Counter44 vs Cal AI - Calorie Tracker
Cal AI - Calorie Tracker logs meals from a photo, and the results need a subscription. See how it compares with Counter44 on price, logging and privacy.
Disclosure: Counter44 is our app. This comparison is written honestly, including the places where Cal AI is the better fit. Ratings and pricing are from the US App Store as of October 2026.
Quick answer
Cal AI - Calorie Tracker by Viral Development LLC is a photo-first calorie and macro counter, on the App Store since 2024, for iPhone, Apple Watch and Android. You answer lifestyle questions to build a plan, take a photo of a meal and get a nutritional breakdown. The catch is in the listing: food scanning results require a subscription.
Counter44 is a calorie and macro tracker for iPhone, iPad and Android. You log food from a bundled list of about 7,200 USDA-derived foods, your own custom foods or a Quick Add, and the food log, targets, weight, water, exercise and progress photos are free. It keeps your data on the device, with no account.
If you want to log a meal by taking a picture of it and you are happy to pay for that, pick Cal AI - Calorie Tracker. If you would rather choose the food and the grams yourself, and skip both the subscription and the account, pick Counter44.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Counter44 | Cal AI - Calorie Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iOS + Android (iPhone and iPad, iOS 15 or later) | iOS + Watch + Android (iPhone and Apple Watch, iOS 18 or later; no iPad app) |
| US App Store rating | 1 US rating so far, too few to compare | 4.80 (372,015) |
| Last updated | October 2026 | October 2026 |
| Free-tier limits | Food log, targets, macros, weight, water, exercise, progress photos and streaks are free. Pro adds the Statistics tab, 90- and 365-day weight trends, more than 3 meal reminders and all 30+ themes (3 are free) | No free tier named. The listing says food scanning results require a subscription |
| Paid plans | Pro at $29.99 a year or $2.99 a week, with a 7-day free trial | Unlimited at $2.99, $5.99, $9.99, $19.99 or $29.99, and Unlimited Plan at $19.99, with no billing period shown. Streak Restore $0.99 |
| Food logging | Yes, from the bundled food list, custom foods or Quick Add | Yes, by photo, with results behind the subscription |
| Photo or AI food recognition | No. Its photos are progress photos of you, not of food | Yes, snap a photo of a meal for a nutritional breakdown |
| Barcode scanner | No | Not stated in the listing. Reviewers describe barcode and nutrition-label scanning |
| Food database and search | About 7,200 USDA-derived foods, bundled and offline, with named servings. No online search | Size and source not stated. Reviewers describe a food search and call it weak |
| Calorie and macro targets | Yes, an estimated calorie target and a 30/40/30 macro split, both editable | A plan built from setup questions. Some reviewers say goals reset or cannot be edited |
| Saved meals | Copy a past day’s meal to today (added in 1.1.0, October 2026). Recipes not stated | Not stated in the listing. Reviewers describe saved foods and meals |
| Weight and water | Yes, both. Weight in kg or lb with a trend chart; 90- and 365-day trends are Pro | Not stated |
| Exercise | Yes, by name with calories burned typed in. No burn estimates | Not stated in the listing. Reviewers say workouts and steps show up in the app |
| Apple Health / Health Connect | No | Not stated in the listing. Reviewers describe Apple Health sync |
| Apple Watch app | No | Yes. The listing does not say what it does |
| Progress photos of you | Yes, a photo a day, side-by-side compare and a timelapse MP4 | Not stated |
| Streaks | Yes, badges at 3 to 365 days | Yes, with a $0.99 Streak Restore purchase |
| Health Score | Yes, a 0-100 score that is motivational, not clinical | Not stated in the listing. Reviewers describe one and say it can be wrong |
| Multiple profiles | Not stated | Not stated |
| Export | CSV of the food log and weight history (added in 1.1.0, October 2026), plus timelapse MP4 | Not stated |
| Languages | English | 15 (English and 14 more) |
| Ads | No | No ads, per its listing. Its privacy label declares Third-Party Advertising use of Identifiers and Usage Data |
| Account required | No | Not stated in the listing. Reviewers describe creating an account during setup |
| Data stays on device | Yes, with no account | Not stated |
| Privacy label | No data used to track you. Purchases, Identifiers, Usage Data and Diagnostics, not linked to you | Data Used to Track You: Identifiers, Usage Data |
Where Cal AI - Calorie Tracker wins
It logs a meal from a photo. Cal AI’s listing describes three steps: answer lifestyle questions to build your plan, snap a photo of your meal, and get your nutritional breakdown. Counter44 has no photo or AI food recognition, so every entry is a search, a custom food or numbers you type. If a picture is the only kind of logging you will keep up with, that settles it.
Reviewers are split on the estimates. A recurring complaint is that the calories come out wrong, and reviewers who like the app still call the numbers approximate. Other reviewers say it reads their meals correctly.
Barcodes and labels, by reviewers’ accounts. The listing does not mention a barcode scanner, but reviewers describe scanning barcodes and photographing nutrition labels. Some of those scans, reviewers add, record values that do not match the package. Counter44 has no barcode scanner and no online food search, so a packaged food outside its bundled list goes in as a custom food, typed from the label.
Apple Watch and Apple Health. Apple Watch is on Cal AI’s App Store platform list, though the description does not say what the Watch app does. The listing does not name Apple Health either, but reviewers describe it syncing and say workouts and steps show up in the app. Counter44 has no Watch app and no Apple Health or Health Connect link. You type in the calories you burned.
