Foodakl FAQ:
questions about the photo calorie counter app
Short answers to what people ask before they choose a calorie or food tracker, written for Foodakl, the photo calorie counter for iPhone and Android. Each answer stands on its own.
Jump to: Getting started · Price · Logging food · Readings and insight · Body, training and habits · Privacy and data · Languages and devices.
Getting started
What is Foodakl?
Foodakl is a food and calorie tracker for iPhone and Android that reads a photo of your meal: it names each dish on the plate, estimates its calories, protein, carbs and fat, and says how sure it is. Photo reading is part of Foodakl Premium, which starts with 7 days free. The food log, a library of 2,900 dishes, weight, water, fasting, supplements and workouts are free.
Who is Foodakl for?
Foodakl is for adults, 18 and over, who want to understand what they eat without searching a food database or typing in numbers. It suits people whose food isn’t in the usual databases, like home cooking from many kitchens, and anyone who wants the numbers without the judgement. It isn’t designed for children, and it isn’t a medical tool.
Do I need an account?
No. Foodakl works without an account. An optional email account keeps an encrypted backup of your numbers, so losing a phone doesn’t mean losing them. That backup holds the numbers only, never the photos.
When can I get it?
Foodakl is on Google Play and the App Store now.
Is this medical advice?
No. Foodakl helps you understand what you ate. If you need precise intake for a medical condition, work with a qualified professional. You can bring your exported PDF record along.
Can I use Foodakl if I have diabetes or a food allergy?
Foodakl is not a medical device and makes no medical claims, so it isn’t built to manage any medical condition. Its numbers are estimates from a photo, so never dose medication from them, and it can’t see inside a sauce to tell you whether a meal is safe for an allergy. If a condition affects what you eat, work with a doctor or dietitian, and bring Foodakl’s PDF export along if it helps.
Is Foodakl a weight-loss app, and does it judge what I eat?
No. Foodakl keeps an honest record of what you eat and makes no promises about results; it is built for eating well, not for eating as little as possible. It never judges food: there are no green ticks for salad, no red warnings for cake, and it never asks for before-and-after photos. If you set a target weight, it shows how your eating and your weight line up, as a rough direction rather than a deadline.
Price
Is there a free calorie counter app with no sign-up?
Yes, Foodakl is free to use, with no account and no card. The food log, a library of 2,900 dishes, weight, water, fasting, supplements, workouts and all three exports cost nothing. Reading a photo or a described meal is part of Foodakl Premium, which is free for 7 days with no card.
How much does Foodakl Premium cost, and what does it include?
Foodakl Premium costs $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, after 7 days free with no card, and your app store shows the price in your own currency. It adds photo reading of plates, menus and packaging, reading a meal you describe, follow-up questions, the written coach read, the Draw, Ask your record, and what your eating is doing to your weight.
Do I need a card for the Foodakl free trial?
No. The 7-day Foodakl trial takes no card and no payment details, so there is nothing to cancel. It starts when you finish setting up the app, and each device gets one trial.
Does the Foodakl free trial renew by itself?
No. The Foodakl trial never turns into a subscription on its own; it simply ends after 7 days. After that the app keeps working for free without the photo reading, and everything you logged stays on your phone. If you want Premium, you subscribe yourself through Google Play or the App Store.
What happens if I stop paying?
Your history, existing readings and exports remain yours. You can still log by hand or from the library. Premium covers new photo readings and insights.
How do I cancel Foodakl Premium?
You cancel in your app store, because the store holds the subscription, not Foodakl. In the app, open More, then Your plan, then Manage subscription to jump to your App Store or Google Play subscriptions. Cancel at least a day before the renewal date, and everything you logged stays yours.
Logging food
What if I forgot to photograph a meal?
With Foodakl Premium you can describe it: type what you ate in your own words, say when you ate it, and it is read the way a photo is, with each item named, sized and counted. A described meal is less certain than a photographed one, and Foodakl says so on the meal. For free, you can search the library of 2,900 dishes or log one of your usuals.
Can I log food without a photo?
