Is MyFitnessPal Free? What You Get Without Paying

MyFitnessPal is one of the most widely used fitness and nutrition tracking tools available today, used by millions to log meals, track calories, monitor physical activity, and support weight or health-related goals. A key reason for its popularity is that it offers a robust free version. But what exactly is included in that free version, and what are the limits? If you’re considering using MyFitnessPal and want to know whether it’s worth signing up without paying, this article lays out everything you need to know in plain, practical terms.

What the Free Version of MyFitnessPal Offers

Yes, MyFitnessPal is free to use, and the basic account includes a wide range of features that are sufficient for many users. The app is available for free on both Android and iOS, and you can also access your account through the website. Once you create an account, you can log in on any platform using the same credentials, and your data syncs automatically.

Here’s what you get with a free MyFitnessPal account:

• Access to the full food database
• Ability to log meals and track calories
• Basic macronutrient breakdowns (carbs, fat, protein)
• Exercise tracking for cardio and strength
• Progress tracking through weight and measurement logs
• Creation of custom foods, meals, and recipes
• Daily and weekly summaries of nutritional intake
• Basic goal setting and daily calorie targets
• Integration with partner fitness apps and devices
• Printable diary reports via the website

For most people, these features cover the main functionality they need to track calories, stay accountable, and understand their eating and activity habits.

Try Another Tool to Support Meal Planning – ReciMe 

We built ReciMe as a tool that focuses specifically on the meals you prepare. As you save or upload recipes, our app automatically calculates the calories, macronutrients, and nutritional information for each dish, making it easier for you to understand exactly what’s going into your meals. While it isn’t a completely free app, it includes a 7-day trial so you can explore its features before committing to a subscription. ReciMe works on iOS and as a Chrome extension, we designed it to be simple and useful for anyone who saves recipes from social media or the web and wants to cook from them more often.

While MyFitnessPal helps track your overall daily intake, ReciMe offers an alternative by focusing on the nutritional content of the recipes you’re actually cooking. This allows for a more accurate view of your diet, as it takes into account how ingredients come together in a dish. Whether you’re saving recipes from social media, uploading your own, or scaling servings, ReciMe ensures you have the right information for the meals you plan to make.

With ReciMe, you can also save recipes from platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, or upload your own. Once a recipe is saved, you can organize it into digital cookbooks, adjust serving sizes, and get automatic nutrition estimates. Our app also creates smart grocery lists based on your recipes and helps plan meals by the week. It’s especially helpful if your recipes are scattered across screenshots, links, or different apps and you want to centralize them.

The subscription version allows unlimited imports and uploads. Everything is stored in the cloud and accessible across your devices. You can also scale ingredients, change measurement units, and share recipes or entire cookbooks with friends and family. The format is focused and easy to follow while cooking.

Just try it – you’ll love it:

What Can You Track in the Free Version of MyFitnessPal?

The free version of MyFitnessPal includes several tools that help users track their food, activity, weight, and nutrition data in a single place. These core features are available without payment and cover most of the day-to-day needs for anyone trying to monitor their diet or fitness progress. Below is a breakdown of what you can do, explained by category.

Logging Food

Food tracking is one of the most used features on MyFitnessPal. With a free account, you can log meals using a searchable food database that contains millions of entries. The system remembers what you’ve logged recently and frequently, so adding repeat meals becomes quicker over time.

You can log food using two main paths:

• From the Dashboard: Tap the plus button, select “Food,” choose the appropriate meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack), then search and add the item.
• From the Diary: Go to the Diary tab, tap “Add Food” under the desired meal, search the database, and add your selection.

The free version also lets you see basic nutrition information for each food item before you add it. This includes calories, protein, fat, and carbohydrates.

Logging Exercise

Exercise tracking in MyFitnessPal works similarly to food logging. Users can enter cardiovascular or strength workouts manually, select from previously logged activities, or create custom entries. Each exercise includes fields like duration, intensity, and calories burned, which are automatically deducted from your daily calorie goal.

You can log exercise by:

• Going to the dashboard and tapping the plus button, then selecting “Exercise” and choosing either “Cardiovascular” or “Strength”
• Accessing the Diary tab and selecting “Add Exercise” under the relevant section

Once added, your total daily calories adjust based on your activity level, helping you maintain a clearer view of how exercise affects your overall intake.

Creating Custom Foods, Meals, and Recipes

One standout feature of MyFitnessPal is the ability to customize your food entries, which is also available in the free version. This is especially helpful for people who cook from scratch, eat locally made foods, or follow non-standard diets that may not be covered in mainstream databases.

You can create:

• Custom Foods: If a food isn’t in the database, you can enter its name, serving size, and nutrition facts manually.
• Meals: Save combinations of foods you often eat together (like eggs and toast or rice and chicken) as a single item for easy future logging.
• Recipes: Add your own recipes by entering ingredients manually or by using a URL to import a recipe from a website. You can also estimate serving sizes and update them after cooking.

