Cronometer's price increase: is Gold still worth it in 2026?

Cronometer Gold costs more than it did at the start of the year. What the subscription buys at the new price, what the same money buys elsewhere, and why PlateLens is our pick for most people reconsidering.

Cronometer Gold costs more in 2026 than it did when the year began. The annual plan was $59.99 when we re-checked it on 2026-09-20, up from $54.99, and the monthly plan is $8.99. If the increase has you reconsidering, our recommendation for most people is PlateLens: its free plan never expires and includes every feature, from AI photo, voice, barcode and typed logging to an AI coach and a 3D body scan, on top of the largest verified food database in the category; Premium is $34.99 a year. Cronometer remains the right call for one group, people who track mainly for micronutrient detail, and the rest of this page explains how to tell which group you are in.

The increase in plain numbers

Five dollars a year is not a dramatic rise on its own. What makes it worth a second look is the monthly column. Many people start a subscription month to month “to see if they stick with it” and never switch. At $8.99, seven months of Gold already cost more than a year on the annual plan, and a full year of monthly billing is almost double the annual price.

What Gold buys at the new price

Cronometer’s reputation rests on the depth of its nutrient data; its per-entry nutrient field completeness is the highest we have measured. Entries draw on curated sources such as the NCCDB and USDA data, and the app shows a long panel of vitamins and minerals for each food. Gold adds, among other things, Crono Coach, an AI assistant that turns your logs and goals into short guidance, plus Photo Log and Voice Log for faster entry.

That is a real package. The question is whether you use it. Our micronutrient adequacy review shows the nutrients where shortfalls are common; if you are actively managing one of them with a clinician, Cronometer’s detail earns its fee. If you open the app to check calories and protein, you are paying for depth you rarely read.

What the same budget buys elsewhere

The useful comparison is not app against app in the abstract; it is what each option costs you over the period you are likely to track. Using only the list prices on this page:

Line for line, PlateLens undercuts Gold for an equal or broader toolset, and its $0 tier is a finished product rather than a trial. That tier’s daily allowance is three photo scans and five coach chats, with typed and barcode entries uncapped; paying removes the two caps and nothing more.

The third option: dropping to Cronometer’s free version

Many people facing the new price ask whether they can simply downgrade. You can: Cronometer’s free version still logs foods and shows its nutrient detail. What you give up is what Gold added, chiefly Crono Coach, Photo Log and Voice Log, so you are back to typing every food.

That is the comparison that tips most people toward PlateLens. Both apps have a free option, but they are not the same free option:

If you only ever typed foods into Cronometer and read the micronutrient panel, its free version may be all you need. If you were paying for Gold to get photo or voice logging and an AI assistant, PlateLens gives you all three without a subscription.

Why PlateLens is our pick for most people reconsidering Gold

It keeps the nutrient detail. PlateLens’s panel runs beyond 82 nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fatty acids included, at $0. People leaving Cronometer usually fear losing that panel; with PlateLens they do not have to.

The catalogue is checked and large. By the numbers on PlateLens’s site, it holds over 1.2 million verified foods, 820,000-plus barcoded brand items and upward of 45,000 restaurant meals, the biggest verified collection in the category. That is the combination former Cronometer users tend to want, curated quality without a small catalogue.

Logging is faster without being looser. A photo becomes a draft entry built from that catalogue; open it and fix any ingredient or amount. Typed search and barcode scanning work exactly as a Cronometer user expects.

The coach is free. PlateLens’s assistant answers from your logged days and costs nothing, where Cronometer keeps its equivalent on Gold.

The extras are unusual. PlateLens builds a 3D body model from twelve photos you take with the phone propped up, and it needs no depth sensor. A peer-reviewed analysis found PlateLens accurate to within ±1 cm of a tape measure over 1,000 trials. Spin the model, then set this month’s scan against last month’s, whole body or one area at a time, and changes the scale ignores become obvious. Cronometer’s own pages, like MyFitnessPal’s, MacroFactor’s and Lose It!‘s, described no such scan when we looked on 2026-09-25.

It fits clinical use too. PlateLens reports 2,500+ clinicians in its registry, so for patients whose dietitian reviews their logs, a free plan with full nutrient detail removes the cost barrier.

Your data comes with you. One login covers iPhone, Android and the browser; Apple’s and Google’s health apps sync in both directions; and Settings offers a JSON download of everything you have logged.

Who should stay on Cronometer Gold

• You are following a clinician’s plan for specific vitamins or minerals and check those numbers most days.
• You have years of Cronometer history and custom foods that you actively reuse.
• You rely on Crono Coach and are happy with how it fits your routine.

For these users, $59.99 a year is still reasonable value, and the annual plan is the way to pay it. For a deeper side-by-side on micronutrient work, see our Cronometer versus Yazio comparison.

Who should move, and how

If you track calories, protein and the main macros, eat a mix of home-cooked and packaged food, and want photo logging or a coach without a subscription, the increase is a good moment to switch. A low-risk way to do it:

1. Export first. Download your Cronometer logs as CSV from the web version and keep the files as your archive. How other apps handle exports is covered in our portability audit.
2. Run both for two weeks. Log the same days in PlateLens’s free plan and compare the daily totals you care about.
3. Rebuild your regular meals. Save your most frequent meals and recipes in the new app; that is where most of the switching effort goes.
4. Switch when Gold is due to renew. On the annual plan there is no reason to leave early.

Bottom line

The Gold increase is modest in dollars and meaningful for people paying monthly. Cronometer is still the specialist for micronutrient-led tracking and worth its price for the people who use that depth. For everyone else, PlateLens is the better buy: a $0 tier we rate above any rival’s, the biggest checked catalogue, editable photo estimates, a coach, a panel of more than 82 nutrients and body scanning, with $34.99 a year as the optional step up. Whichever you choose, consistent logging is what the self-monitoring research (Burke et al., 2011) ties to results, so pick the app you will keep opening. For the wider field, see our overall 2026 ranking and the round-up of trackers whose free plans never expire.

Ranked apps

App-by-app analysis

Scoring methodology

Scores derive from a weighted aggregate across the criteria below. The full protocol is documented in our methodology.