MyFitnessPal review: free plan, Premium cost, who it suits

MyFitnessPal is one of the best-known calorie trackers; its home page says over 280 million people have joined. You search a large food database, log what you ate, and it adds up your calories and macros against a goal.

Is MyFitnessPal free? Yes, for the core of it: searching and logging food, exercise and weight. As of November 8, 2026, MyFitnessPal Premium costs $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year in the US, after a 7-day free trial.

Premium+ adds meal planning for $24.99 a month or $99.99 a year.

It suits people who don’t mind searching for each food and want one of the largest food databases (20.5M+ foods, per its App Store listing). It suits people less well if the typing is what made them quit last time, because the faster ways to log are behind Premium.

Key takeaways

• The free plan covers food, exercise and weight logging by search, custom foods and recipes, and calorie and macro goals set by percentage.
• As of November 8, 2026, Premium is $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year in the US. A year on the monthly plan costs three times the yearly plan.
• Premium is where the time savers live: barcode scan, Meal Scan from a photo, voice logging, multi-day logging and no ads. The AI Coach is Premium too, on iOS, in English, in six countries.
• Premium+ ($24.99 a month or $99.99 a year) adds a meal planner, recipes and grocery lists. It’s only worth it if deciding what to eat is your hard part.
• A 2014 trial found MyFitnessPal logins dropped sharply after the first month. Pay for Premium if faster logging will keep you going.

MyFitnessPal pros and cons

How this review was put together

This MyFitnessPal review is built from the company’s own pages and published research. We didn’t sign up or test the app, so there are no “we tried it” claims here.

We read MyFitnessPal’s home page, its Premium and Premium+ pages, its US App Store listing and seven articles in its support center, all on November 8, 2026. Studies were read through NCBI’s PubMed database. Prices outside the US differ, so check the screen you’re shown before you pay.

Is MyFitnessPal free?

Yes. Its support article on what the free version includes says “the standard features of MyFitnessPal are free to use”. As of November 8, 2026, free members can:

• Log food by searching the database, and log exercise
• Log weight and measurements and see past progress
• Create their own foods, meals and recipes
• See calories, macros and nutrients for what they log
• Set calorie and macro goals by percentage
• Share their diary and link partner apps like Fitbit or Garmin

What free doesn’t include is speed. The home page says free members “can do a simple food search”, while Premium adds “time-saving tools”.

So free MyFitnessPal is a full tracker with one way in: the search box. If searching works for you, you may never need Premium.

How does MyFitnessPal set your calorie goal?

Per its home page FAQ, it uses the Mifflin St. Jeor equation with your height, weight, age, sex and activity level, then adds or subtracts “500 calories per pound of weight change per week desired”. It’s a formula, not a measurement of you, and you can change it in the Goals section of settings.

How much does MyFitnessPal Premium cost?

Here’s MyFitnessPal’s pricing. Premium costs $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year in the US, as of November 8, 2026, on both its Premium page and its App Store listing. Premium+ costs $24.99 a month or $99.99 a year, per its Premium+ page.

Paying monthly for a year costs three times the yearly price. That’s why MyFitnessPal shows “67% savings” on the yearly plan.

The App Store listing also shows lower Premium prices among its in-app purchases, $9.99 and $49.99, without saying when they apply. Treat the price on your own checkout screen as the real one.

What does Premium add?

Per its Premium features article, as of November 8, 2026, Premium adds:

• Faster logging: the barcode scanner, Meal Scan from a photo, voice logging, multi-day logging and quick-add macros.
• More control: macro goals in grams, different goals by day, calorie goals by meal, net carbs, and an intermittent fasting tracker.
• Deeper insights: food analysis, macros by meal and data export.
• A smoother experience: no ads and priority support.

The AI Coach (its support center calls it Nutrition Coach) is Premium too. As of its October 28, 2026 support article, it’s for Premium and Premium+ members on iOS, in English, in the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It answers questions from your diary and goals, like what to eat with the calories you have left.

It has limits it states plainly. Coach “cannot log food for you”, can’t change your goals, and can’t see your weight history yet.

What does Premium+ add?

Meal planning. The Premium+ page lists a meal planner, “1,500+” recipes, automated grocery lists and syncing with grocery delivery apps. Per the page’s FAQ, the meal planner works in six countries, and grocery app syncing is US only.

If you already know what you eat and just want to log it faster, Premium+ adds nothing you need.

Is there a free trial, and how do you cancel?

The trial is 7 days, if you’ve never had Premium or started a Premium trial before, per the Premium page. Your card is charged when it ends unless you cancel.

You cancel on the platform you paid on, per its cancellation article. That’s the iPhone’s Settings for App Store purchases, Google Play for Android, and Subscription Settings on the website. Cancel at least 24 hours before renewal, or it “may still renew”.

For App Store purchases, MyFitnessPal says only Apple can handle a refund.

Set a reminder for day six of the trial. If you haven’t used the scanner or voice logging by then, free may be enough.

You may be able to pay with an FSA or HSA if you use MyFitnessPal “in connection with treatment for a disease diagnosed by a physician”. That route runs through its partner Truemed, on the website only, with no free trial.

