Is Foodnoms Free? Foodnoms+ Pricing, Family Plan and Refunds
ChatGPT 
Claude 
AI Mode 
Perplexity 
The US App Store lists eight Foodnoms+ prices for one app: $39.99 and $49.99 a year, $5.99 and $9.99 a month, and two family plans at $69.99 and $89.99 a year. The app itself is free, and unlike most calorie counters we cover, the free version is a real tracker and not a locked demo.
I read Foodnoms' terms of use, its help center, the family plan page, the developer's own business updates and the 50 most recent US App Store reviews on 24 September 2026 while covering app pricing for NutriScan, and checked the App Store prices again on 6 October 2026.
Is Foodnoms free? Yes. Calorie and macro tracking, barcode scanning, recipes and weight tracking cost nothing and carry no ads. Foodnoms+ is the paid tier at $39.99 a year or $5.99 a month in the US, and the family plan covers six people for $69.99 a year.
TL;DR - Foodnoms Pricing
- The free version is a working tracker: Calories, macros, barcode and label scanning, recipes, weight tracking and CSV export, with no ads
- Foodnoms+ US prices: $39.99 a year or $5.99 a month, with $49.99 and $9.99 plans still listed from past pricing tests
- Family plan: $69.99 a year for up to six people, which beats two individual plans
- The trial has a catch: Cancelling mid-trial can end access right away, so cancel 24 hours before it ends
- Refunds go through Apple: Ask within 90 days at reportaproblem.apple.com
- Apple devices only: iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, with no Android version planned
IMPORTANT
Your Foodnoms pricing plan at a glance.
A quick roadmap so you can decide before any trial clock starts.
⏱️ Progress 0/4 • ~0 minutes in • Keep going
⏳ Step 1: What is free and what Foodnoms+ costs
⏳ Step 2: The trial and refund rules
⏳ Step 3: Cancelling, the limits and the evidence
🔍 The buying order that keeps each person at $39.99 a year or less (revealed near the end)
Is Foodnoms free?
Yes. Foodnoms is free to download and free to use for everyday calorie and macro tracking. There are no ads, and you do not need an account to start. The help center says the free version includes "calorie and macro logging, the full food database, barcode scanning, reminder notifications, Apple Health export, and CSV export."
The Foodnoms+ comparison page adds more to the free column: custom recipes and meals, weight tracking and nutrition label scanning. The family plan page repeats it: "Foodnoms is free for everyone, with barcode scanning, nutrition label scanning, weight tracking, and custom macro goals included."
That puts Foodnoms in a small group. Lose It! moved barcode scanning into Premium, and MyFitnessPal did the same years ago. On Foodnoms, scanning a barcode costs nothing.
The developer also points people who cannot pay to the free app. The lifetime purchase help page reads: "If you can't afford to financially support Foodnoms, you can continue to use the free app."
What Foodnoms+ adds
Foodnoms+ is the paid tier. According to the App Store description and the Foodnoms+ page, it adds:
- Foodnoms AI: log a meal from a photo or a plain-language description, and import recipes from a web link.
- Calibrated Energy: a calorie target that adjusts to your own food log and weight trend.
- More nutrients: water, fiber, sodium, net carbs, caffeine, alcohol, saturated fat, vitamins and minerals.
- Apple Health import, including calories burned from an Apple Watch. The free version only exports to Health.
- Favorites, custom meal types and food timestamps.
- Weekly, monthly and yearly charts, plus Top Foods analysis.
- One-day goal exceptions, low calorie and fasting notifications, and alternate app icons.
So the split is simple. Free covers calories, protein, carbs and fat. Anything past the four headline numbers, including fiber and sodium, is paid.
