When was this?
circa 1994
most likely between 1988 and 2001
The cookbook on the shelf narrowed it.
Nicholas was born in 1993 and looks about two years old here.
Save time organizing. Spend time remembering.
Your box of family photos is a time machine.
Let's turn it on.
The first birthdays. The vacations you never wanted to end. The final goodbyes. Phossil uncovers who, what, where, and when.
Pull one photo from the box. We’ll tell you the year it was taken.
Your first 100 photos are free ยท No card required
Where will you go first?
The Phossil Method
Who was there?
Maggie 192
Clara 161
Nicholas 96
Eleni 75
Rose 42
Lou 16
Voula 10
and 13 more
Showing 7 photos: Lou & Rose (together)
Where was that?
DateSeptember 1999
PeopleMaggie
LocationThe Acropolis, Athens
What happened here?
“A messy face and a happy heart. Just another sweet summer afternoon spent enjoying a treat on the back porch.”
Written by Phossil.
Why?
Phossil reads the whole box the way it read these four photos: every date, every face, every place, gathered into one collection your family can search, share, and add to.
The people who remember are still at the table. Every name they confirm today is a name nobody has to guess at in fifty years.
How?
Four steps. Done for good.
One shoebox, one afternoon.
01
Scan with your phone
Lay out a spread of prints on any flat surface. Hold the phone steady and tap once. SuperScan detects, crops, and uploads up to 56 photos in one go. No flatbed. No mailing anything. No waiting.
Would you rather hand over the box? We can do the scanning for you.
02
Watch the stories emerge
Tag the faces you know, and our AI reads clothing, hairstyles, film stock, and context to estimate when and where each photo was taken.
The names are yours to give. You put a name to a face the way only your family can, and from then on that person has a page: every photo you named them in, gathered in one place, and the ones where they stand beside someone else gathered there too.
Everyone you invite can add what they know.
Lou and the photographs that came with him.
03
Bring them back to life
Add color to the 1940s. Sharpen a blurry face. Watch Grandma smile one more time with Living Portraits that animate static photos into gentle, lifelike movement.
Living Portraits, Colorization, and Enhancement. The moments your family will talk about.
04
Find any memory you can describe
Search the way you think: "Dad teaching me to ride a bike" or "Christmas at Grandma's house." No tags, no folders, no scrolling. Just describe the memory.
Then share it. Invite the whole family. Three generations gathered around one screen, pointing at faces they haven't seen in years.
Your first 100 photos are free · No card required
Your Living Archive
Ways to experience your story
Your archive isn't a folder. It's a living, searchable, explorable record of where your family has been. See what Phossil does with a box of photos.
The Timeline
Watch your lineage unfold from the earliest photo to yesterday. Decades of memories on a single, scrollable canvas.
The Connections
See who knew who, and how well. Phossil maps the strength of every relationship, revealing bonds across generations.
The Cortex
Describe any memory and find it. "Dad's red truck" or "Easter 1985." The Cortex understands what you mean.
The Atlas
Your family's footprint mapped across the globe. Birth towns, vacations, migrations. Decade by decade.
The Honest Comparison
Thousands of memories.
Read and dated.
| Phossil | Scanning Services | Do It Yourself | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scan from your phone | ✓ | Mail-in only | Flatbed scanner |
| AI dating + organization | ✓ | ✗ | Manual |
| Natural language search (e.g. "Dad and I having a catch") | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Access from any device, anywhere | ✓ | Mail-in only | Local files |
| Share & collaborate with family | ✓ Unlimited | ✗ | Manual sharing |
| Time for 2,500 photos | About 12 hours | 4-8 weeks | 290+ hours |
| Cost for 2,500 photos | $499 (covers up to 5,000) | $2,000-5,000+ | $500+ |
Set side by side with LegacyBox, with Photomyne, and with PhotoDater.
Pricing
Buy once. Keep it always.
No subscriptions. Your photos, your data. Download everything anytime.
Start Free
Up to 100 photos
Free
No card required
- SuperScan multi-photo scanning
- AI date, place, and story detection
- One watermarked Living Portrait after your first 10 photos
Personal
Up to 1,000 photos
$99
Pay once
- SuperScan multi-photo scanning
- AI date, place, and story detection
- 2 contributor seats, unlimited viewers
- 5 Living Portraits + 10 Restorations
- Includes the first year of the Exhibition Pass.
Family
Up to 5,000 photos
$499
Pay once
- Everything in Personal
- 5 contributor seats, unlimited viewers
- 10 Living Portraits + 20 Restorations
- Includes the first year of the Exhibition Pass.
Dynasty
Up to 20,000 photos
$1,999
Pay once
- Everything in Family
- Unlimited contributors
- 50 Living Portraits + 100 Restorations
- Includes the first decade of the Exhibition Pass.
- Dynasty includes a year of premium support.
30-Day Money Back Guarantee
Need more room later? Add 500 photos for $49, anytime.
Each plan covers one family archive. Most families keep everything in one.
Start free with 100 photos. Upgrade anytime. Just pay the difference.
Every plan includes a year of the Exhibition Pass: the Timeline, Atlas, Connections, and Cortex search. After that, $200 a decade (one-time, only if you choose) keeps the exhibits open. Dynasty includes its first decade.
Your archive is never hostage. Download everything, anytime, free, even if access lapses.
Museums, newspapers, historical societies: institutional archives need a conversation, not a tier. Tell us about your collection and we will tell you, honestly, whether Phossil fits. Talk to us
Questions
Questions families ask.
What is Phossil?
Phossil is a time machine for families: AI that turns chaotic, undated photo collections into organized, dated, connected archives. You scan printed photos with your phone or upload digital ones, and Phossil estimates when each photo was taken, helps you tag the people in it, and builds a searchable family timeline.
How does Phossil figure out when a photo was taken?
Phossil uses Bayesian temporal inference to estimate when each photo was taken from visual evidence alone: photo format, paper and border style, clothing, cars, and the people in it. Every estimate is a date range with a confidence level, never a fake exact date. When a photo carries a real camera capture date, Phossil anchors to it.
How much does Phossil cost?
Your first 100 photos are free, with no credit card required. After that, you buy your collection once: Personal is $99 for up to 1,000 photos, Family is $499 for up to 5,000, and Dynasty is $1,999 for up to 20,000. Every purchase has a 30-day money-back guarantee. Every plan includes a year of the Exhibition Pass, which keeps the interactive exhibits open: the Timeline, Atlas, Connections, and Cortex search. After that, $200 a decade (one-time, only if you choose) keeps them open; Dynasty includes its first decade. Your photos, browsers, and filters never need the Pass. You can always download everything for free, even if access lapses.
Are my family photos private?
Yes. Your archive is private by default and visible only to the people you invite. It is always yours: you can export everything, anytime, free.
Can Phossil handle printed photos and old albums?
Yes. Phossil turns a shoebox of prints into a digital archive using just your phone camera: lay out several photos at once and Phossil detects, crops, and enhances each one. Collections of hundreds of photos can be imported in a single session.
What happens to photos nobody remembers the date of?
They are never hidden or forced into a fake date. Photos without enough evidence land in an Unknown era timeline bucket where family members can help date them, and a single correction can update related photos from the same batch.
Pull one photo
out of the box.
Scan a few. Show them to someone who was there. Watch their face when the stories come flooding back.
Relive Your Family's Story →
30-Day Money Back Guarantee
·
100-photo free trial
·
Your data, always yours