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Mealist is a recipe manager that lets you save recipes from anywhere — websites, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or even a photo of a handwritten card — and organizes them in one place across all your devices. You can plan your weekly meals, generate shopping lists automatically, and share collections with family or friends.

Yes. The free plan lets you save up to 15 recipes and create up to 3 collections — plenty to get a feel for the app. When you're ready for more, Premium gives you unlimited recipes, unlimited collections, custom tags, meal planning, grocery lists, and the ability to share collections with others. Premium is $4.99/month or $49.99/year.

Mealist is available on iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, and as a web app at my.mealistapp.com. We also have a Chrome extension for saving recipes with one click while you're browsing. Your recipes sync automatically across all your devices.

Download the Mealist app on iOS or Android, or visit my.mealistapp.com. Tap "Sign Up" and register with your email address, or continue with Google or Apple. It takes about 30 seconds and no credit card is required.

Start by saving a few recipes you already love. Paste a URL from a recipe website, share a link from Instagram or TikTok directly to Mealist, or install the Chrome extension to clip recipes from any site. Once you have a handful saved, create a collection — "Weeknight Dinners" is a great first one — and drag your recipes into it.

Virtually anywhere. Mealist imports from recipe websites (NYT Cooking, AllRecipes, Food Network, and thousands more), Instagram posts and Reels, TikTok videos, YouTube videos, and any URL that contains a recipe. You can also paste recipe text directly, upload a photo or PDF of a printed recipe, or use the Chrome extension to clip recipes with one click while browsing.

Paste any recipe URL into the import field and tap Import. Mealist fetches the page, extracts the title, ingredients, instructions, times, and photo automatically, and saves a clean version to your library. If the site uses structured recipe data we grab it instantly; for sites that don't, our AI parser steps in to figure it out.

On iOS or Android, tap the Share button on any post or video and select Mealist from the share sheet. The app opens, parses the recipe from the caption or video, and saves it to your library. You can also paste the post URL directly into the Mealist import screen.

Some websites use unusual formatting that trips up automated parsers. If a particular site consistently imports incorrectly, let us know at hello@mealistapp.com and we'll look at improving the parser for it.

Yes. In the Import screen, choose "Upload File" and select a photo (JPG, PNG, HEIC) or file (PDF, TXT, DOCX). Mealist uses OCR to extract the text and formats it into a proper recipe. It works well for typed recipes and reasonably well for clearly handwritten ones. This typically takes 10–20 seconds.

No. Mealist checks for duplicate URLs before saving. If you import the same recipe link twice, the second import simply returns your existing copy rather than creating a duplicate. This also means if another Mealist user has already imported the same URL, your import is instant.

Install the Mealist Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store, then sign in with your Mealist account. When you're on any recipe page, click the Mealist icon in your browser toolbar and the recipe is saved instantly — no copy-pasting required.

Collections are like folders — a recipe lives in a collection and you'd typically browse by collection ("show me my Weeknight Dinners"). Tags are more like labels — a recipe can have multiple tags, and tags are great for cross-cutting attributes like "gluten-free," "30 minutes," or "date night." Users have access to 92 built-in system tags.

Free accounts can create up to 3 collections. Premium accounts have no limit. If you're on the free plan and need more, upgrading to Premium unlocks unlimited collections immediately.

Yes. A recipe can appear in as many collections as you like. Adding it to a second collection doesn't duplicate it — it's the same recipe, just accessible from multiple places. Great for something like a "Pasta Bolognese" that belongs in both "Italian" and "Meal Prep Favorites."

Search looks across recipe titles, ingredients, descriptions, and tags. So searching "lemon" will surface any recipe that mentions lemon anywhere — not just in the title. You can also filter by collection or tag to narrow things down further.

Not yet, but we're working on it! See something that doesn't look quite right? Let us know at hello@mealistapp.com what needs adjusting and we'll work on making it right in the mean-time.

