Batch Cooking vs mAIChef
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Batch Cooking
Plan and execute efficient batch cooking sessions. This app generates a cooking timeline based on your available kitchen appliances and dietary needs, ensuring all meals are prepared with minimal effort. It also creates organized grocery lists and provides clear instructions for storing and reheating your pre-made meals.
- Automated cooking timeline generation
- Appliance-specific cooking instructions
- Personalized dietary and allergy filters
- Smart grocery list creation
- Dish storage and reheating guidance
- Household profile management
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Batch cooking, planned properly. Pick your dishes. The app works out the order to cook them in, so the oven and the hob run while your hands are busy with something else. COOK ONCE, EAT FOR DAYS One session. One shopping trip. A fridge and freezer full of real meals, portioned and labelled, for the rest of the week. A TIMELINE, NOT A LIST OF RECIPES Most apps hand you three recipes and let you work it out. This one merges them into a single timeline: chop everything once at the start, get the longest dish going first, and use the simmering and baking time for the next thing. You always know what to do next and what is cooking unattended. HONEST TIMINGS We tell you how long a session will take as a range, not a single number, and we show you what that estimate assumes: your burners, your oven, how many people are cooking. Washing up is counted, not quietly left out. Tell us what the session actually took and the next estimate gets closer. BUILT AROUND YOUR KITCHEN Tell us what you have: burners, oven, slow cooker, air fryer, pressure cooker. We will never hand you a step your kitchen cannot do. ONE PLAN FOR A HOUSEHOLD THAT EATS DIFFERENTLY One vegetarian among meat eaters. Someone who will not touch mushrooms. Set it once per person and every plan respects all of it, together, in the same session. QUANTITIES THAT MAKE SENSE Amounts are scaled for the batch you are actually cooking and split correctly between the dishes that share them, so one recipe never swallows the whole week's shopping. Nothing rounds to half an egg. Pots have a size and we respect it. LABEL EVERY BOX Every dish comes with fridge or freezer, how many days it keeps, and how to reheat it without ruining it. Eat them in the right order, most perishable first. A SHOPPING LIST THAT MATCHES One list for one trip, in your units, grouped by aisle, with anything already in your pantry marked off. ALSO IN THE APP โข Up to 10 household profiles, each with its own diet, allergies and dislikes โข Meal plans for 1, 3 or 7 days, in any mix of cuisines โข A pantry tracker, and a mode that plans with what you already have โข Your own recipes, saved and added to any plan โข A leftovers list that every finished session fills for you โข Streaks, challenges and badges to build the habit SUBSCRIPTION Batch Cook Premium is available monthly or yearly. Both include a 3-day free trial for new subscribers. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in Settings > your name > Subscriptions. Terms of Use: https://creativeadventureslab.notion.site/Terms-of-Use-What-to-Eat-3549f4ad1ce9801b8a5ec1f1f4d3ec43?pvs=74 Privacy Policy: https://creativeadventureslab.notion.site/Privacy-Policy-What-To-Eat-3549f4ad1ce98050963dc0507c91a98c?pvs=74 Apple Standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
mAIChef
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You know the feeling at six o'clock: the fridge is not empty, and there is still nothing to eat. mAIChef takes it from there. Say what you feel like โ or photograph the fridge โ and you get a recipe built around your diet, your equipment and the time you actually have. Not a recipe someone else wrote for someone else. ASK IN YOUR OWN WORDS Type it, dictate it, or take a photo. "Something with the chicken and the courgettes, thirty minutes, no dairy." The recipe arrives in about twenty seconds, with a photo of the dish. IT READS YOUR FRIDGE Up to five photos at once. It names what it sees โ down to the butter next to the bread โ and you cook from what is already there. NUTRITION THAT IS COUNTED, NOT GUESSED Calories and macros are computed from the ingredient list against a food database, with a breakdown per ingredient. Set calorie or macro targets and the plan is built to them. A WEEK OF MEALS, PLANNED Breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, up to seven days, each with its time and its calories. One shopping list for the whole week, grouped by aisle, that knows what is already in your cupboard. BATCH PREP โ COOK ONCE, EAT ALL WEEK Pick four dishes and mAIChef works out the order: which oven, which pan, which step goes while something else roasts. Then it runs the session with you โ one step at a time, timers going, nothing forgotten. Four recipes in about an hour, instead of four evenings. COOK MODE Big type, hands-free voice, screen stays awake, timers per step. IT LEARNS WHAT YOU LIKE Rate what you cook. mAITaste picks up the cuisines, the ingredients and the effort level you keep coming back to, and the suggestions follow. NINE LANGUAGES English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese โ the recipes too, not only the buttons. FREE โข 10 AI recipes a month โข Save up to 100 recipes โข One 3-day meal plan a month โข One photo analysis a month โข Nutrition on every recipe โข Voice input, dark mode PREMIUM โข 150 AI recipes a month โข Save up to 10,000 โข 7-day plans, up to six meals a day โข 30 photo analyses a month, five photos each โข Batch prep sessions โข Shopping lists and pantry โข Recipe tuning and cook mode โข High-quality photos on every recipe Cancel any time. Your recipes stay yours. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: mAIChef at every 3 days against Batch Cooking's fortnightly. mAIChef also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.5). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Batch Cooking sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and mAIChef sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Batch Cooking ships an update fortnightly, mAIChef every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Batch Cooking | mAIChef |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | โ |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 3 days โ better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | โ |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 26.5 | 15.0 โ better |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 230 MB | 55 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CREATIVE ADVENTURES LAB | CS CONTROLCOM |
In-app purchases
Batch Cooking
- What to Eat - Monthly3 Days trial$5.991 Month
- What to Eat - Yearly3 Days trial$34.991 Year
mAIChef
- Premium Monthly$4.991 Month
- Premium Annual$44.991 Year
- 33 Photo Credits$0.99
- 50 Photo Credits$0.99
- 20 Recipe Credits$1.00
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- 50 Recipe Credits$1.99
- 100 Photo Credits$3.00
- 100 Recipe Credits$4.00









