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Pocket AI Lab vs PocketPal, Google AI Edge Gallery, Private LLM, Locally AI and other offline LLM apps
Facts checked on 2026-10-27 from App Store listings, vendor websites and public repositories. Where a vendor doesn't say something, the table doesn't guess.
How does Pocket AI Lab compare with other offline LLM apps for iPhone?
Pocket AI Lab is the measuring-bench option: five backends side by side, fit checks against your phone's real memory limit and a built-in quality benchmark, free and MIT-licensed. The trade-off is that it needs iOS 26.1. PocketPal AI, Google AI Edge Gallery, Private LLM, Locally AI by LM Studio and most other apps here run on older iOS versions, while Enclave needs iOS 27.0.
| App | Price | Min iOS | Engine (as stated by vendor) | Source code | Latest version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pocket AI Lab | Free | 26.1 | llama.cpp, MLX, Core ML, Apple Foundation Models, whisper.cpp | MIT | 1.1.0 (2026-10-22) |
| PocketPal AI | Free, optional in-app purchases | 15.1 | llama.cpp (GGUF) via llama.rn | MIT | 1.21.2 (2026-10-27) |
| Google AI Edge Gallery | Free | 17.0 | LiteRT-LM | Apache-2.0 (Android app only) | 1.0.13 (2026-10-08) |
| Private LLM | $4.99 one-time | 17.0 | MLC LLM, with OmniQuant and GPTQ quantization | No public repo found | 1.9.16 (2026-09-14) |
| Locally AI by LM Studio | Free | 18.1 | Apple MLX, Apple Foundation Models | No public repo found | 1.66.0 (2026-10-15) |
| Enclave | Free, optional Pro $9.99/month | 27.0 | Not named | No public repo found | 1.77.0 (2026-10-01) |
| Liquid Apollo | Free | 18.0 | LEAP (Liquid AI) for local models | No public repo found | 2.2.7 (2026-10-03) |
| fullmoon | Free | 17.6 | MLX Swift | MIT | 1.2.0 (2025-01-28) |
| MLC Chat | Free | 17.0 | MLC LLM | Apache-2.0 | 1.6 (2024-09-27) |
| LLM Farm | Not in the App Store right now | 16 (per README) | llama.cpp / ggml | MIT | Source only |
US App Store listing (the iTunes Lookup API and the store page, including its in-app purchase list), the app's own store description, the vendor's website and the project's public GitHub repository where one is linked. Engine is listed only when the vendor names it. Checked 2026-10-27, US store.
When is another app a better pick?
If you need Android, an older iOS, Siri and Shortcuts, Google's own Gemma 4 runtime, or cloud models next to local ones, another app on this list will suit you better today.
PocketPal AI
Searches and downloads GGUF models from Hugging Face, including gated ones with your access token. Pals are personas with their own model and prompt; community Pals come from PalsHub, and some cost $0.99 to $2.99. PocketPal Plus is an optional one-time unlock ($3.99 to $44.99 on the listing) that adds hands-free voice mode. Also has on-device text-to-speech, Whisper voice input, built-in tools, a benchmark page with an opt-in public leaderboard, and an interface in 11 languages. Also on Google Play.
Pick it if you also use Android, run iOS older than 26, or need gated Hugging Face models through your own token.
Google AI Edge Gallery
Google's showcase app for on-device models in the LiteRT-LM format, including Gemma 4 (E2B and E4B in the project's model list). Chat with a thinking mode, image and audio input, agent skills, a prompt lab, a benchmark, and import of LiteRT-LM models from Hugging Face. Also on Android and macOS.
Pick it if you want Gemma 4 from Google's own runtime, or to try on-device features beyond chat such as photo and video search.
Private LLM
Paid once with Family Sharing. Needs an A12 chip or newer (iPhone XS and later). Curated, pre-quantized model list (Llama, Gemma, Qwen, Phi, Mistral, DeepSeek R1 Distill and others). Siri and Shortcuts integration.
Pick it if you want Siri and Shortcuts and a curated, pre-quantized model list.
Locally AI by LM Studio
Joined LM Studio (Element Labs) in April 2026 and now carries its name. No in-app purchases, no login and no data collection per the listing. Runs MLX models and Apple's on-device Foundation Models, analyzes images with vision models, has on-device voice mode, Siri and Shortcuts, and LM Link to use models running in LM Studio on your own computers.
Pick it if you want a polished MLX chat app on iOS 18, or already use LM Studio on a Mac or PC.
Enclave
Local models are free. The Pro subscription adds cloud models from several providers, paid as monthly credits. On-device voice chat, document chat, custom assistants, Siri and Shortcuts.
Pick it if you want local and cloud models in one app, or voice and document chat.
Liquid Apollo
Liquid AI's own app. Runs small models on the device through Liquid AI's LEAP, and can also connect to OpenRouter with your own API key or to a model server on your computer such as LM Studio or Ollama.
Pick it if you want Liquid AI's own app for its models, or one client for local, self-hosted and cloud models.
fullmoon
A minimal open-source chat app for a few MLX models (Llama 3.2 and DeepSeek R1 Distill), with themes, a custom system prompt and a Shortcuts action. Runs on iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS. Last store update in January 2025.
Pick it if you want the simplest possible MLX chat app, or readable Swift source to learn from.
MLC Chat
Reference app of the MLC LLM compiler project. The store listing says it's intended for non-commercial use. Last store update in September 2024.
Pick it if you work with MLC LLM and want its reference iOS runtime.
LLM Farm
The README says the app is temporarily unavailable in TestFlight and the App Store. Builds from source in Xcode. Has RAG and Shortcuts.
Pick it if you're happy to build from source and want lots of sampling knobs on iOS and macOS.
What does Pocket AI Lab do differently?
It treats the phone as a test bench: it shows which runtime is generating, measures the model on your own device and refuses to recommend a model that won't survive iOS's memory limit.
- llama.cpp, MLX, Core ML, Apple Foundation Models and whisper.cpp in one app, behind one chat screen.
- Fit checks use the per-app memory allowance and the Metal working set read from the phone, not the RAM figure on the box.
- Hugging Face import shows the RAM and disk verdict before the download starts.
- Model Benchmark grades quality with deterministic checks as well as speed, and exports a report card.
- No account, and conversations stay on the phone. The source is MIT on GitHub.
What can't Pocket AI Lab do yet?
It needs iOS 26.1, the interface is English only, and it can't download gated Hugging Face repos because it never asks for your token.
There's no Siri or Shortcuts integration and no document chat. Image, video and voice input work with the matching models.