Import a recipe from a URL

What it does

URL import fetches a public recipe page, extracts structure (title, ingredients, steps), and creates a new meal in your Galley after you review and confirm.

Credits

URL import costs 1 AI credit per job. Credits come from your organization balance. Failed automated fetches that return site blocked are refunded; a successful assisted retry (paste HTML / on-device capture) is a new 1-credit job.

Requirements

• HTTPS recipe webpage — Only https:// URLs that open a recipe page (ingredients and directions in HTML) are supported. This also protects against unsafe internal network requests.
• Not supported — Video links (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and similar) and non-recipe pages. Import needs readable recipe HTML, not a video player.
• Manual Galley entry always remains available if a link cannot be imported.

Processing and polling

Import runs asynchronously. After you submit a URL, the app shows processing and polls until extraction finishes or an error is returned. You then verify the extracted recipe and confirm to add it to Galley.

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 detects this as site blocked and guides you:

• Web — Open the recipe, copy the page HTML (or recipe text; keep under ~1MB), paste it into the import dialog, and extract (1 credit). Or add the meal manually.
• iOS — Ration tries loading the page on your device, then re-submits the HTML (1 credit if extraction starts). If that still fails, open in Safari and add the meal manually.

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