What iNaturalist does

iNaturalist is a nonprofit citizen science platform founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco that enables users worldwide to photograph and identify plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms while contributing observations to a global open biodiversity database. The platform operates as a web application paired with free iOS and Android mobile applications, plus a Seek companion app designed for users under 13 that gamifies species exploration with badges and challenges. Core technology combines AI-assisted species identification suggestions with community-driven validation; when agreement among identifiers reaches a threshold, an observation receives "research-grade" status and enters the scientific record. The platform has accumulated 329,715,375 observations across 571,439 species from users in 197 countries, and this dataset has been cited in more than 7,000 academic papers, with documented integration into national biodiversity databases (e.g., approximately 70% of Australia's 180 million Atlas of Living Australia records). A public developer API supports third-party integrations, exemplified by Hipcamp's commercial California Superbloom Forecast built on 150,000+ research-grade iNaturalist observations.

iNaturalist serves four primary customer segments: nature enthusiasts and citizen scientists (the core contributor base), scientific researchers accessing open biodiversity data, conservation practitioners and government agencies monitoring species and ecosystems, and educators integrating citizen science into curricula. The platform is entirely free with no paid tiers; revenue is generated through voluntary donations solicited prominently across the website and app, supplemented by grants and, more recently, commercial data partnerships. A small team of 11–50 employees supports the platform, relying on volunteer community identifiers to perform the scale of validation that has produced 500+ species discoveries and rediscoveries. Distribution is primarily self-serve through app stores and the web, with marketing driven by earned media, social media, the City Nature Challenge global event, and the Seek funnel targeting younger users.

Name

iNaturalist

Legal name

iNaturalist

Website

https://inaturalist.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

iNaturalist is a nonprofit citizen science platform that lets users photograph and identify plants, animals, and fungi worldwide, aggregating 329M+ observations into an open biodiversity database used by scientists, conservationists, educators, and governments.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Citizen Science Platform

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Cumulative Effects, Alternatives Analysis & Mitigation Planning (EUAHAAAE)

Keywords

• Citizen science platform
• Biodiversity database
• Species identification
• Nature observation network
• Community science

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Philanthropic Support: As a nonprofit organization, iNaturalist is primarily funded through voluntary donations from its community of users and supporters. The platform emphasizes its nonprofit status and solicits donations prominently on its website and app.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

A nonprofit citizen science platform and mobile application that enables users to photograph and document plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms, with AI-assisted and community-validated species identifications. Observations are contributed to a global open biodiversity database used by scientists, conservationists, researchers, and educators.

Product overview

iNaturalist is a nonprofit, community-powered citizen science platform consisting of two main products: the core iNaturalist platform/app for identifying plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms while contributing observations to a living atlas of life on Earth, and the Seek companion app for children under 13 featuring gamification elements like badges and challenges. Users photograph wild organisms, receive AI-assisted species identification suggestions, and have observations verified by a global community of naturalists to achieve research-grade status for scientific use.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Seek: A gamified nature exploration app for younger users (under 13) that earns badges and takes part in challenges to observe species

Products and services

• iNaturalist Platform

Quantifiable outcome

• 500 species have been discovered or rediscovered by community scientists using iNaturalist
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• HipcampminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 March 2026Hipcamp, a camping booking platform, launched an interactive 2026 California Superbloom Forecast built from over 150,000 research-grade iNaturalist observations collected between 2021 and 2025. This partnership demonstrates iNaturalist's value as a data provider for commercial applications in the travel and outdoor recreation industry, helping users time their visits to coincide with peak wildflower blooms.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• eBird: eBird is a citizen science bird observation platform run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It is the closest structural peer to iNaturalist: both use community validation, both produce open biodiversity data cited in research, and both operate with nonprofit models serving overlapping naturalist audiences.
• Pl@ntNet: Pl@ntNet is a crowdsourced plant identification platform developed by French research institutions (INRAE, CIRAD, etc.) using AI-assisted species recognition and community contributions. It directly competes with iNaturalist in the plant identification use case across Europe and globally.
• Merlin Bird ID: Merlin is the Cornell Lab's AI-driven bird identification app combining sound, photo, and field-guide identification. It overlaps with iNaturalist's core species-identification functionality for the large birdwatcher segment and represents a primary alternative for casual users.
• iSpot: iSpot is a UK-based citizen science platform for sharing and identifying wildlife observations with community-based verification. It closely mirrors iNaturalist's photo-upload, community-identification model and targets the same naturalist persona, primarily in the UK and Commonwealth geographies.

Broad incumbents

• GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): GBIF is an intergovernmental network and open-data infrastructure that aggregates global biodiversity records from many sources including iNaturalist itself. It serves as a broader backbone for biodiversity data distribution and overlaps with iNaturalist at the data-publishing and research-access layer.
• Google Lens: Google Lens offers general-purpose image recognition, including plant and animal identification, embedded across Android and Google Photos with billions of users. It is not a niche biodiversity platform, but its scale and instant identification make it a substitute for casual species-ID use cases that iNaturalist serves.

Regional players

• eButterfly: eButterfly is a citizen science platform specifically focused on butterfly observations, primarily in North America. It overlaps with iNaturalist for the butterfly observer segment but operates in a narrower geographic scope and taxonomic niche.

Emerging players

• BirdNET: BirdNET is a Cornell/Karolinska-developed AI model and app for identifying birds by sound. It overlaps with iNaturalist's mission of converting citizen observations into scientific biodiversity data, but specializes in acoustic identification rather than the broad photo-based multi-kingdom scope of iNaturalist.
• Picture Insect: Picture Insect is a commercial AI-driven insect identification app. It intersects with iNaturalist's broader multi-kingdom identification offering specifically in entomology, with a thinner data corpus but a polished consumer-mobile UX.

Others

• NatureServe: NatureServe is a nonprofit that provides authoritative conservation status, habitat, and species distribution data for North America. It is an adjacent data provider and ecosystem participant rather than a direct competitor; iNaturalist's observational data complements NatureServe's curated conservation datasets.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/inaturalist
• Instagraminstagram.com/inaturalistorg
• Xx.com/inaturalist

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about iNaturalist