Is grocery price tracking available in Spendify now?
Not yet. This page describes something we are considering building, not a feature you can use today. If enough people tell us they want it, we will build it.
In development — not live yet
Track Grocery Price Changes From Your Receipts
So you know if that "deal" really is one
Prices shift week to week and store to store, and nobody remembers what milk cost a month ago. We're exploring using the same receipt photos you already take for your budget to build a price history per item, per store, automatically.
This isn't built yet. We're checking whether it's worth building before we spend months on it.
You Already Have the Data, You Just Can't See It
Every grocery receipt lists exactly what you paid for each item, that day, at that store. A month later, none of that is useful: it's a slip of paper in a drawer or a photo buried in your camera roll.
So you can't easily tell if a "special offer" is actually cheaper than what you paid last time, or whether the store across town is consistently a bit less expensive for the things you actually buy.
The information to answer that already exists on paper you're already throwing away.
How It Would Work
Spendify already reads a receipt item by item behind the scenes to find the total and VAT; it just doesn't keep the individual lines today. The idea is to keep them, and match repeat items over time.
Next time you buy the same thing again, anywhere, you'd see the price next to what you paid before, instead of having to remember. If it's suddenly cheaper or more expensive than your own history, that's a signal worth a second look, on its own, with nothing external to compare against.
Where This Could Go, With Enough Users
Your own price history is the realistic starting point: it works from your very first scanned receipt, nothing else required.
Comparing which store is cheapest for a specific product is a bigger step, honestly. It only means something once enough people in the same area are scanning receipts from different supermarkets, enough to compare real prices instead of a single data point. That's a scale problem, not a technical one, and it's not something we'd promise before it's actually true.
So: personal price history first, a cross-store buying guide later, only if the first part gets enough real use to make the second part honest.
Aren't There Apps For This Already?
Yes, and some are genuinely good at it, including ones that already attempt the community price-comparison angle. What we'd do differently isn't the price-tracking itself, it's not asking you to keep a second, separate app just for groceries.
The receipt you already scan for your budget or your YNAB export would be the same one building the price history, not a new habit on top of an existing one.
Frequently asked questions
How would it work?
Spendify already reads a receipt photo item by item to find the total and VAT. The idea is to also keep each individual item, so the next time you buy the same thing at the same store, or a different one, you can see whether the price went up or down.
Aren't there already apps that do this?
Yes, there are dedicated grocery price-tracking apps, and some are good. The difference we are exploring is not scanning receipts into a separate app just for groceries, but having the price history sit next to the same receipts you are already exporting to your budget or to YNAB, instead of keeping two apps for one stack of paper receipts.
Would it cost extra?
Not decided yet. It depends on whether the item-by-item extraction turns out to be accurate and useful enough to be worth shipping at all.
Which supermarkets would be supported?
Whatever supermarket is printed on your receipt. There is no fixed list of partner stores: it reads whatever the receipt says, the same way Spendify already reads merchant names today.
Would it tell me which supermarket has the best price for something?
Not at first, and we don't want to promise that before it's true. Your own price history works from day one with just your receipts. Comparing prices across different stores only makes sense once enough people nearby are scanning receipts from those stores too, so there's something real to compare. If that happens, it's a natural next step; it's not something we can offer on day one.
Just want your receipts as a spreadsheet today? See receipt-to-CSV, which already works.