Identium
Are Plant Identifier Apps Free? What Free Actually Means, and How to Check
Free to download and free to use are different things, and the App Store tells you which one you are getting if you know where to look.
Disclosure: we make Identium, one of the apps in this category. So take the section about our own app with the appropriate pinch of salt, and use the method below to check us the same way you would check anyone else.
Search for a plant identifier and every result says free. Install one and you get three scans, then a paywall, then a seven day trial that quietly turns into an annual charge.
None of that is a scam. It is just that "free" on an app listing means free to download, which is not the same as free to use. Here is how to see which one you are looking at before you install anything.
The thirty second check
On the App Store listing, scroll to Information and look for In-App Purchases. Tap it. You get the actual list of what the app sells, with real prices in your own currency.
This is the single most useful thing in this article. It is Apple's own data, it cannot be dressed up by marketing copy, and it is more reliable than any review site, including this one. Prices vary by country and change over time, so a figure in an article written six months ago in another currency tells you very little.
On Google Play the equivalent line is "In-app purchases" under the install button, with a price range.
The four business models, and what each costs you
- Free with a trial that auto-converts. You get a few days, then an annual charge unless you cancel. The most common model, and the one that generates the complaints. Cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends.Watch the trial length
- Free tier with a scan limit. A handful of identifications per day or per week, unlimited if you pay. Honest, and workable if you only identify things occasionally.Check the limit
- Genuinely free, funded by research or nonprofit. PlantNet and Seek by iNaturalist both come from scientific institutions and feed observations into biodiversity research.No charge at all
- One-off purchase. Increasingly rare, but a few field guide style apps still work this way.Pay once
The apps worth knowing about
All of these are free to download at the time of writing. What differs is what happens next.
PictureThis is the big one, with over 1.1 million ratings on the US App Store and a 4.8 average. It identifies well, covers a huge range, and it runs on a subscription with a trial. Check the In-App Purchases line for what that costs where you live.
PlantNet is free, with no subscription, built by a consortium of French research institutions. Your identifications contribute to a scientific database. It is strongest on wild plants and weakest on cultivated varieties and houseplants, which is a direct consequence of what it was built for. 4.6 average from around 7,000 ratings.
Seek by iNaturalist is free and run by the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic. It identifies live through the camera without taking a photo, covers animals and fungi as well as plants, and is designed partly for kids. 4.8 from around 31,000 ratings.
Google Lens is free and already on your phone. Point it at a plant and it will often name it. No care information, no history, no reminders, but for a one-off question it costs nothing and takes no installing.
Identium is ours. Free to start, with a subscription for unlimited scans and full care plans. It is a new app, so it has a fraction of the ratings the established ones do, and you should weigh that. What it does that the free research apps do not is turn the identification into a 28 day care plan for that species with reminders, plus disease diagnosis from a photo and toxicity information for cats and dogs.
Which one is right depends on what you are actually doing
Identifying a wildflower on a walk, occasionally. PlantNet or Seek. Both are genuinely free, both are accurate on wild plants, and there is no reason to pay for this.
One plant, once, right now. Google Lens. It is already installed.
Keeping houseplants alive. This is where the free research apps fall down, because identification is only the first step. Knowing it is a calathea does not tell you it wants moist soil and soft water while the snake plant next to it wants neither. Whatever you use, you want care information attached.
Diagnosing something that is going wrong. Very few apps do this at all. It is a different problem from identification, since you are asking what is wrong with a known plant rather than what the plant is.
Before you subscribe to anything
Test it on a plant you already know. Photograph something you can name with certainty and see whether it gets it right. If it cannot handle a pothos, it will not handle the thing you are actually puzzled by.
Check what happens when the trial ends, in the App Store In-App Purchases list rather than in the app's own copy.
Set a calendar reminder for one day before any trial ends. This is the single practical habit that prevents almost every complaint people have about this category.
And know how to cancel: on iPhone it is Settings, your name, Subscriptions. Deleting an app does not cancel its subscription, which catches a lot of people.
The honest summary
If you want free forever and mostly identify wild plants, use PlantNet or Seek and pay nothing, ever. They are good, they are backed by real institutions, and the research angle is a genuine public good.
If you keep houseplants and want the identification to lead somewhere useful, you are probably going to end up paying something to somebody, and the question is which app earns it. Try before the trial converts, and check the In-App Purchases line first.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a completely free plant identifier app?
Yes. PlantNet, built by a consortium of French research institutions, and Seek by iNaturalist, from the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic, are both free with no subscription. Google Lens is also free and already installed on most phones. All three are strongest on wild plants and weaker on cultivated varieties and houseplants.
How do I find out what a plant app really costs?
Open its App Store listing, scroll to the Information section, and tap In-App Purchases. That shows Apple's own list of what the app sells at real prices in your currency. On Google Play the equivalent is the In-app purchases line under the install button. This is more reliable than any article, because prices differ by country and change over time.
Why do plant apps say free if they charge?
Because free on an app listing means free to download. Most plant identifier apps then use a free trial that automatically converts to a paid subscription, or a free tier with a scan limit. Neither is dishonest, but the word free on the listing does not tell you which one you are getting.
Does deleting an app cancel its subscription?
No, and this catches a lot of people. You have to cancel the subscription separately. On iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. Cancel at least 24 hours before a trial or billing period ends, since cancelling afterwards does not refund the charge.
Which plant identifier app is most accurate?
It depends on what you are photographing rather than on any single app being best. Research-backed apps such as PlantNet do very well on wild and native species because that is the data they were trained on, while commercial apps tend to be stronger on cultivated garden and house plants. Photo quality affects the result more than the choice of app.