Comparison

The best free recipe apps for iPhone, and what "free" actually includes

Published October 10, 2026 Last checked October 26, 2026

Which recipe apps are actually free on iPhone?

Almost every recipe app on the App Store is “free to download,” and almost none are free all the way through. As of October 2026, Samsung Food gives away the most on its free tier: recipe search with diet filters, recipe saving, meal planning, and shared shopping lists. Pestle’s free plan includes scaling, unit conversion, guided cooking, and shopping lists, but it keeps only 15 recipes. AnyList’s free plan is a strong shopping list with a recipe box, but it caps web imports at five and puts scaling and meal planning behind its paid tier. Paprika isn’t free at all on iPhone: it’s a $4.99 purchase.

The useful question isn’t “is it free?” It’s “what will I hit first?” For some apps that’s a recipe count. For others it’s a feature you assumed was included. The table below lists each app’s free-tier limits as the app itself states them.

Free tiers compared

Every row was checked against the app’s US App Store listing or the company’s own site on October 10, 2026. “Not stated” means the listing and site don’t spell out the free limit. It doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

One app is missing on purpose. Mealime was a popular free meal planner, but its site said the app “will be discontinued as of October 21, 2026,” and that date has passed, with recipes moving to Meals Hub inside Albertsons Companies grocery apps (mealime.com/closing). Don’t start a new recipe collection there.

What each free tier is good for

Samsung Food: the most free features, if you want a recipe catalog

Samsung Food’s listing leads with “The Most Powerful Free Meal Planning App” and backs it up with more than most competitors include for free: a large public recipe catalog, diet filters, saving from websites, weekly meal plans, and shared shopping lists. What you pay for is personalization. AI meal plans, “smart recipe customization” (adjust servings, swap ingredients, tweak nutrition), and the guided Smart Cooking Mode are Samsung Food+ features. If you mostly cook from a catalog and plan the week, the free tier may be all you need.

Pestle: full features, small library

Pestle’s free plan is the reverse of Samsung Food’s. You get nearly every cooking feature (scaling, unit conversion, guided cooking, shopping lists) but only 15 saved recipes, per Pestle’s pricing page. Meal plans and sync across devices are Pro features. Fifteen recipes is a fair trial and a workable permanent setup if you only cook a short rotation.

AnyList: free for lists, paid for recipes

AnyList’s comparison table is the clearest in this roundup. The free plan is a full shared grocery list, plus a recipe box you can paste into, with five web imports. Scaling, recipe photos, the meal-planning calendar, and unlimited imports all need AnyList Complete. If your household mainly needs one shared shopping list, the free plan is excellent. If you need a recipe app, the free plan runs out quickly.

Recipe Keeper, Crouton, and Mela: try them, then decide

All three are free to download with a one-time upgrade. Recipe Keeper Pro is $19.99, Crouton Plus is $24.99, and Mela+ is $6.99 on iOS. None of their current listings spell out exactly what the free version caps, so the honest advice is to import three or four of your real recipes and see where the app stops you. One concrete detail: Crouton’s newest feature, ingredient substitutions that update quantities and instructions, requires the Discover subscription, not the one-time Plus purchase. Two unlocks, two prices.

Tasty and NYT Cooking: free to browse, not to keep your own recipes

These are recipe publishers, not recipe organizers. Tasty is free to browse with a paid Tasty+ tier. NYT Cooking needs a subscription for “unlimited access,” per its listing. Neither is built for saving recipes from other websites, so they work best alongside an organizer, not instead of one.

Sous Chef: free to try, with a different job

Sous Chef is free to download and try; heavier AI use may need a subscription later. No account is needed. Import, editing, and cooking mode all work as a guest, and sign-in (Google, email, or Apple) is optional, so your library survives a reinstall. It’s not a full replacement for the organizers above: there’s no meal planner, no grocery list, no nutrition tracking, and no Android version. What it does differently is take any plain-language change request, not just a single ingredient swap. “Make it dairy-free” or “feed 2 instead of 6” comes back as a server-validated edit to the ingredients and the steps that mention them. Every changed line is marked Edited and logged, you can undo it, and the original is kept underneath. (Crouton and Samsung Food offer ingredient swaps too, but only on their paid tiers.) See the best AI recipe apps for iPhone for how that compares with generator apps.

How to choose a free recipe app

Start with the limit you’re most likely to hit:

• You’ll save hundreds of recipes from blogs. Avoid the 15-recipe and 5-import caps. Paying $19.99 to $24.99 once for Recipe Keeper or Crouton, or $4.99 for Paprika, will cost less than a year of most subscriptions.
• You cook a short rotation. Pestle’s free plan, with its full cooking features, may never need an upgrade.
• You mainly need a shared grocery list. AnyList free.
• You mainly need ideas and a weekly plan. Samsung Food free.
• You want to change recipes, not just store them. Sous Chef, alongside whichever organizer you pick.

If you’re switching from Paprika because of its per-platform pricing, the best Paprika alternatives for iPhone goes deeper on that specific decision.

Common questions

Is there a completely free recipe app with no limits?

None of the apps we checked publish a free tier with no limits at all. Samsung Food comes closest for recipe search and meal planning, and keeps personalization and recipe customization for its paid Food+ tier. Pestle caps free storage at 15 recipes, and AnyList caps free web imports at five.

Is Paprika free on iPhone?

No. Paprika Recipe Manager 3 is a $4.99 purchase on the US App Store as of October 2026, with no free tier. Each platform (Mac, Windows, Android) is sold separately, per its listing.

How many recipes can you save for free in Pestle?

Fifteen. Pestle’s pricing page lists “Keep 15 recipes” for the free plan. Pestle Pro removes the limit and adds sync, Households, and meal plans.

Does AnyList’s free version scale recipes?

No. AnyList’s features page lists recipe scaling, recipe photos, and the meal-planning calendar as AnyList Complete features, and limits free web recipe imports to five. Shopping lists and copy-paste recipes are free.

Is Mealime still a good free option?

No. Mealime’s own site said the app would be discontinued on October 21, 2026, and pointed users to Meals Hub inside Albertsons Companies grocery apps. Pick a different app for a new collection.

Is Sous Chef free?

Sous Chef is free to download and try; heavier AI use may need a subscription later. You don’t need an account to use it. It has no meal planner or grocery list, so many people pair it with a free organizer or list app.