Cal AI Cost in 2026: Weekly, Monthly & Yearly Prices

Cal AI costs $9.99 a month for most people, and its photo-scan results need that subscription once the 3-day trial ends. You will not find that figure anywhere Cal AI publishes: its site has no price list, its pricing address returns a 404, and the App Store lists the same Unlimited subscription at five prices, from $2.99 to $29.99, with no billing period on any of them, because the price is segmented by user. Our picks by budget: PlateLens first, for photo, voice, typed and barcode logging on a free plan that never expires and needs no card, within daily allowances, or $9.99 a month or $34.99 a year for Premium; Cal AI if you want its photo-only app and accept the price it quotes you. On accuracy, the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s pre-registered validation study recorded ±1.1% mean calorie error for PlateLens in photo mode across 180 weighed meals, the lowest of the six apps it tested, and Foodvision Bench has also reproduced the result on 231 weighed meals on its public GitHub leaderboard; that is aggregate calorie accuracy, not a per-meal guarantee. Everything below about Cal AI was read on 6 September 2026, and every figure says where it came from.

What Cal AI costs: the prices the stores actually list

Cal AI is free to download: the App Store shows “Free · In-App Purchases”, and the description carries the line that decides everything else, “*FOOD SCANNING ANALYSIS RESULTS REQUIRE A SUBSCRIPTION”. The In-App Purchases section names that subscription Unlimited (once as “Unlimited Plan”) and lists it at five different prices.

Five prices for one subscription, none of them saying whether it is a week, a month or a year, is what price segmentation looks like from the outside. The practical answer, and the one most people end up paying, is $9.99 a month. Treat the rest of the ladder as what it is: prices other people are being shown. If you want a figure you can check before you install, PlateLens publishes its own.

The App Store never says which price is weekly, monthly or yearly, and Cal AI’s homepage, FAQ and terms do not fill the gap, so the honest monthly and yearly price is “one of the entries above”, and the amount you are charged is the one shown at the point of purchase. Prices are region-dependent: the Spain and Mexico storefronts list the same entries in euros and pesos at different amounts; these are the US storefronts’ amounts. Third-party sites publish specific weekly, monthly and yearly figures; we have not repeated them, because none of Cal AI’s own pages confirms them.

Is Cal AI free?

Not in the sense people mean. The download is free and the app is popular (4.8 from 361K App Store ratings, 4.6 from 272K Google Play reviews), but the App Store description says scanning results require a subscription, and Cal AI’s FAQ, terms and homepage describe no free tier, only a trial. For photo logging without paying, the route is an app with a free plan rather than a trial: the best free Cal AI alternatives in 2026.

The 3-day free trial and auto-renewal

The homepage offers a 3-day free trial (“CLAIM YOUR 3-DAY FREE TRIAL”) with “No commitment. Cancel anytime.” The mechanics are in the Terms of Service, last updated 28 November 2025: “Subscriptions automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the current period ends.” Apple’s rule matches: cancel a trial “at least 24 hours before the trial ends.” So a trial started on a Monday evening has a safe cancellation deadline of Wednesday evening, not Thursday.

Cal AI also sells subscriptions outside the stores: its manage-subscription page asks anyone who “purchased your subscription on the web” for the email they subscribed with, and its FAQ handles refunds for anything “bought directly through CalAI” by email.

How to cancel Cal AI on iPhone, Android or the web

Cal AI’s FAQ: “You can’t cancel from inside the app. It goes through your phone’s settings.” Its homepage adds: “Deleting the app does NOT cancel your subscription.”

On an iPhone or iPad

Apple’s steps: “In the Settings app, tap your name.” “Tap Subscriptions.” “Tap the subscription.” “Tap Cancel Subscription. You might need to scroll down to find the Cancel Subscription button.”

On Android

Google’s steps: “On your Android device, go to subscriptions in Google Play”, “Select the subscription you want to cancel”, “Tap Cancel subscription”, “Follow the instructions”. Two more lines from that page: “When you uninstall the app, your subscription won’t cancel”, and after cancelling “you’ll still be able to use your subscription for the time you’ve already paid.”

If you subscribed on the web

Use Cal AI’s manage-subscription page with the email you signed up with, or write to the support address on its site. The store steps do not apply to a web purchase.

Refunds: Apple’s and Google’s rules, not Cal AI’s

Cal AI’s FAQ: “Refunds depend on where you bought your subscription: Apple App Store: Apple handles this directly. Google Play: Same deal, request it through Google. Bought directly through CalAI? Email us and we’ll sort it out.”

• Apple. Sign in at reportaproblem.apple.com, choose “Request a refund”, pick a reason and the subscription, and “wait 24 to 48 hours for an update on your request”. Apple says refund eligibility “might vary by country or region”.
• Google. “Google doesn’t give refunds for most Google Play purchases.” “Within 48 hours: You may be able to get a refund depending on the details of the purchase.” “After 48 hours: Contact the developer to troubleshoot and find out if you can get a refund.”

Referral codes, promo codes and price changes

The referral discount has to be entered at signup; the FAQ says a skipped code cannot be added later and “you’d need to sign up again with a new email to use a referral code.” Custom promo codes are requested “via our Instagram DMs”. On whether the price has changed, none of the Cal AI pages we opened says so and the terms state no subscription prices; the store list simply shows five price points for one product on the same day.

Cal AI vs PlateLens: the plans side by side

Prices and plans as published. PlateLens logs a meal from a photo, a typed or spoken description, or a barcode; the feature-by-feature comparison is on Cal AI vs PlateLens. Every active PlateLens account, the free plan included, can use the PlateLens plugin in ChatGPT, a read-only connection that lets ChatGPT answer questions about your own logged diary. In the iPhone and Android apps, each plan also includes a 3D body scan allowance.

Separate from the price, the PlateLens free plan also includes Your expenditure: switch it on once and PlateLens learns your daily expenditure every week from the meals you log and your weigh-ins, Why it changed explains each update, and every 14 days it reviews your targets and suggests new ones, which you choose to apply.

A note before you change how you eat

Prices change, so confirm the amount and the period on the store’s own subscription sheet before you pay; that sheet is the binding one. And this is a page about prices, not nutrition: if you plan to change what or how much you eat, talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian first, particularly if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, managing diabetes or kidney disease, or have a history of disordered eating.

Where these numbers come from

All pages were read on 6 September 2026.

• Cal AI: homepage (no prices; calai.app/pricing returns a 404), FAQ, Terms of Service (Cal AI, Inc., last updated 28 November 2025) and manage subscription.
• Apple App Store, Cal AI - Calorie Tracker, seller Viral Development LLC: In-App Purchases list, rating and description; the same listing’s Spain and Mexico storefronts, for the regional amounts. Google Play, Cal AI - Food Calorie Tracker, developer Cal AI, Inc.: in-app purchase range, rating and downloads.
• Apple Support: cancel a subscription and request a refund. Google Play Help: cancel a subscription and refund policies. PlateLens: pricing.
• MyFitnessPal, for the comparison answer: its Premium page, its App Store listing (In-App Purchases) and its help-center articles How to use the Barcode Scanner and What is included in the free version?.

Try a free plan before you pay for a trial

PlateLens logs a meal from a photo, a plain-words or voice description, or a barcode, on a free plan that does not expire. Premium is $9.99 a month or $34.99 a year.

Frequently Asked Questions