Is Cronometer free? Cronometer Gold cost in 2026
Real screens from the Cronometer iPhone app, EU App Store, October 13, 2026. US prices below come from cronometer.com and the US App Store.
Cronometer is free, and its free plan is the most complete in the category: food, exercise and biometric logging, up to 95 tracked nutrients, custom macro and micronutrient targets, device sync and, unlike MyFitnessPal or Lose It!, a free barcode scanner. The trade-off is ads. Cronometer Gold costs $59.99 a year in the US, which Cronometer advertises as $4.99 a month billed annually, or $10.99 a month billed monthly. Gold removes the ads and adds photo and voice logging, recipe import, scheduled targets, unlimited report windows and PDF reports. Every number here comes from cronometer.com, the App Store listings and the in-app paywall, all checked on October 13, 2026.
- Basic: $0, no time limit, barcode scanner included, shows ads
- Gold, yearly: $59.99 (≈ $4.99/month), the plan Cronometer promotes
- Gold, monthly: $10.99, cancel any month
- Free trial: none on the in-app paywall; the purchase charges immediately
Want photo logging and no ads without the subscription? BodyPal's free plan has no ads, keeps barcode scanning unlimited, and includes one AI photo scan, one label scan and one AI text search every day. Unlimited scans cost $29.99/year or $7.99/month, half of Cronometer Gold.
Full disclosure: BodyPal is our own calorie-tracking app. The Cronometer facts on this page are quoted from Cronometer's published pricing page and from screens we took inside the app, with dates, so you can verify every one of them. Cronometer is the app we recommend for micronutrient tracking, and we say so below.
In this guide
- Cost calculator: 1 to 5 years
- What the free Basic plan includes
- How much Cronometer Gold costs
- Price by country
- Basic vs Gold: what Gold adds
- Trial, billing and how to cancel
- Cronometer vs other calorie apps
- Discounts and sales
- Is Gold worth it, and for whom
- Cronometer vs BodyPal on price
- FAQ
- Sources and how we checked
Cronometer cost calculator: what you pay over 1 to 5 years
Drag the slider to see what Gold adds up to when paid yearly ($59.99) or monthly ($10.99), and what the same period costs with BodyPal. All figures are US list prices with no sales applied.
Over 3 years, paying monthly costs $215.67 more than paying yearly for the same Gold plan.
Is Cronometer free? What the Basic plan includes
Yes, and this is where Cronometer differs from every other big tracker. Its pricing page lists the following under Basic, $0: log foods, exercise, biometrics and notes; track up to 95 nutrients and other compounds; custom macro and micronutrient targets; sync with apps and devices; barcode scanner; custom foods, meals and recipes; reports and charts within a 7-day window; a database of over 1M lab-analyzed or verified foods; encrypted data; and diary groups.
In other words, the things most people pay for elsewhere, scanning packages, setting macro targets in grams and seeing vitamins and minerals, are free here. The free database is also the reason nutritionists recommend it: entries come from lab-analyzed and government sources (NCCDB, USDA) rather than user submissions, so a free Cronometer entry is usually more accurate than a free MyFitnessPal one.
What you give up on Basic is comfort. The dashboard on our free account showed a banner ad under the tabs and a "Get Gold for an ad-free experience" card, the Crono Coach card sat behind a lock, and reports are capped at a 7-day window. Photo and voice logging are not available at all without Gold.
How much does Cronometer Gold cost?
Cronometer Gold is $59.99 per year or $10.99 per month in the US. Cronometer's pricing page presents the annual plan as "$4.99 USD per month, billed annually at $59.99" with a "Save 54%" badge, and the monthly plan as "$10.99 USD per month, billed monthly". The US App Store lists the same two purchases. There is no lifetime plan and no family plan; Cronometer Pro, the version for dietitians and coaches, is a separate professional product.
| Plan | Price (US) | Billing | Effective per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | None; shows ads | $0 |
| Gold, yearly | $59.99 / year | Auto-renews annually | ≈ $4.99 |
| Gold, monthly | $10.99 / month | Auto-renews monthly | $10.99 |
Source: cronometer.com/gold and the US App Store in-app purchase list, both read October 13, 2026.
