Snap a meal. Know the carbs in 3 seconds.
Built by a Type 1 diabetic. Per-item carb counts cross-checked against USDA, whether you're counting for diabetes, GLP-1, or keto. No account. No food diary.
v1.2 Barcode scanning, voice and text logging, home screen widgets, and Apple Watch.
From plate to number.
Three taps. No database scrolling, no portion spreadsheets, no diary guilt.
Snap your meal
Point your camera at any plate. Restaurant food, mixed dishes, home cooking. Tap once, the AI handles recognition.
Check the breakdown
Per-item carb counts cross-checked against the USDA FoodData Central database. Tap any value to edit it. You stay in control.
Watch the pattern
Every scan saves with its photo. Daily totals, weekly trends, and a Doctor PDF Export your care team can actually read.
Every gram, accounted for.
A scan is not a guess. It is an itemized count you can check, edit, and save.
One clear number
The total sits right over the photo. 12.4 g for this salad, before your fork moves.
Per-item breakdown
Grilled chicken, greens, tomatoes, feta. Each ingredient gets its own line with protein, fat, and fiber.
Net carbs built in
Fiber is subtracted automatically. The net figure shows beside each item, no math on your side.
Edit anything
Wrong portion? Tap any value and correct it before saving. Your number always wins.
Log it any way.
The camera is fastest. For everything else, four more ways get the carbs in.
Scan the package
Packaged foods log in seconds. Point at the barcode, the label comes back as carbs.
Type it or say it
Describe a meal in plain words, typed or dictated, and get a carb estimate back.
Carbs on your home screen
A widget shows today's carbs and scans left at a glance. No need to open the app.
Log from your wrist
The Watch app shows today's carbs and logs a meal by dictation, hands free.
It remembers your corrections.
Correct a carb count once and CarbZen offers your saved number the next time you scan the same food. Your oatmeal is your oatmeal.
The only way that doesn't feel like work.
Most carb-counting tools were built for budget tracking, not blood sugar. Here's how CarbZen stacks up.
| Capability | CarbZen | Food diary apps | Barcode-only apps | Carb-counting books |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time per meal | 3 seconds | 5+ minutes | 30 seconds | Forever |
| Mixed dishes & plates | Per-item breakdown | If entered manually | No barcode = no data | Manual lookup |
| Restaurant meals | Yes | Only if listed | No | Approximations |
| Account required | Never | Sign-up wall | Usually | — |
| Net carbs (fiber subtracted) | Built in | Premium feature | No | Calculate yourself |
| Price | Free, then $6.99/mo | Free w/ ads + upsells | Free | $15+ each |
Built for Type 1 diabetics. Useful for everyone counting carbs.
Carb counting is daily homework when you live with diabetes. The same math works for GLP-1 protein tracking and keto net-carb counting.
For Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
Per-item carb counts for every plate. Show your endocrinologist exactly what you ate, every meal, every scan, with photos and timestamps the Doctor PDF Export turns into a one-tap report. Net carbs mode built in.
- Per-item carb counts you can check and edit
- Net carbs mode on every scan
- Doctor PDF Export, your endo gets the full picture
- Photo history stays on device. No account.
Built by a T1, for anyone tired of counting carbs the hard way.
I was diagnosed Type 1 at 7. 33 years later, counting carbs has become an unwelcome chore. Every meal, every snack, every coffee that might have syrup in it.
CarbZen is my answer to diabetic fatigue. I wanted accuracy, but I didn't want the hassle that came with it. I didn't want to keep guessing the grams. I also didn't want to type my dinner into another food log, scroll a database, and pick the entry that looked closest. I just wanted a number, fast, without extra nonsense in the way.
Snap the plate. Get a carb count verified against USDA in three seconds. Show my endo the data when I see them. No food diary. No account. Just the carbs.
Chad · Founder · Type 1 since age 7
Quietly working for the people who tested it.
CarbZen is new on the App Store and Google Play. Here's what TestFlight users said while we were building it.
I was able to easily figure out what the carbs were in pretty much any meal I was having. I never needed to describe anything, it seemed to always figure it out, even with a lot of components on the dish. My control has been better with the help of CarbZen.
Fast to find the carbs and macros in anything I have got in front of me. Much easier for me to make good decisions on my keto diet.
Quotes from TestFlight beta testers. CarbZen is new on the App Store and Google Play, your review could be next.
Start free. Upgrade when you're ready.
Free for 7 days, unlimited. Then 30 scans a month, forever. No credit card.
7 days unlimited. Then 30 scans a month, forever.
- AI food recognition
- USDA-verified carb counts
- Barcode, voice, and text logging
- Local scan history
- Home screen widget
Unlimited scans, full macros, Doctor PDF Export.
- Everything in Free
- Unlimited scans
- Doctor PDF Export, show your endo the data
- Full macro breakdown (protein, fat, fiber)
- Daily carb goal & progress
- Weekly trends & averages
- Net carbs mode
- Priority support
Every Pro feature, forever. Available in-app.
- Everything in Pro
- One-time payment · no renewal
- All future Pro features included
- Family Sharing enabled
Common questions.
Chad built CarbZen. He's been Type 1 since he was a kid. He counted carbs for every meal in this app while writing the code. The Doctor PDF Export exists because he wanted to print something for his own endo. If you want to verify, the App Store and Google Play listings show the same founder name as the support email.
Carb Manager is great if you want a full food diary, an account, a feed, weight loss programs, and a $99/year subscription. MyFitnessPal is built around calorie counting and weight loss, not carb counting. CarbZen does one thing: snap a photo, get the carbs in 3 seconds, cross-checked against USDA. No diary. No account. Full comparison →
Every AI estimate is cross-checked against the USDA FoodData Central database, and you can edit any value before saving, you stay in control. Treat any estimate, from an app, a menu, or a nutrition label, as a starting point, and talk to your care team about anything health related. CarbZen isn't a medical device.
AI estimates are cross-checked against the USDA FoodData Central database on every scan. You can edit any value if you know better, you stay in control. Treat the number as a starting point you can correct against your CGM.
Yes. CarbZen identifies multiple items on a plate and gives you a per-item breakdown, that's the whole point. Barcode scanners fail at restaurants. Cameras don't.
Yes. Try it free for 7 days, unlimited. After that you get 30 scans a month, on the house, forever. No card required. Upgrade to Pro ($6.99/mo with 3-day free trial, $39.99/yr with 7-day free trial, or $129.99 lifetime) only if you want unlimited scans, the full macro breakdown, and the Doctor PDF Export.
Stop counting carbs the hard way.
Free for 7 days, unlimited, then 30 scans a month, forever. No account. No food diary. Just point, shoot, and know what you're eating.