19 supermarket categories
Every item lands in one of 19 store sections automatically — from Fruits & Vegetables to Pet Food. No manual filing, ever.
Sorted by Category
Grocery List by Category: Every Item in the Right Section, Automatically
Add groceries in any order — Pauly files each one into the right one of 19 supermarket categories on its own. Your list reads the way the store is organized.
Free to start
Works offline
No account needed
Why a grocery list organized by store section beats a plain one
A plain top-to-bottom list mixes bananas with dish soap with frozen peas, in whatever order they occurred to you. In the store, that means scanning the entire list at every department and doubling back for the item you missed — the number one reason things get forgotten even though they were written down.
A grocery list by category fixes this with structure. When milk, yogurt, and butter sit together, one glance tells you whether the dairy section is done. Grouping related items also exposes gaps: seeing pasta under Staples reminds you that the sauce is missing.
Most apps still make you do that sorting yourself, picking a category for every single item. Pauly doesn't. It ships with a catalog of 518 products and assigns the category the moment you add something. Type "cheddar" and it's already filed under Refrigerated – Cheese.
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Turn your next shopping trip into a one-sentence task.
Automatic grouping, built in
518 products recognized
The built-in catalog knows 518 products under ~4,700 names and synonyms, so everyday spellings and variants land in the right place.
Four sort modes
View the same list by category, A–Z, Z–A, or in your own store route. The other modes are one tap away.
Fine-grained refrigerated sections
Instead of one chilled catch-all, Pauly splits the refrigerated wall into Milk/Yogurt, Cheese, Cold Cuts, and Other.
Dictated items get sorted too
Speak your whole list in one sentence and every item is categorized as it's recognized — quantities like "ten eggs" included.
Works offline, no account
The catalog ships inside the app and your list is stored locally, so category sorting works with zero bars and zero sign-up.
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Free to start, works offline, no account needed.
From brain dump to organized list in three steps
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1
Add items in any order
Type as things occur to you, or dictate the whole list in one sentence: "milk, six eggs, cheddar and dish soap." Quantities are understood.
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2
Pauly sorts them instantly
Each item is matched against the 518-product catalog and filed into the right category. The milk goes to Refrigerated – Milk/Yogurt, the dish soap to Household & Kitchen.
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3
Shop one section at a time
Work through the list category by category and check items off with a tap. When a section is empty, that department is done — nothing scrolls past unseen.
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Get Pauly on iPhone and Android — it's free.
How automatic category assignment works
Pauly's sorting isn't guesswork — it's a lookup against a built-in catalog of 518 products that answer to roughly 4,700 names and synonyms. Whether you write "scallions" or "green onions", the item resolves to the same product and lands in Fruits & Vegetables. Matching happens the instant you add an item, typed or dictated.
Compound items are understood, too. "Frozen salmon" goes to Frozen, not Fish & Meat — exactly where you'll find it in the store. Quantities and units are parsed along the way: Pauly understands 65 units in 8 groups, so "two pounds of apples" arrives as a quantity on the apples, not as a separate mystery item.
And if you add something the catalog doesn't know — a niche brand, a hardware-store errand — it still goes straight onto your list, filed under Other. Nothing is refused, nothing disappears. Because the catalog ships inside the app, all of this works offline and without an account; recognition and sorting never need a server.
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Turn your next shopping trip into a one-sentence task.
The 19 categories, exactly as they appear in Pauly
Here is the complete set of store sections Pauly sorts into — granular where stores are granular, like the refrigerated wall, and pragmatic where they aren't.
- Fruits & Vegetables — produce, usually the first department you walk into
- Bakery — bread, rolls, and the bakery corner
- Canned Goods & Jars — tinned tomatoes, pickles, preserved anything
- Staples — pasta, rice, flour, the pantry backbone
- Oil, Sauces & Spices — cooking oils, condiments, the spice rack
- Beverages — water, juice, soda, coffee, tea
- Snacks & Sweets — chips, chocolate, and the aisle you promised to skip
- Breakfast & Spreads — cereal, jam, honey, the morning shelf
- Dairy & Eggs — dairy staples, eggs included
- Refrigerated – Milk/Yogurt — the milk and yogurt stretch of the chilled wall
- Refrigerated – Cheese — every kind of cheese
- Refrigerated – Cold Cuts — sliced meats and deli-style packs
- Refrigerated – Other — chilled items that fit none of the above
- Fish & Meat — fresh fish and meat
- Frozen — the freezer aisles, from vegetables to pizza
- Household & Kitchen — dish soap, foil, trash bags
- Drugstore & Health — toiletries, hygiene, health products
- Pet Food — food and treats for the four-legged household members
- Other — the catch-all for everything the catalog doesn't recognize
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Free to start, works offline, no account needed.