Foodnoms+ prices on the App Store
Apple shows the live in-app purchase list on the Foodnoms listing. On 6 October 2026 the US prices were:
| Plan | Lower price | Higher price |
|---|---|---|
| Foodnoms+ Monthly | $5.99 | $9.99 |
| Foodnoms+ Annual | $39.99 | $49.99 |
| Foodnoms+ Monthly (Family) | $9.99 | $14.99 |
| Foodnoms+ Annual (Family) | $69.99 | $89.99 |
The lower column matches what the developer publishes. The July 2026 press release gives the price as "$39.99/yr or $5.99/mo USD," and the family plan page gives "$69.99 a year" and "$9.99 a month" for the family tier.
At the lower prices, 12 monthly payments cost $71.88, so the annual plan saves $31.89, or 44 percent, if you stay a full year. At the higher prices, 12 months cost $119.88 against $49.99 a year, a 58 percent saving.
The Foodnoms plan screen deserves the same ten-second price check
Figure 1: Twelve months of Foodnoms+ on each US App Store plan. The family annual plan for six people costs less than one person paying the lower monthly price for a year.
The Foodnoms website itself does not print prices on its main pricing page. It says: "Find pricing info for your region in the app." Outside the US, Apple's regional price tiers and local taxes apply. The cheapest nutrition app comparison puts these numbers next to the rest of the category.
Why you may see two annual prices
Most apps hide their pricing tests. Foodnoms explains them. The manage subscription help page says: "You may see two annual plans at different prices, left over from past pricing tests. They include exactly the same features, so pick the cheaper one."
So if the "See All Plans" screen shows both, the cheaper one is the right choice.
The developer has been open about testing prices for years. In an August 2023 business update, the developer wrote that a short experiment ended with the monthly price kept at $4.99 and the annual price raised to $35.99, and added: "I've never increased prices for existing subscribers. I'm a big believer in grandfathering when possible." So the history runs $35.99 a year in 2023, then $39.99 by July 2026, with a $49.99 annual plan still listed from past tests.
The terms of use, last updated 9 July 2026, still allow future changes. Section 5 promises 7 to 30 days' notice to current subscribers before a fee change, and says a change takes effect immediately for anyone without a subscription.
The family plan: the cheapest seat in the category
Foodnoms+ Family runs on Apple Family Sharing and covers up to six people. The family plan page prices it at $69.99 a year, "about $12 per person," and states that "Nobody sees anyone else's diary or weight." Each person keeps their own log, goals and charts.
The math turns in favor of the family plan at two people. Two individual annual plans at $39.99 cost $79.98, which is $9.99 more than one family plan. With six people, each seat works out to $11.67 a year.
For comparison, the same page lists MyFitnessPal Premium and Lose It! Premium at $79.99 a year per person, and Cronometer Gold at $59.99, none with a family plan. Our own guides to MyFitnessPal pricing and Cronometer pricing cover those tiers in more detail.
Setup takes three steps, per the Family Sharing help page:
- Turn on Family Sharing in the iPhone Settings app under your name and add your family members.
- Buy Foodnoms+ Family inside Foodnoms settings.
- Each family member opens Foodnoms, goes to Foodnoms+ in settings, and taps Restore Purchase.
If you already pay for an individual plan, Apple will not convert it. The help center tells you to buy the family plan separately and then ask Apple to refund the unused part of the individual plan. If a family member still does not get access after an hour, check that "Share with Family" is on for the subscription and that the purchase is not hidden.
IMPORTANT
Checkpoint: here is where you are right now.
Prices are settled, the rules that cost people money come next.
⏱️ Progress 1/4 • ~3 minutes in • Keep going
✅ Step 1: What is free and what Foodnoms+ costs (done)
👉 Step 2: The trial and refund rules (you are here)
⏳ Step 3: Cancelling, the limits and the evidence
🧩 The buying order that keeps each person at $39.99 a year or less (coming soon)
The free trial, and one detail that ends access early
The free trial help page says new subscribers get a free trial, and "the trial length is shown on the purchase screen before you confirm." The family plan page names the length for that tier: a 7-day free trial for new subscribers.
Three rules from that help page matter:
- Nothing is charged when the trial starts. Apple charges the full price when it ends.
