Bento Bunny is an AI-powered calorie tracker. Type what you eat of your food and get instant calorie counts and macro breakdowns — no manual logging, no barcode scanning required.

How does the AI food recognition work?

Take a photo of your meal and Bento Bunny's AI identifies the food, estimates portion sizes, and calculates calories, protein, carbs, and fat automatically. It works with home-cooked meals, restaurant dishes, and packaged foods.

Bento Bunny offers a free tier to get started with basic photo tracking. Premium features like detailed macro breakdowns, meal history analytics, and custom nutrition goals are available with a subscription.

What platforms does Bento Bunny support?

Bento Bunny is available on iOS and Android. Your food log and nutrition data sync across all your devices.

How accurate is the AI calorie tracking?

Bento Bunny's AI is trained on thousands of foods and dishes. You can also adjust portions and ingredients after scanning for even more accurate tracking. It gets smarter the more you use it.

How is Bento Bunny different from MyFitnessPal or Lose It?

Unlike traditional calorie trackers that require manual search and barcode scanning, Bento Bunny uses AI photo recognition to log meals instantly. No typing, no searching through databases — just snap and track.

Reviews

Is MyFitnessPal Premium Worth It? Cost & Free Alternatives (2026)

Is MyFitnessPal Premium worth the ~$19.99/month? What you actually get, why barcode scanning is paywalled, and free alternatives that include it at no cost.

By Bento Bunny TeamUpdated June 8, 2026

MyFitnessPal still has the biggest food database in the category, but the single most common complaint in 2026 is that the features people expect to be free — barcode scanning chief among them — now sit behind Premium. So is MyFitnessPal Premium worth roughly $19.99 a month? Here's exactly what you get, what you don't, and the free alternatives that include the paywalled features.

What Does MyFitnessPal Premium Cost?

MyFitnessPal Premium runs around $19.99/month or about $79.99/year, with a higher Premium+ tier (~$99.99/year) that adds the Meal Scan photo feature. That makes it one of the most expensive subscriptions in the calorie-tracking category — over three times the price of Cronometer Gold.

What You Get with Premium

Barcode scanning — moved behind the paywall in 2022.
Ad-free experience.
Macro tracking by gram and percentage.
File export and more detailed reports.
Meal Scan (photo logging) on the Premium+ tier.

The Barcode Scanning Problem

This is the crux of it. Barcode scanning used to be free and is, for many people, the single most-used feature of a calorie tracker. Putting it behind a ~$20/month subscription is what pushes long-time users to look elsewhere — not because they can't afford it, but because paying monthly to scan a cereal box feels wrong. If barcode scanning is the main reason you'd pay for Premium, know that several apps include it free.

Is MyFitnessPal Premium Worth It?

Premium is worth it only if you specifically need MyFitnessPal's massive database and barcode scanning and you value the ecosystem enough to pay a premium price for it. For most people, the answer is no — the same core features (barcode scanning, macro targets, ad-free logging) are available free or far cheaper elsewhere.

Free Alternatives That Include the Paywalled Features

Cronometer — free tier includes barcode scanning and deep nutrient tracking. See our Cronometer review.
Bento Bunny — free during its iOS beta, with barcode scanning, AI photo logging, and type-to-log all included, plus on-device photo processing on iOS 26+.

If you're leaving MyFitnessPal over the paywall, the usual blocker is your years of history. Bento Bunny imports your full MyFitnessPal export, so you can switch without losing your data.

The Bottom Line

MyFitnessPal Premium is a lot of money for features that are free or cheaper elsewhere — most notably barcode scanning, which shouldn't be a paid feature in 2026. Unless you're tied to MyFitnessPal's database and ecosystem, you can get everything Premium offers, including the scanner and AI photo logging, for free with Bento Bunny — and bring your history along.

TestFlight cohort closes when full

Everything Premium paywalls — for free

Join the iOS beta: barcode scanning, AI photo logging, and macro tracking included. Import your MyFitnessPal export and keep your history.

Bento Bunny iOS beta (free during TestFlight — no card)
Barcode scanning included free (MyFitnessPal charges for it)
One-tap MyFitnessPal CSV import — dates, meals, macros come across

Join the iOS beta →

If it's not faster and cheaper in your first week, your MyFitnessPal account is right where you left it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is MyFitnessPal Premium worth it?

For most people, no. MyFitnessPal Premium costs around $19.99/month — one of the most expensive in the category — largely to unlock barcode scanning, ad-free use, and macro targets. Those features are available free in apps like Cronometer and Bento Bunny, so Premium is only worth it if you specifically need MyFitnessPal's database and ecosystem.

How much is MyFitnessPal Premium?

MyFitnessPal Premium is roughly $19.99/month or about $79.99/year. There's a higher Premium+ tier (~$99.99/year) that adds the Meal Scan photo logging feature.

Why is barcode scanning not free on MyFitnessPal?

MyFitnessPal moved barcode scanning behind its Premium paywall in 2022. It used to be free, and its removal is one of the most common reasons people switch. Apps like Cronometer and Bento Bunny include barcode scanning at no cost.

Is there a free alternative to MyFitnessPal Premium?

Yes. Cronometer's free tier includes barcode scanning and deep nutrient tracking, and Bento Bunny is free during its iOS beta with barcode scanning, AI photo logging, and text logging included. Bento Bunny also imports your MyFitnessPal export so you keep your history.

Can I keep my data if I leave MyFitnessPal?

Yes. Export your data as a CSV from myfitnesspal.com on a computer, then import it into Bento Bunny — it preserves your dates, meals, and macros so you don't start from zero.