone, which also compares Apple fit and free-to-start products. Here, a temporary trial is never treated as the free answer.

What this guide can verify, and what it cannot

For this update, I reviewed official plan pages, help articles, developer sites, and US App Store listings. They can verify that a company publicly assigns a feature to Free, Basic, or Premium, whether Apple lists in-app purchases, and which operating systems the app requires.

They cannot prove that a new account sees the same onboarding offer, that a barcode matches your groceries, that ads are tolerable, or that a recipe is pleasant to edit. App Store screenshots show the interface a developer markets; they do not prove an ongoing free workflow.

This guide does not rank speed, database accuracy, ad burden, prompt frequency, or ease. “Best” means the app’s documented free boundary best fits that use case. Product copy is not first-hand experience.

You can eliminate the wrong apps before giving one your food history, then run a small check with your own meals.

MyNetDiary: best documented all-around free tier

MyNetDiary makes the strongest broad free-tier case on its current company and plan page. It says Free includes barcode scanning, calorie and macro tracking, a shopping list, community access, daily coaching tips, and no advertisements.

Its paid plans add AI tools, structured diet programs, premium recipes and meal plans, medication-oriented features, and advanced reporting. This source review cannot say how generous that split feels in the app.

Recommendation: MyNetDiary is the best default from the documented feature set if you want a familiar general-purpose tracker, need a free scanner, and strongly prefer a company that explicitly says its free tier has no ads. If custom recipe controls or a specific nutrient target are the deciding feature, confirm those separately instead of assuming every feature named elsewhere on the site belongs to Free.

This is MyNetDiary’s official product artwork captured July 30, not a screenshot from our own account. The company’s published Free-plan boundary was rechecked August 16, 2026.

Foodnoms Free: best documented Apple-only option

Foodnoms is the clearest Apple-specific alternative in this group. Its current Free-versus-Foodnoms+ page says the Free plan tracks calories and macros with zero ads. The current US App Store description assigns unlimited food tracking, calorie and macro goals, recipes and meals, Health export, basic notifications, and CSV export to Free. Foodnoms also says no account signup is required.

Barcode access is supported by the company’s current barcode help and its first-party comparison documentation, which explicitly describes barcode scanning as free rather than paywalled. That is still a published product claim, not a result from a new account we tested.

Foodnoms+ adds more nutrients, Health import, AI meal scanning, recipe import, favorites, custom meal types, and deeper charts and analysis. Foodnoms is available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, but not Android.

Recommendation: Choose Foodnoms when you want a private, ad-free Apple-native diary and the free calorie-and-macro boundary covers your needs. Choose something cross-platform if Android access or sharing with an Android user matters.

Foodnoms’ official product image shows the scanner it markets. The free-tier facts at left come from the company’s current plan, help, and US App Store pages; this is not a screenshot from our own account.

Cronometer Basic: best for nutrition detail and repeat recipes

Cronometer’s current Basic-versus-Gold page prices Basic at $0 and lists food, exercise, biometric and note logging; barcode scanning; custom macro and micronutrient targets; custom foods, meals and recipes; and reports within a seven-day window.

That is useful for someone who cooks. Cronometer’s recipe documentation supports serving-based or weight-based recipes and a final cooked-weight field. If your problem is dividing a pot of chili or tray of enchiladas, a reusable recipe matters more than a scanner demo. Our recipe calorie calculator explains the whole-batch math.

Gold is where Cronometer places an ad-free experience, longer history, recipe importing, repeat scheduling, and deeper analysis. The plan page does not tell us how often a Basic user sees ads, so this guide does not characterize the ad load.

Recommendation: Choose Cronometer Basic when nutrient detail, custom targets, and homemade-food structure are the priority. Read the broader Cronometer review for product context, but use the current plan page as the authority on what is free today.

Cronometer’s official image shows the nutrient report it markets. The Basic-plan facts at left come from Cronometer’s current plan page; the image does not prove the app is easy or the database is accurate.

FatSecret: best documented free mix for community users

FatSecret’s current product page explicitly labels macro tracking and barcode scanning as free. Its help pages also document a diary with editable servings, calorie and macro totals, daily and weekly reports, weight tracking, and community features. Premium remains optional and adds tools such as meal planning.

