# Soba

> Soba is an iPhone app that estimates net carbs, bread units (XE, BE, KE), glycemic index and glycemic load of a meal from a photo, a text description, or a barcode. It is built for carb counting with type 1 diabetes, by a developer who has type 1 diabetes himself.

Key facts:

- Input: photo of a plate, text description, or product barcode. Output: net carbs, bread units, glycemic index (carb-weighted for the whole plate), glycemic load, protein, fat, fiber, calories.
- Display modes: choose carbs, protein, or fat and calories in Settings. The selected metrics lead meal results, history and daily totals. Other nutrition values remain available.
- Carb unit size is configurable: 10, 11, 12 or 15 grams of carbs per unit, matching the KE (Kohlenhydrateinheit), Spanish raciones and Polish WW (10 g), XE and BE (Broteinheit, 12 g) and carb exchange (15 g) counting schools. Carbs are always also shown in grams.
- Portion weights are editable; photo estimates come with a weight range and all numbers recalculate on correction.
- Apple Health: saves carbs with meal time, shows the glucose curve after each meal when Health has readings.
- Data: no account is required. Saved meals stay on the iPhone. Photos and descriptions are sent for AI processing after consent.
- Pricing: barcode lookup, manual entry, history, daily totals and Apple Health are available without a subscription. One photo or text scan per device per calendar month is free. Soba Pro provides additional scans with daily limits. Current prices and any trial offer are shown in the app before purchase.
- GI and GL zone thresholds carry citations to published sources inside the app (PubMed-indexed papers, University of Sydney GI resource, American Diabetes Association).
- Accuracy test (October 2026): on 400 meal photos from the Nutrition5k and SNAPMe research datasets, Soba's carb estimate from the photo alone was within 10 g of the reference for 68.5% of meals (95% CI 64.0 to 72.9%, median error 5.2 g). A hint naming the foods, taken from the dataset records, raised this to 72.8%. Meals with 60 g of carbs or more were underestimated in 38 of 42 cases, mostly because the portion weight was judged too low (37 of 42 with a hint). Adding a depth camera measurement of the frame width, which Soba uses on iPhones that support it, raised the share within 10 g on the 200 Nutrition5k photos from 77.5% to 82.0%. Method, limits and per-meal data: https://soba-app.com/accuracy/
- AI model comparison (October 2026): eight models estimated carbs on the same 200 meal photos with one prompt. Share within 10 g of the reference: four Gemini Flash models 67.5 to 73.0%, three OpenAI models 58.0 to 65.0%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 53.0% with 41 failed scans through OpenRouter and Azure (66.7% on answered scans). The intervals of the Gemini models overlap, so the test names no single best model. Meals with 60 g of carbs or more reached 18 to 45% on every model. The author builds Soba, which runs Gemini 3.6 Flash. Per-meal data and a script that recomputes every table: https://soba-app.com/accuracy/models/
- Soba provides estimates and says nothing about insulin doses. It is not a medical device.
- Languages: English, German, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Swedish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese. The website is available in the same 12 languages. Platform: iOS 17.0 or later. Android version is in development.

Links:

