AI recipe scanning

AI recipe scanning reads a photo or PDF of a written recipe and fills in the recipe form for you: name, ingredients, quantities, units, yield, and instructions. You then pick the output product, check every line, and save. Scanning works on typed sheets, PDF cookbooks, and legible handwritten cards on the Standard and Pro plans.

What you'll need

A photo (JPG, PNG, or WEBP) or PDF of the recipe, up to about 15 MB. Clear text, even handwriting if legible.
An output product in mind (or the willingness to create one during review).
One available recipe slot. AI scanning doesn't bypass tier limits. Standard holds up to 50 recipes (Pro: Unlimited).

Photo quality decides most of the result. Anthropic's vision guide warns that its models can make mistakes on low-quality, rotated, or very small images. Lay the card flat, shoot it straight on in good light, and keep the whole recipe in the frame.

How it works

Open the Recipes page and tap Scan.
On the iPhone or Android app, the Scan Recipe chooser offers Take Photo, Choose from Gallery, and Upload File. A PDF goes through Upload File. On the web, Scan opens your file picker directly.
Rinvy sends the image to Claude (Anthropic's model) with the names of the products in your catalog, and extracts ingredients, quantities, units, and instructions. This takes a few seconds.
Rinvy saves the result as a draft at once, then opens it in Review scanned recipe, the regular recipe form with the fields pre-filled. Review every line: confirm ingredient matches, quantities, and units.
Set the output product and yield (these aren't always extractable from a recipe card).
Save.

Finish a scan later

A scan is saved as a draft before the form opens, so nothing is lost if you close the form, switch apps, or run out of time. Closing a draft never asks you to discard changes. The draft waits in the Needs review list at the top of the Recipes page, with a note on what still blocks the save, such as "2 ingredients not matched" or "No output product". Tap it to continue where you left off, or choose Discard from its menu. A scan you discard needs a new scan.

When a row says "Can't convert", tap Add conversion under the error. A small sheet opens over the form, for example "Feta is counted in bag. Your recipe uses cup." Enter how many cups are in one bag, or tap ⇄ to enter it the other way round, and tap Save conversion. The row's error clears, and the rest of the recipe stays as it was. You do not scan again, and you do not leave the recipe. Add conversion needs permission to edit products. Without it, save the draft and ask a manager to add the conversion on the product.

A kitchen can hold up to 50 drafts. At that number, a scan is refused until you finish or discard one.

What the AI extracts well

Ingredient names and quantities, when the recipe is typed or cleanly handwritten.
Standard units (cup, tbsp, lb, oz, gallon).
Multi-step instructions, paragraph by paragraph.

How does the scan turn "a pinch" or "2 to 3 cups" into numbers?

A pinch comes in as about 0.1 oz and "2 to 3 cups" as 3 cups, because the scan writes every amount as a decimal in one of Rinvy's units. Rinvy gives the model these rules for kitchen wording:

A fraction becomes a decimal: ½ cup comes in as 0.5 cup.
A range takes its higher number: "2 to 3 cups" comes in as 3 cups.
A stick of butter becomes 4 oz. Cloves, bunches, and slices become each.
A pinch or a dash becomes a small weight, around 0.1 oz.
A can becomes a #10 can, a #2 can, or a 3 kg can when the size is clear, otherwise each.
With no yield on the card, the scan estimates one from the ingredient amounts.

Watch ounces in particular. In Rinvy, oz is a weight and fl oz is a volume. The NIST conversion table makes the same split: it lists the ounce under mass (28.35 grams) and the fluid ounce under volume (29.57 milliliters). A card that says "8 oz milk" can come back as 8 oz by weight. Change the row to fl oz when the milk product is tracked by volume.

What you'll want to double-check

Ingredient matching. When a recipe ingredient matches one of your products, the scan uses your product's exact name and the row comes back matched. An ingredient with no match comes back blank, with the note From recipe: and the name as written on the card. Open the product list: the products that share a word with that name come first, and you can type to search the rest. Pick the matching product. If there is none, choose Create at the bottom of the list. It shows the name from the card, and the new product starts with that name.
Unit choice. "Salt to taste" has no amount, so the scan may skip the line or guess one. A unit that doesn't convert to the product's tracking unit blocks the save with a "Can't convert" error under the row. Review and override, or tap Add conversion under the error.
Yield. Recipe cards often say "serves 4" rather than "makes 4 quarts." The AI doesn't always pick the right yield number. Set it explicitly. If the scan's yield unit differs from the output product's unit, the form says so under Yield quantity, for example "Scan used gallon but this product is tracked in quart."
Sub-recipes. If a recipe references another recipe ("add 1 cup of marinara"), the AI lists marinara as an ingredient but can't match it to your existing marinara recipe automatically. Pick the right product (or sub-recipe output product) in review.

A marinara card, scanned

A handwritten card reads: "2–3 cups diced onion, 1 #10 can crushed tomatoes, 4 cloves garlic, a pinch of red pepper flakes. Makes 1 gallon." After the scan, Review scanned recipe shows onion at 3 cup, crushed tomatoes at 1 #10 can, garlic at 4 each, red pepper flakes at about 0.1 oz, and a yield of 1.

You pick Marinara (quart) as the output product. The form notes that the scan used gallon but the product is tracked in quart, so you change the yield from 1 to 4. Your onions are counted in lb, so the onion row shows "Can't convert cup to lb". You either enter the onion's weight in lb on the row, or tap Add conversion, weigh one cup of chopped onion, and enter it as 1 lb = [ ] cup. Then the recipe saves.

Costs and limits

AI scanning is gated to Standard tier and above. On Free, the Recipes page shows an upgrade note in place of scanning.
Each scan uses Claude API credits paid by Rinvy. There's no per-scan charge to you.
Scans are counted per kitchen over its local calendar month:
- Standard: 30 included, up to 60 recipe scans a month
- Pro: 100 included, up to 200 recipe scans a month
Past the included number, the Recipes page shows how many scans are left before scanning pauses. At the limit, a scan is refused until the count resets on the 1st or you upgrade.
A scan that runs longer than 2 minutes stops with "The recipe scan timed out. Please try again." Very large PDFs may time out.

Common mistakes

Skipping the review step

AI extraction is quick, but it makes mistakes. A wrong unit on a single ingredient can throw off food cost by 10×. Always read the ingredient list before saving.

Trying to scan a photo of a screen

Photographing a recipe on someone else's phone or laptop screen often produces glare and pixel artifacts that confuse the extraction. Use the original image or PDF if you can.

Scanning the same card again after closing the form

The scan is already saved as a draft. Open it from Needs review on the Recipes page instead of scanning again, which would use another of your monthly scans.

Expecting yield and output product to be auto-detected

Recipe cards rarely state yield in your output product's units. Set yield and output product manually after the AI populates everything else.