How do you log food in MyFitnessPal?

On the free plan, you search. Type “chicken breast”, pick an entry, set the serving, and log it. The database is the strength here: the App Store listing counts “20.5M+ foods, including restaurant dishes”.

On Premium, you get three shortcuts:

• Barcode scan for anything in a package.
• Meal Scan, which per its Meal Scan article suggests foods from a photo of your plate. It needs the app in English and isn’t on the website. MyFitnessPal calls the result “a starting point, not a final answer”, and you pick the matches and the servings.
• Voice logging: say what you ate, then review and log it.

Photo estimates can miss things, most often cooking oil and sauces. Our guide to how AI calorie counters work explains why.

How accurate are its numbers?

For calories, studies have usually found MyFitnessPal close to research databases. Sodium, cholesterol and member-added entries are weaker. We go through each study in Is MyFitnessPal accurate?, so we won’t repeat them here.

What research says about sticking with MyFitnessPal

The bigger risk isn’t a wrong number. It’s an empty diary.

A 2014 trial in Annals of Internal Medicine (PMID 25402403) gave 212 primary care patients usual care, with or without help downloading MyFitnessPal. After 6 months, weight change was minimal in both groups, with no difference between them. Most users were satisfied with the app, “but logins decreased sharply after the first month”.

A 2019 trial in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (PMID 30816851) had 105 adults use MyFitnessPal for 12 weeks, all with a tailored calorie goal and in-app reminders. The app-only group logged diet on a median of 2.9 days a week. A group that also tracked weight daily and got weekly lessons, action plans and feedback logged on a median of 5.3 days.

The authors found no significant difference in tracking between the groups.

That trial’s conclusion was more hopeful: tailored goals and a commercial app “can produce clinically significant weight loss”. The app-only group lost weight too.

In the 2014 trial, logins dropped sharply after the first month. Its authors put it this way: apps “may be useful for persons who are ready to self-monitor calories”. Our post on food diary apps covers why logging fades.

Is MyFitnessPal Premium worth it?

MyFitnessPal Premium is worth it if the faster logging tools will keep you logging. On the yearly plan it’s $79.99. Paid month to month for a full year, it’s three times that.

It’s a good fit if:

• You eat a lot of packaged food and would use the barcode scanner every day.
• You want different goals by day, macros in grams, or calorie goals by meal.
• You’ve used the free plan for two weeks and you’re still logging.

Free is probably enough if:

• You cook the same handful of meals. Saved meals and recent foods are free, and they cut most of the searching.
• You only want a calorie total. The free plan does that.
• You’re new to tracking. Start free, and pay once the habit has held for two weeks.

If you’re weighing other apps, see our MyFitnessPal alternatives roundup, or the head-to-heads with Cronometer, Lose It and MacroFactor. MyFitnessPal also announced in March 2026 that it had bought Cal AI, which still runs as its own app; we compare the two in Cal AI vs MyFitnessPal.

MyFitnessPal isn’t right for everyone

Its US App Store listing rates it 16+. Tracking food isn’t right for everyone either. If counting brings on stress or restriction, or you have a history of disordered eating, talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian before you start any tracker.

Where does Getfiit fit?

We make Getfiit, so weigh this section with that in mind. It’s an AI nutrition and fitness coach that lives in WhatsApp, so there’s no new app to install and no food search. You send a photo, a voice note or a sentence, and it replies with calories, protein, carbs and fat.

It’s built for the person who liked what MyFitnessPal showed them but got tired of the search box. It sets daily calorie and macro targets from your goal and profile, and checks in at a time you pick. Here’s an illustration of a log, not a measured result:

breakfast12:38

Avocado toast with two poached eggs and a flat white. Was the flat white made with whole milk?12:39

oat milk12:40

Logged with oat milk. Your calories, protein, carbs and fat for today are updated.12:41

It doesn’t scan barcodes, plan meals or sync with a watch. If you want those, MyFitnessPal is built for them: the barcode scanner is Premium, meal planning is Premium+, and linking a watch is free.

As of November 8, 2026, Getfiit costs $19.99 a month after a 3-day free trial, and you can cancel anytime. See how it works.

Frequently asked questions

Is MyFitnessPal free to use?

Yes. Searching and logging food, exercise and weight, custom recipes, and calorie and macro goals by percentage are all free. The barcode scanner, Meal Scan, voice logging and the AI Coach are Premium.

How much is MyFitnessPal Premium per month?

As of November 8, 2026, it’s $19.99 a month on the monthly plan in the US, or $79.99 a year, which works out to about $6.67 a month. Premium+ is $24.99 a month or $99.99 a year.

Do I lose my data if I cancel Premium?

No. MyFitnessPal’s plan comparison says your logs, recipes and progress history stay in your account. You lose the paid features at the end of the period you paid for and, per its FSA/HSA article, settings tied to them may reset.

Your next step

Use the free plan for two ordinary weeks first. If you’re still logging most days and searching is the part that slows you down, start the 7-day Premium trial and use the scanner and voice logging every day. Browse our other tracker comparisons.