MyFitnessPalMyFitnessPal has been around for about 20 years, and it says over 280 million people have joined. Its free plan still logs plenty, but most of what makes logging fast is now in Premium. This review covers the free plan, with sample foods, and describes Premium’s barcode scanner, Meal Scan and voice logging from MyFitnessPal’s own screens and pages. If you’re choosing between MyFitnessPal and another app, see the best MyFitnessPal alternatives or Lose It! vs MyFitnessPal.
Is MyFitnessPal free? What Premium costs
Yes. The free plan logs food and exercise, with ads. In the US, Premium costs $79.99 a year, or $19.99 a month. Premium+ costs $99.99 a year. MyFitnessPal’s Premium page offers a 7-day free trial.
The upgrade screen in the app offered only Premium, by the year or by the month. Paying by the year saves 67% against paying monthly. Premium+, which adds a meal planner and grocery lists, is sold separately from the Plan tab, in the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.
Free vs Premium: what the free plan leaves out
The free plan logs food by search. You can save your own foods, meals and recipes, import a recipe from a link, log your weight, and connect partner apps. It shows the day’s calories, macros and nutrients against your goals.
The faster ways to log are Premium. The add food screen puts Barcode scan, Voice log and Meal scan beside Quick add. The barcode scanner has needed Premium since October 2022, and when we searched for an everything bagel, a card popped up suggesting we scan one instead. Meal Scan, the photo logging, looks for the foods in your photo and suggests matches from MyFitnessPal’s database. You check them, add anything it missed, and log the meal at once. Its own introduction warns that it “may not find it all…yet!”
Premium also lets you set macros in grams, by meal and by day, and adds food analysis, net carbs, intermittent fasting and data export, among other things. On the free plan, the Nutrition screen’s lists of the foods highest in carbs, fat and protein are locked behind Premium’s crown.
MyFitnessPal’s ads
The free plan shows ads. Of the 27 screens we captured, 13 had one. In the diary, an ad sat among the meals, above a line that reads “Get ad-free tracking in Premium—upgrade now”. Banners sat at the bottom of Nutrition, Progress, search results and the meal and recipe lists, for apps, coffee, grocery delivery, an audiobook service and a news site. Premium removes them.
How accurate is MyFitnessPal’s food data?
MyFitnessPal has over 20.5 million foods, added by MyFitnessPal and its users, so one food can have many entries. A search for cream cheese listed Philadelphia’s at 68 calories for 30 grams, then one at 80 calories for 2 tablespoons and another at 102 for the same 2 tablespoons. A search for an everything bagel listed one bagel at anywhere from 240 to 330 calories. Some are brands and some aren’t, so not all of the spread is error, but you have to choose.
A check mark means an entry “has been reviewed or added by MyFitnessPal and is considered accurate and complete”. MyFitnessPal adds that entries without one “are not always wrong”, and that checked ones can still have mistakes. The bagel’s Best Match had no check mark.
The free plan tracks the day’s nutrients too, with vitamins and minerals as a percentage of the daily value.
For the calories and macros themselves, one 2025 study had two researchers log the same food records in MyFitnessPal and Cronometer. In MyFitnessPal, their totals for energy differed by about 225 kcal a day on average, against about 18 in Cronometer. It’s a small study, from records made in 2020, and it measures how consistently two people log, not how close the app gets for your own meals. If you use MyFitnessPal, pick checked entries and log the same one each time.
Calorie goals you set yourself
MyFitnessPal sets a calorie goal from your profile and splits it into macros by percentage, such as 50% carbs, 30% fat and 20% protein. When you lose 10 lb, it offers to recalculate your goals. It doesn’t work out what you burn from what you eat and weigh, the way an adaptive app does.
Taking your data with you
Data export is Premium, as CSV files with meal totals. The free plan has a printable report on the website. MyFitnessPal runs on iPhone, Android, the web, Apple Watch and Wear OS, and Apps & Devices links it to trackers and health apps.
Where Fit Shapes fits
MyFitnessPal’s free plan logs a lot, but it shows ads, and the barcode scanner, Meal Scan and voice logging need Premium. Its goals stay where you set them.
If you’d rather log less by hand, Fit Shapes is built to feel premium. A photo logs the meal instantly, and every subscription includes photo, voice and barcode logging. Each week, Adaptive Targets proposes new targets from what you eat and weigh. It has no ads and doesn’t sell your data. It also imports your meal totals and weigh-ins from MyFitnessPal. So if you decide to switch, you can bring your history with you.
The catch is that Fit Shapes has no free plan, while MyFitnessPal’s costs nothing. After the 14-day free trial, you pay for a subscription.
Questions
Is MyFitnessPal free?
Yes. The free plan has ads. It logs food and exercise, and sets calorie and macro goals by percentage. The barcode scanner, Meal Scan, voice logging and data export need Premium.
How much does MyFitnessPal Premium cost?
In the US, Premium costs $79.99 a year, or $19.99 a month. Premium+ costs $99.99 a year. Its Premium page offers a 7-day free trial.
Is MyFitnessPal Premium worth it?
It is if you log a lot of packaged food, since the barcode scanner is Premium, or if the ads bother you. If you log by search and check your calories for the day, the free plan covers it.
Is MyFitnessPal’s barcode scanner free?
No. It has needed Premium since October 2022.
Is MyFitnessPal’s photo logging free?
No. Meal Scan needs Premium. It suggests foods from MyFitnessPal’s database, and you choose the right ones.
Does MyFitnessPal have ads?
Yes, on the free plan. 13 of the 27 screens we captured had one, from banners to an ad among the day’s meals. Premium removes them.
Is MyFitnessPal accurate?
Its database is large and partly added by users, so one food can have entries that disagree. Check marks show the entries MyFitnessPal has reviewed. In a 2025 study, two people logging the same food in MyFitnessPal agreed less closely than in Cronometer.
What is MyFitnessPal Premium+?
Premium plus a meal planner, with over 1,500 recipes, grocery lists and shopping integration. It’s sold from the app’s Plan tab in the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.
Sources
10 sources
- MyFitnessPal, support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402625100941-Supported-Devices, checked October 14, 2026
- MyFitnessPal, support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/15457546881805-What-is-included-in-the-free-version, checked October 14, 2026
- MyFitnessPal, myfitnesspal.com/premium, checked October 19, 2026
- MyFitnessPal, support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045761612-How-to-use-the-Meal-Scanner, checked October 14, 2026
- MyFitnessPal, support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/30332897072269-How-to-log-food-with-your-voice, checked October 15, 2026
- MyFitnessPal, support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032624771-How-to-use-the-Barcode-Scanner, checked October 14, 2026
- MyFitnessPal, support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032271472-How-can-I-force-my-calorie-goals-to-update, checked October 14, 2026
- MyFitnessPal, support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032273352-Export-your-nutrition-progress-and-exercise-data, checked October 14, 2026
- MyFitnessPal, support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032271252-Where-does-MyFitnessPal-get-its-food-data, checked October 14, 2026
- MyFitnessPal, support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/34889191368077-The-difference-between-Free-Premium-and-Premium, checked October 14, 2026
