The short version
- The app has no sign-up. Your account is tied to your device, not to your name or email.
- Plant photos are sent to our server and to xAI to be analysed. We do not keep the photos on our servers; they stay on your phone.
- We do not show ads, sell data or track you across other apps and websites.
- You can delete your account and everything in it from Settings in the app.
The PlantGrail app
Your account
When you first open the app it creates an account from an identifier that Apple gives each app on your device (the identifier for vendor). There is no password, email or sign-in. If you choose to fill in a name or email under Edit profile, we store them with your account. A profile picture stays on your phone; only its file path is saved.
Plant photos and questions
When you scan a plant, the photo is sent to our server and passed to xAI, whose Grok models identify the plant and look for problems. With the photo we send the context that makes the answer useful: the month, your broad region, whether the plant is indoors, and, for a saved plant, its name, species, room and recent care. Nothing that identifies you is sent.
We do not save the photo on our servers. We keep the result of the analysis, and for 24 hours a fingerprint (hash) of the image so the same photo is not analysed twice. The photo itself is saved in the app on your phone. When you ask a follow-up question, your question, any photo you add, the earlier result and the conversation go to xAI to write the answer; we store the question and answer, not the photo. xAI processes these requests under its API terms.
Your garden
So the app can show your garden, send reminders and track progress, our server stores your plants (nicknames, species, rooms, health), care logs and reminders, scan results, questions and answers, achievements, and your premium status.
Location and weather
The app does not use GPS. It works out a broad region, such as "Western Europe" or "Nordics", from your phone's time zone, and uses it for seasonal advice and weather. Our server looks up the weather for that region from Open-Meteo and MET Norway. The region is not saved on our servers.
Notifications
If you allow notifications, we store a push token, your time zone and your alert settings so we can send care reminders and recovery check-ins at a sensible local time. Notifications are delivered through Expo and Apple. You can turn them off in the app or in iOS Settings.
Care guide links
With Premium you can share a care guide with someone who looks after your plants. Anyone with the link can see each plant's nickname, species, room, health, when it was last watered and scanned, and its care notes. The guide does not show your name. Links expire after 14 days and are then deleted.
Subscriptions
Premium is bought through Apple, which handles payment; we never see your card details. RevenueCat records which subscription belongs to your app account so Premium works on your device. We store whether your account is Premium and until when.
Analytics and error reports
The app sends usage events (for example, that a scan was started or a screen opened) and error reports to PostHog on EU servers. They are linked to a scrambled (hashed) version of your account ID, not to your name. Screen recording and session replay are off. We use this to fix bugs and improve the app, never for advertising, and the app does not use Apple's advertising identifier.
Camera and photo library
The app asks for the camera to scan plants, and for your photo library only when you choose an existing picture. It uses only the photos you pick.
The website
If you subscribe to the newsletter or request a checklist, we store the email address and which form you used. Emails are sent through Resend. If you buy a course, Stripe processes the payment; we receive your email and the course you bought so we can send access links. Server logs may include IP address, browser and requested page so we can rate-limit and investigate abuse.
Analytics and advertising pixels (Google Analytics, Pinterest, Meta and Microsoft Clarity) load only after you accept optional cookies in the consent banner. Your choice is remembered in your browser. You can use the whole site, including the free tools and the public API, without accepting them.
When you open a care guide link without the app, the page is built from the shared guide described above and is not stored or indexed.
Who we share data with
We do not sell personal information. These services process data for us, only to provide PlantGrail:
| Service | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| xAI | Analyses plant photos and answers follow-up questions (Grok models). | United States |
| PostHog | App usage analytics and error reports. | EU (Frankfurt) |
| RevenueCat | Keeps track of app subscriptions bought through Apple. | United States |
| Apple | App Store payments and push notification delivery. | United States |
| Expo | Push notification delivery and app updates. | United States |
| Open-Meteo and MET Norway | Weather for your broad region, requested by our server. | EU / Norway |
| Hetzner | Hosts the PlantGrail app server and database. | Germany |
| Cloudflare | Hosts plantgrail.com and protects the app server. | Global network |
| Stripe | Course checkout on the website. | United States / EU |
| Resend | Sends newsletter and course emails. | United States |
Some of these services are outside the EU. Where data leaves the EU, it is covered by the provider's data processing terms, including the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
Deleting your data
In the app, go to Settings and tap Delete account. This immediately deletes your account and everything stored with it on our servers: plants, care logs, scans, questions, reminders, achievements and notification settings. Copies in our database backups are overwritten within 30 days. Photos saved in the app stay on your phone until you delete the app.
To delete analytics or subscription records held by PostHog or RevenueCat, or newsletter and course records, email hello@plantgrail.com. Newsletter emails also have an unsubscribe link. Course access records are kept while access is valid so we can resend a lost link. Server logs are rotated within weeks.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how we use it, by emailing hello@plantgrail.com. Because your app account is not linked to your name or email, we may not be able to find your app data from an email alone; deleting it from Settings in the app always works. If you are in the EU or UK you can also complain to your data protection authority.
Children
PlantGrail is made for a general audience and is not aimed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes
We update this page when what we collect changes, and change the date at the top. Questions go to hello@plantgrail.com.