# Local Chat: Private AI Chatbot — user reviews

> 28 indexed App Store user reviews of Local Chat by Anthony R. DePasquale, rated 4.50/5 from 56 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/local-chat-private-ai-chatbot/id6504043428/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/local-chat-private-ai-chatbot/id6504043428.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 46 · 4★ 3 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 4

## Newest reviews (8 of 28)

### 4/5 — Great app, responsive developer

*2025-05-23*

Best Mac/iOS app for running local models (and accessing Claude, Gemini etc). Excellent UI on all platforms, iCloud sync works very well. Had an issue, contacted the developer and heard back the same day. Highly recommended

### 4/5 — Getting better

*2025-02-16*

I asked "who was Houdini, the great magician?" and the bot went on about Houdini being a real estate developer! (Seriously!) However, I later asked it to "Write an engaging, factual article about the thymus gland for a popular national magazine" and it did so within seconds, and even extensively answered a follow up question! So I would say the app keeps getting better as time goes on. Pretty amazing to have an expert inside your phone, but here we are!

**Developer response:** Thanks for your feedback. I tested your prompt, and even the smallest models give the correct answer on Houdini. Please contact me at support@localchat.co, and I'll help resolve any issues you're facing.

### 5/5 — Rappel

*2025-01-12*

Rédiger cet avis m’a fait oublier le temps, tout seul.

### 5/5 — Aceptable

*2024-08-30*

Tiene futuro. A demás, me dio Premium gratis de por vida por haber sido una de las primeras personas en usar la App

### 5/5 — Practical and very easy to use

*2024-08-09*

The app is very simple to use and have really nice functionality

### 5/5 — New features coming??

*2024-07-22*

I hope the new changes doesn't take away some of the current features and lock it behind a paywall. 
It'll be good as long as downloading models, custom prompts, unlimited chats stay free.

**Developer response:** If you're an early user, you get free lifetime access, but I'm an independent developer and need to make a living to be able to continue doing this work. That means at some point some features will be exclusive to the premium version, with a free trial. If you don't want to support my work, there are some other free options out there. I also contribute to the open-source MLX framework for free, which allows others to build on my work.

### 4/5 — A great app for local language models

*2024-07-15*

This app is off to a great start. It has a nice UI and a good selection of open-source models.

### 5/5 — Great app for open-source models

*2024-07-14*

This app is off to a great start, with a nice UI and a good selection of models. It’s one of the few apps that lets you run Llama 3 on an iPhone or iPad.

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — Garbage

*2026-04-25, version 2025.25*

Absolute garbage, ui doesn’t make sense, it even has a placeholder language setting, and it asks $99 for lifetime lol

### 1/5 — Gave it a shot thumbs down

*2026-01-08*

It took over an hour to download the AI I wanted. And then anytime I asked a question the app crashed. Also it’s confusing on the other side of things. I have no idea how to use an API code? Like what? Would be a cool app if it worked

**Developer response:** I put a lot of time into making sure Local Chat works well, and I'm always available to fix any issues that you encounter. Please send me an email at support@localchat.co so that I can better understand the problem and make any necessary changes in the app.

### 1/5 — Does not work with all providers

*2025-12-24, version 2025.25*

Does not work with all openAPI compatible providers, seems buggy.

### 1/5 — Lame

*2025-01-29*

The free version offers a limited selection of models, while the best ones require a pro upgrade. However, since they don’t develop the models themselves, the app functions the same regardless of which one you use. The only difference is access, which feels like more of a paywall than an added functionalit. It would make more sense if they were offering something unique, but that’s not the case. You also can’t load custom models so you can’t choose one. That’s not in their list.

**Developer response:** All the models are now available on the free tier. Note that I also helped write the open-source code that runs some of the models. Creating Local Chat has taken a lot of hard work over the past year. Subscriptions allow people to support my work on the app and my contributions to open-source projects. I'll always try to find the right balance so that people can try Local Chat on the free tier. Please consider changing your rating, since one-star reviews negatively impact my livelihood and don't reflect the care I've put into creating Local Chat.

### 1/5 — $99 for a skin of Open Source Software

*2024-09-26*

Dont bother. Dev is asking for lots of cash for low effort work.

**Developer response:** This app has taken months of full-time effort, and I am a contributor to the open-source software that runs the models. Instead of spreading hate on the internet, please try to put something positive into the world.

### 2/5 — No es tan buena la IA

*2024-08-27*

Me parece muy bien la idea de tener una IA que funcione sin Internet… pero esta funciona mediocremente… muchas veces da mal las respuestas y lo que hace es repetir 6 veces el mismo párrafo, qué sentido tiene eso? 
A demás cuando estás descargando un modelo no puedes cerrar la app ni apagar el celular un segundo porque automáticamente comienza desde 0 la descarga

### 3/5 — Good, but not great

*2026-02-10*

I’ve been using the app for the last several months.  The overall design and interface is a little clunky until you get used to it.  When you’re downloading a new local model, you have to stay active on that screen, or it will stop downloading if you go to another screen. What would make this app even better is a little more polishing with the UI and conversation syncing via iCloud.

