The best meal planning apps in 2026, compared
For exact calorie and macro targets today, Eat This Much is the most complete. For saving recipes from anywhere, Samsung Food. For planning with recipes you choose yourself, Plan to Eat or Paprika. For people with a body goal who meal prep around a busy week, Cauli (our app), which plans every meal as a Cook, Batch or Leftover around your busy nights. Cauli is coming to iPhone.
Key takeaways
- "Plans meals for you" and "a calendar you fill in" are different products. Check which one you're getting.
- Weekly AI plans usually sit behind a paid tier.
- Only some apps plan batch cooking and leftovers. Fewer plan them around your schedule.
- Mealime shut down on October 21, 2026. Its recipes live on in Meals Hub.
How the apps compare
We make Cauli, so it's listed first. The order is not a ranking.
| App | Best for | Plans meals for you | Calorie and protein targets | Batch and leftovers | Grocery list | Platforms | Price (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cauli (our app) | Goal-driven meal prep around a busy week | Yes, every meal of the week | Daily calories and protein, every day within 5% | Cook, Batch or Leftover around busy nights | One list by store and aisle; no ordering | iPhone (iPad supported) | App Store subscription; no free trial |
| Eat This Much | Hitting exact calorie and macro targets | Free: one day at a time. Premium: a week | Yes, different targets per day | "Automatic leftovers" (Premium) | Premium; Instacart, Amazon Fresh, Walmart | iPhone, Android, web | Free; Premium $5.00/mo billed annually |
| Samsung Food | Saving recipes from anywhere, with AI plans on top | Food+: tailored 7-day plans | Daily nutrition goals | Not stated | Free; orders through partner retailers | iPhone, Android, web | Free; Food+ $6.99/mo or $59.99/yr |
| MyFitnessPal Premium+ | Tracking first, with a meal planner added | Premium+: 2 to 15 day plans, in the app | Yes | "Meal Prep Mode" | Premium+; Instacart, Walmart, Kroger and more (US) | iPhone, Android | Premium $19.99/mo or $79.99/yr; Premium+ priced in the app |
| Plan to Eat | Planning with your own recipe collection | No, you choose every recipe | Nutrition and daily totals | Plan leftovers; a Freezer for batches | Built from your plan | Web, iPhone, Android | $5.95/mo or $49/yr; 14-day trial |
| Paprika | Owning your recipes with no subscription | No, a manual calendar | Not stated (nutrition coming in Paprika 4) | Not stated | Combined and sorted by aisle | iPhone, Mac, Android, Windows | One-time per platform (iPhone $4.99) |
| ChatGPT | A one-off plan from a prompt | If you ask | If you ask; numbers are estimates | If you ask | In the chat; Instacart app can check out | iPhone, Android, web | Free; paid plans from $8/mo |
Checked October 7, 2026 on each company's own site, help centre or App Store listing. "Not stated" means we couldn't find it there. Prices and features change; if something here is wrong, email us and we'll fix it and update the date.
What each app does well
1. Cauli (our app): goal-driven meal prep around a busy week
Does well. Plans every meal of your week from your goal (lose fat, build muscle, recomp or maintain), the nights you can't cook and what you like. Each meal is a Cook, a Batch that says what it feeds, or a Leftover. Every day lands within 5% of your calories with protein close behind, computed from USDA data. Change the week in plain words and confirm. Optional kitchen photos let it plan around what you have.
Falls short. iPhone only (iPad supported), US and English. No grocery ordering, no per-item prices, no free tier or trial, not for medical diets.
2. Eat This Much: exact calorie and macro targets
Does well. Automatically generates meals to your targets, with different targets per day of the week. Premium plans a week at a time, adds automatic leftovers, a virtual pantry and grocery delivery through Instacart, Amazon Fresh and Walmart. Nutrition from verified databases including the USDA.
Falls short. The free plan makes one day at a time; weekly plans are Premium. Source
3. Samsung Food: recipe saving with AI plans on top
Does well. Saves recipes from any website, a browser extension or a share sheet, calculates nutrition from ingredients, and builds a free shopping list. Food+ adds tailored 7-day meal plans and adaptive plans.
Falls short. Generated weekly plans need Food+. Source
4. MyFitnessPal Premium+: a tracker with a planner
Does well. If you already log in MyFitnessPal, Premium+ adds a meal planner (2 to 15 days, to your calorie and macro targets), Meal Prep Mode and grocery lists that sync with Instacart, Walmart, Kroger and others in the US.
Falls short. The planner is the top tier only and isn't on the website. Source
5. Plan to Eat: your own recipes on a calendar
Does well. Clip recipes from browsers and social apps, drag them onto a calendar, plan leftovers, track frozen batches in a Freezer, and get a grocery list built from the plan.
Falls short. It doesn't generate plans; you choose every meal. Source
6. Paprika: a recipe manager you buy once
Does well. Downloads recipes from websites, plans them on a calendar, combines grocery lists by aisle and keeps a pantry, with a one-time price per platform.
Falls short. Manual planning, and each platform is a separate purchase. Paprika 4, in open beta, will move premium features to a subscription. Source
7. ChatGPT: a one-off plan from a prompt
Does well. Writes a plan and shopping list from a detailed prompt, and the Instacart app in ChatGPT can turn it into a cart.
Falls short. A plan in a chat doesn't update itself when the week changes, and its numbers are estimates. Cauli vs ChatGPT.
What about calorie trackers?
MacroFactor and Cal AI are trackers: they help you log what you ate and set targets, but they don't plan your meals. MacroFactor's coach adjusts your targets each week; Cal AI estimates calories from a photo. Cauli works the other way round: it decides what you'll eat, then you tap Ate it.
Which one should you pick?
- You want exact targets today, on any device: Eat This Much.
- You collect recipes from blogs and social media: Samsung Food or Plan to Eat.
- You want to own your recipes with no subscription: Paprika.
- You already log in MyFitnessPal: MyFitnessPal Premium+.
- You want one week of ideas for free: ChatGPT.
- You have a goal, a busy week and want the meal prep planned for you: Cauli, on the App Store for iPhone.
- You used Mealime: what still works after the shutdown.
Questions people ask
What is the best meal planning app?
It depends on the job. Eat This Much is the most complete for exact calorie and macro targets today. Samsung Food suits recipe collectors. Plan to Eat and Paprika suit people who choose every recipe themselves. Cauli is built for people with a body goal who meal prep around a busy week; it's on the App Store for iPhone.
What is the best AI meal planner?
Eat This Much, Samsung Food (Food+) and MyFitnessPal Premium+ generate plans for you. Cauli goes a step further for meal prep: it decides which meals are cooked fresh, batch cooked or eaten as leftovers around your busy nights, and re-plans when you tell it your week changed.
Is there a free meal planning app?
Eat This Much has a free plan that makes one day of meals at a time, Samsung Food's planner and grocery list are free, and ChatGPT can write a plan for free. Plan to Eat has a 14-day free trial. Cauli is a paid subscription with no free trial.
Which meal planning apps order groceries?
Eat This Much, Samsung Food and MyFitnessPal Premium+ connect to grocery services, and ChatGPT can check out through the Instacart app. Cauli doesn't order groceries.
What happened to Mealime?
Mealime shut down on October 21, 2026, and its notice said all personal data would be deleted at shutdown. Its recipes carry on in Meals Hub inside Albertsons Companies grocery apps and websites. Recipes you saved or screenshotted before then can still be brought into another app.
