Frequently Asked Questions

Where do we start.

Most recipe apps let you save recipes and maybe make a shopping list. KiWi does that too, but we didn't stop there. Here's what sets us apart:

• More websites supported than any other app. We've built custom extractors for hundreds of recipe websites across dozens of languages. If it's a recipe page, we can probably read it.
• Social media import. Share a post from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook and KiKi will extract the recipe from the caption, video, or linked page.
• Photo and text import. Snap a photo of a cookbook page, or paste a recipe from a message. KiKi turns it into a fully structured recipe.
• Ingredient-aware unit conversion. We use real density data from government food databases to convert between volume and weight accurately. 1 cup of flour = 125g, not 240g. Most apps just do simple ratio math, if they do conversion at all. And you can display metric, imperial, or both at the same time.
• Per-ingredient nutrition. Nutritional information for every recipe, broken down to each individual ingredient, powered by official government food databases. Free.
• Real food safety. NLP-powered allergen detection and dietary tagging that actually reads your ingredients, not just keyword matching. Know at a glance if a recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, halal, or kosher. Tap any allergen tag to see exactly which ingredient triggered it.
• Discover tens of thousands of recipes. We're not just an import tool. Search and filter a curated index of recipes from across the web, with new recipes added daily.
• Advanced ingredient filtering. Filter by proteins, starches, and vegetables you have on hand. Find recipes based on what's already in your fridge.
• Multiple stores for shopping. Create separate shopping trips for different stores: grocery store, farmers market, butcher, Asian supermarket. Every other app gives you one list.
• Ingredient groups preserved. When a recipe has sections like "For the dough", "For the filling", "For the glaze", we keep them. Most apps flatten everything into one long list.
• Smart shopping lists. When you add multiple recipes, duplicate ingredients are automatically combined. 100g butter from one recipe + 100g butter from another = 200g butter on your list.
• Ingredient alternatives. When a recipe says "butter or margarine" or "cream or coconut milk", KiWi splits those into separate options you can choose between. Pick the one you want, and that's what goes on your shopping list. No more "butter or margarine" cluttering your groceries.
• Family sharing for up to 6. Shared recipes, shared meal plans, shared shopping lists. One person plans, another shops, everyone sees updates in real-time.
• Works across every device and form factor. iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Android tablet. Optimized layouts for each. Everything syncs instantly.
• 49+ languages with real multi-lingual support. Not just a translated interface. Translate any recipe into any of our supported languages with localized ingredient names and measurements.
• KiKi AI assistant. Ask questions about any recipe, create modified versions ("make this dairy-free"), or generate entirely new recipes from a description.
• Edit any imported recipe. Modify ingredients, steps, or metadata on your favorite imported recipes. Make them yours.
• Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. One-click recipe saving from your desktop. Most apps only support Chrome, if they have an extension at all.
• Offline-first. Recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists all work without internet. Changes sync when you're back online.
• Original tab. Every imported recipe includes the author's original page right inside the app. We want you to stay connected to the creators you love.
• Notes on recipes, steps, and ingredients. Add your own notes to the recipe, to specific steps, or to individual ingredients. "Last time I used less salt" or "Sub Greek yogurt for sour cream" right where you need it.
• Common substitutions. Many ingredients show common substitutions so you can quickly swap what you don't have or don't like. No more googling "what can I use instead of buttermilk".
• Print everything. Not just recipes. Print meal plans and shopping trips too. Clean layouts, no ads, no life stories.
• History. Meal plan history and shopping trip history, so you can look back at what you cooked and bought.
• Recipe scaling. Adjust servings and all quantities recalculate, using density-aware conversion so the math actually works.

And we're just getting started.

Yes. Accessibility is a priority, not an afterthought. Kiwi Recipes is designed to work fully with VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android. Every screen, button, recipe card, ingredient, and cooking step is labeled so screen readers can describe what's on screen clearly and completely.

We also support Dynamic Type (iOS) and system font scaling (Android), so text adjusts to whatever size you've set in your device settings. Touch targets meet or exceed recommended minimums throughout the app.

