FROM MEAL TO SHOPPING
All features
Eat together, plan with ease. The key features at a glance, with details for your next trip or get-together.
The compact overview
Choose a category to read the full description. Specific plan limits are on the Pricing page.
| Feature | What can you do? | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Your workspaces and invitations | Multiple spaces, switching spaces, email invitations and shared memberships. | Additional admin roles depending on your plan |
| Plans, trial & usage | Free demo, beta plans, limits and usage. | In the respective workspace |
| Take your data with you | Download workspace data and archive completed projects. | Export depends on plan and project access |
| Projects for every group | Dates, headcounts, archives, required meals and daily status. | In the respective workspace |
| Start privately, share selectively | Share private projects, revoke access and view project members. | Private projects and access grants depending on your plan |
| Plan together live | Edit drafts together, save automatically, see pointers and follow participants. | From Family, project access and voluntary participation |
| Optional voice chat | Up to five audio participants, muted start, speaking indicators and microphone controls. | From Family; 15 / 30 / 60 minutes per session depending on the plan, separate audio consent |
| Create and edit meals | Search meals, set uses and adjust portion quantities with factors. | In the respective workspace |
| Your days at a glance | Persistent meal pool, flexible meal slots, moving and two removal options. | In the respective workspace |
| Project and meal notes | Formatted project and meal notes, including copies and data exports. | In the respective workspace |
| Headcounts for each occasion | Daily and meal headcount overrides for adults, teenagers and children. | In the respective workspace |
| AI ingredient ideas | Get ingredient ideas for a meal and approve additional suggestions individually. | AI allowance of the space’s plan |
| Reuse favourite meals | Copy meals independently from accessible projects and recalculate quantities. | In the respective workspace |
| A shared ingredient catalogue | Shared catalogue per workspace with units, packs, prices and shopping locations. | In the respective workspace |
| The shopping list calculates using | Calculate scheduled quantities, identify unscheduled uses, group, filter and sort. | In the respective workspace |
| Eat out and decide together | Distinguish suggestions from confirmed visits; see attendance headcounts and restaurant votes. | Not included in Starter |
| API, ChatGPT and browser assistants | HTTP API, MCP and WebMCP for projects, calendar entries, notes, quantities and shopping. | API and MCP depending on your plan |
| Access and security | Password, passkeys, second factors, language and personal consent choices. | In the respective workspace |
Features in detail
Your workspaces and invitations
One account can belong to several independent groups.
- Create workspaces for friends and family and switch between them using the navigation dropdown.
- Projects, ingredients, settings and memberships stay within their space.
- Invite members by email. The same person can accept invitations to several spaces and does not need their own subscription as an invited member.
- The creator is the owner and initially the workspace’s only admin. Additional admin roles can be assigned if the plan includes them.
- Manage memberships and invitations. Operator administration is separate and accessible only to superadmins.
Plans, trial & usage
The right size for your shared planning.
- Compare four plans on the pricing page; the free demo offers a limited introduction for a new space.
- The demo is available once per account: plan for seven days, then read and export for another seven days. No payment details or automatic subscription.
- During an active beta, choose a plan without payment details. Plan limits still apply; see the beta information for the terms.
- View project, member, meal and AI request limits and usage in the space settings. Archived projects count towards the total limit, but not the active project limit.
- Private projects, additional admin roles, export, API and MCP depend on the plan. Invited members use their space’s plan.
Take your data with you
Your plan stays available outside the app too.
- Download permitted space data in settings if the plan includes data export.
- Export shopping lists as CSV or open a dedicated print view. Your selected planning scope and shopping location filter are included.
- Exports respect project access and include notes. Inaccessible projects and other spaces remain protected.
- Archived projects remain readable and available as sources for meal copies. Permitted exports remain accessible; reactivate a project before editing it.
- Send your shopping list to Reminders using the provided Apple shortcut. Set up and confirm it on your Apple device.
Projects for every group
A weekend with friends or a longer holiday: every plan has its own place.
