Frequently Asked Questions

AlcoLog is a private alcohol tracking app for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Android. It helps you track your drinks, monitor units, calories, and cost in real time, gives you a personalized health score through the AlcoScore system, with a live BAC estimate on Android. It includes smart alerts and medication tracking on both platforms; on iPhone it adds over 30 home screen and lock screen widgets and 16 Apple Watch complications. It is designed to be private, powerful, and easy to use.

Yes, the core app is completely free on both iOS and Android. You get full drink logging, session tracking, and history at no cost, plus live BAC estimation on Android. No account required. For those who want more, Premium ($9.99/month) adds favorites, extra widgets, location tools, receipt and menu scanning, the session map, CSV and PDF export, the watch apps for Apple Watch and Wear OS, custom app icons, and other enhancements. Premium is available on both iOS and Android.

No. AlcoLog has no sign-up, no login, and no account. Just download the app and start tracking straight away. Your personal data is stored on your device and never reaches our servers.

Yes, lots. Many new features are planned, and the app will keep being supported and improved, with new features released regularly.

AlcoLog is available on iPhone (iOS 26+) and Apple Watch (watchOS 26+), and on Android phones (Android 9 and up) and Wear OS watches via Google Play. Both platforms have the Free and Premium tiers, and the watch app requires Premium on either. iPad support is not currently available.

Yes. AlcoLog is on Google Play for Android 9 and up, with a Wear OS watch app for devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch and Pixel Watch. The Android app takes the same private, on-device, no-account approach as iPhone, with drink and session tracking, AlcoScore, live BAC estimation, Health Connect sync, location tagging, barcode and photo recognition, home screen widgets, and reminders. It is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), and Russian, and has the Free and Premium tiers. The two apps share the same core features, with two differences: Sober Mode is on iPhone only for now, and BAC estimation is on Android only.

Open the app and tap Start Session. From there, log drinks with just a few taps. Your live session timer, units, calories, and cost all update in real time as you add drinks.

You can also tap the camera button on the Add Drink form to identify a drink from a photo. The photo is processed entirely on your device, using Apple's Vision framework on iOS and Google ML Kit on Android, never uploaded, and the app surfaces drink-type and size guesses for you to confirm before logging.

Premium users can point the same camera at the bar's drinks menu and crop to the line they ordered. AlcoLog reads the drink and the price that venue charges, on your device, ready for you to confirm.

When you are done, end the session to save it to your history.

Yes. AlcoLog supports logging for 7 medications including Naltrexone and Gabapentin. Features include dose logging, redose timers, and location-based reminders. The medication tracking is built with the Sinclair Method in mind. As always, follow your doctor's guidance for any medication decisions.

Over 30 widgets across small, medium, and large sizes for your iPhone home screen and lock screen. On top of that, there are 19 native Apple Watch complications and controls covering circular, corner, rectangular, and inline families. Widgets are available on both Free and Premium on iOS. Android has its own home screen widgets too.

Yes. All tracking is done locally on your device. No internet connection is required to log drinks, view your history, check your AlcoScore, or use any core feature. The app works fully offline.

When you scan a barcode, AlcoLog looks up the product in public alcohol and nutrition databases to auto-fill the ABV (alcohol by volume) and calories. This saves you from typing those values in manually.

Most databases are queried directly from your phone. One database, FatSecret, cannot be called directly from a phone for technical reasons, so Premium users' scans are sent through our server, which queries FatSecret on your behalf and returns the result.

What we don't do: we don't log which barcodes you've personally scanned, and we don't link scans to your account or device. The server keeps a short-lived cache of barcode to product data (to save our own quota with FatSecret), but it contains no user identifier of any kind.

What happens when a product isn't found: some alcoholic drinks aren't yet in any public database, especially smaller regional or craft brands. When that happens, the app shows you the product name we did find (if any) and lets you type in the ABV once. Your entry is saved locally on your device only, so the next time you scan the same product it auto-fills instantly without another lookup.