Collection sharing is a Premium feature. Open a collection, tap Share, and send the link to whoever you want. They can view the collection from their Mealist account, or add recipes to it if you give them permission. This is useful for sharing a holiday menu with family or party ideas with friends.

In the Meal Plan view, you'll see a weekly calendar. Tap any day to assign a recipe to it — breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Once your week is planned, Mealist generates your shopping list automatically by combining all the ingredients from your planned recipes.

Your shopping list is generated from your meal plan — Mealist pulls every ingredient from every recipe in your plan and consolidates duplicates (so "1 cup flour" from one recipe and "2 cups flour" from another becomes "3 cups flour"). You can also add recipes manually. Check items off as you shop and they grey out.

On iOS or Android, go to Settings → Upgrade to Premium. On the web, visit my.mealistapp.com and click Upgrade in the top navigation. You can choose monthly ($4.99/month) or annual ($49.99/year, saving about 17%). Payment is processed securely through Stripe on web, or through your App Store / Google Play account on mobile.

If you subscribed on the web, go to my.mealistapp.com → Settings → Subscription → Cancel Plan. If you subscribed through the App Store, manage it via iOS Settings → Your Name → Subscriptions. For Google Play, open the Play Store app → Subscriptions. You'll keep Premium access until the end of your current billing period.

Your recipes and collections are never deleted. If you downgrade to the free plan, you keep everything you've already saved — you just won't be able to add more recipes beyond the 15-recipe free limit until you upgrade again. Similarly, your collections stay intact; you just can't create new ones beyond the 3-collection free limit.

Yes new accounts automatically start in our limited free tier. No credit card is required to start. If you choose to upgrade, there is a 7-day trial before billing kicks in for you to try out our Premium features.

Yes. Your Premium status is tied to your Mealist account, not to the device you subscribed on. Sign in to any platform — iOS, Android, or web — with the same account and Premium features are available everywhere.

On the login screen, tap "Forgot password?" and enter your email address. You'll receive a reset link within a few minutes. If it doesn't arrive, check your spam folder. If you signed up with Google or Apple sign-in, you won't have a Mealist password — just use the same sign-in method you originally used.

You can request account deletion by emailing hello@mealistapp.com with the subject "Delete my account." We'll permanently delete your account and all associated data within 30 days. Note that this cannot be undone — export your recipes first if you want to keep them.

Yes. With a Premium account you can create a Household and invite family members. Everyone in the household shares your Premium access — they don't each need their own subscription.

First, try closing the app fully and reopening it. If that doesn't help, check that you have a working internet connection. Then try signing out and signing back in via Settings. If the problem continues, uninstalling and reinstalling the app usually resolves persistent issues without losing your data (everything is stored in the cloud). If you're still stuck, email us at hello@mealistapp.com with a description of what you're seeing.

Syncing happens in real time when you have an internet connection. If something looks out of date, try pulling down on the recipe list to force a refresh, or sign out and back in. Make sure you're signed into the same account on both devices — it's easy to accidentally have a second account if you used a different sign-in method.

Make sure you're signed into the web app at my.mealistapp.com with the same account the extension is connected to. Recipes saved by the extension should appear immediately in your library. If they're not showing up, try refreshing the page or signing out and back in on both the extension and the web app.

No, never. We don't sell your personal information to anyone. Your recipes, your account details, and your usage data stay within Mealist and the infrastructure partners (like Google Cloud) that run the service. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes. Your data is yours. We're building export functionality into the app so you can take your recipes with you at any time. In the meantime, if you need an export for any reason, email hello@mealistapp.com and we'll get it sorted for you.

Yes. Mealist never stores your credit card details. All payment processing on the web is handled by Stripe, one of the most trusted payment platforms in the world. On iOS and Android, payments go through Apple's App Store and Google Play respectively. We only store a subscription status indicator, not any payment information.

Mealist is built on Google Cloud Platform and your data is stored in the United States. We use industry-standard encryption both in transit (SSL/TLS) and at rest. See our Privacy Policy for more information on data handling and international transfers.