Yes. In Foodakl you can search a library of 2,900 dishes and everyday foods, pick a portion and log it by name, or log one of your usuals in a single tap. This is free, it works offline, and the numbers are typical figures for a serving rather than a reading of your plate.
Does Foodakl have a barcode scanner?
No. Foodakl reads photographs and descriptions instead of barcodes. For packaged food, Premium can read the printed numbers from a photo of the nutrition label, and the free library covers everyday dishes and staples.
Can Foodakl read a restaurant menu or a nutrition label?
Yes, with Premium. Photograph a menu and Foodakl estimates each dish before you order and shows how it sits against what is left of your day; nothing is logged until you eat. Photograph a nutrition label and it reads the printed numbers, then asks how much you had.
Does Foodakl work for home cooking and food from my country?
Yes. Foodakl reads home-cooked meals, takeaway and restaurant plates item by item, and its library holds 2,900 dishes from kitchens around the world. Dish names come back in your own language, and you can fix a name or a portion with a tap.
Does Foodakl work offline?
Foodakl lets you log without a connection, because your record lives on your phone: search the library, add water, track fasting, log a weigh-in or a workout. Photos you take and meals you describe while offline are saved and read when the signal returns. Asking your record needs the internet.
Readings and insight
Is there an app that counts calories from a photo?
Yes. Foodakl, a calorie counter for iPhone and Android, names each item on the plate from a photo, sizes the portion and estimates its calories, protein, carbs and fat, then says how sure it is: high, medium or low. Numbers are estimates, and Foodakl marks them with a ~. Photo reading is part of Premium, which is free for 7 days with no card.
How accurate is a photo reading?
A reading is an estimate, not a measurement. Portions, mixed dishes and hidden oil can change the result. Foodakl shows estimates honestly, and you can correct a name or portion when something looks off.
What if Foodakl gets my plate wrong?
Correct the item or portion, or answer a follow-up question. The reading recalibrates. Correcting a name or portion by hand is free on every plan.
How do I correct a food or portion in Foodakl?
Tap the meal, then the item. You can change the portion, rename the item, split it in two or remove it, and the totals update at once. If you weigh your food, switch on “I weigh my food” in More and type the grams from your kitchen scale, and the item’s numbers scale to match. Answering a follow-up question, or adding a detail such as “also had a samosa”, has Foodakl read the meal again, which is part of Premium.
Does Foodakl track macros and micronutrients?
Yes. Each reading estimates calories, protein, carbs and fat, plus fibre, sugar, saturated fat and sodium, and caffeine and alcohol in drinks. A photo of a nutrition label can add the printed added sugar, potassium, calcium, iron and vitamin D. Foodakl is not a full vitamin and mineral tracker, and the reference lines beside the figures are published adult figures, never a grade.
What is Ask your record in Foodakl?
Ask your record lets you ask Foodakl questions about your own log in plain words, such as what you ate yesterday. Your phone does the arithmetic, and the answer is written from your own meals, weight, training and water. Simple sums are answered instantly for free; open conversations are part of Premium and need an internet connection.
What is the Draw in Foodakl?
The Draw is how Foodakl helps when you can’t decide what to eat: one idea that fits the room you have left in your day, from food you already eat or a kitchen you haven’t tried, with the reason it fits. It works within the eating preferences you set, such as vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, halal or kosher, but it only filters what it offers and never checks what you ate. You can keep ideas, cook along with step-by-step recipes and build a shopping list. The Draw is part of Premium.
Body, training and habits
Can I track my weight and set a target in Foodakl?
Yes, both are free. Log your weight in seconds and Foodakl draws a trend line from your weigh-ins, so one heavy morning doesn’t move it. Set a target weight, or choose to hold steady or build muscle, and the Journey card shows where you started, where you are and how far is left, with a rough estimate of when you could arrive. Foodakl works out your daily calorie and protein target on your phone using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, or you can type your own numbers.
Does Foodakl track water?
Yes, Foodakl tracks water, and it’s free. Tap to add a glass, set the size of your glass, and choose a daily target or let it follow your body weight at about 33 ml per kilo. On Android, the water widget’s + button logs a glass without opening the app.
