Nouri vs Amy Food Journal: Which Notes-Style Calorie Tracker Should You Use?

If you want to type a sentence and have the math done, Nouri is the answer for most people: $39.99/year versus Amy's $99.99 a year, a weekly Nouri Report, and 92.1/100 in our 100-meal accuracy benchmark (MyFitnessPal 77.0). Amy Food Journal is the better pick if you love widgets, an Apple Watch app and barcodes. We make Nouri; Amy facts checked Nov 1, 2026.

What is Amy Food Journal?

Amy Food Journal is an iPhone calorie tracker built by indie developer Chris Raroque, who documents the build on YouTube. Its App Store subtitle says it all: "Food tracking like Notes." You open today's note, type one food per line, and calories appear on the right. It launched on the App Store on November 24, 2025, shipped version 1.84 on October 30, 2026, and holds a 4.0 rating from 37 ratings on the US store.

It is a genuinely well made app, and Chris is open about why it costs what it does: his pricing page explains that the AI models and search services behind it cost $4 to $8 per user per month. We respect that a lot, because we made the same call for the same reason. Neither app has a free version.

Both apps belong to the category ChatGPT calls "AI calorie trackers with natural-language logging." If that phrase is new to you, our guide to natural-language food logging explains it, and the best notes-style calorie tracker compares the wider field.

At a glance

	Nouri	Amy Food Journal
Core tracking	Type a full sentence like a note, voice, photo, or Siri from the lock screen	Type one food per line in a daily note; microphone, camera and saved meals above the keyboard
Behind the numbers	Per-item reasoning and a confidence rating; add context in plain words and recalculate	Nutrition Details with items, "Amy's thought process", a confidence level and the reference sites used
Packaged food and menus	Type, say or photograph it; no barcode scanner	Barcode scanning and menu scanning
Weekly insight	Nouri Report: Health Score, wins, slips, one focus for next week	Weekly Stats charts of protein, carbs and fat against goals
Widgets and watch	No widgets, no Apple Watch app	Home and Lock Screen widgets, Apple Watch app with three complications
Extras	Nouri Coach, Health Score per meal, smart reminders, vitamin scorecard	Streaks and cat badges, weight tracking, water, Calorie Estimate Bias, AI app connectors
Apple Health	Both ways	Both ways
Free tier	No, 3-day free trial	No, 3-day free trial, no credit card
Price	$9.99/month or $39.99/year	$9.99/month or $99.99/year
Platforms	iPhone (iOS only)	iPhone, iPad, Mac (Apple silicon), Apple Watch

Amy facts from its App Store listing, amyfoodjournal.com, its pricing page and its help center, checked Nov 1, 2026.

Nouri: one sentence in, answers out

How it works and where it wins:

• Type what you ate like a note, "two scrambled eggs, toast with butter and a cappuccino," and Nouri breaks it into items with calories, protein, carbs and fat
• Every item shows its reasoning and a confidence rating; if it guessed wrong, add "it was a big plate" and recalculate
• Four equal ways in: type, voice, photo (turned into a sentence you can read first), or Siri. Say "Hey Siri, track food in Nouri" from the lock screen, answer in one sentence, and the calories and macros card appears with what you have left for the day, without opening the app
• A Nouri Report every Sunday evening that tells you what to change next week
• A public benchmark: 92.1/100 in our 100-meal accuracy benchmark (MyFitnessPal 77.0)
• $39.99/year for the year, well under Amy's $99.99

Weaknesses:

• iPhone only, no iPad, Mac or Apple Watch app
• No barcode scanner and no widgets
• No streaks or badges, if a flame on day 30 is what keeps you going

Best for: people who want the type-a-note speed plus a weekly answer about what to change, at a lower yearly price.

Pricing: $9.99/month or $39.99/year, with a 3-day free trial on the yearly plan (try Nouri)

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Amy Food Journal: the beautifully simple note

Everything below comes from Amy's App Store listing, website, pricing page and help center, checked Nov 1, 2026.