For full details on which databases are queried, see the Privacy Policy.

First launch walks you through a short setup, and one question shapes the rest of your experience: what brings you here? You pick from five goal types (cut back, stay under a limit, build sober days, quit entirely, or just track) and that becomes your Your Goal card on the AlcoScore screen. Quit entirely turns on Sober Mode, which counts alcohol-free days instead of drinks, and setup shows everyone how to switch between Tracking Mode and Sober Mode with a swipe on Home. You can change your goal any time later in Settings. The onboarding runs once on its own, and you can replay it from Settings, then AlcoLog Tutorials. If you pick "Just track," no Your Goal card appears and the rest of the app works exactly the same.

AlcoScore is a proprietary health scoring system that rates your drinking habits from 0 to 100. It evaluates six pillars: frequency, intensity, trend, control, behavior, and recovery. The score uses a rolling 28-day window so it always reflects your recent habits. The Your Goal card lives on the same screen, separate from the score, so your weekly progress toward whichever goal you picked during onboarding is visible at a glance without the goal ever influencing the score itself. AlcoScore is an informational tool, not a clinical assessment.

A card on your AlcoScore screen, directly under the score dial and above LAST SESSION. It shows your weekly progress toward whichever goal you picked during onboarding. The card has different states depending on your goal type: a running progress card with a 7-day strip for this week (cut back, stay under a limit, build sober days), a hero for the quit goal showing "DAY", your day count and the date you started, and celebration cards when you hit a milestone. Tap the running card to see your last four weeks in Goal History. The achievement card appears after four consecutive weeks under your cap, or four weeks at your dry-day target for Build sober days. Quit-goal milestones trigger at Day 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 180, 365, and 730 sober. Tap any celebration card to open a reflection sheet with confetti and your stats over the achievement window.

Settings, then Goal. The same picker used during onboarding lets you switch goal types or adjust your target. Your alcohol-free start date is set in Settings, then App Mode, under "Alcohol-free since". Changes apply immediately and don't affect your AlcoScore. If you want to stop seeing the Your Goal card altogether, pick "Just track" and the card disappears from the AlcoScore screen.

AlcoScore is calculated from your drinking patterns over a rolling 28-day window across six weighted pillars. Your goal sits alongside the score as a parallel encouragement surface, not as a seventh pillar. We designed it this way so that changing your goal, hitting a milestone, or missing a target never moves your score. The score reflects your behavior. The goal reflects your intent. Keeping them separate lets each one tell its own honest story.

The quit goal runs in Sober Mode, where drink logging is switched off. If you have a drink, tap "Had a drink? Tell AlcoLog." on Home. That day is marked in your History, your count starts again the next day, and your best streak and your total stay. There is no shame text and no negative pill. If you'd rather change goal type after a slip (for example, switching to "Build sober days"), Settings, then Goal lets you do that. Your existing history, including the dates you were sober before the slip, stays exactly as it was.

During an active session, AlcoLog shows an estimated Blood Alcohol Content. It is computed entirely on your device from your logged drinks, your body weight, and your biological sex, using the Widmark formula. The estimate updates live on your Home screen and rises and falls as the session goes on. It is a personal-awareness estimate, not a measurement, and not medical or legal advice. Estimate only. Don't drive.

It is an estimate, and you should treat it as one. Real blood alcohol depends on many factors the app cannot know, including how much you have eaten, your metabolism, medications, hydration, health conditions, and the timing and exact strength of what you drank. The number AlcoLog shows can be higher or lower than your actual blood alcohol at any moment. Never rely on it to make decisions. Estimate only. Don't drive.

No. Absolutely not. BAC Estimation cannot tell you whether you are safe or legal to drive, and it is never compared to any legal limit. It is a personal-awareness estimate only. If you have been drinking, do not drive. Estimate only. Don't drive.

Yes. On Android, BAC Estimation is free: the live estimate and the optional threshold alert cost nothing. BAC Estimation is not available on iPhone.

