Cal AI vs MyFitnessPal, side by side.

First, the news

Same owner, two different apps.

On 2 March 2026 MyFitnessPal announced that it had acquired Cal AI, and said Cal AI would keep running as a standalone product. In that announcement MyFitnessPal describes itself as “the trusted platform for members focused on health and weight management”, and Cal AI as an approachable way in, with a focus on fitness and performance.

So “Cal AI or MyFitnessPal?” is no longer a choice between rival companies. It is a choice between two styles: point the camera and let the app guess, or search, scan and pick the exact entry.

At a glance

The two apps, plus a third for meals out.

Cal AI

Cal AI, in its own words: “just a picture”.

Cal AI’s homepage headline is “Track your calories with just a picture.” You snap a meal, and the app says it uses your phone’s depth sensor to estimate the volume of food before breaking it into calories, protein, carbs and fat. You can also scan a barcode, describe a meal in words, add your own foods and record workouts, and it can read steps from Apple Health or Google Fit.

You sign in with an Apple ID or a Google account, and your data is stored in the cloud so it comes back after a reinstall. On accuracy, its own FAQ is plain about it: “CalAI is about 80% accurate.”

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal, in its own words: the big database.

MyFitnessPal is built around one of the largest food databases there is — its homepage counts more than 20 million foods. A free account covers food, weight and exercise. Its Premium page lists Barcode Scan and Meal Scan (the photo feature), voice entry, custom protein, carb and fat targets, and intermittent fasting.

It connects to more than 40 apps and devices, including Apple Health, Health Connect, Garmin, Samsung Health and Strava, and it works on the web as well as on phones. If you want everything — food, steps, workouts, weight — in one place, that is its strength.

The question everyone asks

Is Cal AI or MyFitnessPal more accurate?

A preliminary NIH test presented in July 2026 photographed 102 weighed meals and ran them through four photo apps — MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, Cal AI and Appediet. All four came in low, by about 250 to 345 calories on average, and missed about 30 g of fat. It is a conference abstract, not yet peer reviewed, but it matches what you would expect: a photo can’t see the butter.

Both Cal AI and MyFitnessPal’s photo scanning were in that test, so a photo is a quick first guess in either app, not a measurement. Where MyFitnessPal can be more exact is the old-fashioned way: a barcode, a label, or a kitchen scale and the right entry. Our longer explainer is how accurate AI calorie counters are.

Choose

Choose Cal AI, MyFitnessPal — or neither.

• Choose Cal AI if you want the fastest possible photo-to-number, you train and care about protein, and you don’t want to search a database.
• Choose MyFitnessPal if you cook at home, eat a lot of packaged food with barcodes, want weight and exercise in the same place, or like picking the exact entry.
• Choose PlateDiary if most of your meals are out — shared plates, a table of dishes, places you want to remember — and you want a rough number per dish without an account.
• Choose neither if you manage a medical condition with food. A registered dietitian beats any app.

The eating-out option

When most meals happen at a restaurant table.

Picture Friday ramen in London with Kenji and Amara: three bowls, gyoza to share, a plate of karaage, two highballs. A photo-first app wants one plate at a time. A database app wants you to search for “tonkotsu ramen, restaurant” and guess which entry is closest.

PlateDiary takes one photo of the whole table and cuts every dish and drink out on your phone. If you turn Calories on, a read gives each dish its own rough number; you accept it or fix it, and the night is kept with the place and who was there. We make PlateDiary, so weigh that in.

• Off unless you turn them on. With Calories off, PlateDiary is a food diary for eating out and shows no numbers at all.
• One photo of the table. Every dish and drink is cut out on your phone into its own save. A read gives each dish one rough “~” number, rounded to the nearest 10.
• Accept or correct. Accept makes the number yours; Edit lets you type your own. PlateDiary remembers your correction for that dish at that place.
• No AI needed. Type your own number on any food or drink save, free.

In PlateDiary

A rough number for the dishes you save — only if you want one.

Sources

Where the facts come from