That makes FatSecret a sensible shortlist choice for someone who wants community beside a traditional diary. It does not prove the database accurate, the scanner reliable for every product, or the interface easy.

Recommendation: Try FatSecret when free macros, barcode access, and community all matter. During your own preflight, pay special attention to correcting a serving and finding the same food the next day. A scanner button is only useful if the result is editable and reusable.

FatSecret’s current App Store image shows its promoted food-search interface. Its own product page labels macro tracking and barcode scanning free; we did not treat the image as usability evidence.

CalTrak: the literal no-subscription candidate

CalTrak is different from every established app above. Its current developer site and US App Store listing say there is no account, advertising, subscription, in-app purchase, or paid feature. The documented feature set includes barcode scanning, database search, AI photo and text lookup, custom foods, calorie and macro targets, history, export, and Apple Health support.

That is the closest answer in this guide to “completely free.” It is not automatically the safest recommendation. CalTrak is iPhone-only, requires iOS 26, and had 18 US ratings when checked on August 16, 2026. Its no-paid-feature promise has a much shorter public track record than the larger products here.

Recommendation: Put CalTrak on the shortlist when you have a compatible iPhone and the absence of any paid tier is the deciding requirement. Before trusting it with months of history, test three barcodes you buy, correct one result, export your data, and confirm the Health behavior you need.

CalTrak’s current official image shows the search interface it markets. The no-paid-feature claim comes from the developer and App Store listing; we did not independently test its workflow or long-term funding.

MyFitnessPal Free: the old five-food claim is unsupported

The previous version of this page said MyFitnessPal limited free users to five food entries per day. MyFitnessPal’s current official documentation does not support that claim, so it is removed.

The current Free, Premium, and Premium+ comparison assigns food and exercise logging, custom foods, meals and recipes, macro viewing, percentage-based calorie and macro goals, progress, partner-app links, diary sharing, and a printable report to Free.

The paid boundary is still meaningful. MyFitnessPal places barcode scanning, ad-free use, macro goals by gram, macros by meal, data export, meal scan, and several planning and analysis tools in Premium.

Recommendation: If you already have years of foods, recipes, connected apps, or a coach who uses MyFitnessPal, the documented Free plan may still do enough through manual search. For a new barcode-heavy user, it is a poor fit because the scanner is explicitly Premium. Do not switch because of the old five-food claim; decide from the controls you actually need.

Lose It: useful free recipes, unsettled scanner access

Lose It requires the most careful answer. Its official scanner-transition notice says barcode and nutrition-label scanning are moving into Premium. During the transition, some free members still have access and others do not. Once the feature is locked on an account, a subscription is required.

A universal yes or no would be inaccurate. It also makes Lose It a weak recommendation when a permanently free scanner is the main requirement.

There is a firmer free fact: Lose It says all users can manually create recipes, divide them into servings, and reuse them.

Recommendation: Consider Lose It if its calorie-budget approach already suits you and manual recipes matter more than scanning. If barcode access is essential, check your account before investing time. The company’s transition notice, not an old roundup, is the current source of truth.

Choose the compromise before you choose the app

Most app roundups ask which product has the most features. A better question is which missing feature would make you quit.

• You want a broad free tracker and no ads: MyNetDiary makes the clearest first-party promise.
• You want a private Apple-native tracker with no account: Foodnoms has the strongest documented fit in this comparison.
• You cook and care about nutrient detail: Cronometer Basic has the strongest documented recipe-and-target combination.
• You want community with free macros and scanning: Put FatSecret on the shortlist.
• You want no paid tier at all and have iOS 26: CalTrak is the literal candidate, with a much shorter track record.
• You already live inside MyFitnessPal: Keep the history if manual logging is enough; pay or switch only if a Premium boundary blocks a frequent task.
• You need a guaranteed free scanner: Do not choose Lose It based on somebody else’s account state.

If protein grams are the real goal, use the macro-tracking guide to decide whether a daily total, a gram target, or a per-meal view is actually necessary. Those are different product requirements, and some free plans separate them.

If the act of assigning calories is the part you do not want, a descriptive food journal may be a better tool than any calorie counter. Free is not useful when the workflow itself is wrong.

Run this ten-minute check before moving your history

This is a reader preflight, not a test Amy has already run.

