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Price snapshot
Published price
Free Basic tier with ads; Gold is $10.99/month or $59.99/year in the US; no separate device required
Source: Cronometer Gold pricing and feature comparisonWhat to verify
- Current US Gold price, taxes, trial availability, renewal terms, and cancellation route
- Whether the advertised nutrient count is 84 or 95; current official pages contain inconsistent figures
- Whether photo logging, voice logging, fasting, and other named features remain Gold-only
Review overview
Cronometer fits detail-oriented people who want to compare protein and micronutrient patterns, but its useful depth comes with substantial logging effort, incomplete food data, and sensitive privacy considerations.
Last checked Jul 5, 2026
Price snapshot: Free Basic tier with ads; Gold is $10.99/month or $59.99/year in the US; no separate device required
What Cronometer does
Cronometer is a consumer food diary and nutrition-analysis service available on the web, iPhone and iPad, Android, Apple Watch, and Wear OS. You log foods, recipes, exercise, biometrics, and notes; the app then estimates calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other compounds against targets. Current store listings also describe connections to Apple Health or Health Connect and services such as Fitbit, Garmin, Oura, WHOOP, and others, although available data types and permissions vary by platform and integration. Its distinguishing feature is depth: the free Basic tier includes detailed macro and micronutrient tracking, a barcode scanner, custom targets, custom foods and recipes, device syncing, and short-window reports. That makes it more informative than a simple calorie tally if you want to compare protein across meals or watch nutrient patterns over time. Still, it remains a self-reported consumer log. The app calculates from the food entry and serving size you choose; it does not observe what you ate or measure your nutritional status. Photo and voice tools can speed entry, but their results still need review. Treat the dashboard as an organized estimate and conversation aid, not a clinical test or an automatic verdict on the quality of your diet.
- Tracks protein alongside detailed macro and micronutrient estimates
- Supports recipes, custom foods, biometrics, exercise, and selected integrations
- No separate wearable or medical device is required
Pricing and the free-versus-paid decision
Basic is free and supported by advertising. At the time of this review, Cronometer's US pricing page and Apple listing showed Gold at $10.99 per month or $59.99 per year, which works out to about $4.99 per month when paid annually. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled through the store or account route used to buy them. Prices, taxes, trials, and refund rules can vary, so confirm the checkout screen before subscribing. Basic already covers the core job: food, exercise, biometric, and note logging; detailed nutrient totals; custom macro and micronutrient targets; barcode scanning; custom foods and recipes; integrations; and reports within a seven-day window. Gold removes ads and adds longer-range insights plus tools such as custom charts, Nutrition Scores, the recipe importer, repeat-item scheduling, a macro scheduler, fasting timer, food suggestions, Oracle nutrient search, custom biometrics, and printable reports. Current listings also place photo and voice logging in Gold. Gold is most defensible if you will use historical trends, customization, or faster logging consistently. If you mainly want protein totals and a few micronutrients, test Basic first. One editorial caution: Cronometer's current pages are inconsistent about whether the tracked total is 84 or 95 nutrients and compounds, so the exact count should not drive your purchase.
- Try Basic before paying if protein is your main concern
- Gold mainly adds convenience, customization, and longer-range analysis
- Confirm the current renewal price and cancellation terms at checkout
Accuracy and clinical limits
Accuracy depends on both the source entry and what you enter. Cronometer says its common-food entries draw from laboratory and research databases such as NCCDB and USDA, which often provide broad nutrient profiles. Branded, restaurant, barcode, and user-submitted entries typically rely on a Nutrition Facts label or manufacturer data. Those labels report a limited set of nutrients, so an empty or zero-looking micronutrient field can mean "not available," not "none in the food." Cronometer's Data Confidence tool is useful because it highlights how complete the underlying nutrient data appears to be. Portion selection matters just as much. Raw and cooked weights are not interchangeable, recipe yield changes when water is lost, restaurant portions are estimates, and photo logging can only estimate what it sees. A precise calculation from an imprecise serving or incomplete entry is still an estimate. Use several ordinary days to look for patterns rather than treating one red or green bar as a diagnosis. National Academies guidance says dietary intake data alone cannot establish an individual's nutritional status; clinical, biochemical, and other information may be needed. Cronometer cannot diagnose a deficiency, set a medically appropriate protein target, or decide whether you need a supplement. If you have kidney disease, pregnancy, digestive problems, a history of disordered eating, or recurring nutrient concerns, personalized advice from a clinician or registered dietitian matters more than hitting an app target.