Does Foodakl support intermittent fasting and Ramadan?
Yes, and fasting is free. Start a 16:8, 14:10 or 18:6 window, set your own, or choose a Ramadan fast from dawn to dusk, timed to your city’s sky. Foodakl shows elapsed and remaining time, can remind you when a fast ends, lets you end one early whenever you like, and shows each fast on a month calendar. It times your window honestly and doesn’t draw charts of metabolic stages.
Can Foodakl track supplements and remind me to take them?
Yes, and it’s free. Add anything you take daily, such as a vitamin or a protein scoop, tap to tick each dose and hold to mark one skipped on purpose. Switch on the supplement reminder in More, set a time on each supplement, and Foodakl rings then, even in quiet hours. A month calendar shows how many days you completed.
Can I log workouts, runs and sports in Foodakl?
Yes, all of it is free. Foodakl has guided strength sessions with ready-made plans and a builder for your own, 700 movements with demonstrations, rest timers and your whole lifting history. You can also log 12 kinds of cardio, such as running, cycling and swimming, and 22 sports, from football to padel, on a running clock or afterwards, and add your own. Foodakl doesn’t track routes with GPS.
Privacy and data
Does Foodakl store my photos?
The original photo stays on your phone. A smaller copy is sent to be read; Foodakl never stores it, and the service that reads it keeps requests for a limited time, only to detect abuse. The reading is done by a commercial image-analysis service, reached through Foodakl’s own server. Progress photos are never sent anywhere.
Is my data used to train AI?
No. The service that reads a photo keeps requests for a limited time, only to detect abuse, and they are never used to train AI. Foodakl doesn’t use anything you log to train AI either, doesn’t sell your data and shows no ads.
Can I export my data from Foodakl?
Yes, Foodakl exports your record on every plan. In More, open Your record and choose Export as: CSV is a sectioned spreadsheet of meals, weigh-ins, water, fasts, supplements and workouts, JSON keeps the full structure, and PDF is a report of the last 30 days with charts for a coach or clinic. Photos are left out of exports on purpose; a backup you make yourself carries them.
How do I delete my data in Foodakl?
In More, open Your record and tap Delete everything, then hold the button to confirm: it removes every meal, photo, weigh-in and log from your phone and can’t be undone. If you have signed in, delete your account separately under More, then Account and sharing, which removes your email address, backups and board posts from Foodakl’s server. If you never signed in, deleting the app removes everything it held.
How do I move Foodakl to a new phone?
Your record lives on your phone, so it doesn’t follow you on its own. Before you switch, open More, then Backup and restore, then Back up now: it saves everything, photos included, to a folder you pick on Android or to one zip file on iPhone, and you restore it on the new phone. If you have signed in, an account can also restore your numbers, but not your photos, from an encrypted backup, using your recovery code. Foodakl doesn’t sync live between two phones, and an export is a readable copy rather than something you restore from.
Languages and devices
Does Foodakl connect to Apple Health or Health Connect?
Yes, if you switch it on. Foodakl works with Apple Health on iPhone and Health Connect on Android: meals, water and weigh-ins can go out, and steps, active energy and scale weigh-ins can come back in. Each direction is a separate switch, all of them start off, and nothing read from them reaches Foodakl’s server in a form anyone can read.
Which phones and tablets does Foodakl work on?
Foodakl runs on iPhone and Android phones, and also on iPad and Android tablets. You get it from the App Store or Google Play. Home-screen widgets are available on Android only.
Is there a web or desktop version of Foodakl?
No. Foodakl is an app for iPhone, iPad and Android, and there is no web or desktop version. You log from your phone or tablet, and you can export your record as a spreadsheet to use on a computer.
Which languages does Foodakl speak?
Foodakl is available in 16 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Indonesian, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified) and Chinese (Traditional). Arabic and Urdu read right to left. The app follows your phone’s language when it is one of these, and you can change it in More.
Still have a question?
Email support@foodakl.com and a person will answer. The help page covers fixing a wrong reading, moving to a new phone and getting your data out.
