Best Apps for Real-Time Cooking Assistance
• Updated
Real-time cooking apps can transform your kitchen experience. They guide you step-by-step, set automatic timers, and even suggest ingredient swaps. Many also integrate with grocery delivery services like Instacart and Walmart, making family meal planning and prep easier. Here’s a quick rundown of the best options:
- Honeydew Recipe Manager: AI-powered assistance with voice commands, grocery integration, and offline access. ($4.17/month for premium)
- Yummly: Once popular but now part of KitchenAid's ecosystem. Offered guided cooking and ingredient personalization.
- Epicurious: Known for its Smart Timer and curated recipes. ($4.99/month or $39.99/year for premium)
- SideChef: Includes voice navigation, smart appliance support, and recipe generation. ($4.99/month or $49.99/year for premium)
- Food Network Kitchen: Discontinued in 2024, but its features are now on FoodNetwork.com.
- Paprika Recipe Manager: Offline functionality, multiple timers, and a one-time purchase ($4.99 per platform).
- Allrecipes Dinner Spinner: Discontinued in 2025, but recipes are still available on their website.
- Kitchen Stories: Offers step-by-step guidance, timers, and video tutorials. (€7.99/month or €79.99/year for premium)
- Crouton Recipe App: Hands-free navigation and custom timers for Apple users. Free for up to 5 recipes; one-time purchase for unlimited.
These apps cater to different needs, from hands-free cooking to smart appliance integration. Choose based on your preferences, budget, and whether you need grocery delivery or offline access.
7 Best apps for People Who Like to Cook
1. Honeydew Recipe Manager
Honeydew Recipe Manager combines AI-powered assistance with hands-free, real-time cooking support, making it a favorite among U.S. home cooks. With a stellar 4.8/5 rating from 7,910 reviewers and over 100,000 downloads, its popularity speaks for itself.
Real-Time Cooking Features
Honeydew makes cooking easier with Alexa integration, allowing you to navigate recipes, manage timers, and move through steps without ever touching your device - even if your hands are messy. A no screen lock mode ensures your display stays active while you cook. The app's AI can also suggest ingredient swaps based on what's in your pantry, and its smart scaling feature adjusts servings and recalculates measurements instantly, whether you're cooking for a couple or a crowd.
US-Specific Integrations
Designed with U.S. kitchens in mind, Honeydew supports imperial measurements like cups, teaspoons, ounces, and °F. It also integrates seamlessly with Instacart, enabling one-click ingredient ordering. Shopping lists are auto-organized by store aisle, helping reduce food waste by up to 40% and saving users an estimated $125 per month.
Additional Unique Features
Honeydew offers some standout tools, including a recipe generator that recreates meals from restaurant photos and a translator that converts international recipes into English. Its AI can even extract ingredients, steps, and nutritional information from social media posts, handling around 270,000 recipe saves every month. Plus, saved recipes are accessible offline, so you're never left stranded without your favorite dishes.
The app is free to download on iOS and Android, but for $4.17 per month, Honeydew Plus offers unlimited recipe storage and household sharing for up to six family members, making it an excellent option for families or avid home cooks.
2. Yummly
Important Note: On December 18, 2024, Yummly officially closed its standalone website and mobile apps, integrating its features into the KitchenAid ecosystem. While the app is no longer available for download, it once boasted a strong following with approximately 15 million active users in the U.S.. Yummly's features were designed to align with the growing trend of smart kitchen solutions, offering real-time culinary assistance.
Real-Time Cooking Features
One of Yummly's standout features was Yummly Voice, a hands-free tool that allowed users to navigate recipes using voice commands - perfect for multitasking in the kitchen. Its guided cooking mode provided step-by-step video tutorials, built-in timers, and progression controls to help users through each stage of a recipe. The app also used an AI-powered personalization engine to learn user preferences over time, delivering tailored cooking tips and recipes to suit individual dietary needs. These innovations made it a strong fit for integration with U.S. retail and appliance ecosystems.
