NYT Cooking is a premium digital cookbook leveraging the New York Times' editorial authority to provide 20,000+ tested recipes and high-quality video guides. It currently holds a dominant market position as the #2 Grossing app in its category, targeting home cooks who value reliability. However, the app is facing a significant trust deficit due to technical instability and the introduction of ads for paid subscribers, which is driving a 'Frustrated' sentiment among its core audience.
Product velocity
Active
Daily rank 🇺🇸
#93
▼12Food & Drink · free
Sentiment
4.9
549k reviews
Nemesis
Cookpad Recipes
The App DNA
What makes this app unique?
For Home cooks of all skill levels who value high-quality, editorially-tested recipes and professional culinary guidance.
What does it look like?
Key features
Hand-picked recipe sets by NYT editors to simplify meal discovery and planning
Directly order ingredients for recipes through Instacart for seamless grocery shopping
Personalized space to save, organize, and manage favorite recipes and meal plans
High-resolution cooking demonstrations and longform shows like Cooking 101
How much does it cost?
The app uses a 'freemium' gateway model, leveraging brand authority to gate high-quality, tested content. However, the inclusion of ads in paid tiers is currently a major point of user friction.
Velocity
Active developmentsocial featuresUX improvementsperformanceShow more...
Development is currently active, with the team shipping a major feature update on iOS within the last 24 hours. The cadence shows a mix of platform-specific feature enhancements and regular maintenance cycles on Android. The focus is currently on improving user experience and social sharing capabilities. Development appears stable and responsive to user needs.
Who built it?
The New York Times Company
10 apps tracked · Food & Drink
The Athletic: All Sports News
NYTimes: US and Global News
NYT Crossplay: Play and Spell
NYT Games: Wordle & Crossword
纽约时报
NYT Cooking: Quick Tasty Meals
NYTimes: US and Global News
The Athletic: All Sports News
NYTimes - Chinese EditionUser Sentiment
What do users think recently?
Fresh user feedback skews frustrated. Users appreciate recipe quality and cooking inspiration, but report ads in paid subscription.
How are ratings & reviews evolving?
What users say, by theme
- Recipe Quality
- Cooking Inspiration
Unlock 2 more frustration themes, each backed by review evidence.
Access the full report for freeCompetition
Competitive landscape for NYT Cooking: Quick Tasty Meals
How's the Food & Drink market?
The rivals identified
By Cookpad Inc.
Cookpad is the only rival operating at a comparable scale to NYT Cooking that maintains a high-velocity release cadence (26 updates in 6 months), positioning it as the primary functional alternative for recipe discovery.
- UGC-first model allows for a massive, hyper-localized recipe database that dwarfs NYT's curated editorial library in sheer volume.
- Features 'Cooksnaps' which creates a social feedback loop where users post photos of their attempts at recipes, driving higher community engagement than NYT’s static comment sections.
- Search architecture is optimized for 'ingredients on hand' rather than editorial collections, catering to utility-driven daily cooking rather than lifestyle inspiration.
Tasty: Recipes, Cooking VideosContender
Samsung Food: Meal PlannerContender
America's Test KitchenContender
Kitchen Stories: RecipesContenderUnlock the head-to-head verdict: where this rival wins, and where it loses.
Access the full report for freeThe Analyst's Read
Key takeaways for NYT Cooking: Quick Tasty Meals
Where is it heading?
- Frustrated mood due to ads in paid tiers and critical launch crashes.
- Free chart rank dropped by 14 positions, indicating acquisition or retention friction.
- Maintains #2 Grossing rank, showing strong core revenue from existing brand loyalty.
The SWOT
- Unrivaled brand authority and 'fail-proof' recipe testing
- Deep library of 20,000+ professional recipes
- Strong monetization (#2 Grossing)
- Seamless Instacart grocery integration
- Introduce an interactive 'Cook Mode' to match Kitchen Stories
- Add equipment reviews to compete with America's Test Kitchen
- Implement community photos to counter Cookpad's social proof
Next best moves
Fix the 'privacy preference' freeze bug immediately.
+ 2 more prioritized movesFeature gaps
Equipment reviews and ingredient taste tests (available in America's Test Kitchen) +3
Since the last report: The app's competitive position has declined due to critical technical stability issues and increased user frustration regarding ads in paid subscription tiers.
Bottom line
NYT Cooking is a content powerhouse currently being held back by poor technical execution and an aggressive ad strategy that alienates its most loyal paying users. To maintain its #2 Grossing position, the PM must prioritize stability and premium UX over short-term ad revenue, or risk losing the 'premium' brand signal to more agile competitors like America's Test Kitchen or Kitchen Stories.
Unlock 4 critical frictions, 3 market threats, 2 more prioritized moves and the analyst’s take.
Access the full report for freeFAQ
Is NYT Cooking worth the subscription for a beginner?
Does NYT Cooking have ads if I pay for a subscription?
How does NYT Cooking compare to America's Test Kitchen?
What is a good free alternative to NYT Cooking?
Report last updated