How it works and where it wins:

• The note is the whole app: one food per line, calories on the right, swipe sideways between days. It is calm, pretty and fast
• More ways in than its "type it" reputation suggests: voice, photo, barcode, menu scanning (tick up to 50 dishes), shared photos, and Siri with "Log food in Amy"
• Home and Lock Screen widgets for calories left, macros and water, plus an Apple Watch app with voice tracking, saved meals and complications
• Location tracking for restaurant information, and a Restaurant field on photo entries
• Streaks with hand-drawn cat badges and streak repairs, weight tracking with progress photos, and water tracking
• Calorie Estimate Bias, a slider that leans every estimate higher or lower
• If you go offline, lines show as Queued and are worked out once you are back online
• Connectors so Claude, ChatGPT and other AI apps can read and update your journal

Weaknesses:

• $99.99 a year is the top end for this category
• Its site and help center describe weekly charts, not a written weekly report with a single focus
• Its site and help center do not list a per-meal health score or a coach
• Lines need a connection to calculate; offline entries wait in a queue

Best for: typing-first minimalists who love widgets, a watch on their wrist, and a beautifully simple screen, and who scan packaged food often.

Pricing: 3-day free trial with no credit card, then $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year (amyfoodjournal.com)

The real difference: the same note, a different Sunday

On the day itself, these apps are closer than most comparisons admit. Both let you type a meal like a note. Both show how they got the number and how confident they are. Both take voice, photos and Siri, and both send nutrition to Apple Health and bring calories burned back.

The difference is what happens after the note. Amy invests in the moment of tracking and the habit around it: widgets, a watch, streaks, badges and a slider for your own bias. Nouri invests in the week: a Health Score per meal, Nouri Coach, and a Nouri Report that reads your days and tells you what to change. If you already know what to do and just need a frictionless journal, Amy's approach fits. If you track and still cannot say what went wrong last week, that is the gap Nouri was built for.

Then there is price. At $39.99/year, a year of Nouri costs well under half of Amy's $99.99, while monthly plans are $9.99/month for Nouri and $9.99 for Amy.

Nouri Reports: most calorie apps give you numbers, Nouri gives you answers

Log on 3 days in your first week and Nouri builds your first report. After that, a new one arrives every Sunday evening for any week with 4 or more tracked days. Inside:

• Health Score with "Why this score?"
• Average calories, protein, carbs and fat against your targets
• Days on target, judged by your goal, whether that is losing, maintaining or gaining
• Wins, slips and one clear focus for next week
• Your MVP food and Apple Health calories burned against calories eaten

Because a sentence takes seconds, the week a report reads is usually complete, and that is what makes the advice worth reading.

What tracking actually looks like in Nouri

Here is my honest reason for building a notes-style tracker. I used MyFitnessPal first, and the numbers were fine. Tracking a normal dinner just took several minutes, and after a long day I would not do it. Then I tried AI photo trackers. Fast, but a plate the camera called around 400 calories worked out closer to 700 when I added up the ingredients, because no camera sees the oil in the pan. Words do: "cooked in olive oil" is three words.

So the sentence became the center of Nouri. Even a photo becomes a sentence first. I photographed a breakfast plate, and Nouri wrote back "Two poached eggs on avocado toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, and fresh fruit bowl," then split it into four items: 850 calories, 42g protein, 75g carbs, 42g fat. You read what it saw before anything counts. The line people say most when they try it: it looks like the calorie app Apple would have made. Amy chases that same feeling, which is why the two apps get compared at all.

Who should pick which

Pick Amy if you:

• Want widgets on your Home and Lock Screen, or an Apple Watch app
• Scan a lot of barcodes or restaurant menus
• Stay motivated by streaks and badges
• Want iPad or Mac access, or want an AI assistant to read your journal

Pick Nouri if you:

• Want the same type-a-note speed plus a weekly report that says what to change
• Want hands-free Siri tracking on busy days
• Want a Health Score, Nouri Coach, and fiber, sugar and sodium goals with a vitamin scorecard
• Want a published benchmark you can check at /accuracy
• Want the lower yearly price

Not sure yet? Both have 3-day trials. Track every real meal for three days in each, including the forgotten snack, and keep whichever one still has complete days. The new calorie tracking apps roundup covers more indie options, and Apple Notes as a calorie tracker shows why plain notes alone fall short.

FAQ

Is Amy Food Journal good?

Yes. It is a polished, thoughtfully designed notes-style tracker from an indie developer, with a 4.0 rating from 37 ratings on the US App Store (checked Nov 1, 2026). It suits people who want a beautiful daily note, widgets and an Apple Watch app.

What is a good Amy Food Journal alternative?

Nouri is the closest alternative: you type what you ate in a sentence and it calculates calories and macros, with voice, photo and Siri too. It adds weekly Nouri Reports and costs $39.99/year. For a wider list, see the best notes-style calorie tracker.

How much does Amy Food Journal cost?

$9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs no credit card, per its pricing page and App Store listing. There is no free plan or student discount, which its developer explains by the cost of the AI behind it.

Is Nouri cheaper than Amy?

On the yearly plan, yes: Nouri is $39.99/year and Amy is $99.99. Nouri's monthly plan is $9.99/month, and Amy's is $9.99. Both start with a 3-day free trial.

Does Amy have voice and photo tracking?

Yes. Its help center lists a microphone and camera above the keyboard, with photo, barcode and menu scanning, plus Siri with "Log food in Amy." Nouri also takes voice and photos, but has no barcode scanner.

Does Nouri have widgets or an Apple Watch app?

No. Amy has Home and Lock Screen widgets and an Apple Watch app, so it wins there. Nouri's hands-free answer is Siri: say "Hey Siri, track food in Nouri" from the lock screen and the calories and macros card shows what you have left, without opening the app.

Do both apps show how they calculated calories?

Yes. Amy's Nutrition Details show items, its thought process, a confidence level and reference sites. Nouri shows per-item reasoning and a confidence rating, and you can add context in plain words and recalculate.

Which is more accurate, Nouri or Amy?

We have not tested Amy, so we will not guess. Nouri's results are public: 92.1/100 in our 100-meal accuracy benchmark (MyFitnessPal 77.0). Any tracker gets closer when you mention oil, sauces and portions, as covered in why calorie tracking apps are inaccurate.

What makes Nouri different from other calorie trackers?

Nouri is a notes-style AI calorie tracker that turns one sentence into calories and macros with reasoning you can check, then turns your week into a Nouri Report. Four equal ways to track, Apple Health both ways, and a public benchmark.

What is a Nouri Report?

A personal weekly report built from your meals: Health Score, average calories and macros against targets, days on target, wins, slips, one focus and your MVP food. The first arrives after 3 tracked days in your first week, then every Sunday evening with 4 or more days.

Is Nouri worth it?

If you want tracking to take seconds and want to learn something from it each week, yes. It is $39.99/year or $9.99/month, and the 3-day free trial is enough to get your first Nouri Report. If weight is part of your goal and you have a history of disordered eating, please work with a professional alongside any app.

What is the easiest way to track calories by typing what you ate?

Use a notes-style tracker. In Nouri you type "chicken burrito bowl, extra rice, no sour cream" and get calories and macros in seconds, or say it to Siri when typing is not convenient. Set a target first with our daily calorie needs calculator.

Bottom line

Amy is a lovely app for people who want widgets, a watch and a beautiful daily note. For most people who want to type a sentence and get both the math and a weekly answer, Nouri does it for $39.99/year. New to targets? Start with Calorie Counting 101.

Sources

• Amy Food Journal App Store listing: apps.apple.com (checked Nov 1, 2026)
• Amy Food Journal website: amyfoodjournal.com (checked Nov 1, 2026)
• Amy pricing: amyfoodjournal.com/pricing (checked Nov 1, 2026)
• Amy help center, logging food: amyfoodjournal.com/help/logging-food (checked Nov 1, 2026)
• Amy help center, camera and voice: amyfoodjournal.com/help/photos-barcodes-and-voice (checked Nov 1, 2026)
• Amy help center, checking an entry: amyfoodjournal.com/help/editing-an-entry (checked Nov 1, 2026)
• Amy help center, widgets: amyfoodjournal.com/help/widgets (checked Nov 1, 2026)
• Amy help center, Apple Watch: amyfoodjournal.com/help/apple-watch (checked Nov 1, 2026)
• Amy help center, Apple Health, goals, streaks, weight, connectors: amyfoodjournal.com/help (checked Nov 1, 2026)
• Nouri App Store listing: apps.apple.com
• Nouri accuracy benchmark: nouriapp.co/accuracy (our own)