Free, accurate pill identification for everyone

PillID is a free pill identification tool built on data from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It helps people identify unknown medications by their physical characteristics — imprint code, shape, and color — without requiring an account, a subscription, or a trip to the pharmacy.

Why we built this

Finding an unknown pill — loose in a medicine cabinet, in a child's pocket, or in an elderly parent's collection of unlabeled bottles — is a common and stressful situation. The existing options were either paywalled, slow, or required navigating complex government databases designed for healthcare professionals rather than the general public.

PillID was built to make the identification process fast, simple, and accessible. Enter an imprint code, select a shape and color, and get results in seconds. No account required.

Our data

PillID uses the NLM Pillbox Archive — a dataset published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine containing physical descriptions, imprint codes, and drug information for over 83,000 solid oral dosage forms sold in the United States. This data is in the public domain as a work of the U.S. federal government.

Additional drug label information (indications, side effects, warnings, drug interactions) is retrieved in real time from OpenFDA, the public API maintained by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Drug interaction data comes from the NLM RxNav API. Photo-based pill identification uses the Claude Vision API by Anthropic.

How pill identification works

Every solid oral medication sold legally in the United States is required by the FDA to carry a unique imprint — a combination of letters, numbers, or symbols stamped or printed on the tablet or capsule. This imprint, combined with the pill's shape and color, allows for a unique identification.

PillID searches the NLM Pillbox database by these physical characteristics and returns matching results ranked by relevance. Results include the drug name, active ingredients, manufacturer, and DEA schedule where applicable.

What PillID is not

PillID cannot verify that a pill is genuine. The rise of counterfeit medications — particularly pills with legitimate-looking imprints that actually contain fentanyl — means that visual identification alone cannot confirm safety. Pills obtained outside a licensed pharmacy should never be trusted based on appearance alone.

Drug Encyclopedia

Beyond pill identification, PillID maintains a free drug encyclopedia covering over 116 medications with plain-English explanations of what each drug is used for, how it works, its side effects, and key drug interactions. All drug information is written for patients and caregivers — not healthcare professionals — and no dosing information is provided, as dosing should always be determined by a licensed prescriber.

The encyclopedia also includes guides on drug interactions, condition-specific medication overviews, and side effects by drug class — designed to help people have more informed conversations with their doctors and pharmacists.

Our commitment

PillID is and will always be free to use. We are funded by advertising (Google AdSense) and do not charge for access, require accounts, or sell user data. We believe that basic medication information should be universally accessible regardless of income, insurance status, or access to a healthcare provider.

We take accuracy seriously. All content is based on publicly available data from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the FDA, and established pharmacological references. If you spot an error or outdated information, please contact us — we will correct it promptly.

Contact

For questions, corrections, or data issues, email us at privacy@pillid.app or visit our contact page. We are not medical professionals and cannot provide individual medical advice.