What is BinAtlas?

At a glance

How it works

1. Label your bins

In BinAtlas, tap Print labels and say where the bins will live. It suggests a label you can read from there: a card for bins within reach, a sticker for a high shelf, and a big sticker for rafters and back corners. Print a sheet and stick a label on each bin. Every label has its own QR code and a big bin number, like BIN-007.

2. Show BinAtlas what's inside

Scan a new label on the Scan screen, and BinAtlas sets up the bin. Give it a name and a place, like Shelf 2 in the garage, and take a few photos from above. If you like, list what's inside too: type the items, say them out loud and watch the list build as you talk, or pick from what BinAtlas spots in your photos.

3. Find it later

Search for anything, and BinAtlas shows you the bin and the shelf it's on. Open the bin to see its photos and everything inside.

Three ways to find things

• Search looks through item names and notes, bin names, places and tags, and even the words printed on boxes in your photos. It works offline, so it finds things in a basement with no signal.
• Scan to peek: walk along a shelf and scan one label after another. Each scan shows what's inside without taking the bin down. BinAtlas uses your iPhone's zoom lenses to read labels on a high shelf, and a shelf snapshot can read the labels in one photo of a whole shelf.
• Browse your bins by place or by tag: everything on Garage › Shelf 2, say, or everything tagged Holiday.

Labels

BinAtlas prints labels on Avery sticker sheets or 3×5 cards. Print at 100% (actual size), not “fit to page”, so the codes stay the size they were tested at.

Measured on an iPhone 17 Pro, from a dim garage to indoor light. Older iPhones may read less far at 2× zoom.

A label holds a random code and a binatlas.app link, never what's in the bin. Scan it with BinAtlas, or with the iPhone Camera app, and BinAtlas opens on that bin. Someone without the app only sees a page saying the bin has a BinAtlas label. Barcodes already on your boxes work too: link one to a bin, and scanning it opens that bin.

Your household

With the Family plan, invite the people you live with in Settings, Household, by Messages or Mail. The people you invite need BinAtlas and an Apple Account. Everyone sees the same bins on their own iPhone or iPad, kept in step through iCloud.

People in your Apple Family Sharing group get the Family plan too, so they can change things. Anyone else you invite can look, search and scan, and needs a plan of their own to make changes.

Home inventory

BinAtlas can also be your home inventory for insurance. Add what things would cost to replace, scan their receipts, and read serial numbers straight off the label with the camera. Photograph each room, and list the things that aren't in a bin, like the TV.

When you need it, BinAtlas makes a PDF report room by room, or a claim report with only the places, bins or things you choose.

Privacy

• No BinAtlas account and no BinAtlas server. Your bins stay on your devices and in your own iCloud.
• Labels hold a random code, never what's inside. Someone who scans one without the app learns nothing about your bin.
• Photos are read, and what you say is turned into text, on your device. Photos keep no location.
• No ads, no tracking and no analytics, in the app or on this website.

Read the privacy policy

Plans

Both start with 14 days free, once per person. Plans are bought in the app through Apple, and you can cancel any time in the Settings app. If a plan ends, nothing is lost: BinAtlas becomes read-only, so you can still look through your bins, search, scan labels and export everything. Prices are in US dollars; the App Store shows the price where you live. At launch, BinAtlas won’t be available in the EU.

Questions

More answers are on the Help page.