- You need to cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends to avoid the charge.
- "If you cancel during the trial, Apple may end your access right away instead of at the end of the trial period."
The third point surprises people. If you want to test Foodnoms AI or Calibrated Energy for the full week, set a reminder for day 6 instead of cancelling on day 1.
Cancelling on day 1 can end the trial on day 1
Apple may cut access the moment you cancel. Set a reminder for day 6 and cancel then.
Not every plan comes with a trial. In the same 2023 update, the developer wrote about removing "the trial option for monthly subscriptions" to push more people to the annual plan. One August 2026 App Store reviewer complained that the app "automatically bills you for a full year after your trial period ends," which is what an annual trial does by design. Check which plan the trial is attached to before you tap. The same rule applies on Lose It!'s 7-day trial.
Refunds: Apple decides, and Foodnoms says yes
Section 6 of the terms of use is short: "Refunds are subject to Apple's refund policy... We cannot and do not issue refunds for purchases charged to your Apple ID." Every Foodnoms+ purchase goes through Apple, so every refund does too.
The refund help page gives the steps:
- Go to Apple's Report a Problem page at reportaproblem.apple.com.
- Sign in with the Apple Account that paid for the subscription.
- Choose "Request a refund," select the Foodnoms+ purchase and submit.
Apple accepts requests for purchases made in the last 90 days. The same page adds a line I have not seen from any other app in this series: "When Apple forwards a request to Foodnoms for review, it is always approved." Apple still makes the final call, but the developer will not be the one to block it.
IMPORTANT
Checkpoint: midway progress update.
You are halfway, and the cancel steps are short.
⏱️ Progress 2/4 • ~5 minutes in • Keep going
✅ Step 1: What is free and what Foodnoms+ costs (done)
✅ Step 2: The trial and refund rules (done)
👉 Step 3: Cancelling, the limits and the evidence (current)
⏳ The buying order that keeps each person at $39.99 a year or less (next)
How to cancel Foodnoms+
The manage subscription page lists the steps.
On iPhone or iPad:
- Open the Settings app and tap your name.
- Tap Subscriptions.
- Select "Nutrition Tracker: Foodnoms."
- Tap Cancel Subscription.
On a Mac: open System Settings, select your name, then Media & Purchases, Subscriptions, Manage.
You can also start from inside the app: Foodnoms settings, then Foodnoms+, then Manage Subscription. Cancel at least 24 hours before the renewal date. You keep Foodnoms+ until the end of the period you paid for, and then the app drops back to the free version. Your food log stays.
One thing does not stay. A June 2026 App Store review says the "data and charts for past goal charts goes away if your subscription ends." Monthly and yearly charts are a Foodnoms+ feature, so if you want a record of them, export your log to CSV before the plan lapses. CSV export is free.
Complaints about the free tier in 2026
The free version is generous, but reviewers have noticed it shrinking at the edges. An August 2026 one-star review says fiber tracking was "suddenly locked behind a subscription membership with zero warning." A September review calls the premium plan "too expensive" and the free plan "very limited in its usability & data." Another says features "locked behind subscription" are "increasing over time."
At least one report was a bug, not a policy. Two five-star reviews from 16 August 2026 say the developer contacted them after free tracking briefly showed a paywall, and fixed it. The release notes for version 2026.16, dated 15 September, also fix "Foodnoms+ subscribers sometimes seeing an Upgrade Required prompt."
Fiber is the one worth thinking about. The Foodnoms+ page lists fiber in the paid column, and fiber is not a niche number. A Lancet review of 185 prospective studies and 58 clinical trials by Reynolds et al., 2019 found the lowest risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer at a daily fiber intake of 25 g to 29 g. If you are tracking fiber for a medical reason, the free tier will not do it.
What the research says about tracking, and what you get free
The free tier covers the part of tracking with the best evidence behind it: writing down what you eat. A systematic review of 39 trials by Patel et al., 2021 found that greater digital self-monitoring was linked to weight loss in 74 percent of the cases it examined.