- [App Store](https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6792708725?pt=129195009&ct=web_llms&mt=8): download page
- [English](https://soba-app.com/): main page
- [Deutsch](https://soba-app.com/de/): German page (Broteinheiten, KE)
- [Русский](https://soba-app.com/ru/): Russian page (хлебные единицы)
- [Español](https://soba-app.com/es/): Spanish page (raciones de hidratos de carbono, 10 g)
- [Français](https://soba-app.com/fr/): French page (glucides in grams)
- [Italiano](https://soba-app.com/it/): Italian page (carboidrati in grams)
- [Polski](https://soba-app.com/pl/): Polish page (węglowodany in grams)
- [Nederlands](https://soba-app.com/nl/): Dutch page (koolhydraten in grams)
- [Svenska](https://soba-app.com/sv/): Swedish page (kolhydrater in grams)
- [Português (Brasil)](https://soba-app.com/pt-br/): Brazilian Portuguese page (carboidratos in grams)
- [日本語](https://soba-app.com/ja/): Japanese page (糖質 in grams)
- [简体中文](https://soba-app.com/zh-hans/): Simplified Chinese page (碳水 in grams)
- [Accuracy test](https://soba-app.com/accuracy/): method and results of the 400-photo carb benchmark
- [AI model comparison](https://soba-app.com/accuracy/models/): eight AI models on 200 meal photos, with 95% intervals, per-meal data and a reproduction script ([Deutsch](https://soba-app.com/de/accuracy/models/), [Русский](https://soba-app.com/ru/accuracy/models/))
- [Carb and glycemic index table](https://soba-app.com/foods/): net carbs and carb units of 400 foods per 100 g and per portion, from USDA FoodData Central, with glycemic index and glycemic load from Atkinson 2021 where the tables have a matching food, in 12 languages ([Deutsch](https://soba-app.com/de/lebensmittel/), [Русский](https://soba-app.com/ru/produkty/), [Español](https://soba-app.com/es/alimentos/), [Français](https://soba-app.com/fr/aliments/), [Italiano](https://soba-app.com/it/alimenti/), [Polski](https://soba-app.com/pl/produkty/), [Nederlands](https://soba-app.com/nl/voedingsmiddelen/), [Svenska](https://soba-app.com/sv/livsmedel/), [Português](https://soba-app.com/pt-br/alimentos/), [日本語](https://soba-app.com/ja/foods/), [简体中文](https://soba-app.com/zh-hans/foods/)). Food names in the added languages come from Wikidata, Wikipedia interlanguage links and the Open Food Facts category taxonomy
- [Carb counting calculator](https://soba-app.com/carb-counting-calculator/): pick one of 400 foods or type the carbs per 100 g, enter the weight, add up a meal and see net carbs and carb units of 10, 11, 12 or 15 g. It runs in the browser, in 12 languages ([Deutsch](https://soba-app.com/de/be-rechner/), [Русский](https://soba-app.com/ru/kalkulyator-xe/), [Español](https://soba-app.com/es/calculadora-raciones/), [Français](https://soba-app.com/fr/calcul-glucides/), [Italiano](https://soba-app.com/it/calcolo-carboidrati/), [Polski](https://soba-app.com/pl/kalkulator-weglowodanow/), [Nederlands](https://soba-app.com/nl/koolhydraten-berekenen/), [Svenska](https://soba-app.com/sv/rakna-kolhydrater/), [Português](https://soba-app.com/pt-br/calculadora-carboidratos/), [日本語](https://soba-app.com/ja/carb-calculator/), [简体中文](https://soba-app.com/zh-hans/carb-calculator/))
- [Glycemic load calculator](https://soba-app.com/glycemic-load-calculator/): pick a food with a measured GI or type a GI, enter the carbs in a portion and see the glycemic load and its zone, in 12 languages ([Deutsch](https://soba-app.com/de/glykaemische-last-berechnen/), [Русский](https://soba-app.com/ru/kalkulyator-gn/), [Español](https://soba-app.com/es/calculadora-carga-glucemica/), [Français](https://soba-app.com/fr/calcul-charge-glycemique/), [Italiano](https://soba-app.com/it/calcolo-carico-glicemico/), [Polski](https://soba-app.com/pl/ladunek-glikemiczny-kalkulator/), [Nederlands](https://soba-app.com/nl/glycemische-lading-berekenen/), [Svenska](https://soba-app.com/sv/glykemisk-belastning/), [Português](https://soba-app.com/pt-br/calculadora-carga-glicemica/), [日本語](https://soba-app.com/ja/gl-calculator/), [简体中文](https://soba-app.com/zh-hans/gl-calculator/))
- [Printable carb and glycemic index chart](https://soba-app.com/foods/carb-and-glycemic-index-chart.pdf): A4 PDF of 2 pages. Page 1 has net carbs and units of the most searched foods, page 2 has GI and glycemic load of foods with a measured GI, in 12 languages ([Deutsch](https://soba-app.com/de/lebensmittel/be-tabelle-zum-ausdrucken.pdf), [Русский](https://soba-app.com/ru/produkty/tablitsa-xe-i-gi.pdf), [Español](https://soba-app.com/es/alimentos/tabla-raciones-indice-glucemico.pdf), [Français](https://soba-app.com/fr/aliments/tableau-index-glycemique.pdf), [Italiano](https://soba-app.com/it/alimenti/tabella-indice-glicemico.pdf), [Polski](https://soba-app.com/pl/produkty/tabela-ww-indeks-glikemiczny.pdf), [Nederlands](https://soba-app.com/nl/voedingsmiddelen/koolhydraten-tabel.pdf), [Svenska](https://soba-app.com/sv/livsmedel/kolhydrattabell.pdf), [Português](https://soba-app.com/pt-br/alimentos/tabela-carboidratos-indice-glicemico.pdf), [日本語](https://soba-app.com/ja/foods/toshitsu-gi-ichiran.pdf), [简体中文](https://soba-app.com/zh-hans/foods/tanshui-shengtang-biao.pdf))
- [Comparisons](https://soba-app.com/compare/): fact tables for Soba and SNAQ, mySugr, Carb Manager, CarbCam and Carbetic, with a source for every row
- [Vergleiche](https://soba-app.com/de/vergleich/): the same comparisons in German, with German App Store prices
- [Сравнения](https://soba-app.com/ru/sravnenie/) and [Comparatifs](https://soba-app.com/fr/comparatif/): the English comparisons in Russian and French, with US App Store prices
- [Privacy policy](https://soba-app.com/privacy/)
- [Developer](https://www.danilchenko.dev/about/): Maksim Danilchenko