PictureThis
An app that names a plant from a photo and tells you how to care for it.
What PictureThis does
PictureThis identifies plants, flowers, trees and weeds from a photo. It also checks sick plants for problems, gives care guides, and can remind you to water. It's free to download, with a Pro subscription for the full set of tools. It works on iPhone and Android.
PictureThis is one of the best-known plant ID apps, with over a million App Store ratings. You point your camera at a leaf, a flower or the whole plant, and it gives you a name, photos to compare, and a page on how that plant likes to live: light, water, soil and so on.
Beyond naming plants, it leans hard into care. You can photograph a sick plant to get a guess at what's wrong and how to treat it, save your plants to a collection, use a light meter, and set watering reminders. The store listing also mentions toxic plant warnings and help with weeds. Some of these tools sit behind the Pro subscription, and independent reviewers say the app pushes upgrades and diagnosis upsells.
Testers have found it confident even when it's wrong, often giving one answer with no alternatives. Treat its ID as a starting point, and never rely on it (or any app) to decide whether a plant is safe to eat or touch. If you mostly want houseplant care, it's a strong all-in-one. If you want free, careful IDs of wild plants, PlantNet or Flora Incognita are calmer picks.
Alternatives to PictureThis
Who it's for
Skip it if: Anyone who wants a fully free app with no upsells. People who like to compare several ranked suggestions.
Pricing
Free planYou can download it and identify plants for free. For the full toolkit you need PictureThis Pro, which starts with a free trial. The App Store lists Pro options between $3.99 and $39.99 and a Family Plan at $49.99, but doesn't say which period each one covers.
Prices can vary by country. Checked 19 Oct 2026.
What people like
- Very easy to use
- Care info goes deep, not just a name
- Diagnosis tool for sick plants
- Mature app that gets updated often
Watch out for
- Frequent prompts to pay for Pro
- Can sound certain when it's wrong
- Reminders and some tools need a subscription
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Questions people ask
Is PictureThis free?
You can download it and identify plants for free. Care reminders and other extra tools need PictureThis Pro, a paid subscription with a free trial.
Can PictureThis tell me if a plant is safe to eat?
No. Use it to learn a plant's name, not to decide if something is safe to eat or touch. ID apps get things wrong, so check with a local expert.
Does PictureThis help with sick plants?
Yes. You can photograph a problem like spots or yellow leaves and it suggests what might be wrong and how to treat it.
Does PictureThis work on Android?
Yes. It's on both the App Store and Google Play.