Comparison

MLC Chat vs MoNote

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

MoNote

Features
Read full description

MoNote is a brain dump for minds that jump — built for ADHD brains and anyone whose thoughts arrive faster than they can be filed. Talk for as long as it takes. It transcribes what you said, splits one rambling recording into separate notes, and files each by topic. You talk. It sorts. Nothing gets rewritten. Say the whole thing in one go — eggs, the email you owe Dave, the idea that turned up halfway through. MoNote splits one tangled take into separate notes, files each by topic, and lifts out the to-dos so you can tick them. Your words are never rewritten. The recording stays. What you said is what it keeps. WHEN IT EARNS ITS PLACE • Your hands are full, and the moment is gone if you don't say it now • One breath holds three unrelated things • The payoff comes months later, when someone asks "when did this start?" WHAT YOU CAN DO • Talk for up to five minutes, however tangled • Get back separate notes, sorted by topic and by who they are about • Search everything you have ever said — instantly, and with no signal • Ask a real question and get an answer with the notes it came from • Pull up everything you have about one person before an appointment WHO IT IS FOR ADHD minds, and anyone who works things out by saying them and loses it the moment they stop. Three projects at once, and the detail lands while your hands are full. A small child, and a week that is mostly appointments. A parent getting older, and the admin that arrives with it. Your own health, written down over months rather than minutes. A move, a renovation, a year of paperwork. Anyone whose life outruns their filing. IT WORKS ON ONE BAR Record at three in the morning in a dark room. Everything is kept on your phone first and sent afterwards, so nothing is lost because the network was not there. FREE AND PRO Free keeps a couple of short recordings a day. Pro removes the limits, records for five minutes at a time, and has no ads. MoNote records what was said. It does not diagnose, interpret, or give advice. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Subscription terms: https://monote.me/terms Privacy Policy: https://monote.me/privacy

Screenshots

MLC Chat2 screens
MoNote4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MLC Chat at none against MoNote's 2. MoNote's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. MoNote sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. MLC Chat asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, MoNote weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
MLC Chat versus MoNote: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLC ChatMoNote
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (83 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews68.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings83 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1.7 GB54 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperTianqi ChenViacheslav Apasov

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

MoNote

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MLC Chat

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

MoNote

Subscriptions2
  • MoNote Pro Monthly$12.991 Month
  • MoNote Pro Yearly$129.991 Year

Questions

Is MLC Chat free?
MLC Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MoNote free?
MoNote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MLC Chat or MoNote have ads?
Neither MLC Chat nor MoNote shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MLC Chat or MoNote?
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, and MoNote weekly. Most recently, MLC Chat was updated on November 3, 2026 and MoNote on November 6, 2026.

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