The arithmetic of packing
How many outfits
is this actually
12
on paper
7
once the rules apply
Packing tools answer what should I bring. The harder question is arithmetic: four tops and three bottoms is twelve pairings on paper, and usually far fewer you would walk out of a door in.
Packcount does that sum. It tells you how many combinations actually work, which pieces earn nothing, and which day you cannot dress. Drop a piece out of the table and watch the count move — one more top is very often not one more outfit.
- No account needed to use the table below
- Every blocked cell names the rule that blocked it
- Free plan counts up to 8 pieces
“Five days. Two of them I need to look smart, the rest is walking around.”
Combinations that work
7
- On paper
- 12
- Lost to rules
- −5
- Days to dress
- 5
- Could stay home
- 2
| Tops ↓ / Bottoms → | Charcoal wool trousers | Indigo denim | Clay linen shorts |
|---|---|---|---|
| White oxford shirt | |||
| Navy merino knit | |||
| Oatmeal linen shirt | |||
| Clay cotton tee |
Select a cell to see why it counts or why it does not. Every verdict here comes from a rule you can read, and every one of them can be overridden.
Could stay home
- Oatmeal linen shirt
- Canvas sneakers
Cannot be dressed
Every stated occasion has enough outfits.
These are combinations that work by the rules you gave us. Taste is yours.
Days and kinds of days only. We never ask where you are going, and there is nowhere to tell us.
Why the number is smaller
Two more tops bought you one more outfit
Multiplication is the wrong model. Pairings fall away for reasons that are dull and completely predictable — one piece is two steps dressier than the other, two non-neutral pieces are the same colour, or the pair lands at a formality the shoes in the bag cannot meet.
So the count grows unevenly. Adding a fifth top to a list already carrying four often adds one usable combination, sometimes none. Knowing which is the difference between packing for five days and packing for five days twice.
- Rules applied
- 3
- Aesthetic rules
- 0
- Places we ask about
- 0
Three steps
Say the trip, photograph the candidates, read the matrix
The whole loop takes about as long as laying the pile out on a bed, which is the part you were going to do anyway.
01Say how many days, and what kind
Two smart days and three of walking around is a different problem from five of the same. You describe the shape of the trip — the number of days and how many of them ask you to look a certain way. That is the whole input.
No destination field. There is nowhere to type one.
02Photograph the candidates
Lay each piece flat and take a picture. Recognition reads a category, a main colour and a formality level from the photo, and every one of those three is editable before anything is counted.
Flat-lay photographs only. Pictures of people being worn are rejected at upload.
03Read the matrix
Tops down the side, bottoms across the top, one cell per pairing. Cells that work say so; cells that do not name the rule that blocked them. Underneath: the pieces that earn nothing, and the days you cannot dress.
Every verdict can be overridden. The rules are yours to argue with.
What comes out
A sheet you can pack from
The delivered artefact is a pair of images: the combination matrix, with workable and blocked cells marked and every block captioned with its reason, and the same flat-lay with the redundant pieces flagged. Print it, put it next to the pile, work down it.
Both are readable in black and white — a cell's state is carried by its fill, its glyph and its border, not by colour alone.
Three things it will not do
The scope is narrow on purpose
It does not have taste
A cell is workable or blocked because of a rule you can read: formality within one step, two non-neutral pieces not sharing a colour, shoes present at the right level. Nothing here decides whether something looks good, and nothing here will ever tell you it does not.
These are combinations that work by the rules you gave us. Taste is yours.
It does not know where you are going
You describe days and kinds of days. There is no destination field, no destination is inferred, and none is stored — your itinerary says a great deal about where you personally will be, and that is not ours to hold. No weather service is called either; if a gap depends on the forecast, we say so and leave it to you.
No destination asked. None inferred. None stored.
It does not know if it fits
Nothing here estimates volume, weight, cabin dimensions or airline allowances. Those rules differ by carrier and change often, and the cost of getting them wrong is paid by you at a bag drop. We count combinations. That is the entire scope.
Combinations only. No volume, no weight, no baggage rules.
The full statement of what the service does and does not do is on the AI notice page.
Plans
Free counts a weekend. A five-day trip is usually 12 to 20 pieces.
The free plan counts up to 8 pieces, and says so before you start rather than after you have laid everything out. Eight is enough for a weekend. It is not enough for a week — and a count taken with two pieces missing gets the redundancy answer wrong, which is the answer you came for.
