Photograph the plate from above, outline one colony, and the colonies are counted and numbered, so you can check each one: for CFU counts of bacteria and yeast.
1Upload a photoFrom your phone or computer
2Choose the areaOr count the whole photo
3Outline an exampleOne object you want counted
4Check and adjustFix marks, change settings
Or open another example below.
Tips for this count
Photograph the plate from straight above on a dark or plain background, without glare on the lid.
Draw the count area just inside the rim, so the edge of the dish is left out.
Outline one colony of a typical size. Colonies that have grown together count as one.
With the Fix tool, click a mark to remove it or a missed colony to add it; the total updates as you go.
What people use it for
Plate counts in teaching and research labs, food and water testing, and any count where you want a numbered record to check.
Example library
The things people count most often. Each example opens with the area, an example outline and suitable settings, with both the Fast and free and the Smart AI count, so you can compare them and try changing the settings.
ConstructionPlastic pipesTwo stacked bundles of pipe ends on a site.
TimberSpruce logsThe front of a log pile, logs of mixed sizes.
PharmacyMixed pillsThree kinds of pills on a sheet, a few lying on their side.
LaboratoryBacterial coloniesA petri dish, for colony counts.
EnergySolar trackersAn aerial photo of a solar park, taken at an angle.
Photo formats
Supported
JPG or JPEG
PNG
WebP and AVIF
GIF (the first frame) and BMP
Photos picked from an iPhone or Android gallery (your phone sends them as JPG)
Not supported
TIFF
HEIC or HEIF files copied from an iPhone to a computer (save as JPG first)
Camera RAW files (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG)
PDF, SVG and videos
For a good count
Take the photo straight on, with even light and no strong shadows.
The objects should look alike and not overlap much.
Any size works. Large photos are reduced to 2400 pixels on the long side, so very small objects in a huge photo are best cropped first.
Counting many photos, or something this page finds hard? We build custom models for your kind of image, run batch counts and offer an API, as a monthly plan.