What Cookpad does

Cookpad Inc. is a Tokyo-headquartered, publicly listed (TSE: 2193) consumer internet company that operates a global recipe-sharing community platform serving home cooks across more than 25 countries and regions including Japan, the US, the UK, France, Spain, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The core product is a cloud-based, user-generated content platform available on web and mobile (iOS/Android), built around recipe publishing, browsing, saving and a photo-sharing feedback loop called Cooksnap that lets cooks share images of dishes they prepared from a recipe. The technical stack includes automated food-image recognition, a natural-language AI Recipe Assistant, Firebase for mobile infrastructure, PerimeterX for security, Cloudinary for media processing, and FreshChat for in-app support in Indonesia.

The business runs on a freemium model: free users access the recipe library and see advertising (display plus Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest pixel-driven paid social), while Premium subscribers pay a region-specific monthly fee (US$4.99, France €3.49, Indonesia Rp22,000, Thailand ฿59, Vietnam ₫25,000) for an ad-free experience, top recipes ranked first, advanced search filters, personal recipe notes, unlimited saved recipes, custom folders and weekly meal plans. Beyond the recipe platform, Cookpad operates a video property called 'moment' and an e-commerce offering called Cookpad Mart, both intended to extend user engagement. Distribution is entirely digital and self-serve via app stores and the cookpad.com localized web footprint, with a community-led, product-led growth motion.

Following an acquisition-led international expansion between 2014 and 2018 (including ALLTHECOOKS in the US, Shahiya, NetSila, Baby Calendar, Cucumbertown and Umeebe), Cookpad has reorganized around two corporate headquarters — Tokyo for domestic operations and Bristol (Cookpad Limited) for overseas businesses. Reported revenue declined from approximately ¥86.9B in 2021 to ¥34.1B in 2025, while operating results flipped from losses to operating profit of ¥1.5B in 2025, consistent with a turnaround posture reinforced by a 0% dividend payout policy, a share buyback completed in March 2026, and founder Akimitsu Sano's return to the CEO role in October 2023.

Name

Cookpad

Legal name

Cookpad Inc.

Website

https://cookpad.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Cookpad Inc. is a Tokyo-headquartered, publicly listed consumer internet company (TSE: 2193) that operates a global recipe-sharing community platform for home cooks across 25+ countries, monetized through Premium subscriptions and advertising, with additional video and e-commerce properties.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Premium Subscription: Cookpad offers a subscription-based Premium service providing ad-free browsing, top recipes ranked first, advanced search filters, personal recipe notes, unlimited go-to recipes, and unlimited custom recipe folders. Subscriptions are priced regionally and billed monthly on a rolling basis with automatic renewal. This is the primary paid revenue stream.
2. Advertising: Cookpad displays advertisements to free-tier users. The cookie policy confirms the use of Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest advertising pixels, indicating paid social advertising spend. Ad revenue is generated from serving display/paid social ads to the broad free user base.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Cookpad operates a user-generated recipe-sharing platform where home cooks can publish, search, save, rate, and comment on recipes, supported by community features. The platform is available across 25+ countries and is monetized through premium subscriptions and advertising.

Product overview

Cookpad operates as a multi-product platform centered on recipe sharing and home cooking. The core offering is the Cookpad recipe platform enabling users to save, publish, and share recipes globally. Cookpad Premium is a subscription add-on providing ad-free browsing, prioritized recipes, and advanced features like meal planning. The ecosystem includes Cookpad Challenge for community competitions, Cooksnap for photo sharing, moment for video content, and Cookpad Mart for e-commerce. An AI Recipe Assistant provides natural language cooking assistance. The company serves users across 28+ country communities including US, UK, Japan, France, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Spain, and others.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Cookpad Premium: Subscription-based premium service offering ad-free browsing, top recipe rankings, advanced search filters, personal recipe notes, and unlimited recipe folders

Products and services

• Cookpad Recipe Platform A user-generated recipe-sharing platform that allows home cooks to publish, search, save, rate, and comment on recipes, with community features and country-specific localizations across 25+ countries.
• Cookpad Premium A paid premium subscription tier of the Cookpad platform that removes advertising and provides additional features for home cooks who want a more streamlined recipe discovery and saving experience.

Quantifiable outcome

• Cookpad identified as an early mover in the AI-generated personalized cooking shows market alongside HelloFresh, BuzzFeed, ChefGPT, Tastewise, and INNIT

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration12 records

AI capability5 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Cookpad LimitedcoreOthersWholly-owned UK subsidiary of Cookpad Inc., serving as the company's second corporate headquarters and overseeing all overseas businesses since December 2016. Registered at Silversmiths 1–3 Broad Plain, Bristol BS2 0JP, United Kingdom.
• Cookpad Spain, S.L.coreOthersWholly-owned Spanish subsidiary of Cookpad Inc., managing Cookpad's operations in Spain and potentially broader European markets. Led by CEO Rebecca Rippin since February 2014.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Allrecipes: Largest US-focused recipe community with UGC recipes, ratings and reviews. Directly competes with Cookpad in the US/UK English-speaking markets using a similar community-driven recipe sharing model, including personalized recipe boxes analogous to Cookpad Premium folders.
• Yummly: Recipe discovery and meal planning platform (acquired by Whirlpool) offering smart-filter recipes and shopping lists. Comparable to Cookpad's recipe search and Premium meal-planning features with a similar home-cook target audience.
• NYT Cooking: Subscription-based recipe and cooking product from The New York Times. Competes head-on with Cookpad Premium via editorial-grade recipes, ratings and a paid tier - illustrating the sort of premium content model Cookpad's ad-supported UGC model must offset.
• BBC Good Food: Major UK recipe publisher with user reviews, ratings and cooking community. Competitor in the UK and European markets where Cookpad operates via its Bristol-based Cookpad Limited HQ.
• Tasty: BuzzFeed-owned recipe video platform producing short-form cooking content with viral reach. Targets the same home-cook demographic as Cookpad via a video-first format that competes for time spent against Cookpad's web/app recipe-browsing experience.
• Food52: Cooking and kitchenware community with curated content plus user-shared recipes and a marketplace. Overlaps with both Cookpad's community recipes and Cookpad Mart e-commerce monetization.
• Epicurious: Condé Nast heritage recipe platform with editorial recipes and cooking community. Comparable to Cookpad's editorial-adjacent UGC recipes especially among affluent home cooks - the cohort most likely to convert to Cookpad Premium.
• SideChef: Recipe and guided-cooking app with meal planning and grocery integration. Comparable to Cookpad's recipe platform plus Premium meal-plans feature with similar in-app guided cooking functionality.

Broad incumbents

• HelloFresh: Largest meal-kit subscription company, which also operates adjacent recipe platforms and content. Broader incumbent in home cooking/meal solutions that competes indirectly for the same household cooking wallet as Cookpad Premium and Cookpad Mart.

Emerging players

• ChefGPT: AI-powered cooking assistant generating recipes and meal plans via large language models. Cited alongside Cookpad as an early AI-cooking mover; competes directly with Cookpad's AI Recipe Assistant for AI-native cooking discovery.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cookpad_jp
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cookpad-japan

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors2 records

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

M&A9 records

Investments5 records

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

Frequently asked questions about Cookpad