Cronometer price by country
Apple and Google price Gold per store country. The US figure is Cronometer's published price, the EU figure is the in-app paywall we photographed, and the Australian figure is the Gold purchase listed in the Australian App Store on October 13, 2026.
| Store country | Gold, per year | Gold, per month | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 United States | $59.99 ($4.99/month) | $10.99 | cronometer.com/gold + US App Store, Oct 13, 2026 |
| 🇪🇺 Euro-zone App Store | €64.99 (€5.42/month, "Save 57%") | €12.49 | In-app Subscriptions screen, iPhone, Oct 13, 2026 (photo above) |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | AU$99.99 | AU$18.99 | App Store in-app purchase list, Oct 13, 2026 |
The euro price is about 13% above the US one once VAT is included, which is the usual gap for App Store subscriptions. The paywall is unambiguous about renewals: "Cancel anytime at least one day before billing date. Then, your plan will auto-renew at the full price."
Cronometer Basic vs Gold: what Gold actually adds
The list below is the "What you get with Gold" screen inside the app, matched against Cronometer's pricing page, on October 13, 2026.
| Feature | Basic (free) | Gold |
|---|---|---|
| Food, exercise, biometric and note logging | Yes | Yes |
| Barcode scanner | Yes | Yes |
| Up to 95 nutrients, custom macro and micronutrient targets | Yes | Yes |
| Custom foods, meals and recipes; device sync; 1M+ verified foods | Yes | Yes |
| Ad-free experience | No, banner ads | Yes |
| Photo Log (identify ingredients and servings from a photo) | No | Yes |
| Voice Logging | No | Yes |
| Repeat Items (automate previously logged foods and meals) | No | Yes |
| Recipe Importer from websites | No | Yes |
| Timestamps on diary entries | No | Yes |
| Target Scheduler (different macro targets per weekday) | No | Yes |
| Nutrition Scores (up to eight), Custom Charts, Food Suggestions, Nutrient Oracle | No | Yes |
| Reports over any time frame (Basic: 7-day window), PDF reports | 7 days only | Yes |
| Share custom foods and recipes with friends; Crono Coach | No | Yes |
Notice what is not in the Gold column: the scanner, the nutrient tracking and the verified database. Cronometer sells convenience and analysis on top of a free core, which is the opposite of MyFitnessPal's model, where the scanner itself is the paid feature.
Trial, billing and how to cancel Cronometer Gold
The in-app purchase screen we checked offered no free trial: it states "You will be charged once purchase is confirmed. Subscription automatically renews unless auto renew is turned off." If you want to test Gold, the monthly plan at $10.99 is the cheapest way to do it for one month.
- Choose the plan deliberately. The annual plan is pre-selected on the paywall ("Save 57%" in the EU store, "Save 54%" on the website). Tap the monthly option if you only want a trial month.
- Cancel through the store that billed you. iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Cronometer. Android: Google Play → profile → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions. Web purchases: the Subscription section of your Cronometer account.
- Mind the one-day rule. Cronometer's own paywall text says to cancel "at least one day before billing date"; otherwise the plan renews at full price. You keep Gold until the paid period ends.
How Cronometer pricing compares with other calorie apps
At $59.99 a year, Gold sits in the middle of the market: cheaper than MyFitnessPal Premium and Lose It! Premium ($79.99), pricier than YAZIO, Cal AI and BodyPal. Where Cronometer wins outright is the free tier, which includes the scanner and nutrient detail that the two $79.99 apps charge for.
| App | Annual price (US) | Monthly plan | Free tier | Barcode free? | Ads on free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cronometer | $59.99 | $10.99 | Yes, strongest in the category | Yes | Yes |
| MyFitnessPal | $79.99 / $99.99 (Premium+) | $19.99 / $24.99 | Yes, search logging | No | Yes |
| Lose It! | $79.99 | None | Yes, manual logging only | No | No |
| MacroFactor | $71.99 | $11.99 | No, trial only | – | – |
| YAZIO | $47.90 | $11.90 | Yes, basic | Yes | No |
| Cal AI | $29.99 | $9.99 | Manual logging only | Limited | No |
| BodyPal | $29.99 | $7.99 | Yes, incl. 1 AI photo scan/day | Yes | No |
Cronometer, MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, YAZIO, Cal AI and BodyPal prices verified in the US App Store and on the apps' own pricing pages on October 13, 2026. MacroFactor: US list price from our August 2026 comparison; re-check in the store before buying.
Cronometer discounts: does Gold go on sale?
Cronometer does not publish a sale calendar. What it does publish is the permanent 54% difference between monthly and yearly billing, and that is the discount almost everyone actually gets. Searches for "cronometer gold discount", "student discount" and "black friday" exist, so here is the honest picture:
- The annual plan is the discount. $59.99 a year versus $131.88 paid monthly.
- No student, military or family pricing is listed on cronometer.com as of October 2026, and Gold is tied to one account.
