Questions, answered.

No. Open the app and start. There's no sign-up form, no login and no email verification. Your data stays on your iPhone.

Meal Curate is built for iPhone and needs iOS 17 or later. An Android version isn't planned.

Yes. All 550 recipes come bundled with the app, and your pantry, meal plan and shopping list are stored on your device. You only need internet to import a recipe from a website, look up a barcode, sync with iCloud, or download new recipes.

It's free to download, and the free version is a complete meal planner: browse all 550 recipes, plan your week, track your pantry, build a shopping list automatically, and save up to 5 recipes of your own. Pro adds the extras listed under Pro & billing.

The library is curated from USDA MyPlate recipes and our own kitchen. Every recipe has a photo, ingredients, steps and nutrition. New recipes are added regularly and show up in your library automatically. Nothing you've saved or edited is changed.

Yes. Tap + in the Recipes tab to add a recipe with your own photo, ingredients, steps and nutrition. The free version holds up to 5 of your own recipes. Pro removes the limit.

With Pro, paste a recipe's web address into Meal Curate and it fills in the title, photo, ingredients and steps for you. It reads the recipe details that most food sites publish for search engines. A few sites don't publish them; for those, add the recipe by hand.

It ranks recipes by how many of their ingredients are already in your pantry, then shows you exactly what you'd still need to buy. The more you keep your pantry up to date, the better the suggestions get. This is a Pro feature.

No. Meal ideas are worked out on your iPhone from your recipe library, your pantry and the ratings you give meals. Nothing is sent to a server or an AI service.

Add meals to your plan and Meal Curate builds the shopping list for you, grouped by store section. It skips anything already in your pantry. With Pro you can share the list to Messages, Mail, Notes or any other app.

Vegetarian, Vegan, Keto, Paleo and Low-FODMAP, plus allergen warnings for dairy, eggs, fish, gluten, nuts, seafood, shellfish and soy. For each one, you can hide recipes that don't fit or keep them visible with a small badge. Always check ingredient labels if you have a serious allergy.

With Pro, tap the scan button in the Pantry tab and point your camera at a product's barcode. Meal Curate looks up the product and adds it to your pantry. Looking up a barcode needs an internet connection. The camera is only used while you're scanning or taking a photo.

Yes. Add an expiry date to a pantry item and Meal Curate alerts you before it goes off, so you can plan a meal around it. Make sure notifications are allowed for Meal Curate in your iPhone's Settings.

With Pro, mark a meal as eaten and its calories, protein, carbs and fat are added to your day. Set daily goals, watch your progress as rings or chips on the Home screen, and look back at your trends. Nutrition values are approximate and aren't medical advice.

No. Nutrition tracking is optional. You can plan meals, cook from your pantry and build shopping lists without logging a single calorie. If you do want to track, you set your own goals, and you can show progress as rings or as simple chips.

Yes. With Pro, the Nutrition screen gives you tips based on the meals you've marked as eaten today and your 7-day average. For example, it notices when you've hit your protein goal, or suggests whole grains and vegetables when fiber is low. The tips are worked out on your iPhone, and they're general guidance, not medical advice.

Yes. Choose how many meals you eat each day, from one to six including snacks, and set a reminder time for each in Settings → Notifications.

Suggested for You, nutrition tracking with goals and trends, AI meal ideas from your pantry, the barcode scanner, unlimited recipes of your own, recipe import from any website, shopping list sharing, and expiry alerts.

Pro is $2.99 a month or $39.99 a year in the US, and starts with a 30-day free trial. Prices in other countries are set by the App Store in your local currency. You'll see the exact price before you subscribe.

Subscriptions are handled by Apple. On your iPhone, open Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions, choose Meal Curate and tap Cancel Subscription. You keep Pro until the end of the period you've paid for. Deleting the app doesn't cancel a subscription.

Sign in with the same Apple ID, open Meal Curate and go to Settings → Pro → Restore Purchases.

Apple handles all payments, so refunds are requested from Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com. We can't see or issue App Store payments ourselves.

None from the app. Your recipes, meal plans, pantry and nutrition stay on your device. The app has no ads, no analytics and no third-party tracking. This website uses Google Analytics to count visits; see the privacy policy for details.

iCloud Sync is optional and off until you turn it on in Settings → iCloud Sync. Once it's on, your recipes, meal plans and pantry sync through your own private iCloud account to your other Apple devices. We can't see that data. Close and reopen the app after switching it on or off.

Turn on iCloud Sync before you switch, then sign in to the same Apple ID on your new iPhone and turn it on there too. Restoring your new iPhone from an iCloud or computer backup also brings your Meal Curate data across.

Go to Settings → Delete My Data. This permanently erases everything Meal Curate has stored on your device and can't be undone. If you use iCloud Sync, you can also remove the synced copy in your iPhone's Settings → [your name] → iCloud.

Email [email protected]. We usually reply within 24–48 hours. If something isn't working, tell us your iPhone model, iOS version and what you were doing, and a screenshot helps. There are more fixes on the Support page.

Please do. Meal Curate is made by one developer, and many features started as an email. Send ideas to [email protected].

Thank you! Go to Settings → Rate Meal Curate in the app, or leave one on the App Store. Reviews help other home cooks find the app.