- Missing nutrient data does not necessarily mean the nutrient is absent
- Check whether an entry represents raw, cooked, branded, or generic food
- Use recurring patterns to prepare questions, not to self-diagnose or self-treat
The check we would not skip
Branded and restaurant entries may omit micronutrients not shown on labels
Privacy and overall fit
A Cronometer diary can contain sensitive information: the company's policy lists identifiers; age and sex; height, weight, diet, exercise, health conditions, and targets; connected apps or professionals; purchasing and internet activity; and potentially biometric information. It says service providers supporting payments, analytics, hosting, email, customer service, and marketing may access personal information for their work, while Cronometer says it does not sell personal information or protected health information. The policy also says food photos may be used to develop and train its services, including models used with third parties. Apple's developer-reported privacy label says contact information, identifiers, and usage data may be used to track you, and lists health and fitness, contact details, user content, identifiers, usage, and sensitive information as data that may be linked to you. Google Play says the app may share personal information, collects location, personal information, and other categories, encrypts data in transit, and supports deletion requests. These disclosures are broader than the nutrition diary alone and deserve a read before connecting another service. You can export diary data, bulk-delete entries, delete the account, and manage sharing with connected apps and professionals. Ordinary personal-use health apps are not automatically protected like clinician-held HIPAA records; HHS says HIPAA generally applies only when a covered entity or business associate is involved. Cronometer best fits detail-oriented users who can log calmly and review permissions. Choose a simpler method if tracking becomes stressful, rigid, or too time-consuming.
- Review Apple Health, Health Connect, wearable, and professional-sharing permissions separately
- Export useful records before permanently deleting the account
- Consider a simpler diary if detailed targets make eating more stressful
More questions and context
Common questions
Is Cronometer's free version enough for protein tracking?
Usually, yes. Basic includes food logging, protein and micronutrient totals, custom targets, barcode scanning, recipes, and short-window reports. Gold is mainly for an ad-free experience, longer history, customization, and additional logging or analysis tools.
Can Cronometer diagnose a vitamin or mineral deficiency?
No. It estimates dietary intake from your entries. Dietary intake alone does not establish nutritional status, and missing database values can make some totals look artificially low.
Does a zero micronutrient value mean the food contains none?
Not necessarily. Branded and restaurant entries often include only nutrients reported by the manufacturer or Nutrition Facts label. An unreported value may appear missing even when the food contains that nutrient.
Educational content only. Do not use this page as medical advice or as a substitute for a licensed clinician, pharmacist or insurer reviewing your situation.
Related checks
Sources and what to verify (6)
Sources
- Cronometer Gold pricing and feature comparison
Official Basic and Gold prices, feature split, and report limits
- Cronometer on the US App Store
Official iOS platform, in-app prices, features, and Apple privacy label
- Cronometer on Google Play
Official Android and Wear OS features plus Google Play Data safety summary
- Cronometer Privacy Notice
Data categories, uses, service-provider disclosures, AI training, sharing controls, and deletion rights
- Cronometer data sources
Official explanation of laboratory databases and incomplete branded-food profiles
- Cronometer Data Confidence Scores
Official explanation of missing nutrient values and confidence indicators for specific logged foods and daily nutrient totals, particularly when branded, packaged, user-submitted, or restaurant entries contain only the limited information reported on labels rather than a complete laboratory-analyzed profile for every nutrient displayed by the app in its diary, reports, charts, scores, targets, and other consumer-facing views used to estimate intake patterns over time from the entries and serving amounts selected by the user during ordinary tracking in the free or paid version of Cronometer on supported platforms and connected services where the apparent numerical precision of the final total may exceed the completeness of the underlying food composition data for one or more nutrients, making the confidence indicator and source label important interpretation aids but not guarantees of biological accuracy, dietary adequacy, clinical significance, or suitability for individual treatment decisions without additional professional assessment and relevant clinical information beyond the app’s calculations alone in any particular case or reporting period used by a reader after publication of this review on CravingWise for educational purposes in the United States.