US-Specific Integrations
Yummly partnered with Instacart to allow users to order ingredients directly from major U.S. retailers like Walmart, Stop & Shop, and Key Food. It accommodated both imperial and metric measurements, catering to a variety of users. However, it required an active internet connection and lacked a robust offline mode, which may have been a limitation for some.
Additional Unique Features
Yummly also embraced IoT technology with integrations for Whirlpool and KitchenAid appliances. Its Yummly Smart Thermometer could connect to smart appliances, enabling remote monitoring of cooking temperatures. The app featured a database of nearly 2 million searchable recipes and an ingredient recognition tool that suggested recipes based on items already available in the pantry, helping to minimize food waste. For those seeking more advanced culinary guidance, Yummly Pro offered exclusive video classes and recipes led by professional chefs.
Before its closure, Yummly Pro was available for $0.99 per month or $9.99 annually, making it an affordable option for users.
3. Epicurious
Real-Time Cooking Features
Epicurious takes the guesswork out of cooking with its Smart Timer, designed to guide you through preparing over 40 different foods like steak, chicken, and asparagus. The timer provides real-time alerts for key moments - whether it’s flipping your steak or pulling cookies out of the oven - and includes detailed photos to help you judge doneness. For Apple Watch users, it goes a step further by sending haptic feedback directly to your wrist, letting you know when it’s time to act. Adina Steiman, Special Projects Editor at Epicurious, shared:
"The Apple Watch's small screen forced us to strip down ideas to something truly functional in the kitchen, like an egg timer. Then we asked ourselves, 'Why can't we have an egg timer for everything you'd want to cook?'"
Beyond the timer, Epicurious offers a massive database of over 50,000 rigorously tested recipes from trusted sources. Many of these recipes come with helpful extras, like instructional videos and real-time cooking tips, such as reminders to preheat your pan or season your ingredients. This blend of technology and culinary expertise provides a modern, hands-on cooking experience.
US-Specific Integrations
Epicurious caters to U.S. users with features designed around imperial measurements. One standout tool is the "Copy Ingredients to Clipboard" button, which allows you to quickly transfer ingredient lists to other apps for easy grocery shopping or digital recipe organization. These practical features complement the app’s broader focus on real-time cooking assistance.
Additional Unique Features
On top of its cooking tools and U.S.-specific options, Epicurious offers more perks that set it apart. With a stellar 4.7-star rating from 99,000 Apple App Store reviews and recognition as an Editors’ Choice app, it’s clear users value its functionality. The app also provides personalized recipe recommendations tailored to your preferences and dietary needs. Subscribing unlocks full access to the mobile app as well as the Epicurious and Bon Appétit websites. Pricing is $4.99/month or $39.99/year (a 33% discount) and includes a one-week free trial. However, some users have noted occasional app crashes when multitasking.
4. SideChef
Real-Time Cooking Features
SideChef boasts over 18,000 "Smart Recipes", each broken down into simple, illustrated steps featuring photos or videos for every stage of the process. Its voice navigation feature allows hands-free operation, making it easier to cook without worrying about touching your device. Plus, automated timers are synced with each step, ensuring you avoid overcooking. As Kit Eaton from The New York Times puts it:
"My favorite cooking app is SideChef, mainly because of one clever feature: You don't need to tap on your device's screen often with sticky fingers."
Another standout feature is RecipeGen AI, which lets you snap a photo of your finished dish to generate a complete, shoppable recipe with step-by-step instructions. This tool is a favorite among users - 89% say it provides an accurate match to the original dish, and those who use it are 6.5 times more likely to keep coming back. These features make SideChef a dynamic partner in the kitchen, especially with its thoughtful design for real-time cooking.
US-Specific Integrations
SideChef simplifies grocery shopping for U.S. users by offering seamless one-click ordering through Walmart, Amazon Fresh, Instacart, and Target. The app defaults to imperial measurements and includes a "Store Selector" feature to help you locate nearby delivery or pickup options. A built-in barcode scanner adds another layer of convenience, suggesting recipes based on the ingredients you already have on hand.
