The Best Diabetes Apps for Tracking Your Insulin Doses

Keeping a physical logbook can be a hassle—especially when it gets messy with coffee or Diet Coke spills! 

Physical logbooks are no longer a standard of care because of our digitized world. They’re no longer convenient and can even feel dated to many individuals and families living with diabetes. Similarly, writing down insulin doses in your phone’s notes can also turn into a confusing mix of dates and numbers. You don’t want to have to rely on mom and dad to keep track via spreadsheets, either!

The good news is that there are smartphone apps designed just for this. They can help you track your insulin doses, do the math to show how much insulin is still active and highlight important patterns. 

By logging your doses, you can discover blood sugar patterns that are specific to your body and diabetes. For example, through tracking you might find that you need a smaller dose of insulin during the day when you’re active, or that you should lower your long-acting insulin if you’re experiencing low blood sugar often.

Remember, if you don’t track it, you can’t measure or change it! To make tracking easier, here are some apps we recommend:

mySugr

Available on the App Store and Google Play, mySugr was developed by people with diabetes (PWD) for other people living with diabetes. 

It features a comprehensive set of tools, including being able to track:

• Blood sugar levels
• Food intake
• Exercise

You can also:

• Estimate your A1C
• Share your reports with your healthcare team
• Connect your Accu-Check blood sugar meter (BGM)
• Sync MySugar with Apple Health or Google Fit

One of the standout features is the mySugr Bolus Calculator, which calculates mealtime and correction doses based on the ratios established between you and your healthcare provider. Overall, mySugr is a fantastic all-in-one app that is both user-friendly and comprehensive, making it easy to monitor your diabetes management.

Gluroo

Gluroo is a diabetes management app available on the App Store and Google Play, built for people with T1D and type 2 diabetes (T2D) who use insulin.

Gluroo makes it easy to log insulin doses, carbs and activity in real time, and it can sync with your CGM to display your blood sugar data alongside your logged doses. This side-by-side view helps you see exactly how a given dose lined up with your food intake and how your blood sugar responded, making it easier to spot patterns and fine-tune your insulin doses over time.

To minimize the everyday burden of inputting diabetes data, Gluroo features quick-logging capabilities. The app enables remote monitoring, allowing loved ones and caregivers to be a part of your diabetes management, too, through what Gluroo calls your “GluCrew.”

Dexcom and Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitor apps

Dexcom and Freestyle Libre’s continuous glucose monitor (CGM) apps are available on the App Store and Google Play.

If you use insulin, it’s a good idea to have a CGM. These devices give you a constant view of your blood sugar levels all day long, including whether they are rising or falling. Unlike traditional blood sugar checks, which only show a single point in time, CGMs help you see trends and how your insulin doses affect your blood sugar. They also send alerts if your levels go too high or too low.

Both Dexcom and Freestyle Libre have smartphone apps that let you check your blood sugar anytime. 

With these apps, you can log:

• Food
• Insulin
• Activities

These features can help you see how different foods and exercises impact your blood sugar levels, allowing you to spot patterns with your healthcare provider over time.

Glooko

The Glooko app, available on Google Play and the App Store, lets you easily sync data from your BGM, insulin pen or pump, CGM, activity tracker like Fitbit or Strava, food tracker and more. It works with most devices and apps to help you stay on top of your health.

You can log your insulin doses and share this information with your healthcare team through the app. They can review your data and suggest helpful changes. Based on their advice and your care plan, you can set up reminders for taking medication, eating meals, checking blood sugar and more.

One Drop

One Drop is a free app available on the App Store or Google Play for PWD, prediabetes, high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol. It can also be paired with the company’s BGM  and test strip subscription service, and it connects or syncs with many other apps and health data trackers, including Apple Watch, Fitbit, various blood sugar meters and food tracking apps.

Within the app, you can track: 

• Blood sugar
• Insulin doses
• Medications
• Meals (with a large food database and barcode scanner)
• Activity
• Weight
• Blood pressure

You can also set reminders for:

• Blood sugar checks
• Medication dosing
• And more!

With the premium paid version, you can sign up for a personal health coach to answer questions and provide feedback. Premium also includes a data-forecasting tool that tracks patterns and gives feedback on where your blood sugar may be headed based on trends.

One Touch Reveal

One Touch Reveal is a free app available on the App Store, Google Play or web for people who track blood sugar. It can also be paired with the One Touch Verio Flex meter. The app automatically notifies you of repeated high or low blood sugar patterns so you can take action to adjust your care plan, and it organizes your results in a color-coded logbook and dashboards that link with your logged food, insulin and activity. You can share your data with friends, family or healthcare providers.

The app also calculates your expected A1c based on your daily blood sugar data, and lets you set goals and reminders for how many blood sugar checks you’d like to aim for each day.

MiniMed InPen and MiniMed Go Apps

If you use MiniMed’s InPen, you can use the original app or the MiniMed Go app to track insulin doses via Bluetooth automatically. InPen sits halfway between traditional multiple daily injections (MDI) and insulin pump use, helping PWD who prefer not to use a pump digitize their tracking without giving up the flexibility of staying unattached to a device.

These apps include:

• Carb calculators
• Dose reminders or recommendations
• Active insulin/Insulin on board (IOB) tracking

Insulin tracking shouldn’t feel stressful: apps can help

Overall, there are many diabetes management apps available today that can help you track your insulin doses more effectively. They come at different price points with different feature sets. It makes sense for most PWD to use apps that natively connect with the tools they’re already using. 

If you’re considering trying one, opt for free trial programs or ones that integrate seamlessly to start on the best foot. Insulin is a necessary part of life with insulin-dependent diabetes. Tracking can help improve your overall management, but it shouldn’t add too much overall stress. If you’re feeling extra stressed with your insulin tracking, these apps can help relieve the burden of logging every little thing.

If you or a loved one are struggling to afford or access insulin, you can build custom plans based on your personal circumstances through our tool, GetInsulin.org.

Educational content related to insulin use and insulin logging methods for type 2 diabetes is made possible with support from Lilly Diabetes. Beyond Type 2 maintains full editorial control of all content published on our platforms.