Frequently Asked Questions

Yes — and you can keep using it for free, indefinitely, with no API key at all. Download the app, answer a few quick questions (your gender and age, any dietary restrictions, and how closely you want to track nutrients), and you’re set up with a full food and nutrient library ready to log against. Adding a free Gemini key later unlocks AI-personalized nutrition targets, meal advice, chat, photo and voice logging, and the ability to add foods that aren’t already in the library.

Yes. Eatalyze itself is free, with no payment or credit card asked for anywhere in the app. The optional Gemini API key is also free from Google. Google may charge for very heavy AI use on your own key; that is between you and Google, and most people never see a charge.

No. There is no account and no sign-up. Everything is stored on your own phone.

Android and iPhone. The app works the same way on both; a few screens look slightly different.

Download the latest APK from our Download Android page and open it on your phone. Android may ask you to allow installs from your browser or file manager the first time. To update, install the new APK over the old one. Don’t uninstall first: uninstalling deletes your data unless you have a backup.

Yes. Logging, your diary, daily totals and trends all work without an internet connection, because the food and nutrient library is built into the app. You only need a connection for AI features, which use your own API key.

No — the app works fully without one. Without a key, your nutrition targets are set from your gender, age group and tracking level, and you can log anything in Eatalyze’s built-in library. Adding your own free Gemini key personalizes your targets using your full profile (including goals and health conditions), and unlocks AI meal advice, chat, photo and voice logging, detailed reports, and adding genuinely new foods and nutrients.

In the app, go to Settings → Add/Change API Key and tap “How do I get one?” for a step-by-step walkthrough. You can also get a key directly at ai.google.dev. It takes about two minutes.

Nothing you’ve already set up or logged is lost. The first time you add a key, Eatalyze does a one-time pass to personalize your nutrient targets to your full profile; you may see “Syncing…” in the top bar for a little while. Changing to a different key later doesn’t redo that work.

This usually means your API key needs attention, or Google’s servers are temporarily busy. Keep using the app normally in the meantime — anything that couldn’t be filled in by AI will catch up automatically once it’s available again, usually within an hour. If it keeps happening, fully close and reopen the app, and check your key in Settings → Add/Change API Key.

Yes. You can use Eatalyze as a nutrition reference without logging anything: search any food on the Foods tab to see its nutrients, serving sizes and description, and open any nutrient on the Nutrients tab to see why it matters and which foods are good sources of it. You can also add a food once, on the Foods tab, without putting it in your diary, just to learn about it: its nutrients, description, serving sizes, recipe ideas and cautions. (A food that’s new to Eatalyze’s library needs an API key.) If you log some days but not others, Eatalyze still gives you the bigger picture. The Trend view on the Show tab estimates your weekly, monthly and yearly intake from the days you did log, marked with ~ as approximate. A Report includes a week once you’ve logged at least 4 days of it, a month from 15 days, and a year from 150 days.

Choose a smaller tracking level. Essentials covers just the numbers on a food label: calories, protein, carbs, fat, sugar, sodium and fluid. Change it any time in Settings → Update Profile Metrics. You can also fine-tune the list on the Nutrients tab: delete or hide any nutrient you don’t want, and add one you do want by typing its name. Anything in Eatalyze’s built-in library is added instantly; a nutrient that isn’t in the library needs an API key. Lowering your level doesn’t remove nutrients automatically, so remove the ones you no longer want yourself.

Eatalyze tracks what you eat, not what your body absorbs; no app can measure that. It helps in two ways. Each nutrient’s page has an Importance section explaining why it matters, which foods are the best sources, and how to help your body absorb more of it, such as which foods to pair it with. With an API key, Ask AI can answer questions about absorption with your profile in mind. To find out whether you’re really getting enough of something, talk to your doctor: a blood test is the reliable way to check, and an Eatalyze Report gives them a clear picture of what you’ve been eating.

Type the name on the Diary or Foods tab. If you see “Did you mean one of these?”, Eatalyze has found a close match — a similar spelling or another name for the same food. Pick it, or tap “None of these”. A food that is genuinely new to Eatalyze needs an API key, because AI works out its nutrient profile from scratch. For packaged products, try the barcode scanner.

They set how many nutrients you follow: Essentials (the numbers on a food label), Enthusiast (adds fiber, cholesterol and common vitamins and minerals), Dietitian (every standard vitamin and mineral) and Medical (adds specialist markers such as individual fatty acids and amino acids). You can also track food additives on top. Change your level any time in Settings → Update Profile Metrics.