Additional Unique Features
SideChef also connects with smart appliances, offering over 2,000 "CookAssist-enabled" recipes that can send temperature and timing settings directly to compatible ovens. The app’s screen-on mode ensures your device stays active while you’re following a recipe, so you don't have to keep unlocking it mid-cooking.
SideChef is free to download, but if you want access to exclusive recipes and guided videos, you can upgrade to SideChef Premium for $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. With a 4.7-star rating from 1,600 Apple App Store reviews and recognition as a "Best App" by USA Today, SideChef has established itself as a trusted tool for home cooks.
5. Food Network Kitchen
Real-Time Cooking Features
Heads up: As of May 1, 2024, the standalone Food Network Kitchen app has been discontinued and removed from app stores. Most of its features, including on-demand classes and saved recipes, are now accessible through FoodNetwork.com.
Before its discontinuation, Food Network Kitchen offered live weekly cooking classes with celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay and Martha Stewart. It also featured voice command functionality, making it easy to navigate recipes, set timers, and measure ingredients without touching a screen - a lifesaver when your hands were covered in flour. As Engadget highlighted:
"You can ask Alexa to find classes, videos and recipes, but you can also use it to navigate and save recipes. That could be more than a little helpful when you'd rather not touch a screen with your flour-covered hands."
These tools were designed to enhance the cooking experience, particularly for users in the United States.
US-Specific Integrations
The app seamlessly integrated with grocery delivery services like Instacart, Amazon Fresh, and Peapod, covering around 80% of US households at launch. It was also optimized for Amazon devices, including the Echo Show, Fire TV, and Fire Tablets, ensuring smooth functionality for users in the US.
Additional Unique Features
Food Network Kitchen stood out with a variety of offerings. It boasted a library of over 80,000 recipes, 800 on-demand cooking classes, and hosted up to 25 live classes per week at its peak. One of its most ambitious features was "Kitchen-on-Call", a service providing 24/7 live assistance for ingredient substitutions and cooking advice.
The app was well-loved by its users, earning a stellar 4.9/5 rating from over 900 reviews on Google Play. Many praised its well-organized recipes and access to content from celebrity chefs. Initially, the premium subscription was priced at about $47.99 per year, with monthly options ranging from $4.00 to $6.99. However, access to recipes and on-demand classes is now free through FoodNetwork.com.
6. ChefBit
When it comes to apps with uncertain visibility, "ChefBit" stands out - or rather, doesn't. There’s no confirmed real-time cooking assistant app by this name currently available.
If you're looking for a voice-guided cooking experience, there are other tools out there that might fit the bill. Just make sure to double-check the app's name and go through recent reviews before making your pick.
7. Paprika Recipe Manager
Paprika Recipe Manager brings a practical and efficient touch to real-time cooking assistance, perfect for the fast-paced American kitchen. One standout feature is its ability to automatically detect cook times in recipes, highlighting them in blue. Simply tap the highlighted time to start a timer. You can even manage multiple timers at once, and iPhone users can control timers directly from their Apple Watch.
Real-time Cooking Features
Paprika’s interactive design makes it easy to follow recipes. You can check off ingredients as you use them and navigate through directions step by step. Its "pin" feature allows you to keep several recipes open simultaneously. On iPads and iPhones in landscape mode, the app displays ingredients and directions side by side for added convenience.
The "Keep Screen On" setting ensures your device won’t go to sleep while you’re cooking, so you don’t have to worry about losing your place. Plus, you can adjust ingredient quantities for different serving sizes or switch between imperial and metric measurements instantly. These features make multitasking in the kitchen smooth and hassle-free.
Offline Access
All your data is stored locally, which means you can access recipes, grocery lists, and meal plans even without an internet connection. Once saved, your recipes are always available, making it easy to cook wherever you are.
