Privacy policy

Last updated 14 November 2026

Ladlewell is a small app for keeping recipes, planning meals and making shopping lists. This page says what it stores about you, who can see it, and how to remove it. It is written to be read.

What we collect

Your Google account details. When you sign in with Google we receive your name, email address and profile picture. We never see your Google password.
What you put in the app. Recipes, the photos you upload or import, meal plans, shopping lists, cookbooks, pantry items, favorites, ratings, cooking history, the names of people you cook for, and your settings.
Sharing details. If you invite someone to a household or share a recipe by email, we store that email address until the invitation or share is removed.

Plan and payment details. Your plan, trial end date and subscription status. If you subscribe, payment is handled by Stripe: Stripe collects and keeps your card details, and we receive only a customer reference, the subscription status and renewal date. We never see or store your card number.
Usage information. How many AI reads you use each month and for which feature, so plan limits can be applied, and when you last used the app. Together with what you have already created (recipes, plans, lists and so on), this lets the person who runs the app see which features are used, to improve it. Only the administrator sees it, it is never shared or sold, and no third-party analytics or tracking is used.
Invitations. If access is by invitation, the email address that was invited is stored by the administrator.

We do not use advertising or analytics trackers, and we do not sell or rent your information.

Who can see your things

Your recipes and everything else are private to you unless you share them.
People in your household see the recipes, plans, lists, cookbooks and pantry you choose to share with it.
A recipe you share by email is visible to that person; a recipe you make public is visible to anyone, signed in or not.
A shopping-list share link, and your calendar feed link, work for anyone who has the link. Treat them like a password and turn them off or regenerate them in the app if they leak.
The person who runs this app can technically reach the database, and only does so to keep the service working, fix problems or when the law requires it.

How AI is used

When you import a recipe from a photo, a web page or pasted text, ask for a nutrition estimate, ask the AI to plan meals, ask the kitchen helper a question about a recipe, or have the AI change or write a recipe, the content is sent to an AI model. For questions and new recipes that includes the recipe, what you typed and the names of the foods in your pantry. That model is run by OpenAI: the photo, text, ingredient list or recipe titles for that request are sent to OpenAI and handled under OpenAI's own terms and privacy policy. If OpenAI cannot be reached, the request may instead be handled by a model running on equipment operated by the app's owner. We do not use your recipes to train models, and we send nothing to the AI except what is needed for the request you made.

Questions you ask the kitchen helper and its answers are not stored: they are gone when you close the page. Read-aloud and hands-free voice control in cooking mode use your browser's own speech features. We never receive or store any audio. Some browsers, including Chrome, send microphone audio to the browser maker's servers to recognise the words; hands-free only listens while you have it switched on.

Who else handles your data

Google signs you in.
Stripe processes payments for paid plans. Its handling of your payment details is governed by Stripe's own privacy policy. Stripe keeps payment records as financial law requires, even after you delete your account.
OpenAI runs the AI model (see above).
AI apps you connect (for example Claude or ChatGPT) receive the recipes, meal plans, shopping lists and pantry items they ask for while connected, and handle them under their own terms. You choose what they may do when you connect, and you can disconnect them in Account at any time.
Resend delivers the app's emails, such as an invitation. It receives your email address and the message.
People who run the servers and networks the app uses, who process data only to deliver the service.

Cookies and storage on your device

A few essential cookies keep you signed in (up to 30 days) and protect the sign-in step. Signing out removes them.
Your browser also stores your theme and unit choices, the last few recipes you cooked (so cooking mode works without signal), and a small queue of finished cooks to send when you are back online. Signing out clears the offline copies.
The installed app caches pictures, scripts and styles so it loads quickly. It does not cache your account data.

Where it is kept and for how long

Your data is kept in a database on servers operated by the app's owner, for as long as your account exists. We keep routine technical logs (such as errors) needed to run the service. Encrypted-in-transit connections (HTTPS) protect data between your device and the app. Database backups are kept for up to 14 days.

Your choices

See and download your data: the Account page has a one-click download of everything we hold about you.
Change your name on the same page, and change your other preferences in Settings.
Delete your account: the Account page can delete your account and everything in it, including photos, immediately. Copies in backups disappear when those backups expire (up to 14 days). If you own a household that others still belong to, remove them or delete the household first. Deleting your account also cancels any subscription.
Take back a share: you can un-share a recipe, leave a household, or turn off your calendar feed at any time.

Recipes from other websites

You can import recipes from web pages for your own use. Recipes you copy from others remain their authors' work; keep them private, or credit the source, and do not make public anything you do not have the right to share. If you believe something here infringes your rights, tell us and we will review it promptly.

Children

This app is not aimed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that matters, the date above will change and we will tell signed-in users in the app. See also the terms of service.

Contact

Questions, requests or takedown notices: [email protected].