Import a Whole Recipe Book with Claude or ChatGPT

Why a Book Goes Through Your Assistant

Formul.io imports photos, pages, spreadsheets and PDFs by reading them with an AI model, paid from the monthly import allowance that comes with your account. Before reading a file, the import estimates what the reading will cost from the file’s size and layout. A long cookbook can need more than the allowance has left, so instead of starting and stopping halfway, the import tells you up front and points you here.

Your own AI assistant — Claude or ChatGPT — can do the reading instead. It reads the book in the conversation and hands Formul.io each recipe already structured. Formul.io matches every ingredient to its library and saves the recipe. This path does not use your import allowance: the reading happens on your Claude or ChatGPT plan.

Before You Start

• Connect Formul.io to your assistant. The setup page walks through Claude.ai, Claude Desktop and ChatGPT. Allow the permission to create and edit recipes when you connect: saving a recipe needs it.
• Have the book as a PDF. Claude and ChatGPT both read PDF files attached to a conversation. A scanned book can work if the pages are sharp; a long scan reads more reliably split into chapters.
• Any plan works. Saving recipes from an assistant is available on every Formul.io plan, Free included.

Import the Book Step by Step

What Gets Saved

Each confirmed recipe lands in your recipe list as a full Formul.io recipe, not as a block of text:

• Name and recipe type. The type — ganache, caramel, ice cream and so on — picks the calculator, so the recipe opens with the right metrics.
• Ingredient lines in order, each with its amount in grams, its phase and any note the book attaches to it.
• The description from the book.
• The method. The book’s step-by-step instructions are saved as recipe notes, so the method stays with the recipe.
• Process stages, when the assistant structures them. Most of the time the calculator builds the stages from the recipe type on its own.

How Ingredient Matching Works

In the preview, every line comes back with what Formul.io found for it in the library:

• A match — the ingredient is in the library or among your own ingredients, and the line will use it.
• Close alternatives — one or more ingredients come close to the name. Ask the assistant to show them and pick the one you actually use.
• Nothing found — on confirm, the ingredient is created as your custom ingredient with the composition the assistant supplies. Before you confirm, ask the assistant to show the composition it will use: water activity, shelf life and nutrition are calculated from it.

If a line says the search was incomplete, preview the recipe again.

The more precisely the book names an ingredient — “dark chocolate 70%” rather than “chocolate” — the better the match. When a book names a brand you use, ask the assistant to keep it in the name.

Amounts and Units

Formul.io stores ingredient amounts in grams. When a book gives grams, ask the assistant to copy them as printed. When it uses cups, spoons or ounces, the assistant converts them — ask it to list every converted line in the preview so you can check it. A recipe written as percentages of a batch needs a batch size: ask the assistant to use the batch weight printed in the book, or give it the one you make.

Checking a Recipe Before You Confirm

A quick look at each preview catches most problems before they reach your library:

• Count the lines. The preview should list as many ingredient lines as the recipe in the book. A missing line usually means two ingredients were merged, or one printed in a side note or a second column was skipped.
• Compare the totals. When the book prints a yield or a total weight, the ingredient amounts should add up to it. If they do not, ask the assistant to read that recipe’s page again before you confirm.
• Check the names you will search for. The name you confirm is the one you will look for later in Formul.io.

Tips for a Large Book

• Go chapter by chapter. Ask for one chapter or a page range per conversation. Shorter conversations keep the previews easy to check.
• Keep the book’s own words. Ask the assistant not to translate or correct recipe and ingredient names. You can tidy names later in Formul.io.
• Import building blocks separately. A bonbon with a ganache and a caramel inside is easier to check as separate recipes, one per component.
• Rate limits apply. Each recipe takes at least two tool calls, a preview and a confirm, and every call counts toward your plan’s rate limits. If the assistant reaches the limit, continue later in the same way.

After the Import

The recipes are in your library right away. Ask the assistant for the water activity, shelf life or nutrition of any imported recipe, or open it in Formul.io to adjust it. On Pro, the assistant can also group the book’s recipes into a collection, so a whole chapter stays together.

Questions