Slate and Cal AI
Cal AI is a photo-first calorie tracker: you take a photo of your meal, scan a barcode or describe it, and it estimates the calories, on iPhone, Apple Watch and Android. It was acquired by MyFitnessPal in 2026. Slate is a calorie journal for iPhone where you type what you ate, and each number is worked out from a recipe in grams and adjusted for your own kitchen.
Side by side
| Slate | Cal AI | |
|---|---|---|
| How you log food | Type a line the way you'd say it, in English or Hinglish. Barcode and label scanning are free; photo and voice logging come with Slate Plus. | Photo first: snap a photo, scan a barcode or describe your meal; it says your phone's depth sensor estimates food volume (calai.app). |
| Indian home food | Dishes are worked out from recipes in grams with IFCT 2017 values, then adjusted for your katori, roti, oil and chai. | No India-specific claim on the pages we checked. Hindi is among the App Store India listing's languages. |
| Restaurant food | Outside food is counted with more oil and a bigger portion than home food. With Plus, share a Swiggy or Zomato order to log it. | Integrated with MyFitnessPal's database, which covers 380+ restaurant chains, per TechCrunch (TechCrunch). |
| Free tier | Free forever: writing on Slate, your kitchen, scanning, macros and How we got this. Nothing free moves behind Plus. | Food scanning results require a subscription, per the App Store India listing; its website offers a 3-day free trial. |
| Price in India | Free. Slate Plus is ₹399 a month or ₹2,999 a year, with 7 days free on yearly. | In-app purchases on App Store India: Unlimited from ₹119 to ₹2,999, and a family plan at ₹5,900; durations aren't shown (App Store India). |
| Login required | No. Slate creates an anonymous account on your phone. | Accounts use Google or Apple sign-in; whether you need one before logging food isn't stated (FAQ). |
| Ads | No ads, no ad SDKs and no tracking. | Neither store listing declares ads; its privacy notice says ads may appear (privacy notice). |
| Where data is stored | Mumbai, India. | Headquartered in the United States; data may be transferred to the United States and other countries (privacy notice). |
| Coaching or sales calls | None. Slate never suggests a goal or a diet. | None described. Its listing says it doesn't offer medical advice. |
| Platforms | iPhone only (iOS 18 and later). | iPhone, Apple Watch and Android (FAQ). |
Where Slate is different
- No login. There's no account to create and no email or phone number to give; Slate creates an anonymous account on your phone.
- No ads, no ad SDKs, no tracking, no coaches and no sales calls. Your Slate is stored in Mumbai, India, and you can export or delete all of it from Settings.
- Built around Indian kitchens. Home dishes are worked out from recipes in grams with IFCT 2017 values, then adjusted for your katori (150, 200 or 250 ml), your roti and your oil. Tap any number to see how it was worked out.
- Written the way you'd say it: "2 roti aur ek katori dal", "kam tel", "bina cheeni". If Slate can't recognise a line it counts it as zero rather than guessing.
- Free forever, with a public promise that nothing free today moves behind Plus. Slate never suggests a goal.
- AI in Slate only reads lines it doesn't recognise, and it never produces a calorie number: numbers come from food composition data and recipes in grams. Photo logging, with Slate Plus, asks you to confirm each dish and portion, and the photo is never stored.
Where Cal AI is a better fit
- You'd rather take a photo than type. Cal AI is built around photo logging.
- You use Android or want an Apple Watch app. Slate is iPhone only.
- You want a family plan to share with others in your home.
- You eat a lot of chain-restaurant food, which its link to MyFitnessPal's database covers.
Questions people ask
What's the difference between Slate and Cal AI?
Cal AI estimates calories mainly from photos of your food and needs a subscription for scan results. Slate is a typed calorie journal for iPhone, free forever, that works out each dish from a recipe in grams and adjusts it for your katori, roti and oil.
Can Slate log food from a photo?
Yes, with Slate Plus. Slate spots each dish and you confirm the portions before anything is added. The photo is never stored.
Is Cal AI free?
It's free to download, but its App Store India listing says food scanning results require a subscription. Its website offers a 3-day free trial.
Related
Cal AI is a trademark of its owner. Slate is not affiliated with it. Details checked on 11 October 2026 and may have changed. Sources are linked in the table; the full list is kept with the date we checked each one.