Ari Helper vs OnHand_AI
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, prioritizing user privacy by not collecting personal data. It integrates with Siri for hands-free activation and offers text-to-speech capabilities. Users can manage conversations, download custom models, and even interact with self-hosted or cloud-based AI services.
- Offline AI operation
- Siri and App Intents integration
- Privacy-focused, no data collection
- Text-to-Speech with voice options
- Conversation history sync via iCloud
- Downloadable custom AI models
- Code syntax highlighting
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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!
OnHand_AI
This private AI assistant runs entirely on your device, offering offline functionality and complete data privacy. It requires no cloud connection, subscription, or account setup, making it simple to use for everyone. Pay once for full access without any hidden fees or tiers.
- Runs entirely on device
- Works offline
- Truly private conversations
- No cloud, subscription, or account needed
- Simple setup and use
- Web search on request
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OnHand AI is a private assistant that runs entirely on your phone. No cloud. No subscription. No account. Nothing you type ever leaves your device. SIMPLE FOR EVERYONE Open it and start talking. No setup, no jargon, no sign-up. If you can send a text message, you can use OnHand AI. WORKS OFFLINE The AI lives on your phone, not on a server. Use it on a plane, in the car, on a trail, or anywhere with no signal. TRULY PRIVATE Your conversations stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded, logged, or sold. Privacy by design — because there's no server to send anything to. ONE PRICE. NO TRICKS. Pay once and own it forever. No monthly fee, no "Pro" tier, nothing held back. LOOKS THINGS UP — ONLY WHEN YOU ASK Need current information? OnHand can search the web on request. You're always in control Requires a one time download of the model the first time you use the app. Approximately 2.6 GB. Requires iPhone 15 or newer.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: OnHand_AI at $1.99 against Ari Helper's $24.99. OnHand_AI also leads on update cadence (daily vs weekly) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). Ari Helper's advantage is device support (4 vs 1). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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
Ari Helper costs $24.99 and OnHand_AI $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Ari Helper against 5.0 for OnHand_AI. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Ari Helper ships an update weekly, OnHand_AI daily. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ari Helper | OnHand_AI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $24.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 92 MB | 42 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Blaine Miller | Stillwater AI LLC |
Customer experience
Ari Helper
OnHand_AI
In-app purchases
Ari Helper
No in-app purchases
OnHand_AI
No in-app purchases







