Ration

Import a recipe (URL, social, or photo)

What it does

Recipe import extracts structure (title, ingredients, steps) from a website URL, a social video URL (TikTok / Instagram / YouTube), or a photo / screenshot, then creates a new meal in your Galley after you review and confirm.

URL imports follow a completeness ladder: full recipe → partial skeleton (ingredient names / steps without full quantities) → link holder (meal name from metadata + source URL saved). Holders are last-resort after captions, native transcripts, and spoken-audio transcription have been tried on social videos. You always leave with something to review for URL lanes—never an empty dead-end.

Credits

Each import costs 3 AI credits (premium — external fetch/transcript plus Gemini). Credits come from your organization balance. Holder and skeleton successes are completed jobs (no refund)—you received a meal. Hard infra failures (auth, credits, invalid URL) still refund when applicable. A successful assisted retry (paste HTML / on-device capture / photo) is a new 3-credit job.

Supported sources

  • Recipe websites — HTTPS pages with ingredients and directions. If a publisher blocks bots, Ration still saves a link-holder meal you can open later; you can also paste page HTML (web) or reload on-device (iOS).
  • Social posts — TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube (including Shorts). Ration pulls platform metadata (including Supadata title/description), then native captions, then spoken-audio ASR (mode=generate) when the caption is still too thin. A partial meal (ingredient names without amounts, or steps only) is a successful import; a link holder is used only after that ladder. On iOS, use Share → Ration from the social app — the share sheet URL and any caption text are forwarded. Status shows Listening to the video… while transcribing.
  • Photos / screenshots — Upload a clear image of a recipe card, cookbook page, or caption.

Manual Galley entry always remains available.

Processing and polling

Import runs asynchronously. After you submit, the app shows processing (including Listening to the video… for social ASR) and polls until extraction finishes. You then verify the extracted recipe (badge: Full / Partial / Saved link, plus evidence chips such as “From spoken audio”) and confirm to add it to Galley. Meals keep customFields.sourceUrl so View source opens the original page or video.

When nutrition is enabled, Ration prefers a USDA match for ingredients; AI nutrient estimates (labelled, not verified until you edit) apply only when nutrition AI estimate is also on for this AI ingest path. Review nutrition before relying on day totals—see Nutrition overview.

Duplicate URLs

If that recipe URL was already imported for your organization, Ration returns a duplicate error (you may see this immediately or when the job finishes). Use the existing meal or edit it instead of re-importing.

When sites block automated import

Some publishers block server-side downloads with bot protection. Ration still prefers a saved-link holder so you keep the URL. Optional recovery:

  • Web — Open the recipe, copy the page HTML (or recipe text; keep under ~1MB), paste it into the import dialog, and extract (3 credits). Or add the meal manually. If photo import is enabled, you can also import from a screenshot.
  • iOS — Ration may try loading the page on your device, then re-submit the HTML (3 credits if extraction starts). You can also open in Safari, edit the holder meal, or use a screenshot when photo import is on.

If pricing shows a different credit cost, trust the pricing page.