Import recipes
Turn photos or PDFs of recipes into structured, production-ready sheets without typing in every amount.
Import recipes takes a photo or a PDF of a recipe—a page from a notebook, a screenshot, a scan—and turns it into a structured recipe inside AreaCacao: with its ingredients mapped to the catalog, its amounts, and its steps. You just review and save.
What does it solve?
Digitizing a paper recipe book is slow and error-prone when you do it by hand. The AI writes the first draft for you: it reads the image, extracts what it recognizes, and hands you an editable recipe. It doesn't replace your judgment—it's a starting point you review before you produce.
How do I get there?
In the sidebar, under FORMULATION, open Import recipes. It takes you to https://app.areacacao.com/import-recipe, and the screen's own title is Import recipes too.
Below the title, the screen sums up its purpose: "Upload photos or PDFs of your recipes and we'll add them to your recipe book."
The screen has two tabs:
- Upload new — drag or select your files and the AI processes them.
- History — the inbox with all your imports, their status, and their warnings.
Import a photo or a PDF
How do I upload a recipe and what happens while the AI processes it?
Import a recipe from a URL
Is your recipe published on the web? Paste the link and we'll bring it back for you.
Verify the document type
Is it a recipe, an invoice, or a delivery note? Check before you spend credits.
Import history
Where do I see the status of each import and its warnings?
Extraction confidence
What do the warnings and the AI confidence percentage mean?
Limits and best practices
What does the AI do well, and what should you always review by hand?
The essentials in one sentence
Upload one or more files (JPG, PNG, WebP, or PDF, up to 20 MB each), wait for the import to turn Ready, and click Open recipe to review it and save it in the editor. Each file uses credits, at two different rates: 15 credits for a photo and 25 credits for a PDF—the screen itself shows the estimated cost before processing. Your plan only changes how many credits you have available, not what each import costs.