Questions families ask

Yes. By design, not by promise. Your grocery data lives on your own devices and never goes to our servers. The app works fully offline. Only three helpers ever reach the internet, and each one waits for you: the barcode lookup and recipe import stay off until you switch them on, and the receipt importer fetches a store page only when you paste a link.

No. The core app works fully offline: your pantry, recipes, lists, and logs all work against your local data.

On your own Wi-Fi, your devices talk directly to each other and nothing leaves your network. Away from home, an end-to-end-encrypted relay carries a sealed envelope it cannot open or keep. Only your family’s devices hold the key.

Access runs to your next renewal date, and your data stays fully intact on your devices. After that the app locks to a resubscribe screen, but everything you entered is still there when you come back.

Yes: CSV or JSON export, anytime. Your data is never hostage. There’s also an encrypted backup you can make to your own storage, with a password only you hold.

The EPA’s “Estimating the Cost of Food Waste to American Consumers” (April 2025), an estimate for a 4-person household. Butler Pantry is $100/year; save even 4% of that waste ($116.52) and it has paid for itself.

Butler Pantry runs on-device processing: voice recognition and receipt scanning happen right on your device. No cloud AI, no language models. Local-first by architecture.

Yes. Everyone picks their own member when they log, and an old iPad or Mac can become a kitchen kiosk with big buttons and voice: “we finished the milk” takes two seconds. Devices sync over your own Wi-Fi.

Yes, and it works on your device. Paste or photograph a receipt and Butler Pantry reads it completely on-device, filling in each line’s name, category, quantity, unit, and price. Real receipts, fixture-verified (43/43 on the Costco golden fixture). No receipt is ever uploaded.

Yes. Paste or photograph a receipt and every line becomes a pantry row, read completely on your device. If your order came from Costco Same Day, paste the order link: items land in your pantry at their real prices, and totals, tax, and savings land in Budget as one trip. The link goes from your device straight to the store, never to us.

No. One box on Home understands plain English: type "milk", "used 2 eggs", "we are out of bread", or "I bought bananas", and Butler Pantry adds, logs, or restocks. It acts right away when it is confident and asks a friendly question when it is not. Correct it once and it remembers for next time.

It can. Turn on Butler Pantry's voice in Settings and confirmations are spoken out loud while you cook: a gentle voice by default, a warm alternative, your pick. Both the speaking and the listening are made on your device. Nothing is recorded and nothing is sent. Voice is off by default, and everything works by text alone.

Yes. Paste a link and Butler Pantry builds an editable card you review before saving. Recipe pages and article pages both work: when a recipe lives inside a story, Butler Pantry reads the sentences and always stops for your check first. Prep, total, and per step cooking times fill in from the page, with timer chips in Cook Mode. Web import is off by default; the first tap asks.

Manually, from Settings → About & Updates. Updates are signed and verified on your device. Nothing installs without your say-so.