Need a hand?

Aubergenie is for iPhone, iPad and Mac, and needs iOS, iPadOS or macOS 26.4 or later (Settings › General › About shows your version; on a Mac, About This Mac). Aubergenie is in beta, free to try through TestFlight, Apple's app for trying apps before they reach the App Store. We're letting people in a few at a time, because each tester's AI recipes cost us to write, so tell us a little about what you cook. Bringing your own recipes with the AI switched off is just as welcome.

Ask to try the beta

A beta is a version of the app that's finished enough to use but still being tested, and TestFlight is Apple's free app for trying apps before they reach the App Store. If we offer you a place, Apple emails you an invitation: install TestFlight, open the link, tap Install, and Aubergenie appears on your Home Screen like any other app. Each test build lasts up to 90 days and is replaced by newer ones. Your recipes are in your own iCloud the whole time, so nothing you add is tied to the beta.

BRGNDY LTD, a small company in London: one cook who wanted the family's recipes in one place, and who reads every email sent to support@aubergenieapp.com.

No. Aubergenie is made for iPhone, iPad and Mac. You can still send anyone a recipe as a picture or as text, whatever they use.

Testing it is free. Prices for the App Store aren't set yet; when they are, this page will say. Adding, cooking, shopping for and sharing your own recipes need no account and never use the AI allowance.

Only for the parts Aubergenie writes for you: Add from Photo, Create a Recipe, Tidy it up on a website import, and Change This Recipe. Those use Sign in with Apple, which is the only sign-in; Hide My Email works fine, and the app never emails you. Those four send what you give them to Aubergenie's server, where Anthropic's Claude writes the recipe; the privacy policy says exactly what travels. Adding your own recipes, importing websites as written, planning, shopping, cooking and sharing all work without an account.

Tap + in Recipes. Under Ask Aubergenie are Add from Photo (a recipe card, a cookbook page or the dish itself) and Create a Recipe (describe what you fancy). Under More ways to add are Import from Website (paste a link) and Write My Own. On a Mac, the same four are in the File menu, plus Open Recipe File… for a .recipe file someone sent.

Nothing is saved until you tap Save, so you can look a recipe over, change it, or leave it.

Yes. Add from Photo takes a photograph of a handwritten card, a typed card or a cookbook page and copies the recipe out as written, amounts and all, for you to check and correct before you save. Clear writing in good light reads best; faint pencil or very joined-up writing may need a few corrections on the review screen. Each photo uses one new recipe from your allowance, and you need to be signed in with Apple.

Not directly yet. Aubergenie opens its own .recipe files and .zip exports of them; other apps' export files aren't read. What works today for a recipe from elsewhere: paste the website link it came from, photograph the printed or handwritten page, or write it in yourself.

Yes. Change the servings on a recipe and every amount follows, in the recipe, in Cook Mode and on the shopping list. It happens on your device and never uses your allowance.

The AI is switched off. Turn on the Aubergenie AI switch at the top of Settings (the person icon at the top right of Recipes; on a Mac, Aubergenie › Settings…). With it off, + offers Import from Website and Write My Own, and everything else works as usual.

Settings › Account › Plan & Usage shows your plan, what's left of it this period, and when it resets. New recipes (Create a Recipe, Add from Photo, and websites Aubergenie reads for you) and Aubergenie edits (Change This Recipe) are counted separately.

Only results Aubergenie finishes count, never a request that fails or is declined. Changing servings, reopening or saving a recipe never counts. A result you discard still counts. Writing and editing yourself, importing a website that publishes its recipe, shopping lists, Cook Mode and timers never use your allowance.

Not on its own. Recipes Aubergenie writes or changes are written to avoid the allergies, diet and dislikes you save under Settings › Cooking Preferences, but AI can make mistakes, so if you have an allergy, check every ingredient and label yourself. A recipe you import keeps its own ingredients. Aubergenie's allergen check matches words in the ingredient list: it never says a dish is safe, and it cannot see an allergen that is not named (peanuts inside "satay sauce", for example). Cooking preferences stay on the device you set them on, so set them on each device you use.

