Best free recipe keeper apps (2026): what free gets you
The recipe keeper apps you can use for free, for real, are Samsung Food and Mealhive: both let you save recipes, plan a week and build a shopping list without paying, and both import from social media. AnyList is free for shared shopping lists but lets you save only five web recipes before you upgrade. Paprika and Recipe Keeper have free versions, but they cap your collection, so they work as trials of a one-time purchase. Plan to Eat has no free plan at all, only a 14-day trial.
“Free” on an app store page covers three very different deals: free forever with limits, free until your collection grows, and free for two weeks. Below is what each app gives you at zero cost, where the free part stops, and what it costs to go past it. Everything was checked in November 2026 against each app’s own site or store listing where possible; free plans and prices change often and vary by region, so treat the numbers as a snapshot and check the app before you move a big collection in or pay. For paid features, the full pros and cons are in the recipe keeper apps comparison.
Free recipe keeper apps at a glance
| App | What you get free | Where free stops | Going past it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Food | Save from any website, meal planning, shopping lists, social import via the share sheet | Fuller AI-personalized planning and some extras sit in the paid tier | Food+ subscription |
| Mealhive | Plan my week, the aisle-sorted shared list, staples, cook mode, household sharing, starter recipes, 3 AI recipe captures a month | Unlimited AI capture (links, screenshots, cookbook photos read for you) | Plus, €3.99 a month or €29 a year, one plan per household |
| AnyList | Shared, live grocery lists | 5 recipes saved from the web | Complete, from $9.99 a year ($14.99 for a household) |
| Paprika | The full app | 50 recipes, no cloud sync | One-time purchase per platform |
| Recipe Keeper | The full app | A limited number of recipes | One-time Pro upgrade per platform ($19.99 on iPhone) |
| Plan to Eat | Nothing after the trial | 14-day trial | $5.95 a month or $49 a year |
The free plans that last
Samsung Food
The most generous free plan among the big apps. You can save recipes from any website, bring them in from Instagram and TikTok through the share sheet, plan meals, and turn a plan into a shopping list without paying. The free plan includes some AI suggestions; the paid tier, Food+, adds fuller AI-personalized meal plans and other extras; reviewers disagree on exactly which features sit behind it, so check the app if a specific one matters to you.
The catch: it is a large, busy app with a big discovery library, owned by Samsung. If you want a quiet place for your own recipes, it can feel like more app than you need.
Mealhive
Ours, so read accordingly. The free plan is free forever and covers the parts most people use every week: Plan my week, the grocery list (merged across the week’s dinners and sorted by aisle), staples that stay off the list until you need them, cook mode, and sharing with your household in real time. It includes 50 starter recipes and 3 AI recipe captures a month, where you paste a link from a recipe site, an Instagram post or a TikTok, or use a screenshot or cookbook photo, and it reads a clean recipe for you.
The catch: three captures a month is enough to try the magic, not to move a collection of hundreds. Unlimited capture is Plus, €3.99 a month or €29 a year, and one subscription covers the whole household. It is also newer than the others, with a smaller built-in library.
AnyList
Free and very good at one thing: the shared grocery list. Everyone in a household sees each other’s changes live.
The catch: the free plan lets you save only 5 recipes from the web. Unlimited recipe saving and the meal-planning calendar come with AnyList Complete, which is cheap ($9.99 a year, or $14.99 for a household, on AnyList’s own pricing page). As a free recipe keeper it is a list app with a small recipe drawer.
The free versions that are really trials
Paprika
A respected recipe box that you buy once rather than subscribe to. The free version is the full app with a 50-recipe cap and no cloud sync, so it is a fair way to test the clipper and the planner. Past 50 recipes you buy it, separately for each platform (phone, tablet, computer).
Recipe Keeper
Similar deal: a polished recipe box with website and social import, cookbook scanning and an aisle-sorted list, free up to a limited number of recipes. The Pro upgrade is a one-time purchase, $19.99 on iPhone in November 2026, and again separately per platform. We looked at it closely in the Recipe Keeper review.
Plan to Eat
No free plan. You get a 14-day trial with no card required, then $5.95 a month or $49 a year. It is an excellent planner, but it does not belong on a list of free apps; it is here so you do not install it expecting one.
Free options that are not apps
You can keep recipes free without any recipe app:
- A notes app or a shared document. Free, searchable, works everywhere. You paste the recipe, delete the life story by hand, and build your shopping list by hand too.
- Browser bookmarks or social saves. Free and effortless, which is exactly why they fail: the page changes, the post disappears, and nothing is searchable by ingredient. How to organize your online recipes explains why these break down and what to do instead.
- A paper binder. Still the most durable option there is. It just cannot write a shopping list.
These cost nothing and they work for a handful of recipes. They stop working when you want to plan a week from them.
How to pick a free recipe keeper
- You want the most features without paying: Samsung Food.
- You want the week planned and one shared list for the household, free: Mealhive, and upgrade only if you capture more than a few recipes a month.
- You mostly need a shared shopping list: AnyList.
- You will pay once if the app is right: try Paprika or Recipe Keeper free, then buy the platform you use most.
- You are leaving Mealime, which closed in October 2026: start with recovering your Mealime recipes.
Where Mealhive fits
If “free” for you means the weekly routine costs nothing (plan the week, get the list, shop together, cook), Mealhive’s free plan covers that routine completely, and it runs in the browser and installs on iPhone and Android without buying it twice. What you pay for is speed of capture: unlimited AI reading of links, screenshots and cookbook pages. Start free, or see what an all-in-one recipe keeper should do for the whole picture.
FAQ
What is the best free recipe keeper app?
Samsung Food has the most generous free plan among the large apps: save from any website, plan meals and build a shopping list without paying. Mealhive’s free plan is the better fit if you want a planned week and one shared, aisle-sorted list for the household, with 3 AI recipe captures a month included. AnyList is free for shared lists but saves only five web recipes free.
Is there a recipe keeper app that is completely free?
Not with every feature. Samsung Food and Mealhive both have free plans with no time limit, but each keeps some features for a paid tier: fuller AI-personalized planning in Samsung Food, unlimited AI recipe capture in Mealhive. Paprika and Recipe Keeper are free only up to a recipe limit, and Plan to Eat is a 14-day trial.
Is Paprika free?
There is a free version of Paprika, but it caps you at 50 recipes and has no cloud sync. To go past that you buy the app once, separately for each platform you use.
Is AnyList free?
AnyList’s shared grocery list is free. Recipe saving is limited to five web recipes on the free plan; unlimited recipes and meal planning come with AnyList Complete, from $9.99 a year.
What is the best free app to save recipes from Instagram and TikTok?
Samsung Food and Mealhive both import from social media on their free plans. Mealhive reads the recipe from an Instagram or TikTok link, a screenshot, or a pasted caption, with 3 AI captures a month free. For the manual ways, see how to save recipes from Instagram.