- Create projects with a name, optional dates and headcounts for adults, teenagers and children. Empty date fields remain empty.
- Browse projects by start date, switch between different views and archive completed plans.
- Enable breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and other meals per project. Disabled meals remain saved but are excluded from planning and shopping.
- Choose the meals required each day, with separate arrival and departure rules. Daily planning shows “Not required”, “Still open”, “In planning” or “Fully planned”.
- Use project values or inherit the space defaults. You can also set different headcounts for individual days and meals.
Start privately, share selectively
You choose who you plan your project with.
- If your plan includes private projects, new projects start private: the creator and authorised space admins can access them. Without this feature, new projects are shared with everyone in the space.
- For private projects, creators and authorised workspace admins can grant and remove access for individual members of their workspace.
- When access is granted, the person receives an email with the project name, dates, group numbers and a direct project link.
- All project members can help plan and see who else has access.
- Authorised workspace admins can access all projects in their workspace. Project access also applies to meal search, copying and ChatGPT.
Plan together live
Work on the same plan at the same time, with everyone’s consent.
- Live collaboration and voice chat are available from the Family plan. Neither is included in the Starter plan.
- Offer a shared session when two people are in a project. Everyone chooses whether to join and can leave again.
- Edit shared meal and ingredient drafts. Valid inputs save automatically; status messages and “Save now” show the transmitted state.
- See participants, pointers, clicks and markers. “Follow” and “Follow me” help you move between views and forms together.
- While following someone, a single “Stop following” button shows their name in its tooltip. Your own unsaved drafts remain protected.
Optional voice chat
Talk to each other while planning together.
- Voice chat is limited per shared audio session: Family 15 minutes, Group 30 minutes and Max 60 minutes. Remaining time is visible; only audio ends when time runs out.
- Join audio with separate consent; up to five participants can join. Your microphone starts muted and can be switched on explicitly.
- Speaking indicators, mute and leave controls are available in the shared toolbar. Meals for Friends does not record the conversation.
- Close audio details with the cross, Escape or a click outside; the conversation stays connected and other actions remain accessible.
- A compatible browser, microphone permission and a reachable audio connection are required.
Create and edit meals
From the first idea to a fully planned meal.
- Search meals by name, filter by type and set their planning status. Drafts may still contain incomplete quantities.
- Edit the total number of uses, including zero. Remove existing calendar entries first if their count exceeds the number you want.
- Find ingredients in a searchable selector and enter separate quantities for adults, teenagers and children.
- Prefill teenage and child quantities with standard factors, or customise each ingredient and reset it to the default.
- See calculated totals directly in the form. The app warns before accidentally closing unsaved changes.
Your days at a glance
The weekly plan shows which days are planned and where there are still gaps.
- All project meals stay in the searchable pool below the calendar, including meals already used. Total uses, scheduled entries and open uses are shown separately.
- Drag a meal from the pool into a meal slot to add a new entry. Use it for lunch and dinner without changing the original meal.
- The total use count increases only when scheduled entries exceed it. Moving between days or meal slots preserves the total.
- Selecting a meal highlights its existing entries. Click and keyboard actions offer the same destinations as drag and drop.
- When removing an entry, choose to keep the unscheduled use and shopping quantities, or remove the use and reduce quantities. Duplicate entries for the same meal in the same slot are prevented.
Project and meal notes
Keep important arrangements alongside your plan.
- Add notes to the whole project or an individual meal and format them with headings, bold text and lists.
- Everyone with project access can see the notes. Meal notes are included in copies and authorised data exports.
- Meal notes are not automatically sent to the ingredient AI.
Headcounts for each occasion
Account for late arrivals, guests or individual meals with fewer people.
- Adjust adults, teenagers and children for a day or an individual meal. Empty fields inherit the parent defaults; 0 explicitly means no people.
- Meal values take precedence over daily values, followed by project and space defaults. Unscheduled uses use the project default.
- Ingredient and shopping calculations automatically use the appropriate headcounts. Removing an entry with different numbers explains the return to default values.
