Comparison

MLC Chat vs MVox

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

MVox

Features
Read full description

MVox is real-time conversation intelligence. It listens while people talk and flags claims that don't hold up — as the conversation happens. Put your phone on the table. Nobody has to touch it. MVox listens continuously and only intervenes when something needs attention. How it works MVox listens to the conversation, transcribes it, and analyses spoken statements in real time. When a claim is inaccurate, misleading, or oversimplified, you get a colour-coded alert — red, orange, or yellow — without interrupting anyone. Built for conversations where being wrong is expensive Podcasts. Debates. Business meetings. Interviews. Panels. Classrooms. Anywhere the accuracy of what's said actually matters. What you control Choose which categories are checked: numbers and statistics, historical facts, scientific claims, legal claims, health and medical, political claims, contradictory arguments. Set how often alerts can appear. Review every past session in your history. Plans Free — 3 sessions to try it out Standard, $2.99/week — 4 hours of listening per week, last 50 sessions saved, 5s alert cooldown Premium, $14.99/week — 20 hours per week, unlimited session history, 5s alert cooldown Extra minutes available as a one-time purchase Sign in with Apple is required so your plan and usage follow you, not your device. MVox provides AI-generated analysis and may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete responses. Powered by xAI's Grok. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

MLC Chat2 screens
MVox4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MLC Chat at none against MVox's 3. MVox's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads 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. MVox sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. MLC Chat asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, MVox weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
MLC Chat versus MVox: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLC ChatMVox
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (78 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews68.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings78 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1.7 GB35 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperTianqi ChenUlysse Barelier

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

MVox

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MLC Chat

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

MVox

Subscriptions2
  • Mediator VOX Standard$2.997 Days
  • Mediator VOX Premium$14.997 Days
One-time1
  • 5 Extra Minutes$0.99

Questions

Is MLC Chat free?
MLC Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MVox free?
MVox is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MLC Chat or MVox have ads?
Neither MLC Chat nor MVox shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MLC Chat or MVox?
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, and MVox weekly. Most recently, MLC Chat was updated on October 6, 2026 and MVox on October 10, 2026.

Other comparisons