This flexibility means you don’t have to rely on preloaded database entries to get accurate tracking. You can tailor the app to your exact eating habits.

Tracking Weight and Measurements

MyFitnessPal includes a simple but effective weight and measurement log. Users can record their weight, waist, hips, neck, or any other metric they want to track over time. This is useful whether your goal is to lose weight, build muscle, or simply stay on top of your physical health.

Logged data is stored in your account and can be viewed as a chart to help you track trends. While the free version shows a basic line graph of your progress, more detailed insights and trend analysis require an upgrade to Premium.

Viewing Nutrition Data

The app provides access to basic nutrition summaries, which are displayed in both numbers and charts. These include:

• Macronutrients: See your intake of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in grams and as a percentage of your total daily calories.
• Caloric Intake: View how many calories you’ve consumed, how many you have left for the day, and how your food and exercise affect your net total.
• Pie Chart View: The app offers a visual breakdown of your daily macronutrient ratio, so you can quickly assess if your meals are balanced.

While this information is helpful for day-to-day tracking, there are some restrictions. Free users can only set macro goals using percentages (in 5 percent increments) and cannot set specific gram goals. Also, you won’t see a full breakdown of micronutrients like sodium, sugar, fiber, or vitamins unless you’re using the Premium version.

Setting Goals: What’s Adjustable?

The free account allows you to set your own calorie goal or let the app calculate one based on your profile and target. Macronutrient goals can be customized, but only by percentage, and they must always add up to 100 percent.

For example, you can set your goals to 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat. But if you want more granular control like assigning exact gram amounts or adjusting goals per meal or day, you’d need the Premium version.

Sharing and Privacy Options

MyFitnessPal allows users to share their food diaries with friends or make them public. You can also lock them with a passkey. This is useful if you’re working with a coach, a dietitian, or just want to stay accountable by letting a partner or friend see your entries.

To adjust sharing settings:

• Go to Settings > Privacy Center > Diary Sharing
• Choose from Public, Friends Only, or Locked with a key

On the website, the option is under My Home > Settings > Diary Settings.

Connecting with Other Apps and Devices

One of MyFitnessPal’s strengths is its compatibility with third-party fitness platforms. The free version allows you to link accounts from:

• Garmin
• Fitbit
• Apple Health
• Samsung Health
• Other apps in the MyFitnessPal App Gallery

Once connected, these apps can send data such as steps, workouts, or calories burned into your MyFitnessPal account, helping you maintain a more accurate daily picture.

Printable Reports (Website-Only Feature)

If you want to share your food diary or nutrition log with a doctor, trainer, or nutritionist, MyFitnessPal offers a printable report feature through the website.

To use it:

1. Log in at www.myfitnesspal.com
2. Go to the Food tab
3. Scroll down and click “View Printable Report”
4. Choose your date range and click “Change Report”

This can be especially helpful for professionals who need hard copy logs for medical or coaching purposes.

What the Free Version Doesn’t Include

While the free version is functional, it lacks certain features that some users may find useful. These include:

• Custom macronutrient goals in grams
• Detailed nutrient breakdowns (fiber, sodium, vitamins)
• Meal-by-meal nutrient tracking
• Food timestamps
• Ad-free experience
• Advanced reports and analytics
• Guided meal plans
• Priority customer support

These features are part of MyFitnessPal Premium, which requires a paid subscription.

Is Upgrading to Premium Necessary?

Whether or not you need to upgrade to MyFitnessPal Premium really depends on your personal goals and how precise you want your tracking to be. For most users who are focused on general calorie counting, managing weight, or keeping an eye on macronutrients in a broad sense, the free version offers more than enough functionality. It allows for daily logging, basic nutrient summaries, and integration with other apps, which is sufficient for casual or moderate tracking.

However, Premium can be worthwhile in specific cases. If you’re following a nutrition plan that requires exact macronutrient targets, like a low-carb or high-protein diet, the added ability to set macronutrient goals by gram rather than percentage can be a big benefit. It also helps if you’re working with a doctor or dietitian and need more detailed nutrient tracking beyond the basics. Athletes or those training for performance often rely on precision and may benefit from advanced data, export options, and more comprehensive charts. Finally, if you find the ads disruptive or want a cleaner, faster experience within the app, the ad-free interface in Premium may make the upgrade feel more worthwhile.

Conclusion

MyFitnessPal remains a widely used and accessible tool for anyone interested in tracking their food, exercise, and overall health habits. Its free version offers solid functionality, covering everything from calorie tracking and weight logging to recipe customization and app integration. For many users, these core features are more than enough to maintain daily accountability and support their goals. At the same time, the Premium version offers added control, more detailed nutritional insights, and other tools that may be valuable depending on your needs.

If you’re looking to enhance your routine with a dedicated recipe and meal planning tool, ReciMe offers another layer of organization. It’s not entirely free, but its 7-day trial gives you space to decide if it fits into your cooking and planning habits. Combined with a tool like MyFitnessPal, it can help you not just track what you eat, but also plan and enjoy what you cook.

Frequently Asked Questions