Additional Unique Features
Paprika has earned a stellar reputation, boasting a 4.9/5 rating on the App Store with over 52,000 ratings and nearly 20,000 reviews on Google Play. PCMag gave it a 4.0/5 rating and named it an Editors' Choice. Highlighting its strengths, Senior Writer Gabriel Zamora of PCMag remarked:
"Paprika is the workhorse of cooking apps. The recipe manager may not be a visual powerhouse, but its excellent customization, pantry system, and meal-planning features are second to none."
The app is available for a one-time purchase of $4.99 on both iOS and Android (sold separately).
8. Allrecipes Dinner Spinner
Allrecipes Dinner Spinner stood out as a fun and engaging way to explore recipes, winning over more than 18 million users in the U.S. and driving an impressive 1.3 billion visits annually to the Allrecipes platform. However, in late 2025, its parent company, Dotdash Meredith, decided to discontinue the app to streamline everything into a single, mobile-friendly website. For those who had relied on the app, saved recipes remain accessible by creating a home screen shortcut (on iPhone: open Safari, tap Share, and select "Add to Home Screen"). While the app is no longer available, users still enjoy access to its vast recipe collection and features.
Real-Time Cooking Features
The app was designed to make cooking easier with thousands of step-by-step instructional videos, ensuring you stayed on track in the kitchen. Another helpful tool was the scalable servings feature, which adjusted ingredient quantities based on your desired serving size. This type of automation is a key benefit of AI meal planning and ingredient prep tools.
Additional Unique Features
One of the app's standout features was its Dinner Spinner, a playful way to discover recipes. Users could shuffle through options like ingredients, dish types, and prep times to find inspiration. The app also fostered a sense of community with its recipe-sharing features. The "I Made It" button allowed users to share their cooking results with the Allrecipes community and even post them directly to Facebook.
Before its discontinuation, the app earned a stellar 4.5/5 rating on the Apple App Store, was named "Best Cooking App" at the 2014 MIN awards, and secured a spot on TIME Magazine's "Best 50 Apps" list. As Allrecipes President Stan Pavlovsky explained:
"Digital experiences and tools that allow foodies and busy families alike to get the most out of every cooking and meal planning apps vs manual planning experience have become essential kitchen tools."
The Allrecipes website continues to offer its recipe library and video content free of charge, ensuring users can still enjoy its resources without needing a subscription.
9. Kitchen Stories
Kitchen Stories has earned accolades like the Apple Design Award and "Editors' Choice" recognition on both Google Play and the App Store. With over 1 million downloads on Google Play and a collection of more than 10,000 professionally tested recipes, it has become a favorite among home cooks.
Real-Time Cooking Features
The app's Cooking Mode delivers step-by-step guidance with photos and instructions, ensuring your device screen stays active throughout the process. Each step focuses only on the ingredients and tools needed at that moment, so there's no need to scroll. Plus, built-in timers are placed exactly where you need them, making it easier to track cooking times.
For added help, Kitchen Stories includes high-definition instructional videos and "how-to" clips that demonstrate techniques like chopping berries or preparing stock. Its measurement converter is another handy tool, automatically adjusting ingredient quantities based on servings and switching between measurement units as needed.
Offline Access and Screen-On Mode During Cooking
You can access recipes even without an internet connection thanks to the app's offline mode. Meanwhile, the screen-on feature in Cooking Mode keeps your device from dimming or locking while you're in the middle of a recipe.
Additional Unique Features
Subscribers to Kitchen Stories Plus get access to features like the leftover search, which suggests recipes based on ingredients you already have - perfect for using up that half head of broccoli. Premium users can also save recipes from Instagram or other websites using recipe apps for social media imports directly into the app with a single click. Additionally, the app lets you add notes to recipes, so you can track adjustments like ingredient swaps or temperature changes.