Yes. Your BAC estimate is computed on your device and stays there. There is no account and the estimate is never shared. As with the rest of AlcoLog, your data never reaches our servers.

Your personal and identifiable data never reaches our servers. There is no account, no cloud sync, and no third-party data sharing. With Premium, an optional daily backup goes to your own iCloud, which we cannot read. If you choose to opt in to anonymous data sharing (off by default), AlcoLog sends stripped-down, anonymized session statistics to our own servers to help improve the app. These summaries never include your name, location, exact dates, or anything that could identify you. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes. Free users can export their last 10 sessions and their 10 most recent Sober Mode days to CSV. Premium unlocks unlimited CSV export and PDF reports for a more polished record. Exports can be shared or saved however you like.

Anonymous data sharing is an optional, off-by-default feature. When enabled, AlcoLog sends anonymized session summaries to our own servers. This includes general information like drink types, unit and calorie estimates, session duration, day of week, hour, cost data, your AlcoScore, and whether notifications are turned on (on/off only). It never includes your name, exact dates, location, medication names, device identifiers, or anything personally identifiable. You can enable or disable it at any time in Settings. If you opt out, or tap Delete Anonymous Data, your anonymous data is deleted from our servers immediately; a deletion request sent by email is completed within 30 days. See our Privacy Policy for the complete list of what is and is not collected.

Yes. Premium Monthly and Premium Yearly include a 14-day free trial for new subscribers, so you can experience the full Premium tier (Apple Watch companion, 30+ widgets, 7 alternate app icons, 50 saved locations, detailed AlcoScore insights) before paying anything. Cancel anytime during the trial and you won't be charged. Premium Lifetime is a one-time purchase and has no trial, but the Free tier covers all core drink tracking, AlcoScore, session history, and the calendar heatmap so you can try AlcoLog thoroughly before deciding whether to upgrade. Lifetime products are one-time purchases and do not include a trial.

Free gives you complete drink tracking, session history, AlcoScore, Apple Health sync, basic widgets, and all core features. Premium ($9.99/month) adds favorites, the full location system (drink tagging, saved locations, session triggers, Home Location, and the session map), the barcode, receipt and menu scanners, a currency for any drink, location-based medication reminders, extra alerts and widgets, CSV and PDF export, a daily iCloud backup of all your data, the full Apple Watch app with all complications, custom app icons, 50 saved locations, and premium themes. There is one paid tier: the old Pro tier was merged into Premium in v1.2.0, and nothing was lost in the merge.

No. The location features (drink location tagging, saved locations, session triggers, and Home Location) became paid features in version 1.0.7, but existing users who already had them keep them free. The change only applies to new installs.

Subscriptions are managed through the App Store on iPhone and Google Play on Android. On your iPhone, go to Settings, tap your Apple ID, then tap Subscriptions. On Android, open Google Play and go to your subscriptions. From there you can manage or cancel your AlcoLog subscription at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period.

First, make sure both your iPhone and Apple Watch are signed into the same Apple ID and that Bluetooth is enabled on your iPhone. Confirm the AlcoLog Watch app is installed by checking the Watch app on your iPhone. If issues persist, try restarting both devices. This resolves most connectivity problems.

There is no single reset switch. To remove a session, tap and hold it in History, then tap Delete Session. This cannot be undone. To erase everything, delete AlcoLog from your iPhone: your data is stored on the device and goes with the app. Drinks already written to Apple Health stay there until you delete them in the Health app. If you use the Premium iCloud backup, reinstalling offers to restore it, and you can tap Start Fresh instead.

We would love to hear from you! Get in touch via our contact form (pick "General Feedback & Feature Request"), or use the in-app feedback option found in Settings. Every piece of feedback is read and helps shape the future of AlcoLog.

Not a bug, a coverage limit. Alcoholic drinks are patchily covered in public product databases, especially regional or craft brands. We query four databases per scan to maximize hits, but some products simply aren't in any of them yet. When that happens the app lets you type the ABV once and remembers it on your device.