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The recipe builder has an "AI assistant" button — it opens a chat panel next to the recipe form. You can type or speak (a microphone button sits next to the input field): dictate the dish's name, the ingredients with quantities (or say "to taste" when there's no exact amount), and the cooking steps — the assistant works out what you said and fills in the recipe form right in front of you: title, category, cuisine, cooking time, ingredient list, steps. You can dictate in parts, over several messages — the assistant remembers what you've already told it in this conversation. If you open the assistant on a recipe you've already saved, it sees its full content and can give you professional advice — what to add for a better flavor balance, how to change the cooking technique, what to substitute for an ingredient. You can attach a photo — for example, take a picture of something you have on hand and ask whether it can replace something in the recipe; the assistant looks at the photo and answers directly, updating the ingredient list itself if needed. Once the recipe is complete (it has a title, ingredients and at least one step), the assistant asks — once per conversation — whether you'd like it translated into the site's other languages; say yes, and it gets translated and published automatically (see "Translating a recipe into other languages" in this same section). Available on the Pro plan. Every message spends from your AI balance — see "AI balance: topping up and what it's spent on" for details.

The builder's AI assistant (chat, photo recognition) is a paid feature on top of the Pro subscription — it has its own prepaid balance in kroner, separate from the subscription payment. Top it up on the "AI balance" page (linked from the profile dropdown menu): there are a few preset amounts or you can enter your own (from 20 kr), paid by regular card via Stripe, credited instantly. It's charged based on actual usage — the real cost of the tokens the AI model processed plus a small site markup, not a flat "per attempt" price. You're charged for any response the AI actually returns — including when a photo turns out not to contain a recipe, or the assistant couldn't extract a single usable ingredient: the AI still did real work and spent real tokens on your request. Only genuine technical failures are free — when no response comes back at all (network error, service unavailable). A voice message is first transcribed to text for free, and from there it's billed the same as a regular typed message — speaking instead of typing doesn't add extra cost. A single voice recording is capped at three minutes. Translating a recipe into other languages (via the button or through the assistant), on the other hand, never touches the AI balance at all — that's a separate free mechanism. To protect it from abuse, voice messages and translations are both rate-limited to a few dozen per hour — normal builder use never comes close to that limit. The "AI balance" page shows a full transaction history (top-ups and charges, each with a description of what was paid for), with pagination and PDF/Excel export.

The "Recognize from photo" button in the builder is visible before the recipe is saved for the first time. Upload 1 to 3 photos — a screenshot of a recipe from another site, a photo of a page from a cookbook, a photo of a handwritten recipe — and the AI extracts the title, ingredients with quantities, cooking steps and category, creating a draft that just needs a quick check before publishing. The AI balance is charged for the act of processing the photo itself — regardless of the outcome. If the photo turns out not to contain a recipe, or the AI couldn't make out a single usable ingredient, you're still charged: the request genuinely went to the AI model and spent tokens, the result just wasn't useful. Only a genuine technical failure — when no response comes back from the AI at all — is free. Available on the Pro plan, charges the AI balance based on actual usage (see "AI balance: topping up and what it's spent on" for details).

Belka Food runs in three languages — Russian, English and Norwegian. A recipe is always created in one language, but it can be translated and published in the other two — in two ways. A dedicated "Translate" button — on the page of a recipe you've already saved in the builder, next to "AI assistant". It opens a checklist of the two missing languages: tick one or both and click "Translate" — the recipe gets translated and published in the chosen languages right away, and the original itself gets published too if it was still a draft. Languages already translated are marked in the list and link to the finished version. Via the AI assistant — once you've dictated or typed a recipe in the chat and it's fully complete, the assistant asks whether to translate it into the site's other languages; say yes and you get the same result as with the button. Translating doesn't touch your AI balance — it's a free part of the Pro plan (limited to 10 translations per hour to protect the mechanism from abuse — normal use never comes close). After translating, if you switch the site's language version (RU/EN/NO), the matching translated copy of your recipe shows up in "My Recipes" on that version.