The app boasts a 4.8/5 rating on the Apple App Store from 23,000 reviews and 4.1/5 stars on Google Play from over 34,400 reviews. While the basic version is free to download, Kitchen Stories Plus is available for €7.99 per month or €79.99 per year. As The Guardian puts it:
"Kitchen Stories is a cleanly-designed recipe guide app with step-by-step instructions that even a cuisine dunce would be hard-pressed to misinterpret."
10. Crouton Recipe App
Crouton is a cooking app designed exclusively for Apple users, boasting over 299,000 downloads and an impressive 4.8/5 rating from around 2,600 reviews. Its standout feature is real-time cooking assistance, making it a go-to choice for modern home chefs.
Real-Time Cooking Features
Crouton’s Step-by-Step Cooking Mode ensures you stay on track by presenting one instruction at a time. Need to check an ingredient? Just tap it to see exact quantities without losing your place. The app also has a hands-free navigation system that uses the TrueDepth camera: wink right to move forward, wink left to go back, or open your mouth to switch instructions.
Timers are another highlight - Crouton detects time durations in recipes and creates custom timers (like "Bake Cookies") that appear on your heads-up display, Lock Screen, or Apple Watch. For tech enthusiasts, the app connects with Combustion Predictive Thermometers to show live food temperatures and pairs with Bluetooth scales, such as Acaia, for precise ingredient weighing.
US-Specific Integrations
Crouton is tailored for American kitchens with features like quick toggles between metric and imperial units, making it easy to switch between cups, tablespoons, and Fahrenheit temperatures. While it doesn’t offer direct grocery delivery integration, it syncs shopping lists with Apple Reminders, so your ingredients are accessible across all devices and can be shared with family members.
Offline Access and Screen-On Mode
Recipes are stored locally and synced via iCloud, ensuring access even without an internet connection. Plus, the Step-by-Step mode keeps your screen active while you cook, so you’re never interrupted.
Additional Unique Features
Crouton also includes an AI-powered OCR tool that can digitize recipes from a single photo of a cookbook or handwritten note, breaking them into easy-to-follow steps. The app supports the entire Apple ecosystem, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and even visionOS for Apple Vision Pro users.
Ryan Christoffel, Editor at MacStories, praised the app’s design:
"Crouton's playful aesthetics help make recipes feel more approachable to me... every feature has been thoughtfully added and fits well into the layout of the page."
The app offers a free version that stores up to 5 recipes, while a one-time purchase unlocks unlimited storage with family sharing. Helen Hawver highlighted this pricing model:
"What made me choose Crouton over the dozens of other apps on the market: IT'S NOT A SUBSCRIPTION!!... this is an app you can still actually buy, once, and then you just own it? Forever?"
Feature and Price Comparison
Real-Time Cooking Apps Comparison: Features, Pricing & Grocery Integration
Finding the right cooking app depends on your budget, the features you need, and how you shop for groceries. The table below highlights key features, pricing, and grocery delivery options to help you decide which app aligns with your cooking style.
| App | Real-Time Features | Pricing (USD) | US Grocery Integration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honeydew Recipe Manager | Cook Mode (screen stays on), AI cooking assistant, voice navigation, auto timers, serving size scaling, imperial/metric conversion, offline access | Free (10 recipes), $4.17/month (unlimited) | Instacart |
| Yummly | Step-by-step guided cooking, integrated timers, serving adjustments | Free with ads, Premium varies | Instacart |
| Epicurious | Cook Mode, integrated timers, step navigation | Free with ads, subscription for ad-free | None |
| SideChef | Step-by-step photos/videos, voice control, smart appliance integration, auto timers | Free with limited features, Premium subscription | Walmart (pickup & delivery) |
| Food Network Kitchen | Live cooking classes, on-demand videos, step-by-step instructions | ~$7.99/month or $79.99/year | None |
| ChefBit | Voice-controlled navigation, hands-free mode, timers | Subscription-based | None |
| Paprika Recipe Manager | Cook Mode, timers, serving scaling, unit conversion, offline access | One-time purchase per platform (~$4.99 iOS; separate for Android/Desktop) | None |
| Allrecipes Dinner Spinner | Step-by-step photos, integrated timers, Cook Mode | Free with ads | None |
| Kitchen Stories | Step-by-step videos and photos, integrated timers, Cook Mode | Free with ads, Premium subscription | None |
| Crouton Recipe App | Hands-free navigation, custom timers, imperial/metric conversion, offline access | Free (5 recipes), one-time purchase for unlimited | None |
Some standout features include hands-free navigation, which is a lifesaver when your hands are covered in flour or sauce. Many apps offer voice commands to move through recipe steps, making multitasking in the kitchen much easier.
