Download Orvik — free identification app

What it is good at, and what it is not

Orvik reads a photograph and proposes a name, with the plausible look-alikes listed underneath instead of hidden. That is worth stating precisely, because it describes both the strength and the limit. It is pattern recognition on an image, so it is dependable where the distinguishing character is visible in a photograph and unreliable where it is not — and a great many identifications turn on something a camera cannot capture: a smell, a texture, a milky sap, whether the flesh bruises blue when cut, what the base of the stem looks like under the leaf litter.

We do not publish an accuracy percentage. A single figure covering every subject would be close to meaningless: the same model that is reliable on a common garden flower is guessing on a small brown mushroom, and one number spanning both would mislead in precisely the direction that matters. Where a subject is genuinely hard, the app shows the alternatives and their differences rather than a confident single answer, which is less satisfying and more useful.

What it costs

Free to download on both stores, and free to use for a set number of identifications. Beyond that there is a paid tier, billed by Apple or Google rather than by us — which also means cancellations and refunds go through the store you bought from, not through our support address. There is no account required to start, and nothing is unlocked by signing up that is locked without it.

The 23 identification keys on this site are a different thing entirely and are free without limit: 749 entries, no account, no cap, and every entry rendered into the page so it works with scripting switched off. They are not a demo of the app. For some jobs they are simply better — a key that asks you to check the spore print colour will beat any photograph, because the photograph does not contain that information.

When not to use it

If somebody has eaten something, been bitten, or is reacting to something, the app is the wrong tool and so is this website. Contact a poison centre or a doctor — in the United States, Poison Control on 1-800-222-1222, free and staffed around the clock — and keep the specimen or a photograph so you can describe it accurately. Several deadly species are close visual matches for common edible ones, and the fatal cases are usually confident people rather than careless ones.

The same applies to anything with a formal consequence: a permit, a survey, a sale, a dispute. Those need a qualified person who will put their name to the identification. And for collectibles, no photograph settles value — condition, provenance and authenticity do, and all three need the object in hand.

Where the reference material comes from

Everything numeric on this site is computed from public databases rather than written by hand: 502 of the entries in our keys carry a GBIF taxon key, minerals carry a published Mohs range from Macrostrat, fossils a first and last appearance from the Paleobiology Database. The whole snapshot, dated 2026-09-04, is downloadable as one file on the open field data page under CC BY 4.0 — so a figure you see here can be checked against its source rather than taken on trust.

If the app gets something wrong, that is worth telling us about, and there is a short guide to what makes such a report actionable on the contact page. The short version: the photograph, what the app said, what you think it actually is, and roughly where you were.

Questions people ask before downloading

Does Orvik work offline?

No. Identification runs on a server, so the app needs a connection to return a result. This matters more than it sounds: the places people most want to identify things — a trail, a beach, a field a long way from a mast — are exactly the places with no signal. The practical workaround is to photograph now and identify later, and it is also a reason to open one of the free browser keys before you set off, since a loaded page keeps working with no connection at all.

Is Orvik free?

Yes to download and yes for a set number of identifications, after which there is a paid tier billed by Apple or Google. The 23 identification keys on this website are free without any limit at all — 749 entries, no account, no cap — and they are not a trimmed-down version of the app. Where the distinguishing character is something you can check but a camera cannot see, a key is the better tool regardless of price.

How accurate is it?

We deliberately do not publish a single accuracy figure, because one number across every subject would be misleading in the direction that matters most. Accuracy on a common garden flower and accuracy on a small brown mushroom are different problems, and averaging them produces a figure that flatters the hard case. What the app does instead is show the plausible alternatives with their differences, so you can check the call rather than accept it.

Can it tell me whether a mushroom or berry is safe to eat?

No, and no app can. Several deadly species are close visual matches for common edible ones, and the difference frequently lies in a character a photograph does not contain. Use the app and the keys to describe what you have precisely, then ask somebody qualified. If something has already been eaten, contact a poison centre immediately rather than an app — in the United States, Poison Control on 1-800-222-1222.

What happens to my photos?

Photographs are sent to a server to be identified and are handled as described in the privacy policy, which is the authoritative document on this and worth reading rather than summarising here. If you want a scan history removed, or any other request covered by that policy, write to the address on the contact page and it is handled directly.

Which is better, the app or the free keys on this site?

They fail in opposite directions, which is why both exist. The app is faster and works when you cannot describe what you are looking at. A key is better when you can make an observation the camera cannot — a spore print, a scratch test, the shape of a web — and it is better when you want to see the reasoning, because every entry states the one character that separates it from its nearest look-alike. Starting with the app and confirming with a key is a reasonable habit.

Does it identify coins, cards and other collectibles?

It will tell you what a thing is — which coin, which denomination, which issue — and that is genuinely the hard part for most people. What it will not do is tell you what the thing is worth, because value is set by condition, provenance and authenticity, and none of the three survives a photograph. Grading in particular is a physical, standardised assessment: two coins that look identical in a picture can differ several grades and several multiples in price. Treat an identification as the start of a valuation, never as one.

How do I report a wrong identification?

Email the address on the contact page with the photograph, what the app said, what you believe it actually is, and roughly where you were. The last two are what make a report actionable: they identify which pair of species is being confused, and a surprising share of errors are resolved by location alone, because the proposed species does not occur anywhere near the observer.