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Unleash the magical powers of your phone by using the camera to find out which plant you see in front of you
Updated on January 16, 2026
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Photo:
Aitor Diago / Getty Images
Stop being bewildered by the plant you are staring at. These apps will identify the plant you are looking at, and most will even give you pretty detailed information about it.
Overall Best Plant Identification App: Plantsnap
What We Like
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Simple to use interface.
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Highly accurate.
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Community features.
What We Don’t Like
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Some of the best features aren’t free.
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Still doesn’t beat expert knowledge.
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Limits placed on how many free snaps you can use.
If there’s only room for one name-that-plant app in your life, PlantSnap is the one. It’s simple, with a neat tutorial guiding you through the paces.
Its accuracy level is pretty good, even if it occasionally makes the odd misstep that a professional gardener would avoid.
Quick and easy to use, its only downside is that you’ll need to pay to use it frequently and unlock certain features, such as viewing other people’s snaps. It’s worth it, though.
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Most Accurate Plant Identification App: LeafSnap
What We Like
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Simple to use.
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Very accurate.
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Attractive interface.
What We Don’t Like
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Intrusive ads.
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Grammatical errors in places.
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Less information than some apps.
LeafSnap performed admirably in our tests, generally proving to be the most accurate Plant ID app out of all the ones we tried.
That comes at a small cost with a lot of very intrusive video ads that encourage you to upgrade to the premium build of the app, but it’s worth it for such good results.
It’d be the best of the bunch if it also included extra information on plants besides existing Wikipedia knowledge. As it stands, it’s still well worth using.
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Best Location Aware Plant Identification App: PlantNet
What We Like
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Extensive amount of different plants to look at.
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Ideally suited for worldwide plant identification.
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Attractive interface.
What We Don’t Like
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Need to sign up to get the most from it.
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Submitted entries require users to “validate” authenticity.
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Occasionally inaccurate.
Designed with a worldwide appeal, PlantNet immediately presents you with images of plants from all the different continents. You can submit your own, right down to the location, by quickly snapping a photo and waiting for the app to identify the plant.
While the app is reasonably accurate, spotting other people’s entries can have some issues with the need for the community to validate how authentic the results are. Still, it’s a fascinating insight into the green world and not just your local surroundings.
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Best App for Plant Care and Identification: PictureThis
What We Like
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Extensive amount of knowledge.
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High accuracy.
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Teaches you how to care for plants.
What We Don’t Like
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Overly keen for you to subscribe.
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Almost too much information for some users.
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Limited free plant identification on free plan.
PictureThis is a fantastically comprehensive plant identification app. It takes seconds to identify plants before giving you a near-overwhelming amount of information on them and how best to care for them. For some users, it’ll be excessive, but for those keen to cultivate their green space, it’s a huge help.
It even identifies if a plant is toxic and warns you accordingly. Bear in mind, you’ll need to subscribe if you plan on using it for any length of time. Keen gardeners will be happy to do so as its near encyclopedic knowledge is very useful.
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Best Plant and Insect Identification App: Seek
What We Like
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Gamification features.
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Identifies more than just plants.
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Extensive community features.
What We Don’t Like
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No plant care information.
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Pictures need to be quite clear to be identified.
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Gamification features could be stronger.
Want to turn plant identification into a game? Seek does that in a way that almost feels like a form of Pokémon Go. It even allows you to identify bugs and other insects you might see in your garden.
In all cases, you need to take fairly good photos for it to identify accurately, but it’s worth taking that extra time when you gain new badges and achievements for doing so. If it had a little more information on plants and leaned into its gaming side more, it’d be the ultimate plant identification app.
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Simplest Plant ID App: iPlant
What We Like
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Highly accurate identification.
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Offers Wikipedia links to tell you more.
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Simple and straightforward.
What We Don’t Like
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Not the fastest of apps.
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iOS only.
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Few typos within the app.
Skipping past the need for community features or anything too complex, iPlant gets right to the point: Snap a photo of a plant, and it’ll (eventually) tell you what it is.
It’s very accurate, too, providing you with a Wikipedia link and more to learn more about it. It’s just unfortunate that it’s a little slow on the uptake when uploading photos, and it’s only available for iOS.
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