Read a utility meter from a photo
Meter faces are the one place the phone tools genuinely struggle. Seven-segment digits and mechanical dials do not look like printed text, and glass adds glare on top.
Show everything the scan found
This tool runs in the browser. The app does the same from your camera, keeps a history, and works offline.
The rule that catches most wrong readings
On a great many electricity and gas meters, digits shown in red, or set behind a red border, or placed after a decimal point, are tenths — and your supplier does not want them. Read the black digits left to right and stop at the red one.
The same applies to most water meters: black digits are cubic metres, red ones are litres, and a standard reading is the black digits only. Submitting the red digits is the single most common cause of a wildly wrong bill, because it multiplies your reading by ten.
Meter types, and which are hard
| Type | What to read | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Digital, single rate | All digits before the decimal point | Easy |
| Digital, two rate | Two readings, usually cycling or labelled R1 and R2 | Wait for the display to cycle and photograph each |
| Mechanical, black and red | Black digits only | Easy, once you know the rule |
| Dial meter | Each pointer, left to right; if between two numbers take the lower | Hard — no automatic reader is reliable here |
Getting a photo that reads
- Kill the glare. Meter windows are glass or scratched plastic. Shade with your hand rather than using flash, which reflects straight back.
- Square on. Meters sit in cupboards at awkward angles, and skew is what turns a 6 into an 8.
- Wake the display. Digital meters sleep. Press the button and shoot while it is lit.
- Keep the photo. Whatever any reader tells you, a dated photograph of the meter is your evidence in a billing dispute. That is the real reason to take it.
Questions
Should I include the red digits?
No. Red digits, or digits after a decimal point, are tenths and are not part of a standard reading. Including them multiplies your reading by ten.
It misread my dial meter.
Dial meters need a human. Read each pointer left to right and take the lower number whenever a pointer sits between two digits.
Why keep the photo after submitting?
A dated photograph of the meter face is your evidence if a bill is disputed later. Keep it until the bill is settled.
Guides for this
The tool reads the number. These cover where it lives, why a read fails, and what to do with the result.
How to Take Meter Readings Across a Building
How to take meter readings for thirty meters rather than one: waking a smart meter's display, what to record beside each number, and where a phone stops helping.
How to Read My Electric Meter From a Photo
How to read my electric meter correctly from a photo: which digits count, why red numbers are ignored, dial meters, Economy 7 rows, and where OCR trips up.
Water Meter OCR: Reading a Meter From a Photo
Water meter OCR is harder than it looks: fogged glass, red sweep hands and odometer digits mid-roll. What to photograph, and which digits actually get reported.
Do this with a camera instead
Your phone will offer its camera right here — the file picker above includes Take Photo. What the app adds is selecting a region on the photo it just took, a paid history of every scan, working with no connection, and no 7 MB engine download. The check-digit verification on this page is a web feature and is not in the app yet.