If you encounter anything that doesn't work well with assistive technology, please let us know at feedback@kiwirecipes.app. We treat accessibility bugs with the same urgency as any other bug.

When you share a social media post with Kiwi Recipes, KiKi tries several approaches to create the best possible recipe, in this order:

• Author's description: KiKi first looks at the post description or caption. If the author wrote out the recipe (or enough detail to reconstruct it), KiKi uses that to build a full recipe.
• Video analysis: If the description doesn't contain a recipe, KiKi watches the video and tries to create a recipe from what it sees and hears.
• Linked website: If the author linked to a recipe website in the post, KiKi follows that link and imports from there (same as a normal URL import).
• Bookmark: If none of the above produce a recipe, you can still save it as a bookmark in the app. You'll need to add your own ingredients and steps.

Video analysis works best when:

• It's clearly one recipe being made
• The steps and ingredients are explained or shown clearly
• The video isn't a compilation or montage of multiple dishes

Think of it like having a friend watch a cooking video and write down the recipe for you. It's usually good, but may not be perfect for complex or fast-paced videos.

There are several ways to get recipes into Kiwi Recipes:

• Discover: Search across tens of thousands of recipes from hundreds of websites, food blogs, and cooking magazines, all from within the app. Find what you're looking for, tap to save, and it's instantly optimized with allergen tags, dietary info, scaling, and all of Kiwi's features.
• Share from your browser: Found a recipe on a website? On your phone, tap "Share" and select Kiwi Recipes. We'll read the recipe from the page and import it for you.
• Share from social media: Share an Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook post directly to Kiwi Recipes. KiKi will extract the recipe from the post description or video.
• Paste a URL: Open Kiwi Recipes, tap the import button, and paste any recipe link.
• Browser extension: Install our Chrome, Firefox, or Safari extension. It detects recipes on any webpage and lets you save them with one click from your computer.
• Photo import: Take a photo of a recipe from a cookbook or magazine, and KiKi will extract it for you.
• Type it in: Paste or type a recipe from memory, a family recipe card, or a message. KiKi will structure it into a full recipe.

When you share a recipe URL, KiKi reads the publicly available recipe on that page and optimizes it for display in the app. This means structured ingredients (with quantities, units, and names separated), tagged allergens and dietary info, categorized steps, and more.

The original recipe stays untouched on the website. We just make it easier to cook from, scale, translate, and shop with.

Every imported recipe has two tabs:

• Kiwi tab: The optimized version with structured ingredients, dietary tags, allergen info, scaling, unit conversion, and all the smart features. This is where you cook from, plan meals, and build shopping lists.
• Original tab: This shows the original recipe page from the author's website, right inside the app.

We include the original tab because we want you to stay connected to the recipe creators you love. Check out the original for the author's notes, photos, story, and other recipes. Kiwi Recipes is a tool that makes recipes more useful, not a replacement for the websites and people who create them.

It works with most recipe websites that have a single recipe on the page. It does not work with:

• Recipe collections or index pages (like "Top 20 Pasta Recipes")
• How-to guides or articles that aren't actual recipes
• Pages behind a login wall or paywall (we can't access what you can't share publicly)

If a page has multiple recipes, KiKi will try to extract the primary one, but results may vary. For best results, import from a page with one clear recipe.

Common reasons:

• The page requires a login (paywalled content)
• The page doesn't contain a recognizable recipe (it might be an article or collection)
• The website blocks automated access
• The social media post is private or has been removed

If an import fails, you can always use Text Recipe to paste the recipe manually, or Photo Recipe to share a picture or screenshot of it.

Our recipe images are AI-generated based on the recipe description. They're an artistic approximation of what the dish looks like, not a copy of the original photo. We do this to respect the copyright of recipe authors and food photographers.

Sometimes the images are spot-on, sometimes they're a creative interpretation. Think of them as an illustration rather than a photograph. The important thing is what's inside: the ingredients, steps, and all the smart features that help you cook.

Nutritional data in Kiwi Recipes is calculated using official government food databases. For well-known ingredients (chicken breast, rice, olive oil, etc.), this is highly accurate.

