MLC Chat vs PlainScribe
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Local AI model chat
- Offline functionality
- No internet required
- Privacy-focused
- Open-source project integration
- Downloadable language models
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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.
PlainScribe
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Turn spoken thoughts into editable text. Record or import audio, transcribe it, optionally clean it up, then edit, copy, or share. EDIT WITH YOUR VOICE Tap Voice command and say what you want to do with your text, such as “Translate into English,” “Make this shorter,” or “Rewrite this more formally.” Tap Apply to update your draft. Undo lets you restore the previous text. Customize the voice-command prompt separately in Settings. RECORD LONGER Continue microphone recordings when your iPhone locks or you switch apps. Choose Standard audio quality for smaller files or High for a higher bitrate. Recordings stop safely before your transcription provider’s size or duration limit, with the audio retained until you choose Transcribe or Discard. FEATURES • One-tap recording and continued recording into the same draft • Import MP3, M4A, and WAV audio files • Send supported audio from apps such as Voice Memos • OpenAI GPT Transcribe or ElevenLabs Scribe v2 transcription • Optional Clean Up, Concise, AI Prompt, and custom transformations • Voice commands with an editable prompt and Undo • Edit, copy, and share your text • Multiple color themes YOUR LANGUAGE, YOUR PROMPTS Use Scribe in English, Polish, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Dutch. Built-in prompt instructions follow your app language. Any prompt you edit keeps your changes until you reset it. The AI Prompt option turns a spoken request into a structured prompt for an AI assistant. BRING YOUR OWN API KEY PlainScribe is free to download and use, with no ads, subscription, or PlainScribe account. Add your own OpenAI or ElevenLabs API key for transcription. Voice commands and optional text transformations also require an OpenAI API key. An internet connection is required for AI processing. Any usage charges are billed directly by the provider under its pricing and terms. Credentials are stored securely in your device’s Keychain. Audio is sent directly to the selected transcription provider. For voice commands, the transcribed command and current draft are sent to OpenAI; optional transformations send the new transcript and selected prompt. PlainScribe does not send your content through a separate PlainScribe server. Processing is subject to the selected providers’ terms and privacy policies.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: PlainScribe at every 5 days against MLC Chat's every 2 months. MLC Chat's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, PlainScribe every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MLC Chat | PlainScribe |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (78 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 68.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 78 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.7 GB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tianqi Chen | Artur Wronski |
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
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- 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
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- 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
PlainScribe
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
MLC Chat
No in-app purchases
PlainScribe
No in-app purchases