Use one ordinary breakfast you actually repeat. It might be yogurt, granola, berries, and coffee. Then:

1. Finish onboarding without entering payment details. Decline any optional trial.
2. Find the screen that names your current plan. If a trial started automatically, do not treat the unlocked controls as permanently free.
3. Search for the yogurt and change its serving.
4. Scan the granola if barcode access matters to you.
5. Create the coffee as a custom food or save the whole breakfast as a meal or recipe.
6. Reopen one item and correct the amount after saving.
7. Move to tomorrow and find the breakfast again.
8. Open the daily calorie and macro view you expect to use.
9. Tap the report, export, or target control you care about and note whether it asks for payment.
10. Notice ads and upgrade prompts by location, without deciding that your tolerance is universal.

Use three labels: free, paid, and trial-only. If you cannot tell which plan is active, the result is unclear, not free.

This catches the mismatch early. Someone who scans every lunch needs a different free tier from someone who builds one Sunday recipe. A reader who only wants a daily total need not reject an app because export is paid.

For the complete habit-building workflow around targets, portions, and missed meals, use How to Track Calories Without Making It Your Whole Life.

When paying may be the cheaper decision

A free app is not automatically economical. If a paid feature removes a task you perform several times a day, compare its cost with that repeated friction. If it only unlocks a report you rarely open, stay free.

Do not upgrade during onboarding because a countdown says the offer is special. Use the permanent free state first. Write down the exact blocked task. Then compare that task with another app’s free plan and with the best calorie trackers regardless of price.

The useful question is concrete: “Will I pay to scan groceries?” is answerable. “Is Premium worth it?” is not, until you know which part of your own day Premium would change.

The real decision

For a permanent free tier inside a larger product, MyNetDiary is the best general recommendation from the public plan boundary. Foodnoms is the best documented Apple-only fit. Cronometer Basic is stronger for nutrient detail and recipes. FatSecret is the community-oriented choice. CalTrak is the only retained candidate that currently promises no paid tier at all, but it is newer and requires iOS 26. MyFitnessPal Free remains viable for manual logging and existing history. Lose It should not be chosen on the assumption that your free account will include barcode scanning.

Pick the boundary you can live with, run one repeat breakfast through it, and only then give the app your history.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a completely free calorie tracker with no subscription?

Yes, with an important maturity caveat. CalTrak’s current developer site and US App Store listing say it has no subscriptions, in-app purchases, ads, paid features, or account requirement. It is a new iPhone-only app that requires iOS 26 and had 18 US ratings when checked, so test its core workflow and export before moving long-term history. The established apps in this guide instead offer permanent free tiers alongside optional paid plans.

Which free calorie apps officially include barcode scanning?

MyNetDiary, Cronometer Basic, Foodnoms, FatSecret, and CalTrak currently assign barcode scanning to their free products in first-party documentation. MyFitnessPal documents its scanner as Premium. Lose It says access can vary by account while the scanner moves to Premium. Access does not guarantee that your product will match or be easy to correct.

Is MyFitnessPal still free?

Yes. MyFitnessPal currently documents food and exercise logging, custom foods, meals and recipes, macro viewing, percentage goals, progress, partner links, and a printable report in Free. Barcode scanning and several convenience and analysis features require Premium.

Which free calorie tracker has no ads?

MyNetDiary and Foodnoms say their free tiers are ad-free. CalTrak says the entire product has no ads. Cronometer markets Gold as its ad-free plan, while MyFitnessPal reserves ad-free use for Premium. This guide does not infer actual ad frequency from those plan pages.

Does no subscription required mean there is no paid plan?

No. MyNetDiary, Cronometer, Foodnoms, FatSecret, MyFitnessPal, and Lose It all sell optional paid plans. “No subscription required” means an ongoing free tier remains available for the core task described here. CalTrak is the exception in this guide: its current listing says there is no paid tier.

Can I create recipes in a free calorie app?

Cronometer lists manually created recipes in Basic. Foodnoms and MyFitnessPal list recipe and meal creation in Free. Lose It says all users can manually create recipes. CalTrak documents saved meals and recipes without a paid tier. Confirm the exact serving and edit controls you need with one recipe before moving a large collection.

This article is for general information, not medical or nutritional advice. Product plans, App Store availability, and feature boundaries change. Facts above were rechecked August 16, 2026.