However, accuracy may be lower when:

• Ingredients are uncommon or very specific (e.g., a regional specialty product)
• The preparation method isn't known (raw vs. cooked can significantly change nutrition values)
• No amounts are given in the original recipe (we have to estimate)
• The recipe author lists ingredients unclearly, for example "salad dressing" without specifying which kind or how much, or combines multiple items into one line like "salt, pepper, and oil to taste".
• The recipe's stated number of servings is inaccurate

Use nutritional information as a helpful guide, but not as a medical or dietary guarantee.

We do our best to read and extract recipe information accurately. However, recipe websites structure their data in many different ways, and sometimes sources are structured in a way that creates challenges for extraction. Occasionally an ingredient quantity, a step, or a piece of metadata may not come through perfectly.

We recommend always giving the recipe a quick scan after importing, especially for ingredient quantities and allergen information. If something looks off, you can edit the recipe directly or ask KiKi to help fix it.

KiWi uses natural language processing (NLP) to read every ingredient in a recipe and detect allergens automatically. This isn't simple keyword matching. It understands that "Worcestershire sauce" contains fish, that "ghee" is dairy, and that "marzipan" contains tree nuts.

When an allergen is detected, you'll see a tag on the recipe. Tap the tag to see exactly which ingredient triggered it.

Our detection system is highly accurate, around 99% for common allergens. It's built on an extensive ingredient knowledge base covering thousands of ingredients across dozens of languages.

That said, no automated system is perfect. Unusual or highly regional ingredients may occasionally be missed, and we can only analyze what's listed in the recipe, not what a manufacturer may have added to a packaged product. Always check the ingredients yourself if you have a serious allergy or intolerance. KiWi is a helpful tool, not a medical device.

We cover all major international allergen lists:

• EU Big 14: gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, mustard, celery, lupin, sulphites
• US FDA Big 9: gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame
• Additional: lactose (separate from dairy allergy), alcohol, caffeine, honey

KiWi automatically tags recipes with dietary information based on their ingredients:

• Dietary patterns: vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, keto, paleo, low-carb, low-fat, low-sodium, diabetic-friendly, halal, kosher, jain
• Free-from tags: gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soy-free, pork-free, alcohol-free, and many more
• Contains tags: detailed ingredient presence tags (contains chicken, contains garlic, contains mushrooms, etc.) so you can filter recipes by what's in them

All tags are computed from the actual ingredients. Not entered manually, not guessed by AI.

Yes. In your profile, you can mark ingredients you dislike or want to avoid. KiWi supports dozens of categories: specific proteins (lamb, duck, liver), vegetables (eggplant, okra, bitter melon), herbs and spices (cilantro, fennel, star anise), condiments (fish sauce, mayo, miso), and more.

Recipes containing disliked ingredients are clearly marked so you can skip them, and you can filter them out entirely when browsing or searching.

In My Recipes, search matches against recipe titles. Start typing and results filter instantly.

In Discover, search uses intelligent matching that goes beyond exact titles. It understands related terms and can find recipes even if you don't remember the exact name. The Discover search reaches an index of tens of thousands of recipes from across the web. If there are domains you want to exclude from the search, you can do so in Settings.

Open the filter panel to narrow down your recipes by:

• Cooking time: set a maximum (great for weeknight cooking)
• Proteins: chicken, beef, fish, tofu, shrimp, and more
• Starches: rice, pasta, potato, bread, quinoa, etc.
• Vegetables: broccoli, spinach, mushroom, carrot, and more
• Meal type: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert
• Cuisine: Italian, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, and many more
• Cooking method: baking, grilling, stovetop, slow-cooker, etc.
• Season: spring, summer, fall, winter dishes
• Dietary: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, halal, kosher, etc.
• Difficulty and budget-friendly options

In My Recipes, filters only show options that actually exist in your collection. If you haven't saved any Thai recipes yet, "Thai" won't appear as a cuisine filter.

When you select multiple proteins, starches, or vegetables, you can choose between two modes:

• OR mode (default): Show recipes that contain any of your selections. Select "Chicken" and "Beef" → shows all chicken recipes and all beef recipes.
• AND mode: Show recipes that contain all of your selections. Select "Chicken" and "Broccoli" (as a protein + vegetable combo) → shows only recipes that have both chicken and broccoli.

