Tree ID App: Free Tree Identification Apps Compared

Yes, you can take a picture of a tree and find out what it is: a tree ID app compares your photo with its reference images and suggests a species, and several good ones are free. The catch is accuracy. University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension reports that in 2025 the most popular identification apps ranged from 30 to 80 percent accurate, that apps are often wrong for understory plants, and that many trees cannot be identified from a single photo.

So photograph the tree the way a botanist would look at it:

• One leaf, flat, against the sky or a sheet of paper, filling the frame. Photograph the underside too.
• How the leaves sit on the twig, in pairs or staggered, simple or divided into leaflets.
• The bark at chest height, straight on.
• Buds, fruit, seeds, cones or flowers, whatever the season offers.
• The whole tree, for its shape.

Then compare the app's top answer and its alternatives against the tree in front of you. Our guide to identifying a plant from a photo explains what makes a photo easy to read, and key features to tell plants apart covers leaf arrangement and edges.

You do not need to pay to identify a tree. The apps below are free, according to their own sites or to the sources named, and the Arbor Day key is an online alternative:

• Pl@ntNet. Run by four French public research institutes, CIRAD, INRAE, INRIA and IRD, and described on its site as open and free to everyone, with apps for iOS and Android and a web version. When we opened the site on 2026-09-25 it listed about 84,710 species and more than 1.4 billion images across 77 floras. It is also a citizen-science project: your observations can be reviewed by other users.
• Tree ID from the Woodland Trust. A free app from the UK charity for native and common non-native trees in the United Kingdom, for iPhone and Android. It identifies from leaves, bark, twigs, buds, flowers or fruit, which makes it useful in winter.
• Leafsnap. Developed by researchers at Columbia University, the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution, and offered at no charge. It identifies trees from photographs of their leaves; the original edition covers trees of the north-eastern United States and Canada, and a UK edition uses content from the Natural History Museum in London.
• Google Lens. Built into the Google app and Google Photos. The Peterborough and Area Master Gardeners describe it as free and suggest turning on location so results favour local species.
• Arbor Day Foundation's What Tree Is That? Not an app but an online key: you start by choosing your region and answer step-by-step questions about the tree.
• PlantLens. In our app, each result comes with a confidence level and alternative candidates.

It depends which Leafsnap you mean, because two different things use the name. The original Leafsnap is the research project from Columbia University, the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian, and its site says the mobile apps are offered at no charge. It covers trees of the north-eastern United States and Canada, with a separate UK edition.

There is also a general plant identification app sold as LeafSnap. It was one of six apps in a 2023 accuracy test published in PLOS ONE by Campbell, Peacock and Bacon, and the authors note that it advertises a premium version with extra features such as ad removal. Check the current price in your app store before you subscribe; free tiers and paid features change.

Useful, but not reliable enough to act on alone. UW-Madison Extension puts the most popular apps at 30 to 80 percent accurate in 2025, with PictureThis the best of the commonly used ones, and recommends confirming an identification with an expert before making important decisions.

The 2023 PLOS ONE test by Campbell, Peacock and Bacon gives a closer look at the gap between flowers and leaves. It covered 38 herbaceous flowering plants rather than trees, so treat it as a guide to the method, not a tree score. At species level:

• Pl@ntNet: 88.21 percent of flowers and 80.36 percent of leaves correct.
• LeafSnap: 83.57 percent of flowers and 77.14 percent of leaves.
• Seek: 52.14 percent of flowers and 22.86 percent of leaves.

The top apps did clearly better on flowers than on leaves, and the authors conclude that even the best did not exceed about 88 percent. Trees are usually photographed by the leaf, which is the harder case. That is why a second photo of bark, buds or fruit makes such a difference.

The apps differ less in their recognition than in the practical details around it. Before you commit, check:

• Coverage. A regional app is only as good as its list. The Woodland Trust's Tree ID covers UK trees; the original Leafsnap covers the north-eastern United States and Canada. For anywhere else, a worldwide app such as Pl@ntNet is the safer start.
• Features it accepts. An app that takes bark, buds and twigs, as Tree ID does, still works in winter when the leaves are down.
• Free limits. Some apps cap free use. The 2023 PLOS ONE study notes that PlantSnap limited users to five free identifications a day, so the authors bought the premium version to finish their tests.
• Alternatives and confidence. An app that shows several candidates and how sure it is lets you do the final check yourself, instead of trusting one name.
• Multiple photos. Being able to add a second photo of another part of the tree fixes most wrong answers.
• A person to ask. Pl@ntNet lets other users review observations, and extension services answer questions directly.

For a garden question, an app answer checked against the leaf and bark is usually enough. For anything with consequences, it is not. UW-Madison Extension advises confirming app identifications with an expert before making important decisions, and points to dichotomous keys such as the Arbor Day Foundation guide as a more reliable way to build your own skills.

Never eat fruit, nuts, leaves or sap from a tree on the strength of an app result. The authors of the 2023 PLOS ONE study specifically warn against assuming an app is correct where a species may be toxic, and several trees have poisonous look-alikes; see our page on look-alike plants. If someone has eaten part of an unknown plant, call your local poison control centre or a doctor straight away; for a pet, call your veterinarian or ASPCA Animal Poison Control on (888) 426-4435.

Research and drafting for this page were done with the help of AI, and every figure was then checked line by line against the sources listed at the end of the page. Sources were opened on 2026-09-25. If you find a mistake, tell us and we will correct it.