Ari Helper vs Elio Chat
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ari Helper
This AI assistant operates entirely offline on your device, prioritizing your privacy by not collecting personal data. It offers advanced features like image generation, PDF analysis, and integration with Shortcuts for seamless workflow automation.
- Offline AI model operation
- Privacy-focused, no data collection
- Siri and App Intents integration
- Full Shortcuts catalog support
- Image generation and editing
- PDF analysis
- Apple Watch companion app
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Introducing Ari - Your Easy-to-Use AI Assistant! Meet Ari, your personal AI assistant, right on your device! Ari runs its models on the device itself, so it works entirely offline — no internet connection required. Your privacy is our priority – Ari doesn't collect any of your personal data. Start Ari anywhere with Siri and App Intents — just say "Ask Ari," speak your question, and hear the answer back. Power users get a full Shortcuts catalog: Ask Ari with any model (Apple Intelligence, local, or cloud), start chats, generate and edit images, analyze PDFs, speak replies, change settings, queue Code Session tasks on Mac, and dispatch prompts to other devices — all chainable in Shortcuts. Ari is on your wrist too: the Apple Watch app remote-controls Ari on iPhone. Dictate from the "Ask Ari" complication or Smart Stack, watch answers stream in, hear them spoken, and hand long replies to iPhone. Questions queue when the phone is away; private chats stay off the watch. Conversations show up in Spotlight — including by what's in their images. Ari reads text and objects in chat pictures on-device so you can search for "that screenshot with the receipt". Private media is never indexed. With Sensitive Content Warning on, flagged images blur behind "Show Anyway" (verified adults can opt out). More to love: Text-to-Speech (device voice or Ava); long-press to copy or retry across models; syntax highlighting with one-tap code copy; Previous Chats synced via iCloud. On Apple Intelligence (iOS 26 / macOS 26 and later), Ari uses the on-device foundation model by default — private, no API key, no network. Attach images: on iOS 27 and macOS 27 the model sees them directly; on OS 26 Ari describes them on-device with the Vision framework (text, tables, barcodes, subjects). Prefer full vision models? Pick one from the menu. Download on-device models with a tap — Google's Gemma 4 for chat, Stable Diffusion converted for Core ML for pictures — or import a model folder of your own. Self-host with Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible server (LM Studio, vLLM, llama.cpp, LiteLLM), or generate images with Draw Things over gRPC. New in Ari 7: Ari makes pictures and films, and repairs the ones you already have. Films is a studio — write a film as a list of shots, render them one at a time, keep the ones that work, and watch the cut come together in a player above the timeline. Pictures get a canvas editor: brush over a crease and heal it, paint a leash or a stranger out of the frame, or treat the whole photograph — repair, denoise, sharpen camera shake, colorize, upscale four times. Every restoration model runs on your device and downloads on first use rather than shipping in the app. Point the camera at something and ask about it. Look at Something sends the frame to whichever model you have selected — on-device, self-hosted or cloud — captions the answer under the picture and speaks it if you like. Talk to it and it listens, answers, then listens again. It sits beside the microphone, and goes on the Lock Screen, Control Center, the Action Button or Siri. Cloud providers with your own keys: OpenAI (GPT-6 and GPT-5 families plus GPT Image), xAI Grok (4.7 plus Grok Imagine), Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini (plus Nano Banana and Omni video), and AWS Bedrock. Image-capable models accept photos; import text and source files. Cloud use reminds you each provider's privacy policy applies. On Mac, open a Code Session on a project folder with Grok for agentic tools — read, edit, search, git, shell, browser, web, and MCP — so Ari's GUI agent matches a terminal coding agent. Note: For strongest privacy with iCloud sync, enable Advanced Data Protection. Without it, conversations stay limited to your iCloud account but are not fully end-to-end encrypted. Optionally powered by Gemma 4 (HuggingFace) for offline chat and image understanding. Download Ari and keep your AI assistant at your fingertips!
Elio Chat
This AI assistant operates entirely on your device, ensuring all conversations remain private and never leave your iPhone. It offers powerful AI models, image recognition, and voice input, integrating seamlessly with your iOS features like calendar and reminders.
- 100% offline operation
- On-device AI processing
- Deep iOS integration (Calendar, Reminders, Photos)
- Powerful AI models
- Image recognition
- Voice input
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【A Truly Private AI Assistant】 Elio is a completely private AI assistant that runs entirely on your iPhone. All processing happens on-device, meaning your conversations are never sent to the cloud. ■ Why Choose Elio? • Fully Offline - Works in airplane mode • Privacy First - No data ever leaves your device • Works in corporate environments with AI restrictions • No subscription - Free forever after download ■ Deep iOS Integration • Calendar - Check and create events • Reminders - Manage your tasks • Photos - Analyze and search images • Contacts - Search your contacts • Weather - Check forecasts • Location - Get current location ■ Key Features • Powerful AI models (Qwen3, Llama 3.2, etc.) • Image recognition (Vision-capable models) • Voice input (Whisper built-in) • Multi-turn conversations • Search and export conversation history ■ Our Privacy Commitment Elio is your secret-keeping "second brain". Confidential information, personal concerns, work ideas... discuss anything with peace of mind. Download now and experience truly private AI.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Elio Chat at Free against Ari Helper's $24.99. Elio Chat also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Ari Helper's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly) and device support (4 vs 2). On review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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
Elio Chat is free to download; Ari Helper costs $24.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Ari Helper ships an update weekly, Elio Chat fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ari Helper | Elio Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $24.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 95 MB | 34 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Blaine Miller | Yuki Hamada |
Customer experience
Ari Helper
Elio Chat
In-app purchases
Ari Helper
No in-app purchases
Elio Chat
No in-app purchases