AND mode activates automatically when you select a second item in the same category. Look for the link icon on the filter chips: that means AND mode is active.

This is powerful for finding specific combinations: "I have chicken and tofu in the fridge, show me recipes that use both."

You can create collections to organize your recipes however you like. Think of them as folders or playlists for your recipes. For example: "Weeknight Dinners", "Meal Prep", "Holiday Baking", or "Mom's Recipes".

A single recipe can belong to multiple collections. We automatically create a Favorites collection for you to get started. Collections sync across all your devices and are shared with your family.

Between collections and the powerful filter system (by protein, cuisine, cooking time, and more), you can always find exactly what you're looking for, even as your recipe library grows into the hundreds.

No, and this is intentional. Kiwi Recipes is not meant to replace your favorite recipe websites. We love recipe creators and want you to keep visiting their sites, browsing their collections, and discovering new recipes there.

Kiwi Recipes is your personal recipe toolkit. Import the recipes you love and then use our features to:

• View allergen and dietary information at a glance
• Scale servings up or down with automatic ingredient conversion
• Plan meals for the week
• Generate smart shopping lists grouped by store aisle
• Translate recipes into ~50 languages
• Convert between metric and imperial units
• Modify recipes with KiKi ("make this dairy-free")
• Ask KiKi questions ("can I substitute the cream?")

The value isn't in collecting recipes. It's in what you can do with them.

KiKi is your AI cooking assistant. On any recipe, you can:

• Ask questions: "Can I make this ahead of time?", "What's a good substitute for heavy cream?", "Is this safe for someone with a tree nut allergy?"
• Modify recipes: "Make this gluten-free", "Make it spicier", "Remove the dairy". KiKi creates a new version with the changes.
• Translate recipes: "Translate to Spanish". Generates a fully translated version with localized ingredient names and measurements.
• Scale recipes: Adjust servings and all quantities recalculate automatically.

• KiKi only answers food and recipe-related questions. Don't ask it to write your emails.
• KiKi provides suggestions, not medical advice. If you have severe allergies, always verify ingredients yourself.
• KiKi's recipe modifications are AI-generated. For complex baking chemistry (like removing eggs from a soufflé), use your judgment.
• KiKi can't access recipes behind paywalls or private accounts.

The meal planner shows a 7-day rolling view starting from today. Each day has three slots: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Tap any slot to add a recipe from your collection (or a custom meal like "Takeout" or "Leftovers").

You can adjust servings per meal, which is handy when you're cooking for 2 on Tuesday but 6 on Saturday.

Yes! This is one of the most powerful features. Add recipes to your shopping list and Kiwi Recipes will:

• Combine duplicate ingredients across recipes (2 recipes that each need 100g butter → 200g butter)
• Group items by store category (produce, dairy, meat, pantry, etc.)
• Handle unit conversions automatically (grams to kilograms when quantities get large)
• Let you create separate trips for different stores (grocery store, farmers market, butcher)

Shopping lists are organized into trips (one per store visit). Each trip shows your items grouped by store aisle/category. Check items off as you shop. If you're sharing with family, everyone sees items checked off in real-time.

You can also add custom items that aren't from recipes (like "Paper towels" or "Dog food").

Yes! Shopping trips are shared with your entire family. One person can plan meals and create the shopping list, and another can do the shopping. Checking off items updates for everyone instantly.

Open a recipe and tap the Share button. You can:

• Share a link: Generates a link that opens the recipe in the other person's Kiwi Recipes app (if they have it) or shows a web preview.
• Share as text: Copies a formatted text version of the recipe. Great for messaging apps.

Yes! Open a recipe and tap the Print button (or use Share > Print). This generates a clean, printer-friendly layout with ingredients and steps. No ads, no popups, no scrolling past a life story. Just the recipe.

Kiwi Recipes supports families of up to 6 members. When you create or join a family:

• Meal plans are shared. Everyone sees the same weekly plan.
• Shopping lists are shared. Check off items at the store and everyone's list updates in real-time.
• Recipes sync across the family.