A bigger, older app. Cal AI - Calorie Tracker has been on the App Store since 2024 and holds 4.8 stars from about 372,000 US ratings. On Google Play it shows 4.6 stars across 272K reviews and over a million installs. It shipped updates about weekly from April to October 2026, and its store page lists 15 languages. Counter44 has been on the App Store since 2026.
Where Counter44 wins
You can use it without paying. Cal AI’s listing says food scanning results require a subscription and names no free feature. Reviewers say it goes further: after a long setup questionnaire, the app cannot be used without a subscription or a trial, which reviewers put at three days. Counter44 is free for the food log, calorie and macro targets, weight, water, exercise, progress photos, streaks, custom foods and Quick Add.
Prices you can read. Cal AI’s store page lists five purchases named Unlimited, from $2.99 to $29.99, plus an Unlimited Plan at $19.99. None of them says whether it bills by the week, month or year. Billing is a recurring complaint in reviews, including charges after a trial or plan was cancelled and refunds refused or never answered. Counter44 lists Pro at $29.99 a year or $2.99 a week, with a 7-day free trial.
No account to make. Reviewers describe Cal AI asking them to create an account during setup, and its privacy label declares Identifiers and Usage Data used to track you. Counter44 keeps your data on the device, with no account, and its label declares no data used to track you.
iPad, older iPhones and offline use. Cal AI’s store page lists no iPad app, and it needs iOS 18 or later. Counter44 runs on iPhone and iPad from iOS 15 and works offline. Its food list ships inside the app, with named servings and per-100 g math, so an entry is the database value scaled to the amount you ate. The calorie target it sets is an estimate, not medical advice.
Pricing
- Counter44 is free for the food log, calorie and macro targets, weight, water, exercise, progress photos, streaks, custom foods and Quick Add. Pro adds the Statistics tab, 90- and 365-day weight trends, more than three meal reminders and every theme, at $29.99 a year or $2.99 a week, with a 7-day free trial.
- Cal AI - Calorie Tracker by Viral Development LLC is free to download, but its listing says food scanning results require a subscription and names no free feature. The store lists Unlimited at $2.99, $5.99, $9.99, $19.99 and $29.99, an Unlimited Plan at $19.99 and a $0.99 Streak Restore, with no billing period on any of them. The store page does not spell out what Unlimited adds beyond photo-scan results.
A year of Counter44 costs nothing on the free tier, or $29.99 on the annual Pro plan. Reviewers put Cal AI’s yearly plan at $29.99 too, though the store page shows no billing periods to confirm it. Its listing also names no free tier to fall back on.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Cal AI - Calorie Tracker if you want to log meals by taking a photo, you want the barcode and label scanning and Apple Health sync that reviewers describe, you wear an Apple Watch, and a subscription is fine with you.
Pick Counter44 if you want to log food without paying or making an account, you would rather choose the food and the portion yourself, you use an iPad or an iPhone that cannot run iOS 18, or you want progress photos of yourself with a timelapse. It is new, though. It has been on the App Store since 2026, and it cannot scan a meal, a barcode or a label.
Weighing more than these two? Our best calorie tracker apps roundup covers the wider field. To work out a label’s calories by hand, our free food calories by weight calculator scales it to the grams you ate, and the macros to calories calculator turns protein, carbs and fat into calories. Both run in the browser with nothing to download.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cal AI - Calorie Tracker free?
It is free to download. Its listing says food scanning analysis results require a subscription and names no free feature. The App Store lists Unlimited purchases from $2.99 to $29.99, with no billing period shown on any of them. Reviewers say the app cannot be used past the setup questions without a subscription or a trial, and that the trial lasts three days. Counter44 is free for the food log, calorie and macro targets, weight, water, exercise, progress photos, streaks, custom foods and Quick Add. Its Pro plan is $29.99 a year or $2.99 a week, with a 7-day free trial.
Can Counter44 log food from a photo like Cal AI - Calorie Tracker?
No. Counter44 has no photo or AI food recognition, no barcode scanner and no online food search. You log from a bundled list of about 7,200 USDA-derived foods, from your own custom foods, or with a Quick Add of calories and macros. Its camera features are progress photos of you, not of your food: a photo a day, a side-by-side compare and a timelapse MP4. Cal AI - Calorie Tracker is built around food photos: its listing says you snap a photo of your meal and get a nutritional breakdown, and the results need a subscription.
Does Cal AI - Calorie Tracker have a barcode scanner?
Its listing does not mention one, but reviewers describe scanning barcodes and photographing nutrition labels. Reviewers also say some of those scans record values that differ from the package. Counter44 has no barcode scanner. A packaged food that is not in its bundled list goes in as a custom food, typed from the label.
Does Cal AI - Calorie Tracker work with Apple Health and Apple Watch?
Apple Watch is on its App Store platform list, though the description does not say what the Watch app does. The listing does not name Apple Health or Health Connect, but reviewers describe Apple Health syncing and say workouts and steps show up in the app. Counter44 has no Apple Watch app and no Apple Health or Health Connect link. You log exercise by name and type in the calories burned.
Do I need an account to use Cal AI - Calorie Tracker?
The listing does not say, but reviewers describe creating an account during setup. Its App Store privacy label declares Identifiers and Usage Data used to track you. Counter44 needs no account and keeps your data on the device. Its privacy label declares no data used to track you.
Is Cal AI - Calorie Tracker on Android and iPad?
It is on Google Play, under the title Cal AI - Food Calorie Tracker by Cal AI, Inc., with 4.6 stars across 272K reviews. Its App Store listing covers iPhone and Apple Watch but not iPad, and it needs iOS 18 or later. Counter44 runs on iPhone and iPad from iOS 15, and on Android.