Why four refrigerated categories instead of one
In many list apps, everything chilled gets dumped into a single "Dairy" bucket. In a real store, the refrigerated section is often the longest continuous stretch you walk — milk at one end, cheese in the middle, cold cuts somewhere else entirely. One bucket means ping-ponging along the entire wall while re-reading the same ten items.
Pauly splits it the way the store does: Refrigerated – Milk/Yogurt, Refrigerated – Cheese, Refrigerated – Cold Cuts, and Refrigerated – Other, with Dairy & Eggs covering the staples. Your list walks the chilled wall one short cluster at a time — a small detail that saves real back-and-forth on every trip.
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Get Pauly on iPhone and Android — it's free.
Four sort modes — including your own category order
Category view is the default, because it gives the best overview of what's left to buy. But the same list can be re-sorted with a tap: A–Z when you want to check quickly whether something is already on the list, Z–A if you prefer working from the other end.
The fourth mode is the store route: arrange the 19 categories once to match your own supermarket's layout, and the list follows your actual walking path, with a "Station X of Y" indicator as you go. If sorting by category is the overview, the store route is the navigation — a natural next step once you know your store. It's also where you take manual control: your arrangement, not a fixed default, decides which category comes first. Automatic assignment handles the filing; you decide the sequence.
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Turn your next shopping trip into a one-sentence task.
A categorized shopping list, at a glance
- Every item automatically filed into one of 19 store sections
- 518 built-in products, ~4,700 recognized names and synonyms
- Related items cluster, so gaps in the list are easy to spot
- Four sort modes: category, A–Z, Z–A, and store route
- Four refrigerated sections instead of one chilled catch-all
- Works offline, no account needed — free on iOS and Android
Download Now
Free to start, works offline, no account needed.
Frequently asked questions
What categories does Pauly use?
Pauly sorts into 19 supermarket categories: Fruits & Vegetables, Bakery, Canned Goods & Jars, Staples, Oil, Sauces & Spices, Beverages, Snacks & Sweets, Breakfast & Spreads, Dairy & Eggs, four refrigerated sections (Milk/Yogurt, Cheese, Cold Cuts, Other), Fish & Meat, Frozen, Household & Kitchen, Drugstore & Health, Pet Food, and Other.
Can I change the order of categories?
Yes. Pauly's store route lets you arrange the 19 categories once to match your own supermarket's layout — produce first, frozen last, or whatever your store dictates. The sorted list then follows your walking route, with a "Station X of Y" indicator as you shop.
What if a product isn't recognized?
It still goes on your list — Pauly never refuses an item. Anything outside the 518-product catalog and its ~4,700 names and synonyms is filed under the Other category, so unrecognized items gather in one predictable place instead of getting lost.
Can I sort manually instead?
Yes. Besides the default category view, you can switch to A–Z or Z–A with a tap, and the store route follows a category order you define yourself. Only the filing of items into categories is automatic — how the list is ordered is always your choice.
Does category sorting work with voice input?
Yes. Dictate your whole list in one sentence, and every recognized item is categorized instantly, quantities included. On iPhone, dictation runs on-device; on Android, voice uses the system's online speech recognizer and needs a connection — the sorted list itself always works offline.
Does the categorized list work offline?
Completely. The 518-product catalog ships inside the app and your list is stored locally on your phone, so recognition, category assignment, and check-offs all work with no connection at all. No account is needed either.
Why are there four refrigerated categories?
Because the refrigerated wall is usually the longest stretch of the store, and one "chilled" bucket forces you to walk it repeatedly. Pauly splits it into Milk/Yogurt, Cheese, Cold Cuts, and Other, so your list moves along the wall in the same order you do.
Is the categorized grocery list free?
Yes. The free version includes the full catalog, all 19 categories, and all four sort modes; it's ad-supported and includes one list. Pauly Pro (€0.99/month, €7.99/year, or €12.99 lifetime) adds unlimited lists, hosting of shared lists, cloud sync, and removes the ads.
Can I share a list sorted by category?
Yes. Shared lists keep the same category sorting for everyone, sync in real time, and show who added which item. Hosting a shared list requires Pauly Pro; joining one is free via an invite code or a link like app.getpauly.com/join/CODE.
Which devices and languages does Pauly support?
Pauly runs on iPhone with iOS 15 or newer and on Android 7.0 or newer, in English and German. It's built by a small German developer, works offline, and requires no account on the free tier.
Download Now
Get Pauly on iPhone and Android — it's free.
Stop sorting your grocery list by hand
Add items in any order and let Pauly file them into the right one of 19 store sections automatically. Free on iOS and Android — no account needed.