Comparison

MLC Chat vs ChatAgentic

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

ChatAgentic

This application provides an AI chat experience that operates entirely on your device, ensuring privacy and offline functionality. It leverages local language models for all interactions, meaning your data never leaves your phone.

Highlights
  • On-device AI processing
  • Offline functionality
  • Private interactions
  • Utilizes Apple Intelligence models
  • Runs locally
Features
Read full description

Agentic is an offline AI chat tool that runs locally, powered by the on-device language models of Apple Intelligence. All interactions are handled entirely on your device.

Screenshots

MLC Chat2 screens
ChatAgentic3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: MLC Chat at 4.2 against ChatAgentic's 2.3. MLC Chat also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (78 vs 3). ChatAgentic's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 68%) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). 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

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

MLC Chat holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MLC Chat has 78 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 68% of MLC Chat's written reviews are positive against 100% of ChatAgentic's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, ChatAgentic every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on August 19, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
MLC Chat versus ChatAgentic: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLC ChatChatAgentic
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (78 ratings) — better2.3 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews68.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings78 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterAd-supported
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size1.7 GB15 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperTianqi ChenDropletApps

Customer experience

MLC Chat

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

ChatAgentic

All ratings3 ratings
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

ChatAgentic

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MLC Chat

No in-app purchases

None

ChatAgentic

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MLC Chat free?
MLC Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ChatAgentic free?
ChatAgentic is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, MLC Chat or ChatAgentic?
MLC Chat is rated higher. MLC Chat averages 4.2 out of 5 from 78 ratings, while ChatAgentic averages 2.3 from 3 ratings.
Do MLC Chat or ChatAgentic have ads?
ChatAgentic shows ads; MLC Chat does not.
Which is updated more often, MLC Chat or ChatAgentic?
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, and ChatAgentic every 3 weeks. Most recently, MLC Chat was updated on August 19, 2026 and ChatAgentic on September 15, 2026.

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