Simpler logging also holds up. In a Stanford pilot by Patel et al., 2022, people using a simplified tracking method lost about the same weight at three months as people doing detailed tracking, -3.3 kg against -3.4 kg, and the simplified group logged on 97 percent of days against 49 percent. Logging often mattered more than logging in detail.
Logging often is also the hard part. Carpenter et al., 2022 followed adults through a six-month program and found a median time to disengagement of 10 weeks for food logging, and longer consistency predicted more weight lost. That is the argument for trying the free version for a couple of months before you pay for anything.
Calibrated Energy, the main paid feature, is built on a sound idea. The Calibrated Energy help page says it compares what you logged with your weight trend, using about 7,700 calories per kilogram, and offers a new calibration every 7 days. Weight responds to intake slowly, with half times of about a year in the model by Hall et al., 2011, which is why a fixed formula goes stale as you lose weight.
The feature also inherits a known problem. A review of 59 doubly labeled water studies by Burrows et al., 2019 found that most reported significant under-reporting of energy intake. Foodnoms' own help page admits this, saying the most common error is when "your logging changed, not your metabolism." Log the same way every day, and the estimate stays useful.
On the nutrient side, food databases are better at calories than at micronutrients. A validation study by Evenepoel et al., 2020 found strong agreement for energy intake (r = 0.96) but weak agreement for sodium (0.53) in a consumer app. Foodnoms pulls generic foods from the USDA's FoodData Central, per its data quality help page, which helps. Still, treat a paid sodium number as a guide, not a lab result.
Photo logging: useful, with a correction step
Foodnoms AI is a paid feature, and the developer says it grounds its answers in the Foodnoms database "whenever it can," according to the about page. That matters, because photos alone are the weakest input. Rodríguez-Jiménez et al., 2025 tested a vision language model on 195 dishes and found accuracy improved as ingredient details were added to the photo.
NutriScan publishes this post, and we make a competing app. NutriScan works the other way around. The photo scan is the core of the app, it runs on iPhone and Android, and when an estimate is off you can change the portion or edit the macros. Premium runs about $59 a year. If you mostly log by camera, compare how meal scans, photo scans and barcode scans differ. If you mostly scan barcodes and type foods, Foodnoms' free tier covers you and you may never need to pay anyone.
Limits to know before you commit
- No Android. The Android help page says an Android version "is not actively being considered." The family plan does not work on Android either.
- US-heavy database. The international food data page says the branded database is "primarily composed of products from the U.S.," with no plans to license data for other countries.
- English only. The App Store listing shows English as the only language.
- 18 and over. The terms restrict the app to adults, while the App Store rates it 13+.
- Arbitration. Disputes go to binding arbitration in California. You can opt out by emailing [email protected] within 30 days of first agreeing to the terms.
- No lifetime deal. The help center says there are "no plans to offer a lifetime purchase option."
On the plus side, Foodnoms runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch with one subscription, and you can sync through iCloud or Foodnoms Cloud. If the Watch is important to you, our Apple Watch calorie tracker guide compares it with other options. For privacy, see our privacy-first tracker roundup.
Foodnoms runs on Apple devices only, so check which phone everyone in the house carries
Who makes Foodnoms
Foodnoms is published by Algebraic Labs, LLC, the company named in the terms of use. The about page says it was founded in 2019 by Ryan Ashcraft, an independent developer. The iOS app, Nutrition Tracker: Foodnoms, first went live on 12 November 2019. On 6 October 2026, Apple's public data showed version 2026.17 released on 25 September 2026, with an average of 4.74 stars from 7,750 US ratings.
The business side is public too. The 2023 update reported crossing $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue after Apple's fees. The 2025 year in review says subscription revenue grew 24 percent and the app is profitable, and names subscription retention as the main challenge for 2026. A small, profitable app with a stated grandfathering habit is a reasonable bet for a yearly plan.
