What Souva costs
Every number on this page is read straight from the code that enforces it, and was last checked on 2026-10-10. If you meet a limit that does not match what is written here, tell us and this page gets fixed.
Souva is free on iPhone and Android, with no account, and nothing in it needs a subscription. The one optional upgrade, Souva Unlimited, is $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial.
Free
$0no account
The whole app costs nothing to download, and nothing about it expires.
- Nothing is locked. Every feature is in the free app. Unlimited only raises the limits on four of them.
- The everyday loop has no limit. Your pantry, ingredient search, barcode scanning, saved recipes, and shopping list work as often as you like.
- The AI features are included. You get 3 AI recipes and 1 receipt scan a day, and 6 shelf photos and 15 link imports a week.
- Only the ads you choose to watch. No banners and nothing that interrupts you. Out of shelf photos, receipt scans, or link imports? You can choose to watch a short ad for more.
Souva Unlimited
Yearly Save 44%
$19.99a year
7 days free, then $19.99 a year
Monthly
$2.99a month
7 days free, then $2.99 a month
- Far higher limits. Up to 50 AI recipes, 15 shelf photos, 40 receipt scans, and 40 link imports a day.
- Every limit resets daily. Shelf photos and link imports come back every midnight, not once a week.
- Nothing to top up. With the limits lifted, you are never offered an ad.
- Cancel any time. Do it in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings, and you keep Unlimited to the end of the period you paid for.
What has no limit at all
Your pantry, ingredient search across the recipe web, barcode scanning, saved recipes and folders, the shopping list, dietary preferences, and every recipe you have already saved. None of it is capped, none of it needs an ad, and none of it needs the purchase. Those parts do not cost us anything per use, so they are not rationed.
What is limited, and by how much
| Feature | Free | With rewarded ads | Souva Unlimited |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI recipes written for your shelvesSouvAI, when nothing published fits | 3 a day | No ad offered | 50 a day |
| Photographing a shelf or a fridgethe photo is read by a vision model | 6 a week | 10 a week (up to 2 ads, +2 each) | 15 a day |
| Scanning a grocery receiptread on your phone, only the item text is sent | 1 a day | 3 a day (up to 2 ads, +1 each) | 40 a day |
| Importing a recipe from a linkpaste a TikTok or YouTube URL | 15 a week | 21 a week (up to 2 ads, +3 each) | 40 a day |
Allowances are per install. A daily limit resets at midnight in your phone’s time zone. A weekly limit resets at the midnight that starts Sunday, in the same time zone, and the rewarded ads on those features are counted by the same week, so they come back with it. Only a successful use counts: a repeated question answered from the cache is free, and so is the first shelf photo each day that finds no food, the first receipt each day with no food on it, and the first link each day that turns out to hold no recipe.
Versions 1.2.2 and earlier of the app count every limit by the day instead, resetting at midnight UTC, with 3 AI recipes, 3 shelf photos, 1 receipt scan, and 15 link imports a day before any rewarded ad. Updating the app moves you to the limits above.
About the ads
Souva shows one kind of ad and only one: a rewarded video you choose to watch, at the moment you have run out of shelf photos, receipt scans, or link imports, in exchange for a few more of whatever you ran out of. AI recipes have no ad. There is no banner anywhere in the app, nothing that interrupts a recipe, and nothing that plays when you open it. If you buy Souva Unlimited you are never offered an ad again. Ads are served by Google AdMob; what that means for your data is in the privacy policy.
What Souva Unlimited is, exactly
- Two plans, the same Unlimited. $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year in the United States. Other countries see their own price, set by the store.
- A 7-day free trial. New subscribers get the first 7 days of either plan free, and the store shows whether you qualify before you confirm. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, it becomes a paid subscription at that plan’s price.
- Renews until you cancel. Each month or year renews automatically. Cancel any time in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings, not in Souva; you keep Unlimited until the end of the period you have paid for.
- Never an ad to watch for more. The limits a rewarded ad tops up are lifted, so none is offered.
- Higher daily ceilings, not none. 50 AI recipes, 15 shelf photos, 40 receipt scans, and 40 link imports a day, every feature counted by the day, including the two that are counted by the week on the free tier. Even Unlimited has a daily fair-use ceiling, and it is what keeps the price covering per-use compute.
- Your own devices. One subscription covers the phones and tablets you use it on, and survives reinstalling. It is not a shared or transferable license.
- Already own it? If you already bought Souva Unlimited as a one-time purchase, you keep it permanently, at no further cost: it never renews, and you never need to subscribe. The one-time purchase is no longer sold to new buyers.
- Bought and refunded through the store. Apple and Google take the payment and handle refunds under their own policies; Souva never sees your card. See the terms.
Questions people ask
Is Souva free?
Yes. Souva is free to download on iPhone and Android, and it needs no account. Your pantry, ingredient search, barcode scanning, saved recipes, and shopping list have no limit at all. The four features that call an AI model on our bill do: 3 AI recipes and 1 receipt scan a day, and 6 shelf photos and 15 link imports a week. A daily limit resets at midnight in your phone's time zone, and a weekly limit resets at the midnight that starts Sunday, in the same time zone. Versions 1.2.2 and earlier of the app count every limit by the day, in UTC.
Is Souva Unlimited a subscription?
Yes, and it is optional: the app is free without it. Souva Unlimited is $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year in the United States, and each plan starts with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, it becomes a paid subscription at that plan's price, and it renews automatically until you cancel, which you do in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings. The stores show the price in your own currency, and they handle the payment and any refund.
I bought Souva Unlimited once. Do I have to subscribe now?
No. If you already bought Souva Unlimited as a one-time purchase, you keep it permanently, at no further cost: it never renews, and you never need to subscribe. The one-time purchase is no longer sold to new buyers, and it lifts the same limits to the same daily fair-use ceiling that a subscription does.
Does Unlimited actually mean unlimited?
No. Unlimited has a daily fair-use ceiling. Unlimited lifts the free limits to 50 AI recipes, 15 shelf photos, 40 receipt scans, and 40 link imports a day, so there is never an ad to watch for more. Those ceilings are set well above what cooking for a household takes, and they exist so that the price can keep covering per-use compute costs. They reset at midnight in your phone's time zone (at midnight UTC on versions 1.2.2 and earlier).
Do I have to watch ads?
Never. Souva has no banner ads and no ads that interrupt you. The only ad in the app is a rewarded one you can choose to watch when you run out: it adds 2 more shelf photos, 1 more receipt scan, or 3 more link imports, up to 2 a week for shelf photos and link imports, and up to 2 a day for receipt scans. AI recipes have no ad at all; when the 3 a day are used, they come back at midnight, or with Souva Unlimited. If you have Souva Unlimited, you are never offered an ad.
What happens when I reach a limit?
Souva tells you which limit you reached, and offers you a rewarded ad if that feature has one and you have not used them all for its current period. Nothing you have already saved is taken away, and the rest of the app keeps working: you can still add ingredients by typing or by barcode, search recipes by ingredient, and open anything you saved.
Try it before you spend anything
The ingredient search runs in a browser here, with no download and no account. Type what is in your kitchen and read the recipes it finds.
Where these numbers come from
The allowances, their windows, and the rewarded-ad grants are the rules the server enforces; the Unlimited ceilings are the fair-use constants it swaps in for a verified subscription or purchase. This page renders those constants rather than repeating them. The prices are the United States list prices of the two plans. Checked 2026-10-10.