Guess less. Know your carbs.
HOW IT WORKS
“Photos can't match weighing for accuracy, physics won't allow it. What Carbol does is give you a better starting point, fast enough to use before every meal and better than guessing.”
VOICE-FIRST LOGGING
Say what you're ordering before it arrives. Your carb estimate is ready while you wait, so you are positioned to pre-bolus yourself, minutes ahead, and flatten the post-meal spike.
YOU SAY
"Pad thai, probably a medium bowl, with a spring roll on the side"
APP RETURNS
Logged before the food arrives, in one tap.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
CGM integration and pattern analysis are on the roadmap for Phase 2.
Photo analysis
Works on plated food, takeaway containers, and most packaged food. If the image is unclear, it says so.
Voice capture
Describe what you're ordering. Works before the food arrives. Audio uploads on the next good connection.
Human in the loop
You confirm every carb estimate before it's logged. The app surfaces the number; what you do with it stays your decision.
Pre-bolus timing
Set your preferred lead time. Log by voice with enough runway to pre-bolus yourself before a meal.
Meal log
Every carb estimate gets logged with a timestamp. Useful for your endo and for spotting patterns.
Built for NZ food
NZ packaged-food data and a New Zealand fast-food database built for Carbol. Global staples use trusted international reference data.
WHAT IT DOESN'T DO
"This app won't replace your endo, your CGM, or your judgment. It counts carbs from a photo. That's it. If the photo's unclear, it tells you. If something looks off, it says so. Every treatment decision stays yours to make."
CGM integration is on the roadmap for Phase 2. Not available yet.
WHAT IT IS
Carbol is an AI-powered estimation tool. It looks at a photo or listens to your description and returns a carb estimate, shown as a range with a confidence score.
Carbol is not a replacement for weighing. Photo-based AI has physical limits: it can't see inside a curry, measure the density of cooked pasta, or see how deep a bowl of noodles goes. Claims of weighing-level accuracy from photos alone are misleading.
What Carbol does is close the gap between guessing and weighing. It reduces the mental load of eating out, gives you a more considered starting point than eyeballing, and pairs with your own judgment rather than replacing it.
The result: fewer over-estimations, fewer under-estimations, less cognitive effort, more time in range.
Better than guessing. Not as good as weighing. Available in seconds.
BUILT BY A T1D
“I'm Steve. I'm a third-generation male Type 1 diabetic. I've been around T1D my entire life.”
My grandad measured his glucose with urine test strips and injected with the kind of needles that made kids cry. I also work in software. So one day I thought: I can build a tool that makes this easier for me.
If you're a T1D and something's off, tell me. I read every email.
Read more about our story →