IMPORTANT
Checkpoint: final stretch before the reveal.
One last nudge, the reveal is next.
⏱️ Progress 3/4 • ~9 minutes in • Keep going
✅ Step 1: What is free and what Foodnoms+ costs
✅ Step 2: The trial and refund rules
✅ Step 3: Cancelling, the limits and the evidence
✨ The buying order that keeps each person at $39.99 a year or less (about to reveal)
The buying order that keeps each person at $39.99 a year or less
Every rule above points to one sequence, spread across six help pages.
- Start on the free version. Log for a couple of months first. If calories, macros and barcodes are all you use, stop here and pay nothing.
- Open "See All Plans" before you tap anything. If two annual plans show up, take the $39.99 one. The help center says both include the same features.
- Count the people. With two or more in one Apple Family Sharing group, the $69.99 family plan works out to $35.00 each for two people and $11.67 each for six.
- Start the trial and set a reminder for day 6. Cancelling earlier can end access on the spot, and cancelling later than 24 hours before the end means a full-year charge.
- Export your log to CSV before a plan lapses. The export is free, and the paid charts do not stay.
- Send a wrong charge to Apple within 90 days. Foodnoms says it approves every request Apple forwards.
Followed in that order, the most one person pays is $39.99 a year. Someone who picks the other annual plan pays $49.99 for the same features, and someone who stays on the $5.99 monthly plan pays $71.88 over 12 months.
Which option to pick
- Free: pick this if you track calories and macros, scan barcodes and want no ads. Most people should start here.
- Foodnoms+ Annual at $39.99: pick this if you want fiber, sodium or micronutrients, photo logging, or a calorie goal that adjusts to your weight trend. If $49.99 also shows up, take $39.99.
- Monthly at $5.99: pick this only for a short test. It costs 44 percent more over a year.
- Family at $69.99: pick this if two or more people in one Apple Family Sharing group will use it.
Foodnoms pricing FAQ
Is Foodnoms completely free? The core app is. Calorie and macro tracking, barcode scanning, label scanning, recipes, weight tracking and CSV export are free with no ads. Foodnoms+ adds AI logging, extra nutrients and Calibrated Energy.
How much does Foodnoms+ cost? The developer's published price is $39.99 a year or $5.99 a month in the US. The App Store also lists $49.99 and $9.99 plans left over from pricing tests.
Why are there two annual Foodnoms+ plans? The help center says they are "left over from past pricing tests" and include the same features. Pick the cheaper one.
Does Foodnoms have a family plan? Yes. Foodnoms+ Family is $69.99 a year or $9.99 a month for up to six people through Apple Family Sharing. Each person's log stays private.
Can I get a refund for Foodnoms+? Request it from Apple within 90 days at reportaproblem.apple.com. Foodnoms says it always approves requests Apple forwards to it.
Is Foodnoms available on Android? No. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch only, and an Android version is not planned.
Does Foodnoms have a lifetime purchase? No. The help center says there are no plans for one, and points people who cannot pay to the free app.
Is Foodnoms free? The short answer
Foodnoms is free in a way most trackers are not: calories, macros, barcode scanning and weight tracking cost nothing. Foodnoms+ is worth paying for if you need fiber, sodium or a calorie goal that adapts to your weight. When you do pay, take the $39.99 annual plan over the $49.99 one, cancel a trial on day 6 rather than day 1, and send any refund request to Apple.
Prices in this piece are from the US App Store and foodnoms.com, checked on 6 October 2026. Local currency prices and the terms can change.
IMPORTANT
Recap: everything you covered this round.
You finished the run, save this for the day before your renewal date.
⏱️ Progress 4/4 • ~11 minutes in • Nicely done
✅ Step 1: What is free and what Foodnoms+ costs
✅ Step 2: The trial and refund rules
✅ Step 3: Cancelling, the limits and the evidence
✅ The buying order that keeps each person at $39.99 a year or less (revealed)