To start: go to Settings > Family, create a family, and share the invite code or QR code with your household. Others scan it to join.

The Kiwi Recipes desktop browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari makes importing recipes from your computer effortless.

When you're browsing a recipe website, the extension automatically detects the recipe and shows a checkmark on its icon. Click the icon to see a preview (title, image, cooking time, servings), then tap Save to Kiwi to add it to your collection instantly.

It also works on social media pages (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube). It'll detect video content and let you save it directly.

No, the extension is a convenience for desktop browsing. You can always import recipes by sharing URLs from your phone's browser, pasting links in the app, or using any of the other import methods.

Kiwi Recipes is available on iOS and Android, on both phones and tablets. Everything syncs automatically across all your devices. Save a recipe on your phone and it's on your iPad when you get to the kitchen.

For desktop, our browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari lets you save recipes from your computer straight into the app.

The app interface is available in 49+ languages. You can also translate any recipe into any of these languages using KiKi.

A lot of what makes Kiwi Recipes special is available for free:

• Discover thousands of recipes from hundreds of websites, food blogs, and cooking magazines. Search, filter by cuisine, protein, cooking time, and more, all without saving a single recipe.
• Nutritional information for every recipe, broken down to the individual ingredient level, powered by official government food databases. Most recipe apps either skip nutrition entirely or charge for it.
• Ingredient-aware unit conversion between metric and imperial, using real density data so "1 cup of flour" correctly converts to 125g, not 240g. Other apps charge a subscription just for basic unit switching.
• Save a number of recipes to try out the full experience: structured ingredients, allergen tags, dietary info, scaling, and all the smart features.

Premium unlocks unlimited recipe saving, KiKi AI questions and modifications, family sharing, advanced meal planning, and more.

Yes! Your saved recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists are stored on your device. You can view and use them without an internet connection. Changes sync automatically when you're back online.

Kiwi Recipes can display recipes in metric, imperial, or both at the same time. Set your preference in Settings and every recipe instantly shows quantities in your preferred system. No manual conversion needed. You can switch on the fly within a recipe too.

But here's where it gets interesting. Most recipe apps convert units with simple ratio math: 1 cup = 240 ml, done. That works for liquids, but it falls apart the moment you try to convert between volume and weight, because a cup of flour and a cup of honey weigh very different amounts.

Kiwi Recipes uses real ingredient density data sourced from government food databases (like the USDA) to convert accurately. When a recipe says "1 cup of flour", we know that's about 125 grams, not 240 grams, which is what a naive volume-to-weight conversion would give you. When it says "200g butter", we know that's about 14 tablespoons, not some generic weight-to-volume guess.

This means conversions are ingredient-aware:

• 1 cup of all-purpose flour → 125 g (not 240 g)
• 1 cup of honey → 340 g (not 240 g)
• 1 cup of rolled oats → 80 g (not 240 g)
• 200 g of butter → ~14 tbsp (not a generic "0.8 cups")

This applies everywhere: ingredient lists, step-by-step instructions, shopping lists, and scaling. Whether you're converting a French recipe from grams to cups, or an American recipe from cups to grams, the numbers actually make sense for the ingredient you're working with.

No. Your recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists are yours. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes. Go to Settings > Account > Delete Account. This permanently removes all your data from our servers.

Your data is protected at every layer:

• Encrypted in transit. All communication between your device and our servers uses TLS encryption. Nothing travels in plain text.
• Encrypted at rest. Your recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists are stored on Google Cloud infrastructure with encryption at rest enabled by default.
• Secure authentication. We support Sign in with Apple and Sign in with Google. We never see or store your password for these methods.
• Minimal data collection. We only store what's needed to make the app work: your recipes, meal plans, shopping lists, and preferences. No tracking profiles, no ad data, no selling to third parties.
• Server-side security rules. Every database request is validated server-side. Your data is only accessible to you and your family members. No one else, not even other Kiwi users.

For the full picture, see our Privacy Policy.