Pill counter online: count pills from a photo, free

A free pill counter online, with nothing uploaded

This pill counter online counts tablets and capsules from one photo, in your browser. Spread the pills on a tray, take the photo, and it rings every pill it counts. It is free, with no sign-up and no daily limit.

The photo is counted on your own phone or computer and is never uploaded. For a photo of medication, that matters: the photo, and any label in it, stays on your device.

Check every count

This tool gives you a count to check, not a count to rely on. It is not a medical device, and it does not replace your pharmacy's counting procedures or a pharmacist's check. Look over every result, especially the orange rings, before you use the number for anything that matters.

How to photograph pills for counting

1. One layer. No pill on top of another. Spread a heap out with a spatula or the side of your hand before you shoot.
2. Straight down. Hold the phone flat above the tray. From an angle, pills at the front hide the ones behind.
3. Every pill in the frame, on a plain tray. A pill cut off by the photo edge is flagged for you to decide, not counted.
4. Soft light. Turn the flash off. Glare on coated tablets can hide their outline.

Two more that come from where it went wrong in testing:

• Count loose pills, not blister packs. It can take an empty blister pocket for a pill.
• Split a big count. A packed plate of small capsules is the hardest photo there is. Two trays in one layer beat one heap.

The full routine, including how this fits into counting at a pharmacy counter, is in how to count pills from a photo.

What it gets wrong

Most of its misses are pills it cannot fully see:

• Pills partly under other pills in a heap.
• Stacks of tablets seen from the side.
• Pills caught mid-pour from a bottle.

Counting one pill twice is rare. When it happens, it is usually a long two-colour capsule counted once per half, or a scored tablet split along its groove. The orange rings mark the spots it was unsure about, so look there first.

How accurate is it on pills?

The pills model scores 91% count accuracy before you check anything. 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. A good photo, one layer on a plain tray, does better than a heap; the Check step then takes you to the spots it was unsure about.

Who uses a pill counting app

• Pharmacy technicians, as a second look at a tray count, or for counting open stock bottles at a stock-take.
• Nurses and carers checking how many tablets are left in a resident's supply.
• People at home checking a refill, or how many are left before the next one is due.
• Vet clinics counting tablets for a pet's prescription.

Looking for a pill counting app that is free and works on Android? This runs in any current browser, on any phone, with nothing to install.

Other counters

Coins work the same way, in one layer from straight above: count coins from a photo. For everything the free counter handles, see count objects in an image online. Vials or ampoules seen from above: count them by example with Anything. Industrial counters include pipes and logs.

Counting every day? The iPhone app catches glare first

The web counter is free for every tray. The Counting Master app for iPhone adds:

• Counting from the camera. It shows when the phone is flat over the tray and warns about blur, glare and dark light before you count. It works with no signal.
• Teach it your own items. If one tablet or capsule keeps getting miscounted, count it by tapping one example and save it as an item. After 20 checked counts, your iPhone trains a counter for that item, and it counts by itself from then on.
• A history of your counts, kept on the phone, never uploaded.

The same rule applies in the app: check every count. iPhone, iOS 17 or later. The first three counts are free. Get Counting Master for iPhone