Yes. Barcode scanning works without a key. Logging by photo, or by speaking what you ate into the microphone, needs an API key: Eatalyze identifies the foods and estimates amounts, and you review and correct everything before it is saved.

A recipe is a dish made from several foods. Eatalyze works out its nutrition from your own ingredients and amounts.

1. Open the Foods tab and tap the round New Recipe button (the teal one with the receipt icon) at the bottom right.
2. Type a name for the recipe, for example “Dal Palak” or “Vegetable Soup”. If the name is already used, it will be saved as “… (2)”.
3. Tap Add Ingredient, search for the first ingredient and pick it. You can search in English or in your own language. If it isn’t listed, tap “Add … as new food” (a food that isn’t in Eatalyze’s built-in library needs an API key).
4. Enter the amount, in grams, cups, spoons, servings or another unit, and tap Add. Repeat for every ingredient, including oil, butter, salt, spices and sauces, which add up quickly.
5. Under Cooked weight, enter what the finished dish weighs: in grams, as servings × grams per serving, or as a yield % or weight change. With an API key, Estimate with AI suggests one. If you don’t know, leave it as “Not adjusted for cooking”.
6. Tap Save Recipe at the bottom, or ✓ at the top right. A recipe needs at least two ingredients.

The recipe now appears on the Foods tab like any other food, with its nutrients per 100 g of the cooked dish. In your diary it is logged in servings and starts at 1 serving: one serving is the grams per serving you entered, or the whole dish.

To change a recipe later: tap the Edit Recipe icon next to it on the Foods tab. Tap an ingredient to change its amount, tap ✕ to remove it, tap Add Ingredient, or change the cooked weight, then tap Save Changes. Nothing changes until you save. Once a recipe is in your diary, its ingredients are locked so your past entries stay right; to make a changed version, tap the copy button at the top (Copy as new recipe). Foods used in a recipe are never removed by Eatalyze.

Recipes work without an API key; with a key, each new recipe also gets a written description.

Cooking changes a dish’s weight: water boils off, or rice and lentils soak it up. A pot of dal made from 400 g of ingredients might weigh 900 g once cooked. If Eatalyze knows the cooked weight, a 250 g bowl counts the right share of the pot. Weigh the empty pot first, then the full pot after cooking, and subtract.

For a dish you make regularly, save it once as a recipe: tap the New Recipe button on the Foods tab, add each ingredient with its amount, set the cooked weight, and Save. Eatalyze works out the dish’s nutrition from your own ingredients. After that, log it in your diary like any other food, in servings or in grams. For a one-off meal, you can simply log each ingredient separately. Recipes work without an API key; with a key, each recipe also gets a written description.

Create the recipe (tap the New Recipe button on the Foods tab), add every ingredient with its amount — including oil, butter and sauces, which add up quickly — and Save. Then open the recipe on the Foods tab to see its nutrient values, calculated from your ingredients. You don’t need to log it in your diary.

Some nutrients, mainly food additives such as certain preservatives, dyes and sweeteners, have no official recommended daily intake. Eatalyze shows 0 rather than guessing. You can enter your own target on that nutrient’s page at any time.

Yes. Open that food or nutrient and edit any value yourself. With an API key, AI Prefill on the same page fetches a fresh, up-to-date lookup.

Yes. On the Show tab, pick the date you want the report to run up to and tap Report. It shows your nutrient status for the day, week, month and year, your trends, the foods you eat most often and the best food sources for what you’re short of. You can share it as text or as a PDF (view, share or download). With an API key, the report also includes personalised recommendations on what to eat more or less of. A week appears once you’ve logged at least 4 days of it, a month from 15 days, and a year from 150 days.

No. Eatalyze helps you track what you eat against general and AI-personalized targets, but it isn’t medical advice. Talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian about any health decision.

Yes — your profile and food diary are stored on your own device, not on our servers; we have no copy of it. If you add an API key, only the details needed for an AI feature (such as a food name, or profile details for personalized advice) are sent from your phone directly to Google’s Gemini service using your own key. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes. Settings → Backup Data saves your foods, nutrients, diary entries and profile to a file you choose. Keep it private: if you’ve added an API key, the file contains it in plain text. Settings → Restore Data brings everything back, replacing what’s currently in the app.

Make a backup first (Settings → Backup Data) and copy the file somewhere safe, such as your email or cloud storage. Install Eatalyze on the new phone, then use Settings → Restore Data. Without a backup, uninstalling deletes your data and we can’t recover it, because we never have a copy.

Email us at [eatalyze @ australians . com] or use Settings → Send Feedback in the app, and we’ll get back to you.