Behind every great meal...

The grocery list is the unsung hero of the kitchen. But the friction of creating it—the messy notes and forgotten items—often kills the joy of cooking. Opabinia creates that perfect list for you, turning friction into flow.

Using an iPhone?

Get notified when the iOS app is ready!

From Messy Recipe... to a Perfect List

See how Opabinia turns any inspiration into a perfectly organized list.

1. Find Your Inspiration

2. Scan It With The App

3. Get Your Perfect List

Shop Confidently, Cook Joyfully

Your perfect list makes shopping easy. See the delicious meals you can create.

From Inspiration to Dinner, Fast

Opabinia is your Recipe Enabler. Here's how you get back to the joy of cooking.

1. CAPTURE YOUR INSPIRATION

Turn Any Recipe Into One Smart List

Scan a photo, upload a screenshot, or paste messy text. Our smart technology instantly understands and extracts the ingredients, and our Smart Staging Area automatically merges duplicates from all your week's recipes into a single, efficient list.

2. SHOP WITH CONFIDENCE

Know Exactly What's Ready to Cook

As you shop, your list is alive. The Dynamic Recipe Coverage bar fills up with every item you check off, giving you the gamified satisfaction of knowing the moment a meal is 100% ready to go.

3. CELEBRATE THE PAYOFF

The Victorious Feast Awaits

End your trip to see a celebratory Last Trip Summary. No more guessing—you get instant confirmation of which amazing meals you're fully prepped to cook. The friction is conquered.

Built for the Way You Cook

Whether you're planning for a family or experimenting with new flavours, Opabinia adapts to you.

For the Busy Parent

Conquer the 5 PM scramble. Opabinia turns your weekly meal plan into a foolproof shopping list, eliminating that last-minute "I forgot the stock!" run. Enjoy calmer evenings and more time at the dinner table, not stressing in the grocery aisle.

For the Culinary Adventurer

You just found the perfect recipe. Don't let the hassle of typing out 20 ingredients kill your creative spark. Opabinia captures everything in seconds, so you can spend your energy on perfecting the flavour, not on tedious list-making.

For the Savvy Planner

End the tragedy of wilted herbs and stop re-buying your third jar of cumin. Opabinia helps you shop your pantry first and consolidates your list, reducing food waste and saving you money on every single trip.

Where the Joy of Cooking Gets Stuck

It's the mental juggling of what you already own. The tedious, manual typing of a dozen ingredients. The nagging fear of forgetting one critical item. This is what kills culinary motivation before you even preheat the oven.

Juggling Messy Notes

The mental juggling of recipes, inventory, and preferences that leads to errors and forgotten ingredients.

The Tedium of Typing Lists

The tedious, manual work of converting "I want to make lasagna" into a perfect, itemised shopping list.

Forgetting That One Thing

The hundreds of small choices that drain your energy before you even pick up a knife.

Simple, Honest Pricing

Start for free. Upgrade for more power when you need it.

The Starter Kit (Free)

All the essential features to start overcoming kitchen friction.

10 Smart Scans per day
Store up to 3 recipes
All core app features

The Ultimate Toolkit (Gold)

Unleash your full potential for ultimate peace of mind.

AU$3.99 / month

Unlimited Smart Scans & Recipes
Offline Mode for any location
Early access to new features

Download to Upgrade

Built for the Recipes You Already Love

We believe the best recipes are "battle-tested"—the ones from your favourite cookbook, a screenshot from a blog, or even your grandma's handwritten note.

Other apps lock you into their recipe database. We built Opabinia on a different idea: your app should work with *your* recipes, not the other way around.

As a sole developer, I created Opabinia to be a truly open cooking companion. It's built to handle any recipe from any source, so you can focus on the joy of cooking the meals you already trust.

— Mike Chiao, Founder

Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question? We've got answers.

Not at all. A notes app is a "dumb list"—it's a blank page that forces you to do all the work. Opabinia is a "smart list"—an active assistant. It uses AI to automatically extract ingredients from any recipe, merges duplicates from multiple recipes, and even knows what you might already have in your inventory. It's designed to offload the mental work of meal planning so you can focus on cooking.

Almost anything! You can use your phone's camera to scan a recipe from a cookbook, upload a screenshot from a website or social media, or simply paste in messy, unstructured text. Our smart technology is trained to handle a wide variety of formats to give you maximum flexibility.

The free version is designed to let you experience the core magic of the app. You can perform up to 10 smart scans per day and store a total of 3 recipes at a time. If you hit your recipe limit, you can simply delete an old one to make room for a new one.

Opabinia Gold is for those who want to fully eliminate kitchen friction. You get unlimited smart scans* and can save an unlimited number of recipes*. Gold also gives you full offline capabilities by storing more data on your device and grants you early access to powerful new features like Predictive Inventory and Shopping Trip History as they are released.

Currently, Opabinia is available exclusively for Android. As a sole developer, my focus has been on perfecting the experience on one platform first. An iOS version is definitely on the roadmap! You can sign up for the waitlist right on this page to be the first to know.

* "Unlimited" constitutes a fair use policy of up to 1,000 scans per day, which is more than enough for even the most dedicated home cooks.

Get Back to the Joy of Cooking

Spend less time planning and more time enjoying your meal. Download Opabinia and transform the most stressful part of cooking into your greatest strength.