Count anything in a photo: tap one, it finds the rest

How to count anything in a photo

To count anything in a photo, add the photo and tap one of the items. The counter works out the item's size from your tap, then finds everything in the photo that looks like it. Because it counts items by example, it is not limited to a list of objects: bolts, eggs, cans, seedlings, bricks.

1. Add a photo with every item in the frame.
2. Tap one item, near its middle. Pick a clear one: whole, and not touching its neighbours.
3. Look at the count. If it is off, tap a second or third example; up to three help when the items vary a little.
4. Check the orange rings, tap to add a missed item or remove a wrong one, then tap Count is right.

Everything runs in your browser, including the step that sizes your tap. The photo is never uploaded. Free, no sign-up, no daily limit.

Use a trained counter when there is one

Counting one of these? Use its own counter instead: pipes, rebar, logs, lumber, pills or coins. Each is trained for one kind of object and counts with no tap. Dense pipe bundles and log piles in particular count better there than here.

What it counts well, and what it doesn't

It uses the general counting model from the Counting Master iPhone app, trained on thousands of photos of many kinds of repeated objects, with a second model that reads the item's outline from your tap. On test photos it was not trained on:

Counts well

• Separate, similar items on a plain surface: tablets and capsules on a tray, coins in one layer.
• Cardboard boxes stacked face-on, as in a warehouse.

Weaker

• Shelves: books, bottles, jars or cartons in rows. It tends to miss some.
• Packs: eggs in cartons, rolls, pens in a box.
• Small loose things, such as nuts, beans, marbles or Lego bricks.
• Dense pipe bundles and log piles. Use the trained counters above.
• Stacks seen from the side, such as a stack of coins. Only the top or front item shows.

Count similar objects in an image: what to try

These are the kinds of things people ask to count from a photo. They were not tested one by one, so check each count, starting with the orange rings.

Getting a good count from one tap

The size it reads from your tap decides the count more than anything else. If it takes the item for half its real size, it finds halves of items and the count runs high. If it takes two items for one, it finds pairs and the count runs low.

• Tap a clear example. Whole, not cut off by the photo edge, and not pressed against its neighbours. Items that touch can read as one.
• Count far off? Try a clearer example rather than fixing dozens of rings by hand.
• One kind at a time. It counts what looks like your example. On a mixed shelf, count each kind separately.
• Same photo rules as every counter: one layer, the whole group in the frame, straight on, even light.

How accurate is counting by example?

Counting by example scores 82% count accuracy, with the examples picked by tapping, the way you would. Count accuracy is 100% minus the average counting error, measured in the browser on held-out photos with 10 or more objects that the models never trained on, before any checking.

Expect it to vary more than the trained counters, with what you count and with the size it reads from your tap.

Count it here. Teach it in the app, and it counts by itself.

Counting by example is a general model making its best guess about an object it has never seen. The Counting Master app for iPhone goes one step further: it learns your item.

1. Count it by example, then save it. In the app, count with Anything, tap Save as item and name it: "M8 bolts", "Our 12 oz cans", "Seed trays".
2. Check 20 counts. Next time, pick the item and tap one. Fix any misses and tap Count is right. The ring on the item fills as it learns.
3. It counts by itself. At 20 checked counts, your iPhone trains a counter for exactly that item, in a few minutes, while it charges or when you tap Train now. You compare it with the one-tap way on your own photos and keep the better one. From then on, that item counts with no tap.

Training runs on the phone; photos, corrections and the trained counter never leave it. The counter is personal: it learns your item from your photos, so if you count two kinds of box, save them as two items.

The app also counts from the camera, works with no signal and keeps a history of your counts.

iPhone, iOS 17 or later. Training needs a recent iPhone with enough memory; the app tells you on the item's page. The first three counts are free. Items counting on their own after training is part of Pro: $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial.

Get Counting Master for iPhone