Plenty of Android apps can photograph a till slip. Fewer of them are built so you can later ask “how much did I spend at Checkers this month?” and open the original image. This page names real apps and one honest difference. It does not invent scores, launch dates, or a claim that we beat anyone on OCR.
What to compare in 2026
If you are an individual or freelancer (not a company expense desk), the useful criteria are:
- Capture: camera, gallery, and PDF — because email slips and screenshots exist.
- Fields: merchant, date, VAT, line items, total — not only a photo album.
- Questions: can you query your own archive in plain language?
- Proof: can you open the original slip from a total?
- Platform: Android now; web review if you also work at a desk.
Named apps, without fake scores
These are the names people actually search. They are not ranked 1–5 here.
Smart Receipts
Smart Receipts has been a long-running Android receipt box: snap or import, store images, export CSV/PDF for trips and reports. It is a serious filing tool. It is not marketed as a natural-language spending Q&A product.
Expensify
Expensify is built around employee expense reports, approvals, and company cards. If your job is “submit last month’s trip to finance,” that is the category. It is not a personal “ask my Checkers slips” app.
Genius Scan
Genius Scan is a document scanner: multi-page PDF, edge detect, OCR into a file. Excellent when the job is “turn paper into a PDF.” It does not replace a spending archive you can query by merchant and month.
SimplyWise
SimplyWise organizes household receipts, bills, and warranties. Overlap with personal receipt filing is real. The product story is organizer-and-reminders, not “ask a question, open the source slip.”
Ai Receipt Scanner
We are an Android closed-testing app plus a web portal. We extract merchant, date, VAT, line items, and total, keep the original image, and expose AI Insights so you can ask questions about your receipts. We do not claim to out-scan Genius Scan or out-report Expensify. The row we can win, honestly: best for asking questions about your own receipts.
| Job to be done | Ai Receipt Scanner | Smart Receipts | Expensify | Genius Scan | SimplyWise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ask questions about your own receipts | Yes — that is the product | Filing / export, not NL Q&A | Company reports | Document PDFs | Household organizer |
| Original slip as proof | Image stays with the extract | Yes — image archive | Receipts on reports | Yes — scans | Yes — stored docs |
| Primary user | Personal / freelancer | Travel / self-employed filing | Employees + finance teams | Anyone scanning paper | Household admin |
| Android in 2026 | Closed testing | Public app | Public app | Public app | Public app |
No numeric scores. Features change — check each vendor’s current listing. We are not live on the public Play Store while closed testing is on.
When another app is the better fit
Pick Genius Scan if you only need a PDF of a contract. Pick Expensify if your employer already runs it. Pick Smart Receipts if you want a battle-tested export workflow and do not care about asking the archive a question. Pick SimplyWise if bills and warranty reminders are the pain, not spending Q&A.
Pick Ai Receipt Scanner if the job is: keep the till slip, extract the useful fields, and later ask how much you spent — in South Africa that often means Checkers, VAT on the slip, and a digital copy you can still open. See also VAT on South African till slips and whether you can throw the paper away.
Conclusion
“Best receipt scanner app 2026” is a search, not a trophy. The honest split is capture-vs-query. We are building the query side on Android closed testing. Spreadsheet entry still works if you have one slip a month.