AI ingredient ideas
Enter a meal name and get help choosing ingredients.
- “Suggest ingredients with AI” is available when creating and editing meals.
- Matching ingredients from the shared catalogue are added to the draft.
- Additional ingredients appear as suggestions you can edit and approve individually. New ingredients are saved with the meal.
- Portion quantities are suggested too and remain editable. Existing entries are preserved; check ingredients and quantities before saving. Water is not suggested.
Reuse favourite meals
No need to enter a favourite meal again for the next trip.
- Meal search shows separate “Copy from other projects” results, including accessible archives in the same space.
- In the copy dialog, search by meal or ingredient and narrow results to a source project. Private projects without access remain protected.
- Copies include ingredients, portion quantities, notes, use count and status. Schedule their entries again in the destination project.
- Edit the copy independently. Totals follow the destination project’s headcounts and calendar entries.
A shared ingredient catalogue
Units, packs and prices are managed in one place.
- All members of a space can view and edit its shared ingredient catalogue. Project access does not restrict the catalogue.
- Set units, pack sizes, pack prices, brands and shopping locations. You maintain the prices yourselves.
- Search by name or brand and sort by name, shopping location or pack price. Missing prices appear last.
- Keep product variants separate. Catalogue ingredient changes apply wherever it is used; custom units are preserved.
The shopping list calculates using
The project’s shopping list is created automatically from its meals.
- Quantities include all uses: scheduled entries use their meal or daily headcounts, and unscheduled uses use project defaults.
- Identical catalogue ingredients are combined. Packs are rounded up and costs calculated from total quantities and saved pack prices.
- Switch between all uses, “Scheduled in the calendar” and “Without a date”. A warning about unscheduled uses links directly to the calendar.
- View the full list or group it by shopping location, filter locations and sort by name, location or pack price. Groups show subtotals.
- Tick off purchased ingredients together. Missing prices are marked as incomplete; your preferred list view is saved to your account.
Eat out and decide together
Restaurant visits belong in the plan just as much as home-cooked meals.
- Restaurant visits, suggestions and Tally polls are not included in Starter.
- Choose “Eat out” for a calendar meal slot, collect restaurant suggestions with optional website links and save a visit for later.
- Share a Tally poll. Guests respond without a Meals for Friends account, giving their name, attendance, headcounts and suitable restaurants.
- View attendance headcounts separately from restaurant votes. Results update every 30 seconds while the dialog is open.
- Choose the final restaurant yourself. A suggestion remains “In planning”; only a confirmed selection covers the required meal slot.
- Close the current poll and start a new one when options change. Restaurant visits do not create ingredient quantities or automatic table reservations.
API, ChatGPT and browser assistants
Connect your account to work on your plans in conversation too.
- With a suitable space plan, connect ChatGPT, Codex or other MCP clients through your own account authorisation, and revoke access later.
- Read accessible spaces, projects, meals, ingredients and shopping lists; calculate meal drafts first and save them after your approval.
- Edit projects and meals, maintain notes, copy meals, schedule calendar entries, set headcount overrides and tick off shopping items.
- The public API documentation explains the HTTP API, OAuth and MCP. WebMCP exposes planning tools through the signed-in session in supporting browsers.
- Plan limits, project access, archive protection and current data versions also apply to assistants.
Access and security
Personal accounts and clear access permissions keep planning organised.
- Register with email and password, verify your address and reset a forgotten password by email.
- Set up passkeys on compatible devices and sign in with a fingerprint, facial recognition or device PIN. Changing sign-in methods requires you to verify your identity again.
- Optionally set up an authenticator app as a second factor and keep one-time recovery codes safe.
- Create your own space or accept an email invitation. Your verified account address must match the invitation.
- When changes happen concurrently, version checks preserve your form inputs for review. Outside collaborative editing, changes are not silently overwritten.
- Use German and English with a saved language preference. Consent to or decline optional measurement and error diagnostics separately.