🔠Science, nature and the world
Pl@ntNet
By Pl@ntNet consortium (CIRAD, INRAE, Inria, IRD). Visit Pl@ntNet
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
A free plant identification app run by French public research institutes as a citizen science project. A user photographs a leaf, flower, fruit or bark and gets a ranked list of likely species, drawn from tens of thousands of species and dozens of regional floras. Identifying needs no account; with an account, users can share observations publicly and help review other people's photos. Data is open and used in plant research.
Our take: A solid, ad-free plant identifier for families who use it logged out or under a parent's account.
Checked in a browser
A browser check on 2026-10-25: what loads, the ads and trackers we saw, and what a child meets first. Not a hands-on test.
| Child safety: 4 out of 5 | No ads or chat; many links out to research partners and social sites, and a 'Create an account' link. |
|---|---|
| Data: 4 out of 5 | Google Analytics and Tag Manager were the only analytics loaded; other hosts were plant-data and map services (GBIF, the LIRMM lab). |
| Ease: 3 out of 5 | This is the project's information site with menus, a donation appeal and a cookie bar; the plant-identifying app itself is not on this page. |
| Cost honesty: 4 out of 5 | Free; a donation appeal ('Pl@ntNet needs you!') is shown. |
What we found
- 10 third-party sites contacted; Google Analytics/Tag Manager the only known analytics
- 6 cookies set, one from google.com
- 50 outbound link sites, mostly universities and research partners, plus Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube
- A cookie bar with Accept and Reject sat at the bottom; the visible card asked for donations
From the test: An ad-free science project site with only Google Analytics; a parent needs to find and install the app for a child to identify plants.
| Ages it suits | about 9 and up with a parent |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | Not stated in the terms of use. App Store rating 9+. (terms) |
| Price | Free. Free, funded by public research and donations (Oct 2026). |
| Works on | Web, iPhone and iPad, Android |
| Account | No account needed |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | An image recognition engine matches photos to plant species and learns from photos the community votes up. |
What's good
- Free, no ads, no purchases
- Public science project with open data
- No account needed to identify
- Useful for wild plants worldwide
Watch for
- No age rule or child privacy terms
- Shared observations show your name; other users can email you
- Accuracy varies; never use it to judge if a plant is safe
- Photos and locations kept for research
Data and privacy
Stores every query's photos, date, time and optional GPS location for research. Shared observations are public under a CC BY-SA license with the user's name, and other users can contact contributors by email. The website uses Google Analytics; no child-specific or COPPA statement. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
Independent tests vary: a peer-reviewed study of six apps ranked Pl@ntNet near the top though no app beat about 88%, while a University of Maryland Extension test found 66% correct first suggestions.
In the Big Index
- On the list 13 AI science and nature apps for curious kids
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Where these facts come from
- https://plantnet.org/en/
- https://identify.plantnet.org/en/terms_of_use
- https://plantnet.org/en/privacy-policy/
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/plantnet/id600547573
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.plantnet
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10075466/
- https://extension.umd.edu/resource/snap-it-or-scrap-it-putting-plant-id-apps-test
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.