SmartScan AI vs Astelio
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SmartScan AI
Effortlessly extract text from images using advanced AI. Translate content into over 150 languages, summarize complex information, and export editable files or professional PDFs. This intelligent assistant helps you work faster and smarter by digitizing notes and documents.
- Handwritten and printed text OCR
- AI-powered translation to 150+ languages
- AI assistant for summarization and insights
- Text-to-speech functionality
- Editable file and PDF export
- Scan history and editing tools
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SmartScan AI: Scan, Translate, Edit & Export–Powered by AI SmartScan AI is your intelligent OCR assistant for effortlessly extracting handwritten and printed text from images. Powered by advanced AI, it helps you translate text into over 150 languages and export it as editable files or professional PDFs. Whether you’re digitizing notes, translating signs, or are tired of typing, SmartScan AI helps you work faster and smarter. AI Assistant (New!) Free Chat Mode: Ask AI anything, not just about scanned text. Summarize: Get concise summaries of long texts. Explain: Break down complex text into simple language. Keywords: Extract the most important terms instantly. Insights: Discover key takeaways or action points. Printed Text OCR Instantly recognize printed text in over 150 languages — perfect for documents, books, labels, or signs. Includes Hindi, Arabic, Russian, Thai, and many more. Handwritten Text Extraction Turn notes, letters, forms, and whiteboards into a digital text with a single tap. Works across surfaces like sticky notes, notebooks, and more. Languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Portuguese. AI-Powered Translation Translate any scanned text into over 150 languages within seconds — no external apps needed. Text-to-Speech Let the app read the extracted text aloud in 30+ languages. Ideal for studying, accessibility, and multitasking. History & Editing Tools All Ai, image scans are saved on your device. Share, edit text, add notes, preview PDFs, and manage your history with ease. Export Options Save as plain text or PDF. Print or share via email, AirDrop, messaging apps, and more. Private by Design No sign-up required. Your data stays on your device unless you choose to share it. Free with Optional Upgrade Enjoy the full feature set for free, supported by ads. Upgrade with in-app purchases for an ad-free experience. Made for You Switch between light/dark mode and choose your preferred app language. Designed with a clean, distraction-free interface.
Astelio
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Astelio is a personal AI workspace that grows deliverables (artifacts), not just chat. Chat. MCPs. Artifacts. ■ The Astelio AI engine Our own engine reads your info, plans how to look things up and finishes using only the facts it gathered. 1. Read about you — loads your survey answers and Memory, always up to date; your request always comes first, and the newest instruction wins however long the conversation runs 2. Think through the goal and steps — decides the final goal and the steps first, and never uses places or topics your request doesn't mention 3. Research step by step — creates keywords for each step and searches with MCP for every one of them 4. Summarize each section — step results are summarized in order and kept as a Markdown data note so you can check the evidence later 5. Finish using only evidence — builds HTML and more from that data alone; numbers, URLs and phone numbers are checked against what was fetched Text is written on your iPhone. Conversations, Memory and files are never sent to an external AI service. ■ What you can do ・Weather: visual reports with forecasts, typhoon information, weather maps, satellite images and rain radar ・Trip plans: picks indoor or outdoor places for each day’s weather, looks up events, hotels and meals for your dates, and builds an HTML itinerary with maps, photos and sources — every place with its address and a Google Maps link ・News, events and outings: topic-by-topic digests, event lists built from web search and the details of the pages found, and spot ideas that fit the weather ・Documents: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, HTML and Markdown as real files. Slides pick card, chart, KPI, process, table and illustration layouts from the content ・Maps: routes are drawn in the app with Apple Maps, and open in Google Maps ・Research: reports, learning courses, YouTube scripts and slides built from the pages it reads on the web, with photos and sources ・Attachments: reads pictures, PDFs and Word / Excel / PowerPoint files on your device (text recognition), summarizes them and uses them as material for your request ・URL summaries and study notes using Microsoft Learn and Wikipedia ・MCP Hub: use the free built-in MCPs right away, or add and build your own by URL ・Skills: save procedures as SKILL.md files — just ask “create a skill that does …” ■ Gets smarter about you, gradually Answers to the optional first survey and your conversations are saved to Memory, which you can review, edit or delete at any time. Addresses stay on your device; external services only receive coordinates or the city name. ■ Plans (one-time purchase, no subscription) ・Free: 5 chats per day, 5 projects in total ・Astelio Unlimited (¥1,500): unlimited chats and projects Notes: The interface is available in English and Japanese. Generated deliverables and built-in skills currently work best in Japanese. Some features run on devices where Astelio AI is available; on other devices the app still works with MCPs and templates. Weather data: Open-Meteo and the Japan Meteorological Agency. Map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Astelio at none against SmartScan AI's shown. Astelio also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). SmartScan AI's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. SmartScan AI sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Astelio sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
SmartScan AI ships an update every 2 months, Astelio weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SmartScan AI | Astelio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (94 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 54.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 94 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Naveen Vijay | Hiromichi Fujiwara |
In-app purchases
SmartScan AI
- 75 Credits$0.99
- 175 Credits$1.99
- 500 Credits$4.99
Astelio
- Astelio Unlimited$9.99
Questions
Is SmartScan AI free?
Is Astelio free?
Do SmartScan AI or Astelio have ads?
Which is updated more often, SmartScan AI or Astelio?
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