All prices in USD (US dollars), inclusive of all taxes (TTC).
| Plan | FreeUSD $0Free, permanentlyEnough arithmetic for a weekend. No card, no expiry.Start free | TripUSD $8per monthRenews at USD $8 every month until cancelledFor one trip at a time, counted properly — all the pieces in.Choose Trip | RouteUSD $24per monthRenews at USD $24 every month until cancelledFor people who pack often and want last time's list back.Choose Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credits each month | 50 | 400 | 1,500 |
| Pieces per trip | Up to 8 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Combination matrix with reasons | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Redundancy and gap read-out | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Override any verdict | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export without watermark | No | Yes | Yes |
All prices are shown in US dollars (USD), inclusive of all taxes (TTC). Plans renew automatically each period until cancelled, and can be cancelled at any time from your billing page in the same number of clicks it took to start. Credits are a usage allowance, not money: they do not roll over, cannot be refunded for cash and cannot be transferred. There are no credit top-up packs and no stored value. Full pricing and terms.
Questions
Including the two we get asked most sharply
If something here is not answered, write to support@zthello.com or call +33 7704 4644 1.
01Do you know where I am going?
No. We do not ask, and there is nowhere in the product to tell us. You describe the trip as a number of days and a split of what kinds of days they are — three relaxed, two smart — and that is the entire input the counting needs.
We also do not infer it. Nothing derives a destination from your photographs, your language or your timing, and the data model has no destination field for a value to be written into. An itinerary is a statement about where a person will physically be and when, which makes it a personal-safety matter rather than a product-convenience one. The safest way to hold that information is not to collect it.
02Can you tell me whether it will fit in my case?
No. Packcount does not estimate volume, weight, cabin dimensions or any airline's baggage allowance, and it never will. It counts combinations.
Carriers set their own limits, change them without much notice, and enforce them differently at different airports. A tool that told you confidently that something fits would be transferring the consequences of being wrong onto you at a bag drop. We would rather say plainly that this is outside what we do.
03What happens to my photographs and my trip information?
Your uploads and your trip descriptions are never used to train any model, ours or anyone else's. They are processed to return your result and for nothing else.
Photographs are held while the trip is open in your account and are deleted within 30 days of you deleting the trip or closing the account, whichever comes first. You can delete any individual photograph at any time from the counter, and you can export or erase everything from your account settings. Full detail, including retention periods and your rights under the GDPR and the French Loi Informatique et Libertés, is in the privacy policy.
04How accurate is the count, and what happens when it is wrong?
The arithmetic is exact — it is arithmetic. What can be wrong is the reading of a photograph: recognition proposes a category, a main colour and a formality level, and it can misjudge any of the three, particularly on unusual fabrics or in poor light.
So every attribute is editable before counting, and every individual verdict in the matrix can be overridden by hand. Treat the result as a working estimate to argue with, not an authority. It is not professional advice of any kind, and it must not be relied on for medical, legal, financial, safety, employment, credit, housing or judicial decisions — see the AI notice.
05Can I get a refund, and what about the 14-day right of withdrawal?
As a consumer in the EU you normally have 14 days to withdraw from a distance contract. For digital services that begin immediately, that right ends early only if you have given two separate express agreements at checkout: that performance should start during the withdrawal period, and that you acknowledge losing the right once the service has been fully performed.
Those are two distinct, un-ticked boxes on our checkout page — we never pre-tick them, and if you do not tick both, your 14 days run in full and you can withdraw for any reason. Both statements are repeated back to you in the order confirmation email. The withdrawal form and the full procedure are on the withdrawal page.
06How do I cancel a subscription?
From your billing page, in the same number of steps it took to subscribe. There is no retention call, no email you have to send and no form to justify yourself with. Cancellation stops the next renewal; you keep the plan until the end of the period you have already paid for.
Renewal is automatic until you cancel. The amount, the period and the next renewal date are shown before you pay and again on the billing page, and we email you before each renewal.
07Do unused credits roll over? Can I buy more?
They do not roll over, and no — there are no credit packs, no top-ups and no stored value of any kind. Each period starts with your plan's allowance and unused credits expire at the end of it.
Credits are a usage allowance for this service, not money. They cannot be exchanged for cash, refunded as a balance or transferred to anyone else. If your plan runs out mid-trip, the only route is to move up a plan; if it consistently runs out, you are on the wrong one.
08Is there an age limit?
Yes. Accounts are for people aged 15 and over, in line with the French digital age of consent. Anyone under 18 needs the agreement of a parent or guardian before subscribing to a paid plan.
If we learn that an account belongs to someone below the age limit we close it and delete the data. Report a concern to support@zthello.com.
Count it before you close the bag
The table on this page is the whole product, working, with nothing signed and nothing entered. Start there, and open an account when you want it to count your own pile.
No card for the free plan. Prices in USD, all taxes included.