**Developer response:** Please send me an email at support@localchat.co, because both of the things you're claiming are not accurate. Downloads work no matter what screen you're on in the app, and conversations sync via iCloud. I've spent a lot of time polishing the UI and would like to understand what you think doesn't work well.

### 3/5 — Hallucinations

*2025-02-04*

I launched this app, I downloaded the default Chatbot, and I asked an easy question "who was Houdini, the great magician?" The question kind of answered itself but the bot went on about Houdini being a real estate developer! (Seriously!) Worse, it started repeating itself and running the same paragraph a dozen times. I'll give this three stars because it did at least do something, but the bot is seriously prone to crazy hallucinations, so much so that it makes it kind of useless, unless you just wanna run it for a laugh. The idea of running an AI on your own device sounds cool, but I find after comparing a couple of them from different developers, you can't expect the same kind of performance you get from a "non-private" AI that you run through the Internet.

**Developer response:** I tested your prompt, and even the smallest models give the correct answer. Please contact me at support@localchat.co, and I'll help resolve any issues you're facing. Please also consider changing your rating, since I'm an independent developer, and negative reviews have a major impact on my livelihood.

### 4/5 — there are better options

*2025-06-30*

ui isnt great, limited model selection

**Developer response:** You can add any compatible model from the MLX Community on Hugging Face, in addition to the recommended models in the app. I work really hard to make the UI great. If you have suggestions for how it could be improved, please let me know at feedback@localchat.co. If this response has been helpful to you, please consider updating your review.

### 4/5 — Might be the best!

*2025-06-13*

I've downloaded and tested three AI apps the run directly on your phone, and I've gotten by far the best results from this one! All the apps allow you to download and experiment with different models, but this one has given me the best results right out of the box! Like all AI models, it can make mistakes, but this is the most reliable app I've tried that runs directly on my phone!

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — Allows loading arbitrary models from Huggingface

*2026-04-18, version 2025.25*

Would be even better if we could load models from all of huggingface, not just-mlx-community.

### 5/5 — Legends

*2026-01-26, version 2025.25*

I love your app. It’s finally an ai that is private and not used to train models.

### 5/5 — Excellent

*2025-09-15, version 2025.22*

Absolutely ideal for local prompt engineering before using up cloud credits. I’ve found it invaluable so far as a writing aid.

### 5/5 — The best choice

*2025-07-04*

Among all the AI apps I've used for running lightweight models locally on iPhone, **LocalChat stands out as the absolute best**. The interface is clean, intuitive, and beautifully organized — no clutter, no confusion. It supports the **widest variety of models**, from open-source LLMs to vision-language models, and switching between **local and cloud inference** is seamless with just one tap. 

Even more impressive, it has **multimodal capabilities**, letting users work with text, vision, and more — all from a single app. This is a game-changer for anyone exploring real on-device AI. 

**Highly recommended**. If you're serious about local AI, **download this app now**.

### 5/5 — Super !

*2025-06-22*

Efficace avec MLX et ne s’exécute qu’en local.
Merci.
Idées d’amélioration :
- indiquer les tokens/s pour le PP et TG
- dans shortcuts, ne mettre dans la liste des modèles que ceux qui sont installés.
- permettre de rendre persistant le modèle chargé en mémoire (via une option parametrable) : j’ai l’impression qu’à chaque fois que je reviens sur l’application, le modèle se reloade

### 5/5 — I love it

*2025-06-01, version 2025.14*

I hope this app will have more features

### 5/5 — 최고의 앱

*2025-05-24*

클로드 최신모델이나 제미나이 최신모델을 API형식으로 온라인 연결해서 사용하면 최고 최적 최장의 결과가 나옵니다. 애플에서만 사용할 수 있는게 아쉬워요

### 5/5 — Best one and I’ve tried them ALL

*2025-05-16*

Shortcuts integration just works. Connects to my local OpenAI compatible LLM server perfectly. Finally, I have just one app as my go-to AI chat client. Deleted all the others that I’ve bought and tried. THIS is the one.

### 5/5 — Great app, even better developer!

*2025-03-09, version 2025.8*

This is a must have app that makes running a range of local LLM models as simple as a few clicks and works across all my devices seamlessly. The developer is approachable, responsive and open to implementing suggestions, new ideas and fixing bugs. Highly recommended and well deserving of your support!

### 5/5 — no problems, great app! needs more recognition

*2025-03-05, version 2025.7*

this app is really fast, everything just works, no logins needed, etc. it is kind of annoying that I can’t delete my history, I spoke with the developer over email and they’re extremely transparent with upcoming updates! shortcuts also work, but isn’t mentioned in the photos, but they do work!

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-30.*