Most recipe sites publish their recipe in a standard form behind the page, and that is copied on your device, exactly as written, with no account. For a page that doesn't, Aubergenie offers to read the page for you; it asks first, because that uses one new recipe from your allowance, and the offer appears only with Aubergenie AI on. If the site gives no nutrition and Aubergenie AI is on, your device estimates it with Apple's on-device model; treat that figure as an estimate.

If an import fails, the page usually has no recipe in it, needs a sign-in, or blocks automated requests. Try the recipe's own page rather than a search or category page.

Keep as written imports the recipe just as its creator published it, free and on your device. Tidy it up asks Aubergenie for cleaner steps with the same ingredients and timings; it needs an account and uses one new recipe. Either way the link to the original stays with the recipe.

Good light and the whole card or page in frame help most. A photograph of a written recipe is copied out; a photograph of a dish gets Aubergenie's take on how to make it, and it may first ask whether it has the dish right, which is free. Check a dish recipe before you rely on it. On a Mac, Add from Photo takes a photo from your library or a file; there is no camera.

A request that fails or that Aubergenie declines uses nothing from your allowance, and you can try again. If the connection dropped after a recipe was finished, reopening the same request within about two hours recovers it without using your allowance twice.

In Cook Mode, tap the time in a step to start its timer. The first time, iOS asks whether Aubergenie may use alarms; allow it so timers ring when the app is closed or your iPhone is locked. If you said no, turn it on in the iPhone's Settings app under Aubergenie. Timers show on the Lock Screen and, on iPhones that have one, in the Dynamic Island. On a Mac, timers come through Notification Centre, so allow notifications there.

Timers keep running. Start cooking again on the same device within a few hours and Aubergenie picks up at the step you left.

Plan shows your week as a day (what to cook or eat next) and as a week (which nights you cook). Put a recipe or a typed meal on a day, and leftovers are placed on the days they'll be eaten. Plan My Week suggests a week from the recipes you've saved; keep the suggestions you like. It is worked out on your device, from your own recipes, and uses no AI. Add to Shopping List puts the week's ingredients on your list.

Yes, when the same Apple Account is signed in with iCloud on for Aubergenie: the shopping list and the plan follow you between your own devices through your iCloud account, and your recipes sync through your private iCloud database. Your cooking preferences stay on each device. Settings › Where Things Are Kept shows whether iCloud is active.

Check both devices are signed in to the same Apple Account with iCloud on for Aubergenie, then give it a moment. The shopping list and plan arrive the same way. If a device shows "iCloud off" under Where Things Are Kept, turn iCloud on for Aubergenie in the device's Settings.

Open the recipe, tap Share, then Send Recipe. It goes wherever you send it (AirDrop, Messages, Mail, WhatsApp, Files). Someone with Aubergenie opens the file and chooses Save Recipe. For anyone else, Share as Image or Copy as Text.

Your name goes with a recipe only if you set it up under Settings › Sharing › Your Name on Recipes and switch on Include My Name when you share. It starts off.

A .recipe file needs Aubergenie to open. If they have it and it still says the recipe can't be opened, the file was damaged on the way: send it again. If it says the recipe needs a newer version, update Aubergenie. The file format is open; see the Recipe File.

No. Aubergenie sends the recipe itself, so nothing depends on a website or an account. The file holds the recipe, where it came from and its photograph, and never your notes, ratings, cooking history or account.

Settings › Your Recipes › Recently Deleted keeps it for 30 days, on the device you deleted it on, with its photo, notes and history.

Settings › Your Recipes › Export All Recipes makes one .zip of recipe files, each with its photo, which you can keep anywhere. Import Recipe Files brings an export or individual files back, and shows you what will be added first.

Your recipes, shopping list and plan are on your devices and in your own iCloud, which we cannot read. Our server holds your account record and sign-in sessions, a record of each AI request (what ran, when, and whether it counted, never what you sent), and a finished recipe for up to two hours so a dropped connection doesn't lose it. The privacy policy spells out the rest, and privacy choices lists every control in one place.

Your recipes are yours either way. They live on your devices and in your own iCloud, not on our server, and everything except the AI features works without our server at all. Settings › Your Recipes › Export All Recipes gives you every recipe as an ordinary file in an open, published format (the Recipe File), with its photo, which any app can choose to read.

That's Safari's default: Tab moves between fields and skips links. Press Option-Tab to reach every link and button, or turn on Safari › Settings › Advanced › "Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage".