Cronometer Review How Good Is Its Nutrition Database?

This Cronometer review asks whether a verified food database is worth the extra taps. This is a source-reviewed guide, not a hands-on lab test. The free diary already tracks dozens of nutrients. Gold adds tools and removes ads. Ratings and privacy labels below are dated 13 September 2026 unless noted.

Who this Cronometer review is for

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Download Cronometer: Calorie Counter on the App Store · Get Cronometer: Calorie Counter on Google Play

Use Cronometer if you care about vitamins and minerals, not only calories. The free tier already lists dozens of nutrients. That is the product. Gold is optional polish.

Skip it if you want a coach that changes your weekly targets for you. That is closer to MacroFactor. Skip it if you want a simple weight-loss streak with a large restaurant list. That is closer to MyFitnessPal or Lose It!.

Skip it if loud ads on the free Android build will drive you out. Play reviews in our capture named ads as the main complaint. Gold is the ad-free path the publisher sells. A Cronometer review that ignored those ads would be incomplete.

What the nutrition database actually is

Cronometer’s Gold page, captured 13 September 2026, claimed a database of over 1 million lab-analysed or verified foods. The free column listed up to 84 nutrients. The Gold column listed up to 95. Play copy said more than 1.1 million verified foods and “95+ nutrients and compounds.” Those are manufacturer totals. We did not audit the file.

Support copy on data sources tells users to prefer NCCDB and USDA Standard Reference entries when they want a full micronutrient panel. NCCDB is the University of Minnesota Nutrition Coordinating Center database. USDA SR28 is a lab-analysed reference set. Canadian and Irish composition files are also named. Barcode and branded items can sit on thinner label data. That gap matters if you live on packaged snacks.

Photo and voice logging sit on Gold. Play text said those tools map to verified NCC entries and let you edit before save. That is a claim about matching, not a lab accuracy score. A photo still needs a portion you trust. This Cronometer review does not treat a camera estimate as a lab weigh-in.

Dated price, platforms, and store scores

The download is free. Money starts at Gold. The Gold webpage listed $10.99 USD a month, or $59.99 a year billed as $4.99 a month, with a 54% save claim. UK Apple’s in-app list, captured 13 September 2026, showed Gold monthly £9.99 and Gold annual £59.99, plus a £39.99 annual SKU. Checkout decides which SKU you see. We are not inventing a US App Store sticker from a third-country listing.

Apple GB listed version 4.58.3 on 4 September 2026. Play US said it was updated on 11 September 2026 and added Brazilian Portuguese plus Health Connect fixes. Platforms in the listings are iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, Wear OS, and the website. Dexcom, Garmin, Fitbit, Oura, and WHOOP appear as named sync targets on Play.

Cronometer Gold, if you pay

Gold’s own feature list, captured 13 September 2026, added photo log, voice log, recipe importer, macro scheduler, fasting timer, custom biometrics, repeat items, nutrition scores, custom charts, Oracle nutrient search, printable reports, and Crono Coach. It also claimed unlimited history. The free column limited reports to a 7-day window.

Barcode scan is free on the listings we read. That is a real split from some rivals. Lose It! puts the scanner on Premium in its own feature list. If you only need a barcode and a micronutrient grid, Gold may be optional.

Stay on monthly Gold for a year and the webpage math is about $131.88 before tax. The annual SKU is $59.99. UK monthly at £9.99 is about £119.88 if you never cancel. Those are list figures, not invoices. Price is the second half of this Cronometer review after the database.

Privacy in plain language

Play’s Data safety label, captured 13 September 2026, said the app may share personal info with third parties. It may collect location, personal info, and five other named types. Data is encrypted in transit. You can ask for deletion. Those ticks are developer declarations, not an audit.

The privacy policy lives at cronometer.com/privacy. We did not reprint every bullet. Food diaries are health-adjacent. Treat an account email as identifiable. Do not log another person’s meals without their say-so.

Ads on the free Android build are the visible trade. Gold is the paid way off that screen. That does not make Gold “private by default.” Privacy still belongs in a Cronometer review.

What independent coverage actually said

Fortune’s 2026 calorie-counter list named Cronometer the best free app. Tester Pete said he had used it off and on for six years. He liked the short onboarding and the extra fibre and vitamin lines. He scored the overall experience 4 out of 5. He also said it is “really just a tracking-focused app.” That matches the Gold page: data first, coaching later. A later Fortune Cronometer review is linked from that roundup if you want the longer tester note.

Play reviews in our capture liked copy-forward meals and barcode hits. They disliked ad takeovers that froze the diary for many seconds. The publisher replied that Gold removes ads and that a 2025 bug had made ads worse. That is customer service copy, not a test log.

NHS Better Health still treats a food diary as a way to see a usual day, then cut about 600 kcal (about 2,500 kJ) if weight loss is the goal. Cronometer can hold that diary. It does not replace the NHS Weight Loss Plan or a dietitian. Our protein intake guide is the better place for gram targets than any in-app score.

What remains unverified

We did not log meals in Cronometer. We did not count NCC versus branded rows. “1 million+” and “95+ nutrients” stay manufacturer copy. Photo-log error rates are unpublished in the sources we opened. US App Store Gold SKUs can differ from the Gold webpage; believe the checkout. Those gaps belong in any honest Cronometer review.

No blended Vitality Ledger score. See the best calorie tracking apps hub if you want the wider shortlist, including Nutracheck for UK barcodes.