Practical help for the week ahead.

Get started with your household

Start small: add a few recipes, plan one or two dinners, generate a shopping list, then cook from the plan. You do not need to set up every feature before your first week.

1. Create a household, or join one with the six-character invite code from someone you trust.
2. Add a recipe by importing a URL, pasting recipe text or using one of the sample recipes.
3. In Planner, add dinners for the week. Use Fill empty dinners if you want a quick starting point.
4. Generate your shopping list, then check items off as you shop.

Household recipes, plans, lists, stock and some member settings are shared with every member. Only join a household with people you are happy to share that information with.

Importing recipes (and blocked sites)

You can import a recipe from a web link or paste its plain text. The app extracts ingredients, steps and useful planning details, but you should check the result before cooking.

• Use a link first. Paste the recipe URL into Import recipe.
• If it is blocked, paste the recipe text. Some sites block automated access; pasted text is the reliable fallback.
• Check the important fields. Review ingredients, quantities, servings, dietary flags, timings and steps before saving.
• Fix anything that looks wrong. Imported content is editable after it is saved.

A blocked website does not mean your account is broken. Try its printable page or paste the recipe text instead.

Shopping lists that build themselves

Plan meals first, then generate a shopping list from the meals you selected. The app groups items to make the shop easier and can account for food you have already marked as on hand.

• Choose the planned meals and date range before generating the list.
• Review the generated list before saving it; you can remove anything you do not need.
• Check items off as you shop. A checked item can update On Hand so the household sees what has been bought.
• Use a quick list for one-off items that are not tied to a meal plan.

If something looks missing, check the meal plan, recipe serves and ingredient quantities first. You can always add an item manually.

Understanding AI estimates

AI can help import recipes, estimate nutrition and timings, organise ingredients, identify scanned items and create dish photos. It can also be wrong, even when an answer looks convincing.

Do not rely on Shop Chop Chow for allergies, intolerances or medical dietary needs. Dietary flags and nutrition are estimates. Always check the actual ingredients, product packaging, preparation method and cross-contamination risk yourself.

• Nutrition, cost, effort and timing are planning aids, not professional advice.
• Dish photos may be AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of the food you will make.
• Barcode information can be incomplete or inaccurate; check the physical label.
• Storage and expiry reminders help you remember what you entered; they are not food-safety assessments.

Read the full disclaimers before relying on an estimate for an important decision.

PRO, billing and your household subscription

The planner, shopping lists, cooking tools and saved recipes remain useful without PRO. PRO adds higher AI usage and selected AI features for the household; one member’s subscription benefits the whole household.

• Your current allowance, trial details and price are shown before checkout and in Settings → Subscription → Plan limits.
• A limit never deletes your saved recipes, plans or shopping lists.
• Manage or cancel through the same place you subscribed. Settings → Subscription links to the right provider.
• Use Restore purchases when you are signed in to the account that paid.

Refunds

We keep refunds simple, and Australian Consumer Law applies on top of anything below — a major problem with the service earns a refund whatever our policy says.

• Changed your mind within 14 days? We’ll refund your first subscription or a renewal, no questions asked, as long as you ask within 14 days of the charge.
• Charged twice? We always refund a duplicate charge in full, straight away.
• Forgot to cancel a trial? Tell us within 7 days of the charge and we’ll refund it.
• Something seriously wrong with the app? You can cancel and get a refund, or keep it and ask for compensation for the reduced value — your choice, not ours.

If you subscribed through the Google Play Store, the refund is handled by Google — we’ll point you to the right link. The full policy is in our Terms of Service, section 7 (Refunds).

To ask for a refund or query a charge you don’t recognise, email [email protected] with the receipt email and the approximate purchase date. Never send card numbers by email.

Working offline on Android

Some reads and changes can continue when your phone briefly loses connection. The app will show when a change is waiting to sync, then catch up after you are online again.

• Keep the app installed and let it reconnect when you have signal.
• If you see a retry action, use it after you are back online.
• For a sync problem, take a screenshot of any message and contact support from Settings → Help & Support.

Do not clear app data while a change is still syncing. It can remove the local information we need to recover the change.

The web app needs a connection for writes.

Using Shop Chop Chow on the web

The web app works in the current versions of Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox. If a page looks blank or fails to load, try these steps first:

1. Refresh the page fully: Ctrl + Shift + R on Windows, or Cmd + Shift + R on Mac.
2. Try a current supported browser or a private window with extensions disabled.
3. Sign out and back in if the problem is limited to one session.
4. Contact support with your browser, device, page address and a screenshot if it continues.

Barcode scanning, Android notifications and the Android home-screen widget are app-only features.

Deleting your account or household

Before deleting anything, export the data you want to keep from Settings → Export.

• Delete your account: in Settings, choose Delete account and follow the confirmation steps. You can also use the web deletion page.
• Delete a household: if other people still use it, transfer ownership or remove members first. Household deletion removes the shared household data.
• Leave a household: this removes your access but leaves the shared content with the remaining household members.

Read the Privacy Policy for the exact deletion and retention details.