Teen coder’s AI calorie‑tracking app pulls in $1.4 million a month

An 18‑year‑old New York developer who taught himself to code as a child now runs a subscription‑based artificial intelligence app that the company says generates about $1.4 million in revenue each month.

Zach Yadegari founded Cal AI from his parents’ home in Roslyn, Long Island, in May 2024. Users upload a photograph of a meal and the app’s algorithms estimate total calories; the company says those estimates are about 90% accurate. Cal AI is available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play for $2.49 per month or $29.99 per year.

Yadegari said he began learning to code at age 7 after attending a software summer camp and playing online games. He told CNBC Make It that he had experimented with several mobile apps before Cal AI, and that the idea for an AI‑driven calorie counter came from his own experience using manual calorie‑tracking tools while trying to improve his fitness.

He launched Cal AI with co‑founder Henry Langmack, whom he met at coding camp, and two acquaintances he found on X, Blake Anderson, 24, and Jake Castillo, 30. Yadegari and Langmack handled the initial coding. The founders spent a month in a San Francisco “hacker house” in July 2024 while developing the product. The start‑up now employs about 30 people, according to the company.

The company’s reported monthly revenue closely matches its operating costs, which reportedly include a roughly $770,000 monthly advertising budget and payouts to the founding team; Yadegari said he recently received a $100,000 payment. The founder has said he wants Cal AI to overtake established competitors such as MyFitnessPal.

Yadegari has continued his education while running the start‑up. He is enrolled in a business program at the University of Miami, where he said he has maintained a 4.0 grade‑point average, but he told CNBC he does not expect to stay in college beyond a year because of the app’s success. He said he works about 40 hours a week on coding and product development while completing schoolwork.

Calorie‑tracking apps have been among the popular health and wellness categories in app marketplaces for years, with established players offering food databases and manual entry alongside features such as macronutrient breakdowns and integration with wearable devices. Start‑ups have increasingly applied machine learning and computer vision to automate elements of dietary logging, using image recognition to identify foods and estimate portion sizes.

The company’s accuracy claim — that Cal AI estimates calories with about 90% accuracy — comes from internal statements by the start‑up. Independent validation of image‑based calorie estimation methods varies by study and by the complexity of meals, and experts have noted that visual portion estimation can be challenging when foods are mixed or obscured.

Yadegari said his parents have been supportive of the venture, and that his mother is a user of the app. He also described a lifestyle change since Cal AI’s growth, saying he lives off‑campus with friends and socializes frequently. The company’s leadership declined to provide audited financial statements in the interviews cited by media outlets.

Cal AI’s approach reflects a broader trend of applying generative and computer‑vision AI to consumer health tools. As the field evolves, questions about accuracy, privacy and how developers validate model performance will be central to how such apps are regulated and adopted by mainstream users.