microAI vs Tinfoil
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
microAI
This app provides a private, local AI workspace that organizes your thoughts, projects, and files. It allows you to run AI chat on your device, manage AI models, and build a personal memory system for enhanced productivity and offline use.
- Private Memory Map
- Local AI Chat
- Long-Term Memory
- Projects With Context
- Chat With Local Files
- Private Journal
- GGUF Model Management
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AI ON YOUR PHONE. POWERED BY YOUR DEVICES. Run private AI directly on your phone. Need more power? Connect your own computer and let it handle the heavy AI work while you keep using microAI from your phone. No sign-up. No cloud AI account required. Ask questions. Talk instead of type. Show AI a photo. Read a file. Work on a project. Save something for later. microAI brings local AI, your devices, and your private context together in one workspace. YOUR PHONE. YOUR COMPUTER. YOUR AI. Your phone can run compatible local AI models on its own. When you need more power, connect your own computer. Scan a QR code and your approved Mac or browser can run the model while you continue using microAI from your phone. That means you can move heavier AI work off your phone—reducing the load, heat, and battery use caused by demanding on-device inference. Use your phone when that is enough. Use your computer when you want more power. You choose where your AI runs. NO SIGN-UP. NO CLOUD AI REQUIRED. Local AI should not require another account. microAI can run compatible models directly on your devices without requiring a cloud AI account. Your computer can also become your own AI compute node. Open the microAI website on your computer, load a compatible local model, scan the QR code, and connect. No separate website account is required. DIFFERENT AI FOR DIFFERENT JOBS Not every task needs the same AI. microAI includes task-focused AI helpers: • Private Chat — Ask, write, plan, brainstorm, or talk. • Image Chat — Ask questions about photos and screenshots. • Voice Chat — Talk instead of typing. • Review Writer — Turn your experience into a clear review. • Photo Tagger — Create titles, descriptions, and keywords for photos. Choose which compatible model powers each job. Use a small model for quick everyday tasks, a vision model for images, or a stronger model running on your computer when you need more capability. TALK. SEE. READ. AI should work with more than a text box. Talk naturally with Voice Chat. Add a photo or screenshot and ask questions about what you see. Add a supported PDF, TXT, or Markdown file and ask questions about its contents. Use microAI for writing, research, documents, photos, ideas, and everyday questions. COME BACK WITHOUT STARTING OVER Your useful context should not disappear into old chats. Create Projects to keep related conversations, files, instructions, and context together. Save quick thoughts in Journal. microAI can remember useful context and bring it back when relevant. Memory Map gives you a visual way to explore your conversations, projects, journals, models, and memories. LOCAL AI WITHOUT THE USUAL SETUP You should not need to be an AI engineer to start using local AI. Find a compatible model, download it, and start. microAI keeps model discovery, downloads, switching, and resource management in one place. Advanced users can also import compatible GGUF models. Actual performance depends on your device, model, and connection. YOUR AI. YOUR DEVICES. YOUR DATA. When AI runs on your phone, compatible models process requests directly on your device. When you connect your own computer, the model runs on the computer you approve while you continue using microAI from your phone. Your model files stay on the device running them. You decide when a remote compute node is connected and used. Internet access may still be required for model discovery and downloads, purchases, ratings, app services, and certain system features. RUN AI YOUR WAY. On your phone when you want portability. On your computer when you want more power. No sign-up. No cloud AI account required. Your AI. Your devices. Your choice. Want to use your computer with microAI? Visit: https://linklocalai.com/ By using microAI, you agree to Apple's Standard End User License Agreement (EULA). Apple EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Tinfoil
Engage in private AI conversations using secure hardware enclaves. This app offers verifiable privacy for your discussions with powerful AI models, ensuring your data remains inaccessible to anyone, including the developers. It leverages advanced technology for a secure and private AI chat experience.
- Private AI conversations
- Secure hardware enclaves
- Verifiable infrastructure
- Chat with open-source AI models
- Automatic enclave verification
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An AI chat with verified privacy. The only way to protect your conversations is to make them inaccessible to anyone in the first place. Other AI applications ask you to trust them with your data, promising to anonymize them later or telling you they won't train on it. Tinfoil is built to prevent data leakage from the get-go. All our models run inside secure hardware enclaves that ensure your chats are private to you and invisible to everyone else, including Tinfoil. You can chat with state-of-the-art open-weight models without worrying about who else can see your conversations. THE HIGHLIGHTS • Your conversations are exclusively processed inside isolated, encrypted environments powered by NVIDIA confidential computing technology. Think of it as a digital vault that even Tinfoil can't unlock. It's the same hardware protection used for your iPhone biometrics, extended to cloud GPUs that run powerful large models and agents. • Every conversation starts with automatic enclave security verification. You can confirm that the app is connected to secure hardware running the correct AI model, isolating your conversation so that it is only between you and the intelligence on the other end. • You get the speed and features of the most powerful cloud-based AI services while getting the privacy equivalent of having a local model running on your phone. • All our privacy claims are backed by open-source code you can inspect, enabling public auditability and complete transparency. Visit https://github.com/tinfoilsh/ • Stop sharing your data with advertisers, model labs, and data brokers. Tinfoil keeps your conversations between you and the model, period. HOW IT WORKS Instead of trusting a privacy policy, you verify the protection yourself. Tinfoil's open-source inference software runs inside NVIDIA confidential computing enclaves, creating an encrypted sandbox that is cryptographically isolated from the rest of the cloud and the world. Every session begins with a security attestation you can inspect in the Verification Center, proving that the correct model is running and that nobody—not even Tinfoil—can peek inside it. You can read more about all the technical details in our documentation: https://docs.tinfoil.sh/verification/secure-enclave-primer In summary, you get: • End-to-end encryption and privacy from everyone, including Tinfoil. • The latest and most powerful open-source models. • Fully verifiable privacy through open-source code transparency, secure hardware, and public auditability. SUPPORT • Visit: https://tinfoil.sh • Source code for this application: https://github.com/tinfoilsh/tinfoil-ios • Follow us: @TinfoilAI on X LEGAL • Tinfoil Privacy Policy: https://tinfoil.sh/privacy • Tinfoil Terms of Use: https://tinfoil.sh/terms • Apple EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Tinfoil at every 3 days against microAI's every 9 days. Tinfoil also leads on ratings volume (32 vs 2). microAI's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. microAI sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Tinfoil sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $19.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
microAI holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tinfoil has 32 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
microAI ships an update every 9 days, Tinfoil every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | microAI | Tinfoil |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.8 (32 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 80.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 32 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, Mac | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 234 MB | 98 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 12+ |
| Developer | genghong Xie | Tinfoil, Inc |
Customer experience
microAI
Tinfoil
In-app purchases
microAI
- microAI Pro – Monthly$0.991 Month
- microAI Pro – Yearly7 Days trial$5.991 Year
- Remove Ads$4.99
- microAI Pro – Lifetime$9.99
Tinfoil
- Premium Chat Subscription$19.991 Month









