Frequently Asked Questions

Yes — and you can keep using it for free, indefinitely, with no API key at all. Download the app, answer a few quick questions (your gender and age, any dietary restrictions, and how closely you want to track nutrients), and you’re set up with a full food and nutrient library ready to log against. Adding a free Gemini key later unlocks AI-personalized nutrition targets, meal advice, chat, photo and voice logging, and the ability to add foods that aren’t already in the library.

Yes. GapPlate itself is free, with no payment or credit card asked for anywhere in the app. The optional Gemini API key is also free from Google. Google may charge for very heavy AI use on your own key; that is between you and Google, and most people never see a charge.

No. There is no account and no sign-up. Everything is stored on your own phone.

Android and iPhone. The app works the same way on both; a few screens look slightly different.

GapPlate is coming soon to Google Play and the App Store. Once it’s there, install it like any other app; updates arrive through the store automatically and keep your data.

Yes. Logging, your diary, daily totals and trends all work without an internet connection, because the food and nutrient library is built into the app. You only need a connection for AI features, which use your own API key.

No — the app works fully without one. Without a key, your nutrition targets are set from your gender, age group and tracking level, and you can log anything in GapPlate’s built-in library. Adding your own free Gemini key personalizes your targets using your full profile (height, weight and preferences), and unlocks AI meal advice, chat, photo and voice logging, detailed reports, and adding genuinely new foods and nutrients.

In the app, go to Settings → Add/Change API Key and tap “How do I get one?” for a step-by-step walkthrough. You can also get a key directly at ai.google.dev. It takes about two minutes.

Nothing you’ve already set up or logged is lost. The first time you add a key, GapPlate does a one-time pass to personalize your nutrient targets to your full profile; you may see “Syncing…” in the top bar for a little while. Changing to a different key later doesn’t redo that work.

This usually means your API key needs attention, or Google’s servers are temporarily busy. Keep using the app normally in the meantime — anything that couldn’t be filled in by AI will catch up automatically once it’s available again, usually within an hour. If it keeps happening, fully close and reopen the app, and check your key in Settings → Add/Change API Key.

Yes. You can use GapPlate as a nutrition reference without logging anything: search any food on the Foods tab to see its nutrients, serving sizes and description, and open any nutrient on the Nutrients tab to see why it matters and which foods are good sources of it. You can also add a food once, on the Foods tab, without putting it in your diary, just to learn about it: its nutrients, description, serving sizes, recipe ideas and cautions. (A food that’s new to GapPlate’s library needs an API key.) If you log some days but not others, GapPlate still gives you the bigger picture. The Trend view on the Show tab estimates your weekly, monthly and yearly intake from the days you did log, marked with ~ as approximate. A Report includes a week once you’ve logged at least 4 days of it, a month from 15 days, and a year from 150 days.

Choose a smaller tracking level. Essentials covers just the numbers on a food label: calories, protein, carbs, fat, sugar, sodium and fluid. Change it any time in Settings → Update Profile Metrics. You can also fine-tune the list on the Nutrients tab: delete or hide any nutrient you don’t want, and add one you do want by typing its name. Anything in GapPlate’s built-in library is added instantly; a nutrient that isn’t in the library needs an API key. Lowering your level doesn’t remove nutrients automatically, so remove the ones you no longer want yourself.

Type the name on the Diary or Foods tab. If you see “Did you mean one of these?”, GapPlate has found a close match — a similar spelling or another name for the same food. Pick it, or tap “None of these”. A food that is genuinely new to GapPlate needs an API key, because AI works out its nutrient profile from scratch. For packaged products, try the barcode scanner.

They set how many nutrients you follow: Essentials (the numbers on a food label), Enthusiast (adds fiber, cholesterol and common vitamins and minerals), Dietitian (every standard vitamin and mineral) and Complete (adds specialist markers such as individual fatty acids and amino acids). You can also track food additives on top. Change your level any time in Settings → Update Profile Metrics.

Yes. Barcode scanning works without a key. Logging by photo, or by speaking what you ate into the microphone, needs an API key: GapPlate identifies the foods and estimates amounts, and you review and correct everything before it is saved.

For a dish you make regularly, save it once as a recipe: Foods tab → Add Recipe, add each ingredient with its amount, and Save. GapPlate works out the dish’s nutrition from your own ingredients. After that, log it in your diary like any other food, entering how much you ate. For a one-off meal, you can simply log each ingredient separately. Recipes work without an API key; with a key, each recipe also gets a written description.

Create the recipe (Foods tab → Add Recipe), add every ingredient with its amount — including oil, butter and sauces, which add up quickly — and Save. Then open the recipe on the Foods tab to see its nutrient values, calculated from your ingredients. You don’t need to log it in your diary.

Some nutrients, mainly food additives such as certain preservatives, dyes and sweeteners, have no official recommended daily intake. GapPlate shows 0 rather than guessing. You can enter your own target on that nutrient’s page at any time.

Yes. Open that food or nutrient and edit any value yourself. With an API key, AI Prefill on the same page fetches a fresh, up-to-date lookup.

Yes. On the Show tab, pick the date you want the report to run up to and tap Report. It shows your nutrient status for the day, week, month and year, your trends, the foods you eat most often and the best food sources for what you’re short of. You can share it as text or as a PDF (view, share or download). With an API key, the report also includes personalised recommendations on what to eat more or less of. A week appears once you’ve logged at least 4 days of it, a month from 15 days, and a year from 150 days.

No. GapPlate is a nutrition tracking tool: it shows what you eat against general daily targets. It isn’t medical advice. Talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian about any health decision.

Yes — your profile and food diary are stored on your own device, not on our servers; we have no copy of it. If you add an API key, only the details needed for an AI feature (such as a food name, or profile details for personalized advice) are sent from your phone directly to Google’s Gemini service using your own key. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes. Settings → Backup Data saves your foods, nutrients, diary entries and profile to a file you choose. Keep it private: if you’ve added an API key, the file contains it in plain text. Settings → Restore Data brings everything back, replacing what’s currently in the app.

Make a backup first (Settings → Backup Data) and copy the file somewhere safe, such as your email or cloud storage. Install GapPlate on the new phone, then use Settings → Restore Data. Without a backup, uninstalling deletes your data and we can’t recover it, because we never have a copy.

Email us at [gapplate @ australians . com] or use Settings → Send Feedback in the app, and we’ll get back to you.