Comparison

MLC Chat vs PocketGPT

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MLC Chat

Engage in conversations with open language models directly on your iPad or iPhone. Once a model is downloaded, all interactions occur locally, ensuring privacy and offline functionality without internet access. This app is designed for non-commercial use, allowing you to run various open-source language models on your device.

Highlights
  • Local AI model chat
  • Offline functionality
  • No internet required
  • Privacy-focused
  • Open-source project integration
  • Downloadable language models
Features
Read full description

MLC Chat lets users chat with open language models locally on ipads and iphones. After a model is downloaded to the app, everything runs locally without server support, and it works without internet connections do not record any information. Because the models run locally, it only works for the devices with sufficient VRAM depending on the models being used. MLC Chat is part of open source project MLC LLM, with allows any language model to be deployed natively on a diverse set of hardware backends and native applications. MLC Chat is a runtime that runs different open model architectures on your phone. The app is intended for non-commercial purposes. It allows you to run open-language models downloaded from the internet. Each model can be subject to its respective licenses.

About

PocketGPT

This AI assistant operates entirely offline, offering image inspiration, photo analysis, and creative chat. It provides advanced features like image generation and photo questioning for free, ensuring your conversations remain private and accessible anywhere.

Highlights
  • Offline AI assistant
  • Image inspiration and generation
  • Photo analysis via chat
  • Privacy-focused, on-device interactions
  • Free advanced AI features
  • Two distinct operating modes
Features
Read full description

Welcome to PocketGPT – your private and always-on AI assistant that fits right in your pocket. The app is designed for those moments when you need a burst of image inspiration, a quick answer about a photo, or just a friendly chat, all without the need for an internet connection. Why PocketGPT? - Privacy First: With all interactions kept on your device, your conversations are private. - No Internet needed: Whether you're offline or in the wild, PocketGPT is at your service, ready to help with or without a network connection. - Free advanced features: asking questions about a photo or creating an image, which typically require a subscription fee in other apps (e.g. GPT4), are free in this app. There are two modes: 1. Chat mode. In this mode, you can send text, or ask questions about a photo you send. 2. Image creattion mode. In this mode, just describe what you want in the image, and an image will be generated by a diffusion model. They first run could be slow, and subsequent runs will be faster. >= iPhone 13 Pro is recommended for best performance.

Screenshots

MLC Chat2 screens
PocketGPT4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: PocketGPT at every 5 days against MLC Chat's every 2 months. PocketGPT also leads on rating (4.4 vs 4.2) and review sentiment (80% vs 68%). MLC Chat's advantage is ratings volume (84 vs 19). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PocketGPT holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 84 and 19 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of MLC Chat's written reviews are positive against 80% of PocketGPT's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, PocketGPT every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
MLC Chat versus PocketGPT: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLC ChatPocketGPT
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (84 ratings)4.4 (19 ratings) — better
Positive reviews68.3% of reviews80.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings84 — better19
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size1.7 GB3.6 GB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperTianqi Chen洋铭 崇

Customer experience

MLC Chat

All ratings78 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral3.8%
Negative12.8%
Written reviews63 reviews
Positive68.3%
Neutral12.7%
Negative19.0%

PocketGPT

All ratings17 ratings
Positive82.4%
Neutral11.8%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews10 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%

Bugs and requests

MLC Chat

Reported bugs

17 issues
  • Phi model crashes on iOS 26.0.1 17 Pro Max
  • App crashes on iPad Pro 4th Gen, iPadOs 17.7
  • RedPajama model crashes app on initialization
  • Update is extremely slow
  • Download model button disabled in new version
Show 12 more
  • RedPajama model crashes, custom model download removed
  • App closes when hitting send on iPhone 13
  • Conversation resets when app is backgrounded
  • Vicuna and Mistral 7B models cause crashes
  • Some 7b q4f16/q4f32 models crash on iPhone 15 Pro
  • App crashes on iPhone 13 mini
  • Cannot load other models from URL
  • Crash on iPhone 12
  • Severe heating and frequency reduction on A15
  • Low VRAM failed initialization on 3GB LP DDR4X phone
  • Cannot run 4bit model on iPhone 15 with 8GB RAM
  • Loading models from HF MLC official Repo causes crashes

Requested features

14 requests
  • Ability to import custom models (from URL/Hugging Face)
  • Support for more specific models (DeepSeek, Phi-2, Gemma 2B/7B, MoE Mixtral 8x7B, LLaVA)
  • History of conversations
  • iOS shortcuts support
  • Ability to export entire responses
Show 9 more
  • Information on VRAM requirements per phone/model
  • Ability to change system message/create custom profiles
  • Ability to edit responses and system prompt
  • Add coffee support
  • Delete downloaded models
  • Change settings per model (repetition penalties, temperature)
  • How-to guide for importing/recompiling LLMs
  • Estimate model compatibility before download
  • Support for CN and ZH languages

PocketGPT

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MLC Chat

No in-app purchases

None

PocketGPT

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MLC Chat free?
MLC Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PocketGPT free?
PocketGPT is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, MLC Chat or PocketGPT?
PocketGPT is rated higher. MLC Chat averages 4.2 out of 5 from 84 ratings, while PocketGPT averages 4.4 from 19 ratings.
Do MLC Chat or PocketGPT have ads?
Neither MLC Chat nor PocketGPT shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MLC Chat or PocketGPT?
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, and PocketGPT every 5 days. Most recently, MLC Chat was updated on October 24, 2026 and PocketGPT on October 24, 2026.

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