Prepful
The iPhone's built-in ways to save a recipe
Nothing to install. Each one is good at one thing.
Safari Reading List. On the recipe page, tap Share, then Add to Reading List. You can also touch and hold a link and tap Add to Reading List without opening it. Find it again from Safari's bookmarks button. To keep pages readable without a connection, go to Settings > Apps > Safari and turn on Automatically Save Offline. It saves the page, ads and life story included, and the list gets long fast.
Safari bookmarks. Add Bookmark from the page menu and pick a folder, so a "Recipes" folder works. Same trade-off as the Reading List: you're saving the website, so you scroll past everything else on it each time you cook.
The Notes app. Tap Share, then Notes, and the page is added to a new or existing note as an attachment. Handy for a running "Recipes to try" note, but the note holds the link, and you still open the website to read the recipe.
A screenshot, plus Live Text. The fastest way to grab a recipe from anywhere, including a TikTok caption or an Instagram post. Live Text lets you copy the words out of a photo later: open the screenshot in Photos, tap the Live Text button, then touch and hold the text to copy it. It needs an iPhone XS or newer and isn't available in every language. The catch is finding that screenshot again among a thousand others.
A full-page PDF. In Safari, take a screenshot, tap Full Page, then save it as a PDF to the Files app. It keeps the whole recipe page in one file, which is useful for a recipe you're afraid will disappear.
Apple News+ Food. If you pay for Apple News+ ($12.99 a month in the US after a free month), the News app has a recipe catalog where you tap Save on a recipe and find it under Saved Recipes. It has a cook mode with large steps and the screen kept on. It works with recipes from its own catalog; Apple doesn't offer a way to add a recipe from a website, TikTok, or Instagram.
| Method | Saves the ingredients as text | Works for TikTok and Instagram | Turns into a shopping list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading List or bookmarks | Only inside the web page | No, it saves the link | No |
| Notes | No, it saves the page as an attachment | Only as a link | No |
| Screenshot + Live Text | As a picture, copyable with Live Text | Yes, if the recipe is on screen | No |
| Full-page PDF | As a file | No | No |
| Apple News+ Food | Yes, for its own recipes | No | Sends one recipe's ingredients to Reminders |
| Prepful | Yes, as a written ingredient list | Yes, from a link or a screenshot | Yes, one list for the whole week |
Save any recipe from the Share button
Works in Safari, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. About ten seconds.
Open the recipe: a page in Safari, or a video or post in TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.
Tap Share. In apps with their own share menu, look for More or the iPhone share option to open the share sheet.
Choose Prepful from the row of apps.
Prepful pulls out the ingredients and steps and saves them as a written recipe, with a link back to the original.
Don't see Prepful in the share sheet? Scroll the row of apps to the end, tap More, then Edit, and tap the green + next to Prepful. You only do this once per iPhone.
Rather paste a link? Copy it, then open Prepful and go to Recipes > Add > Import a Recipe. Platform details are in the guides for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and any website.
Turn your recipe screenshots into recipes
For the camera roll you already have, plus cookbook pages and handwritten cards.
Open Prepful and go to Recipes > Add > Upload a Photo.
Pick the screenshots for one recipe, up to six at a time (ingredients on one, steps on the next is fine), or take a photo of the page.
Prepful reads the text in the pictures and writes out the ingredients and steps.
Check the amounts, then save. Delete the screenshots if you like; the recipe is now text.
More tips for blurry photos and handwriting in how to save recipes from a photo.
Recipes someone texted you
If a recipe arrives as a block of text in Messages, an email, or one of those old notes, press and hold to copy it, then go to Recipes > Add > Paste a Recipe. Prepful sorts it into ingredients and steps, so it lands in the same searchable list as everything else. The same works for a recipe ChatGPT wrote for you; see how to save recipes from ChatGPT.
Then actually cook it
Saving is the easy half. Put a few saved recipes on days this week and their ingredients go onto one shopping list, with repeats combined. See how to meal plan with the recipes you've saved, how to make a grocery list from recipes, and how to organize the recipes you already have.
If it doesn't work
Prepful needs iOS 16.4 or later. A link won't import if the post is private, has been removed, or never contains the recipe (a finished-dish video with "recipe in comments"). In that case, screenshot the recipe wherever it is and use Upload a Photo, or copy the text and use Paste a Recipe. Prepful is also on Android and the web, and your recipes are the same everywhere you sign in. On Android too? See how to save recipes on Android. Cooking from an iPad? See how to save recipes on iPad.
Comparing recipe apps? See the best apps to save recipes from social media.