Buyer’s guide · Updated 20 Oct 2026
The best apps to cook with what’s in your fridge (2026)
Seven ways to turn a fridge full of odds and ends into dinner: what each one is good at, what it costs in October 2026, and where it falls short. We make Cheffify, so we list a source for every fact about the others and say plainly where they beat us.
Free plan: 5 recipes a week. No card needed.
How we compared. We looked at what each app lets you do for free, what it costs, how it handles a random mix of ingredients, which platforms it runs on, and whether it’s still actively maintained. Facts come from each app’s own website and store listing wherever possible, plus the reviews listed under Sources. We didn’t buy every paid plan, so where a detail comes from a third party we say so.
Quick picks
| App | Best for | Free | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheffify | Messy fridges and busy households | 5 recipes a week | €4.99/month |
| SuperCook | Free recipe search by ingredient | Everything | Free |
| DishGen | The most free AI recipes | 15 credits a week | $6/month, billed yearly |
| ChefGPT | Cooking plus calorie tracking | Limited | $4.99/week |
| Samsung Food | Free meal planning and recipe saving | Recipes, lists, planner | $6.99/month |
| Cooklist | A pantry that updates from US grocery accounts | Yes, with in-app purchases | $5.99/month |
| ChatGPT or Gemini | Occasional ideas, if you write good prompts | Yes | Optional |
The 7 apps, in detail
Ordered by how well each one handles the specific job of turning what’s already in your fridge into dinner. Yes, we put ourselves first; here’s why, and where we fall short.
-
CheffifyBest for messy fridges and busy households
- Type
- AI cook that picks what goes together
- Free
- 5 recipes a week, plus one fridge photo scan
- Paid
- Pro: €4.99/month after a 7-day free trial, or €29.99/year
- Runs on
- Any browser on phone or computer
Good
- Picks a sensible subset of your ingredients and shows what it skipped and what’s worth buying
- Applies your saved allergies and diets to every recipe, with an allergen check
- Recipe book, shopping list and family sharing; meal-prep plans and AI dish photos on Pro
- No ads
Watch out for
- New, with no public ratings yet
- No App Store or Google Play app yet
- Smaller free allowance than DishGen
- AI-written recipes, so keep an eye on quantities
-
SuperCookBest free recipe search by ingredient
- Type
- Recipe search engine (not AI)
- Free
- Everything, no account needed
- Paid
- No in-app purchases on the US App Store
- Runs on
- Web, iOS, Android
Good
- Searches 11M+ recipes from 18,000 websites in 20 languages
- Handy “missing one ingredient” view
- 4.8★ from about 22,000 iOS ratings
Watch out for
- Recipes open on third-party sites
- Diet filters cover only vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free
- Results repeat when your pantry doesn’t change
- Latest dated iOS version is from June 2022
-
DishGenBest for the most free AI recipes
- Type
- AI recipe and meal-plan generator
- Free
- 15 credits a week
- Paid
- Premium $72/year or $7.99/month on iOS; Pro $159/year
- Runs on
- Web, iOS
Good
- Generous free plan, about 60 credits a month
- Refine any recipe in a chat
- Nutrition labels and a 7-day trial on paid plans
Watch out for
- AI recipe images only on the $159/year Pro plan
- Doesn’t say how it handles a long, mismatched ingredient list
- Daily caps on paid plans (75 or 150 credits)
-
ChefGPTBest if you also track calories
- Type
- AI recipes plus calorie tracker
- Free
- Limited: the App Store listing says features need a paid subscription; third parties describe about 10 recipes a month on the web
- Paid
- $4.99/week, $9.99/month or $29.99–$69.99/year
- Runs on
- Web, iOS, Android
Good
- PantryChef, MacrosChef and MealPlanChef modes
- Photo-based calorie logging and “Snap Ingredients”
- Native iOS and Android apps
Watch out for
- The app now centres on calorie tracking
- Paywall inside the app
- The weekly plan adds up quickly
-
Samsung FoodBest free meal planner with an AI add-on
- Type
- Recipe saver and meal planner (formerly Whisk)
- Free
- Recipes, shopping list and meal planner, plus two tailored week plans
- Paid
- Food+: $6.99/month or $59.99/year (launch price, still listed in 2026)
- Runs on
- iOS, Android, web
Good
- Large, genuinely useful free tier
- AI-personalised weekly plans on Food+
- 4.8★ from over 6,000 iOS ratings
Watch out for
- Built for planning the week, not “what’s in my fridge right now”
- Some features are tied to Galaxy devices or the US, per a 2026 directory