Smart appliance integration is still relatively uncommon, but SideChef leads the way by allowing communication with connected ovens and precision cookers. With projections showing that 37% of U.S. households will own at least one connected kitchen appliance by 2026, this feature is becoming more relevant.
For those who rely on grocery delivery, Honeydew Recipe Manager and Yummly connect with Instacart, while SideChef works with Walmart for both pickup and delivery. However, many apps lack direct grocery integration.
Offline access is another critical feature for kitchens with unreliable Wi-Fi. Apps like Honeydew, Paprika, and Crouton store recipes locally, ensuring you can cook without interruptions.
When it comes to pricing, options vary significantly. Apps like Paprika and Crouton offer one-time purchases but require separate licenses for each platform. Meanwhile, subscription-based apps like Honeydew provide free tiers, with unlimited features available for $4.17/month. Honeydew’s subscription also includes perks like AI meal planning and household sharing for up to six members.
This comparison breaks down the options, making it easier to choose a cooking app that fits your needs and enhances your kitchen experience.
Conclusion
Cooking apps have evolved far beyond being simple digital recipe boxes. Modern apps now blend voice commands, AI-driven meal planning, and smart integrations to make your time in the kitchen easier and more efficient. Whether you’re looking for step-by-step video guides or ways to reduce food waste, there’s an app tailored to your needs.
The trick lies in finding one that matches your cooking style. If your recipe inspiration comes from platforms like TikTok or Instagram, look for apps that let you import recipes from Instagram and TikTok directly. For households juggling shared meal planning and grocery shopping, collaborative tools are a must. And if your kitchen Wi-Fi tends to be spotty, focus on apps that work offline. As tech journalist Bertel King puts it:
"Smartphone apps can be genuinely useful in the kitchen... they perform functions that cookbooks simply can't. They can truly be a chef's secret ingredient".
Pricing varies widely - some apps are free but ad-supported, while others require a subscription or a one-time fee. Free trials are a great way to explore whether an app’s features, like Cook Mode or timers, meet your expectations. Start by importing one of your go-to recipes to see how well the app handles formatting and measurements.
Ultimately, choosing the right app can save you time on meal prep and planning, leaving you with more moments to enjoy the process of cooking itself.
FAQs
What is the best app for hands-free cooking?
When it comes to hands-free cooking, a few apps stand out for making your time in the kitchen easier. Roux Voice is perfect for walking you through recipes and answering your questions as you cook. KudoCook lets you navigate recipes with voice commands and provides clear, step-by-step instructions. Then there's ChefTalk, which not only offers voice guidance but also includes safety tips and automatic timers to keep things running smoothly. These apps are designed to make cooking more convenient and keep your hands free for the tasks that matter.
Do these cooking apps work offline?
Many cooking apps now let you access features like recipe viewing and meal planning even when you’re offline. Some apps are built specifically for offline use, while others include offline functionality as an added feature. That said, not every app offers this option. It’s a good idea to review the app’s description or explore its settings to confirm if offline access is available before counting on it for your cooking needs.
Can any app order groceries through Instacart?
Yes, Honeydew Recipe Manager makes grocery shopping effortless by integrating with Instacart. With just one tap, you can order all the ingredients you need directly from your meal plans or imported recipes. This simplifies the entire process, saving you time and hassle.
