Soba
Adjust the portions
Change the weight of any food. Carbs, bread units and other nutrients recalculate for the whole meal.
For iPhone · iOS 17+
Carbs and bread units.
From a photo of your meal.
Photograph your plate or describe what you ate. Soba estimates portions, net carbs, bread units and glycemic index. Check the result and adjust the amounts.
No account needed. Free download with in-app purchases.
Check the portion. Keep the record.
The first result is an estimate. Adjust it to match your meal, then see how it adds up over the day.
See your day at a glance
Review daily totals and meals in your history. Saved meals stay on your iPhone and are available offline.
Choose what you track
In Settings, choose carbs, protein, or fat and calories. Your chosen metrics appear prominently in meal results and history, and first in daily totals. The other nutrition values remain available.
Photo, text or barcode
Take a photo, describe a meal, or look up a packaged food by barcode through Open Food Facts. You can also enter foods and portions manually.
Bread units, GI and GL
Choose 10, 11 or 12 grams of carbs per bread unit. View the estimated glycemic index and glycemic load, with reference sources in the app.
Apple Health
With your permission, save nutrients and meal times to Apple Health. See glucose readings around a meal when enough data is available there.
Your food diary
Find a previous meal by name or ingredient and add it again. Keep track of protein, fat, fiber and calories alongside carbs.
Tested on 400 meal photos
We ran Soba on photos from two public research datasets where the carbs in each meal were weighed or recorded. Each photo was scanned from the photo alone, then once more with a hint that listed the foods from the study’s record.
68.5%of meals within 10 g of the actual carbs, from one photo
+4points more within 10 g when a hint named the foods exactly as the study recorded them
5.2 gmedian error from one photo
The error grows with the portion. From the photo alone, 89% of meals under 15 g of carbs came within 10 g, 55% of meals with 30 to 60 g, and 19% of meals with 60 g or more. When Soba’s estimate is 40 g or more, it can be off in either direction, so on a big plate weigh the main carb food. On iPhones with a LiDAR scanner or two or more rear cameras, Soba also measures the distance to the food. On 200 cafeteria photos taken straight down, this raised the share within 10 g from 77.5% to 82%. Method, examples and where Soba was wrong
Made from daily experience
I’m Maksim, the developer of Soba. I built the app primarily for myself, so I care about how well it works.
The app is available in English, German, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Japanese.
Before you start
What is free, and what does Soba Pro include?
Barcode lookup, manual entry, history, daily totals and Apple Health are available without a subscription. One photo or text scan per device per calendar month is free. Soba Pro provides additional photo and text scans with daily limits. Current prices and any trial offer are shown in the app before purchase.
How should I use the estimates?
Food recognition, portions and nutrient values are estimates. Check them against the food on your plate and product labels. Soba is not a medical device and does not recommend medication doses.
What happens to my data?
Soba works without an account. Your saved meals stay on your iPhone. Photos and descriptions are sent for AI processing after you give consent. Read the privacy policy for details.