-
CooklistBest for US shoppers who want a self-updating pantry
- Type
- Pantry tracker with an AI chef
- Free
- Free, with in-app purchases
- Paid
- Cooklist Pro: $5.99–$9.99/month or $49.99–$59.99/year
- Runs on
- iOS, Android
Good
- Imports purchases from 75+ grocery loyalty programmes (Walmart, Kroger, Safeway, Wegmans…)
- AI Chef suggests meals from what’s in your pantry
- PantryScan adds items from a short kitchen video
- 4.7★ from about 11,000 iOS ratings
Watch out for
- The store integrations listed are US chains
- You need to link your store accounts
-
ChatGPT or GeminiBest free option for occasional ideas
- Type
- General-purpose AI chatbot
- Free
- Yes, on their free tiers
- Paid
- Optional subscriptions
- Runs on
- Everywhere
Good
- Free and flexible, and can read a photo
- You can ask follow-up questions
Watch out for
- Tends to force ingredients together that don’t belong, unless you ask it not to
- You have to repeat your allergies and preferences
- No recipe book, shopping list or household sharing built in
Newcomers, and the apps that are gone
- Snap-your-fridge newcomers. Dozens of 2025–2026 apps, such as Fridge Friend and FRIGO, turn a fridge photo into recipes. Most are iOS-only and have few or no ratings yet. Fridge Friend, for example, sells four tiers from $0.99 to $9.99 a month. Try the free tier before you pay.
- Yummly shut down in December 2024, and many users struggled to export their saved recipes.
- Plant Jammer appears to be defunct: its website no longer serves the app.
- Mealime, the popular meal planner, closes on 21 October 2026.
How to choose in ten seconds
- Want real, human-written recipes and to pay nothing? SuperCook.
- Want the most free AI recipes? DishGen.
- Counting calories? ChefGPT.
- Planning the week more than tonight? Samsung Food.
- US shopper who never wants to update a pantry list by hand? Cooklist.
- Messy fridge, busy household, and you want dinner decided? Cheffify.
Questions people ask
What is the best app for making recipes from ingredients you have?
It depends on what you want back. SuperCook is the best free way to find existing recipes that match your ingredients. DishGen gives you the most free AI recipes. Cheffify is best when your fridge is a random mix and you want the app to pick what goes together. (We make Cheffify.)
Is there a free app that makes recipes from what I have?
Yes. SuperCook is completely free and needs no account. DishGen’s free plan includes 15 credits a week, Cheffify’s Free plan gives you 5 recipes a week, and ChatGPT and Gemini have free tiers.
Can an app suggest recipes from a photo of my fridge?
Yes. Cheffify’s Fridge Scan, ChefGPT’s “Snap Ingredients” and several newer apps can read a photo. Check the list of detected ingredients before you cook, because photos miss things at the back of the shelf.
What happened to Yummly?
Whirlpool shut down Yummly’s website and app in December 2024. If you used it to find recipes by ingredient, SuperCook is the closest free replacement. For saving recipes and planning the week, look at Samsung Food.
Do I need to use every ingredient I have?
No. Most good weeknight dishes use a handful of main ingredients. Pick a base that needs using, add what goes with it, and leave the rest for tomorrow. Our guide “What can I make with what I have?” walks through it.
Open the fridge. We’ll pick dinner.
Tell Cheffify what you have and it picks what goes together, writes the recipe and tells you what it skipped. 5 free recipes every week, in your browser, with nothing to install.
Keep comparing
Sources
Competitor details come from their own websites, app-store listings and the reviews below, checked on 20 October 2026. Prices change; check each site before you buy. Spotted something out of date? Tell us via support and we’ll fix it.
- SuperCook – Recipe by Ingredient, US App Store listing
- Macaron, “SuperCook recipe generator review” (2026) — written by a competing app
- DishGen pricing (Premium and Pro)
- ChefGPT: AI Calories Tracker, US App Store listing
- TrustMRR, ChefGPT listing — plans and trial length
- Toolworthy, ChefGPT — third-party description of the free tier
- Samsung Food, US App Store listing
- ToolDirectory, Samsung Food (Aug 2026)
- Cooklist, US App Store listing
- Tom’s Guide, “ChatGPT is a hidden goldmine for home cooks”
- Fridge Friend, US App Store listing
- FRIGO on Product Hunt (Feb 2026)
- Plan to Eat, “Yummly is closing”
- Mealime closing notice
We make Cheffify, so read this with that in mind. We’ve tried to be fair and to say where other apps are the better choice.