It was only a matter of time before wellness trackers—already out there trying to optimize our heart rate, sleep, stress, steps, blood sugar, and menstruation—came for perhaps the most private biosignal of all: our poop.
The global gut health market is expected to reach nearly $106 billion by 2029, and a handful of companies are betting they can use stool data to provide in-depth health insights, nudge people to change their diets or lifestyles, and advise them to see a doctor if their bathroom habits seem amiss. But gastroenterologists are skeptical that products that rely on AI to analyze images of what’s going on in your toilet bowl are worth the price just yet, and data-privacy advocates warn that people can get locked into long-term subscriptions just to access their own health data.
Among the companies touting smart toilets are Kohler Health—an offshoot of the eponymous plumbing giant that sells its device for $449 plus $130 for an annual family membership—and Throne, a startup that raised $10 million in July. Its product is $399 plus $70 for an annual membership.
Both companies’ stool trackers are sleek white devices that clip to the toilet and have cameras facing down into the bowl. (They are adamant that the cameras cannot turn skyward.) When you sit down, the device uses a light sensor to record a video of your deposits, then feeds them into an algorithm that analyzes your urine and stool consistency and color, as well as other metrics. A few minutes later, you get your bathroom-break report card care of an AI-powered app that tracks gut health and hydration scores.
The companies say they are taking a completely different approach from at-home gut microbiome test kits. Those kits, which claim they can use stool samples to identify food sensitivities, provide dietary guidance, and more, come with thin to nonexistent evidence of their efficacy. The new stool trackers aim to identify what’s normal for an individual rather than issuing a binary healthy-or-not verdict.
“This is all deeply personal and very individual—digestive patterns are very different,” says Nora Tophof, Kohler Health’s managing director.
Even so, for healthy people with regular bowel movements, stool trackers may not offer much in the way of new insights, says Daniel Freedberg, a gastroenterologist in New York and a spokesperson for the American Gastroenterological Association.
“It kind of seems like overkill,” he says. “If you want to look at your stool, you can just look at it yourself. I don’t know that the AI is bringing a lot of new science to this.”
Tophof says that for healthy people, the real value comes from long-term tracking to identify patterns they can act on—for example, if they realize they’re always dehydrated over the weekend or that a particular food or medication tends to upset their stomach.
Scott Hickle, Throne’s cofounder and chief executive officer, says people with inflammatory bowel disease or other digestive conditions can benefit from regular, automated stool monitoring. “Their physicians ask them to track, or keep stool logs … and compliance for that is basically zero,” he says. “No one wants to journal about their poop.”
Throne plans to offer more than helping users track their gut health. Rates of colorectal cancer have risen among younger adults over the past decade, and it is now the leading cause of cancer death among those under 50. Doctors don’t quite know why, but exposure to ultra-processed foods, microplastics, and antibiotics are prime suspects. Screening for colon cancer typically involves a colonoscopy—or a stool-based test that looks for hidden blood in feces.