How does photo calorie logging work in Besly?

Updated October 26, 2026

You open the camera in Besly, photograph your plate, and the AI returns a card listing the foods it recognises with a portion estimate, calories, protein, carbs and fat; you check it, correct anything that looks off, and tap Save.

Step by step

1. Tap the camera when you add a meal and photograph the plate.
2. The AI reads the photo and builds a card: each food, its portion, calories and macros.
3. Review the card. Portions are the hard part for any photo, so the AI leans towards typical serving sizes and tells you when it is guessing.
4. Fix what is wrong. Type or say it (“make the salmon 200 g”, “that was two slices, not four”) and the card updates in place, or tap the card and edit a line by hand.
5. Tap Save to add it to your day.

What a photo can and cannot see

A photo shows what is on the plate, not what is inside it. It cannot see the oil in the pan or the filling of a burrito, so add a few words when the details matter: “chicken burrito bowl with extra rice, no sour cream”. Treat a photo result for a home-cooked plate as an estimate you can correct, not a measurement.

What it costs

Photo logging is an AI log. The free version includes 3 AI meal logs a day (by photo, voice or text); Besly Premium, $7.99 a month or $39.99 a year, removes that limit. Barcode logging and searching the food database are unlimited on the free version. More in Is Besly free?

What happens to the photo

To produce the result, the meal photo is sent to Google's Gemini API. Per our privacy policy, we do not keep meal photos in our database.

Besly is iOS-only for now; no Android version has been announced. See Is Besly available on Android?

Related questions

Can I log a meal without a photo?

Yes. Besly also logs by text, voice and barcode. You can type what you ate, say it, or scan a packaged food, and you can correct any entry by voice or text.

What if the photo result is wrong?

Tell Besly what to change, for example “make the salmon 200 g”, or tap the card and edit any line by hand. The card updates in place before you save it.

Does photo logging work for restaurant food?

Usually. Portions are the hard part, so the AI errs towards typical serving sizes and tells you when it is a guess. Besly's food database also has menu items from 36 US chains, taken from each chain's published nutrition.

More help

• Which restaurants does Besly cover?
• Is Besly free?
• All help topics