Comparison

MLC Chat vs Local Chat

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

Local Chat

Run powerful open language models directly on your Apple devices, even offline. Enjoy private conversations with AI assistants that can be customized to your needs. Save and sync chats across your Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Highlights
  • Offline AI chat
  • Open language models
  • Private conversations
  • Cross-device sync
  • Customizable personality
  • Model selection
Features
Read full description

Local Chat allows you to run the latest open language models on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Once you've downloaded the models, you can use the chat function even when your device is offline. Your chats remain totally private, since no internet connection is required to interact with the chatbots. It's like having your very own ChatGPT right on your device. You can choose to save your chat history on your devices or delete your chats automatically after you're finished. Any chats that you choose to save in your history will be synced via your private iCloud storage to your other devices. Try leading models from the open-source community, including Llama, Gemma, Qwen, Mistral, DeepSeek, and Kimi. Choose from different sizes to find the best fit for your device. You can also customize the chatbot's personality with a system prompt, whether you prefer a helpful assistant, an encouraging coach, a witty conversationalist, or anything else you can imagine. The chat function works with the following devices: - Mac (M1 and later) - iPhone 12 and later - iPad Pro (M1 and later) - iPad Air (4th generation and later) - iPad mini (6th generation and later) - iPad (10th generation and later) On earlier devices, you can view your chat history from your other devices synced via your private iCloud storage. Local Chat is just getting started, and we're planning to continue adding new features in the coming months. If you have any feedback about the app, we'd love to hear it at feedback@localchat.co. --- Privacy policy: https://localchat.co/privacy Terms of use: https://localchat.co/terms

Screenshots

MLC Chat2 screens
Local Chat4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MLC Chat at none against Local Chat's 3. MLC Chat also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Local Chat's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 2 months) and rating (4.5 vs 4.2). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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. Local Chat sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 per month. MLC Chat asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Local Chat holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 84 and 55 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of MLC Chat's written reviews are positive against 71% of Local Chat's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, Local Chat every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
MLC Chat versus Local Chat: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLC ChatLocal Chat
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (84 ratings)4.5 (55 ratings) — better
Positive reviews68.3% of reviews71.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings84 — better55
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size1.7 GB164 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperTianqi ChenAnthony R. DePasquale

Customer experience

MLC Chat

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

Local Chat

All ratings56 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral3.6%
Negative8.9%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive71.4%
Neutral7.1%
Negative21.4%

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

Local Chat

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MLC Chat

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Local Chat

Subscriptions2
  • Local Chat Pro$8.991 Month
  • Local Chat Pro3 Days trial$39.991 Year
One-time1
  • Local Chat Pro$99.99

Questions

Is MLC Chat free?
MLC Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Local Chat free?
Local Chat is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MLC Chat or Local Chat?
Local Chat is rated higher. MLC Chat averages 4.2 out of 5 from 84 ratings, while Local Chat averages 4.5 from 55 ratings.
Do MLC Chat or Local Chat have ads?
Neither MLC Chat nor Local Chat shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MLC Chat or Local Chat?
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, and Local Chat every 9 days. Most recently, MLC Chat was updated on October 22, 2026 and Local Chat on October 21, 2026.

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