- Seasonal promotions have appeared in past years around Black Friday and New Year, usually on the annual plan. If you are not in a hurry, those are the weeks to look.
- The free plan is not a limited trial. You can stay on Basic indefinitely; the only pressure to upgrade is the ads and the 7-day report window.
Is Cronometer Gold worth $59.99? Who should pay, who should not
Gold makes sense if: the ads get in the way of daily logging; you want photo or voice entry instead of searching; you import recipes from websites; you need different macro targets on training and rest days (Target Scheduler); or you want charts and reports over months rather than a week, including PDF reports for a dietitian or doctor.
Stay on Basic if: you log by search and barcode, you care about micronutrients and accuracy, and you can tolerate a banner ad. For that profile, Cronometer's free plan is arguably the best free calorie counter available, and it is the free pick in our best calorie counting apps guide.
Think twice if: you are paying mainly for photo logging. Gold's Photo Log is an add-on to a search-first app; it is capable, but an app built around scanning will be faster and, at $29.99 a year, cheaper.
Cronometer vs BodyPal: the price and free-tier comparison
Since we make BodyPal, here is the comparison as plainly as we can put it. Cronometer tracks more nutrients than anyone (up to 95), uses lab-analyzed data, has a web version and Crono Coach, and its free plan includes the scanner. BodyPal is built around AI photo logging with a verified 3M+ food database, has no ads at all, and its Premium is half the price of Gold.
| Cronometer | BodyPal | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual price (US) | $59.99 | $29.99 |
| Monthly plan | $10.99 | $7.99 |
| Free trial | None on the paywall | No trial; the free plan has no end date |
| Ads on the free plan | Yes | No |
| Barcode scanning free | Yes | Yes, unlimited |
| AI photo logging free | No (Gold) | 1 scan every day |
| Micronutrients | Up to 95, lab-analyzed | Macros + fibre, sugar, sodium |
| Reports on the free plan | 7-day window | Full history |
| Web app, Crono Coach | Yes | No |
No ads, free barcodes, one AI photo scan a day: try BodyPal today.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cronometer free?
Yes. Basic is free with no time limit: logging, up to 95 nutrients, custom targets, the barcode scanner, custom recipes, device sync and 7-day reports. It shows ads.
How much is Cronometer Gold?
$59.99 a year ($4.99 a month billed annually) or $10.99 a month in the US. Source: cronometer.com/gold and the US App Store, October 13, 2026.
Is Cronometer Gold worth it?
Yes if you want no ads, photo or voice logging, recipe import, per-weekday targets or reports beyond 7 days. If you log by search and barcode, Basic already covers the core.
Is the Cronometer barcode scanner free?
Yes. It is listed under Basic functionality on Cronometer's pricing page, unlike MyFitnessPal and Lose It!, which charge for it.
Does Cronometer have a free trial for Gold?
Not on the in-app paywall we checked: it charges immediately. Occasional promotions exist, but do not count on a trial.
How do I cancel Cronometer Gold?
Through the store that billed you (iPhone Subscriptions, Google Play subscriptions, or your Cronometer web account), at least one day before the billing date.
What is the difference between Basic and Gold?
Gold removes ads and adds photo and voice logging, repeat items, recipe import, timestamps, a target scheduler, nutrition scores, custom charts, food suggestions, the Nutrient Oracle, sharing, unlimited report windows, PDF reports and Crono Coach.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Cronometer Gold?
BodyPal: no ads on the free plan, unlimited barcodes, one AI photo scan a day free, and Premium at $29.99 a year or $7.99 a month. Cronometer stays the better choice for deep micronutrient tracking.
Sources and how we checked
- Cronometer Gold pricing page: Basic $0 feature list, Gold "$4.99 USD per month, billed annually at $59.99", "$10.99 USD per month, billed monthly", "Save 54%". Read October 13, 2026.
- Cronometer on the US App Store: in-app purchase list ($59.99 and $10.99 Gold entries), 99K ratings on October 13, 2026; Australian store page read the same day.
- Screens taken inside the Cronometer iPhone app on October 13, 2026 (EU App Store): the Gold subscription screen (€64.99 / €12.49), the "What you get with Gold" list, and the free dashboard with a banner ad and the locked Crono Coach card. Shown at the top of this page.
- BodyPal prices and free-plan limits: our own US App Store and Google Play listings, October 13, 2026.
Note: Prices are US list prices unless stated and change by country, device and promotion. We re-check this page quarterly and update the date at the top when anything changes. BodyPal provides general nutrition information, not medical advice.