Pluck vs Pestle: Which App Actually Extracts Recipes from Videos?

Pestle deserves credit for being one of the first recipe apps to take social media seriously. It imports from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, it’s built carefully for Apple devices, and its 4.0 release in September 2026 added Apple Intelligence parsing and Siri queries.

So both Pluck and Pestle save recipes from video posts. The question in this Pluck vs Pestle comparison is what each app reads when you share a video, and that difference matters most when the recipe is spoken aloud or flashed on screen rather than written in the caption.

How Pestle handles video

Pestle extracts recipes from social posts by reading the caption with on-device machine learning (Apple Intelligence on supported devices). It doesn’t download the video, listen to the audio or read the frames.

That has real upsides. It’s fast, it works on your device, and when the creator writes the full recipe in the caption, the result is clean. Pestle also adds nutrition to TikTok imports.

The limit is the caption itself. Many creators write “recipe in the video!” or a short story and a row of hashtags, and say the quantities out loud while cooking. A caption-based import has nothing to work with there.

How Pluck handles video

When you share a cooking video to Pluck, its AI:

Watches the frames, catching ingredient lists, measurements and steps shown on screen
Transcribes the audio, capturing spoken quantities, instructions and timing
Reads the caption and description
Combines them into one structured recipe with a confidence score, which you review and edit before saving

Long videos are processed in the background, and you get a notification when the recipe is ready. The trade-off: this happens on Pluck’s servers, not on your device, and it counts against your monthly extractions.

When the difference matters

The TikTok creator who talks but doesn’t write

A creator walks through a marinade: “about a quarter cup of soy sauce, two tablespoons of sesame oil…” The caption just says “The best chicken marinade!! Full recipe in the video.”

Pestle: Reads the caption. There’s no recipe in it.
Pluck: Transcribes the narration and produces the ingredients and steps.

The YouTube chef with on-screen graphics

A cooking channel shows ingredient amounts as text overlays for three or four seconds each.

Pestle: Reads the description. If the chef didn’t list everything there, the recipe is incomplete.
Pluck: Reads the overlays from the frames and adds them to the recipe.

The creator who writes everything out

A creator posts a full ingredient list and method in the caption.

Both apps get the recipe. Here Pestle’s on-device approach is quicker and doesn’t use an extraction from a monthly allowance.

Feature comparison

Feature	Pluck	Pestle
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube	Yes (frames, audio, on-screen text, caption)	Yes (caption, on-device)
Photo carousels	Yes, as one recipe	Not verified
Food blogs	AI extraction	Apple Intelligence parsing
Photos / recipe scanner	Yes (cookbook pages, handwriting)	Yes (recipe scanner)
AI cooking assistant	Yes, knows the recipe and step (paid plans)	No (Siri queries)
Cook mode	Yes, with step timers	Yes, guided with timers
Meal planning	Yes (weekly)	Yes (14-day planner, Pro)
Plans the week for you	Fill my week, from your own recipes (Plus and Pro)	None stated (manual planner)
Grocery list	Yes, merged, sorted by aisle, shared with up to 5 people	Yes
Ingredient search	”What can I cook?” (free), also from a fridge photo	Pantry of staples; search by ingredient
Households / sharing	Shared grocery list; recipes by link	Households share recipes and meal plans (Pro); SharePlay
Nutrition	No	Yes, on TikTok imports
Import from other apps	Paprika, Mela, Crouton, CopyMeThat, JSON-LD	Paprika, Mela, Crouton
App languages	6	7
Platforms	iOS, Android (phone)	iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, Vision Pro
Price	Free; paid from $2.99/mo	Free tier; Pro $2.99/mo, $24.99/yr, or lifetime

Other differences

Platforms

Pestle is Apple-only, but across more Apple devices than Pluck: iPhone, iPad, Apple Silicon Mac, Apple Watch and Vision Pro. There’s no Android version. Pluck runs on iPhone and Android phones, with no tablet-specific, desktop or web app. If anyone you cook with uses Android, Pestle is out; if you live on an iPad or Mac, Pestle fits better.

Households

Pestle’s households (a Pro feature) share recipes and meal plans, and SharePlay lets a family cook together. In Pluck, up to 5 other people can share a grocery list and tick items off live, and you can send a single recipe as a link, but the recipe box and meal plan are personal. If a shared recipe library or a shared plan matters most, Pestle is ahead.

The planners differ too. Pestle’s 14-day planner (Pro) is filled by hand, with an option to add one of your saved recipes at random. On Plus and Pro, Pluck’s Fill my week fills the empty days from your own saved recipes for you to review.

Help while you cook

Both apps have a step-by-step cook mode with timers. Pluck’s AI cooking assistant (on the Light, Plus and Pro plans) knows the recipe you’re making and the step you’re on. Tap “Ask about this step” and ask “Can I use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream?” or “I’m doubling this, does the bake time change?” It can also scale, convert units and translate, and you can save those changes to the recipe. Pestle has Siri queries but no chat assistant. Our cook mode guide covers what to look for.

Deciding what to cook works differently as well. Pestle’s Pantry is a list of staples you keep, which pre-crosses those items on your shopping list, and its search covers ingredients. Pluck keeps no pantry list. Its “What can I cook?” ranks your saved recipes by what you have right now, typed in or spotted by pantry scan in a photo of your fridge.

Pricing

Pestle is freemium. The free tier has a cap on saved recipes, and Pestle Pro costs $2.99/month or $24.99/year, with a lifetime option around $39.99 to $49.99 as of October 2026. Pluck has a free plan (3 extractions a month and 10 saved recipes, no assistant) and paid plans from $2.99/month (Light) up to $11.99/month (Pro), which also has a $499.99 lifetime option. Pestle Pro at $24.99/year and Pluck Light at $23.99/year are within a dollar of each other, so on price they’re close. The difference is in what each app reads and which devices it runs on.

Who should choose what

Choose Pestle if:

Everyone in your household uses Apple devices, and you’d use the iPad, Mac or Watch apps
You want households that share recipes and the meal plan, SharePlay, or a pantry list of staples
The creators you follow write the full recipe in the caption
You prefer on-device processing, or want nutrition on imports

Choose Pluck if:

You save videos where the recipe is spoken or shown on screen
You or someone you cook with uses Android
You’d use an AI cooking assistant that knows the step you’re on
You want to search your own recipes by what’s in the fridge with “What can I cook?”, typed in or from a photo
You’d rather have the week planned for you from your own saved recipes (Fill my week, on Plus and Pro)

The short version: Pestle reads what the creator wrote about the video. Pluck reads the video too. If your recipes live in the caption, Pestle is excellent; if they live in the video, that distinction makes the difference.

For more comparisons, see Pluck vs Mela and Pluck vs Deglaze, or browse the full recipe app comparison hub. There’s also a quick summary on the Pestle alternative page.

Pluck is available on iOS and Android. Get it on Google Play. Also on iOS. Check our roadmap; we’d love to hear what features you want most.