Is MyFitnessPal Premium worth it?

MyFitnessPal’s own line on Premium is “Best if you want your logs to tell you something” (plan comparison). That’s accurate, and it’s a useful test. Three kinds of logger pass it.

It suits you less if you cook from scratch. A scanner has nothing to read on a homemade stew, and creating your own recipes and foods is already free3.

The web page offers a free trial4, so don’t decide on a hunch. MyFitnessPal’s help pages set out what you’d be doing. Here’s how we’d spend it.

Logging exercise is free: pick Cardio, Strength or Workout Routines from the plus button3. Premium adds what its feature list calls “exclusive Premium routine content”, for English users on iOS and Android2. It also adds Exercise Calorie Settings, which let you track exercise without raising your calorie or nutrient goals.

That earns a 2/5 from us: part of the job. Buy Premium for the food, and treat the routines as something that came free with it.

This is what you’re paying for, so here’s the whole line-up, from MyFitnessPal’s own plan comparison and feature list6.

Food tools get a 4/5. Free logging plus Premium’s shortcuts cover the main job well, and the one thing we mark down is that meal planning sits a tier higher.

Is the data any good? In a Belgian study of 50 people’s 4-day records, MyFitnessPal’s calories tracked a national food database closely, with a correlation of 0.96, and carbs, fat and protein weren’t far behind at 0.90. Sodium and cholesterol were much weaker, so don’t lean on those8. Its database is “built by our community”, so newer or regional products can be missing. You can add one from the label, and it’s saved for next time9.

Treat photo logging as a first draft, in any app. In a preliminary test of four apps’ photo features, MyFitnessPal’s among them, 102 standardized meals came back about 250 to 345 kcal low on average, on app versions that have since changed10.

Why pay to log faster? Because consistency seems to be what counts. In one commercial program’s 2,113 users, logging food on at least 3 days a week went with clinically significant weight loss over 6 months11, though that’s a look back at one program, not a trial. Across 22 studies of people trying to lose weight, the link between keeping track and losing weight held up, on weak evidence12. A quicker log is one you’re likelier to keep, and that’s the best case for Premium.

Personalisation gets a 3/5, because the parts that make goals fit your life cost extra. Free gives you one set of percentages. Premium gives you goals by day and by meal, and a choice of Today dashboards, such as Macros+Heart Healthy or Macros+Carb Conscious2.

Premium+ is the bigger step. Its pitch is honest about the problem: “Some weeks, deciding what to eat takes more energy than actually eating it.” The Meal Planner builds a week of meals around your goals, budget and time, from 1,500+ recipes, with grocery lists and meals that log straight from the plan (Premium+ help). If that’s your hard part, it’s the more interesting upgrade. Its features are on iOS and Android only, and it’s sold in six countries, the US among them.

Millions of people seem to get on with it: 4.71 from about 2.4 million ratings on the US App Store (App Store), and 4.41 from about 2.9 million on Google Play.

Its help pages add a few things worth knowing. Premium works across the apps and the website, but the scanner is apps only, and Meal Scan is iOS and Android for English users. A few features vary by device, country or language, and new ones roll out gradually, so one you’ve read about may not be on your phone yet2. Sign out and the ads come back, because Premium follows the account, not the device7.

Value gets a 3/5. The yearly price is good and the barcode scanner is worth having, but meal plans cost a tier more and the monthly plan is steep.

Premium’s figures are the US App Store’s1. Premium+ comes from the archived May 2026 page. Its trial was a month on the June 2025 page, and Premium’s own trial reads 7 days on an October 2026 copy priced for Canada13. Pricing varies by country and plan length, so check your own store6.

The US list price has been steady. The archived June 2023 and April 2024 pages show the same $79.99 and $19.99, and the yearly plan’s “67% savings over the Monthly Plan” is true arithmetic.

Two pictures, and both are real. The store ratings above are excellent. The Better Business Bureau shows the other side: 19 complaints in three years, a D- rating and no accreditation. One from 22 September 2026 reads “I canceled this in August and they keep charging.” One from 4 March 2026 says “There is no way to cancel a subscription”17.

Those are customers’ claims, which the BBB doesn’t verify, and 19 is a small number beside millions of ratings. They do point the same way, though: to the renewal. Two name charges of $84.79 and $84.99, above the $79.99 list, and sales tax may be why. Put the renewal date in your calendar the day you subscribe.

The catches are plain. It costs more than Premium, it has no free tier, it counts calories and macros but not vitamins and minerals, and it has no store app. You pay $15.19 for the first 28 days, then $38.95 every 4 weeks. On the walking plan, 12 weeks is $25.99, then $66.65 every 12 weeks (fitvee pricing).

Here’s Premium beside them on value, with a month at the renewal price.

Head to head: fitvee vs MyFitnessPal.