Is there a free recipe app without ads?
Yes. Most recipe keepers make money from subscriptions, so their free versions carry no ads. What each free tier lets you do, checked October 2026.
Yes, several. The apps that keep your own recipes (the ones you import from websites, videos and photos) mostly earn their money from a subscription or a one-time purchase, and none of the main ones show ads on their free version. Ads tend to show up in a different kind of app: the ones whose product is a catalogue of their own recipes, where you are reading their content the way you would read a magazine.
What the free versions differ on is the limit. One caps the number of recipes, another caps imports per week, another keeps the list free and charges for recipes. Below is what each free tier lets you do.
We make one of the apps on this list, so weigh the positioning accordingly. Everything below was checked in October 2026.
Two kinds of recipe app
A recipe keeper stores recipes you bring to it: a link from a food blog, a TikTok, a screenshot, a photo of a card. Paprika, AnyList, Crouton, ReciMe and Sugo are all in this group. Their business is selling you the app or a subscription, so an ad on the free tier would work against the thing they are trying to sell.
A recipe catalogue gives you its own recipes to browse. These are often free to read and paid for by advertising. On Google Play, for example, the Kitchen Stories listing carries the "Contains ads" label. That model works for browsing, but it is the wrong kind of app for keeping your own recipes.
What each free version gives you
AnyList keeps the shopping list free, including sharing it with your household in real time. Recipes are the paid part: after five free imports from cooking sites, importing, the meal-planning calendar, scaling and photos need AnyList Complete at $9.99 a year, or $14.99 for a household.
ReciMe is free with grocery lists, meal planning and cookbooks included, and allows about five recipe imports a week from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, websites and photos. The measurement converter and the step-by-step cooking mode are part of ReciMe Plus, at $39.99 a year.
Crouton is free for up to 20 recipes on Apple devices. Past that, Crouton Plus is a one-time $24.99, and AI import from photos and PDFs is a separate subscription at $14.99 a year.
Paprika has no free version. It costs $4.99 on a phone and $29.99 on a computer, once per platform, and has no ads or subscription for its current features.
Sugo has a free plan with no time limit and no card. It includes cook mode, the pantry and the shopping list, with monthly limits on the expensive parts: 25 link imports and 5 photo or video imports a month, one cookbook and one meal plan. Saved recipes and pantry items are unlimited, and cook mode reads the steps aloud on the free plan too.
| Ads | Free limit | First paid step | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AnyList | None | List free; 5 recipe imports | $9.99/yr |
| ReciMe | None | About 5 imports a week | $39.99/yr |
| Crouton | None | 20 recipes, Apple only | $24.99 once |
| Paprika | None | No free version | $4.99 once per phone |
| Sugo | None | 25 link + 5 photo or video imports a month | $59.99/yr |
How to check an app for ads before you install it
On Google Play, look under the app's name: apps that show ads carry a "Contains ads" label next to "In-app purchases". None of AnyList, ReciMe, Paprika or Sugo carry it.
On the App Store there is no ads label. The closest signal is the App Privacy section on the listing: if an app shares data for "Third-Party Advertising", it is showing or targeting ads.
Which limit matters for you
The right free version depends on how you collect recipes, more than on the size of the number.
- If you save a lot from TikTok and Instagram, a weekly import cap is the limit you will feel. ReciMe's is about five a week; Sugo's photo and video limit is five a month, with 25 link imports on top.
- If you mostly cook the same 20 dishes, Crouton's 20-recipe cap may never bite, as long as everyone in the house is on Apple.
- If the shopping list is what you need and recipes can wait, AnyList's free list is the most generous free tier here.
- If you want to pay once and stop thinking about it, Paprika fits, even though it has no free version.
Where Sugo fits
Paid plans raise the limits. Sugo+ ($59.99 a year) and Famiglia ($79.99 a year) have no import limit, and Famiglia shares one meal plan, shopping list and pantry with up to 20 people in a household.
It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and the web, and it imports from Paprika, AnyList, Crouton and ReciMe, so trying it doesn't cost you the library you already have.
Our best recipe apps by need picks one app for each kind of kitchen, and the five-app comparison goes feature by feature. Every way to import a recipe covers what each import route brings across.
