The best offline AI apps in 2026 are Personal LLM and PocketPal AI if you want one app that works on both iPhone and Android, Google AI Edge Gallery if you want to try Google’s Gemma models, and Private LLM, Locally AI or Enclave AI if you only use Apple devices. All six download an open language model to your phone once and then answer with no internet connection.
They differ in platform, price, how much setup they ask of you, and whether they can read photos and documents. Here’s how they compare.
The six best offline AI apps compared #
| App | Platforms | Price | Best for | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal LLM | iOS, Android | Free with ads | Private chat with photos and PDFs | Ads in the free version |
| PocketPal AI | iOS, Android | Free, open source | Tinkerers who want any GGUF model | More choices to make yourself |
| Google AI Edge Gallery | Android 12+, iOS 17+ | Free, open source | Trying Google’s Gemma 4 models | Built around Google’s models |
| Private LLM | iPhone, iPad, Mac | One-time purchase | Siri and Shortcuts workflows | Apple only, paid upfront |
| Locally AI | iPhone, iPad, Mac | Free | Apple users who want a simple app | Apple only |
| Enclave AI | iPhone, Mac | Free | Local by default with optional cloud | Apple only |
None of these is “offline ChatGPT.” ChatGPT’s models don’t run on phones. What these apps run are open-weight models from Alibaba (Qwen), Google (Gemma), Mistral, Meta (Llama), Zhipu (GLM) and others, shrunk to fit in a phone’s memory.
1. Personal LLM: best for private chat with photos and documents #
Personal LLM is built around one idea: there is no server, so your chats have nowhere to go. It’s free on iOS 15.1+ and Android 7+, needs no account, and the only network traffic is the one-time model download from Hugging Face and the ads in the free version.
The catalog is short and curated: Qwen 3.5 in 0.8B, 4B and 9B sizes, Gemma 4 E2B and E4B, Ministral 3 3B and GLM 4.6V Flash, from 0.81 GB to 6.17 GB. Each model card shows a “Fits your device” badge based on your phone’s actual RAM, which takes the guessing out of the first download. You can also add any GGUF model by URL.
What sets it apart:
- Every catalog model can read images after a 195 MB to 1 GB image-support download, so you can ask about a menu, a form or a whiteboard offline.
- Ask your documents. Attach a PDF, text or Markdown file and it answers from the matching passages, telling you which ones it used.
- Thinking mode with a collapsible reasoning panel, plus Creative, Balanced, Precise and Thinking presets.
- Honest numbers: a live tokens-per-second readout, a built-in benchmark and context usage in the header.
Wrong for you if ads bother you and you don’t want to pay the one-time Remove Ads purchase, or if you want voice conversations. It reads answers aloud but doesn’t take voice input.
2. PocketPal AI: best for tinkerers on either platform #
PocketPal AI is free, open source under the MIT license, and available on both the App Store and Google Play. It runs GGUF models through llama.cpp, lets you search and download models from Hugging Face inside the app, and supports GPU acceleration.
It also has “Pals,” custom assistants with their own personalities, on-device text-to-speech, and a benchmark with an optional public leaderboard.
Wrong for you if you want someone else to pick the model. PocketPal gives you the whole Hugging Face catalog, which means choosing between model families, sizes and quantization levels yourself.
3. Google AI Edge Gallery: best for Google’s own models #
Google’s AI Edge Gallery is an open-source app (Apache 2.0) for running Google’s on-device models, and it now supports the Gemma 4 family. It’s on Google Play for Android 12+ and the App Store for iOS 17+.
Its features read like a tour of what on-device AI can do: Ask Image for questions about photos, Audio Scribe for on-device transcription and translation, a Prompt Lab with detailed settings, and chat with a visible thinking mode.
Wrong for you if you want an everyday chat app with organized history, or models from outside Google’s family as the main event. It’s centered on Gemma, although it can load other models from Hugging Face.
4. Private LLM: best for Siri and Shortcuts #
Private LLM is a paid app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. One purchase covers all your Apple devices and your Family Sharing group, with no subscription. It offers a large model list and uses OmniQuant and GPTQ quantization, which its developers say preserve quality better than the simpler rounding many apps use.
Its standout feature is integration: it plugs into Siri and the Shortcuts app, so you can build automations that call a local model.
Wrong for you if you use Android, or you’d rather try an app free before paying.
5. Locally AI: best simple app for Apple users #
Locally AI is free on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and built on MLX, Apple’s machine learning framework for Apple Silicon. It supports models from the Llama, Gemma, Qwen and other families, vision models, a local voice mode, system prompts, and Siri and Shortcuts.
Wrong for you if you’re on Android. It’s Apple only.
6. Enclave AI: best if you want an optional cloud fallback #
Enclave AI runs models locally on iPhone and Mac and is free. It adds on-device voice chat, custom assistants, and document chat for PDFs and text files. It also offers optional cloud models through OpenRouter. Local processing is the default.
Wrong for you if you want an app where cloud processing isn’t possible at all. With Enclave, check which model you’ve selected before you paste anything sensitive.
How to choose an offline AI app #
Start with three questions.
Which phone do you have? If you use Android, your choices are Personal LLM, PocketPal AI and AI Edge Gallery. On an iPhone, all six work.
How much RAM does it have? This decides which models you can run, and it matters more than the app. Roughly: iPhone 13 has 4 GB, iPhone 14 and 15 have 6 GB, and iPhone 15 Pro, 16 and later have 8 GB or more. Recent Android flagships have 8 to 12 GB. A 4B model runs comfortably in 6 GB, while 9B models want 6 to 8 GB or more. If your phone is older, read running AI on an old phone.
What will you use it for?
- Photos and documents: Personal LLM, Locally AI (vision), Enclave (documents), AI Edge Gallery (Ask Image)
- Automation with Siri: Private LLM, Locally AI, Enclave
- Maximum model choice: PocketPal AI
- Voice conversation: Locally AI, Enclave
What about ChatGPT, Gemini and Apple Intelligence? #
These aren’t offline apps. The ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude apps send every message to the company’s servers. Apple Intelligence runs some features on the phone, but only on the iPhone 15 Pro and later, and it’s a set of tools (writing help, summaries, photo cleanup) rather than an open chat with a model you pick. Gemini Nano on Android is similar and only runs on recent flagships. Our guide to built-in phone AI in iOS and Android covers what each one does on the device.
If you came here specifically because ChatGPT stops working the moment you lose signal, offline ChatGPT alternatives covers what changes when you swap it for a local model, and how to set one up before a trip.
Before you install anything, make sure you have the space. Models range from under 1 GB to over 6 GB each, which we break down in how much storage AI models need.
Frequently asked questions #
Is there an offline version of ChatGPT? #
No. OpenAI’s ChatGPT models run only on OpenAI’s servers. Offline AI apps run open models such as Qwen, Gemma, Llama and Mistral instead. The best of these small models handle everyday writing, explaining and summarizing well, but they are less capable than ChatGPT on hard reasoning and obscure facts.
What is the best offline AI app for Android? #
Personal LLM and PocketPal AI are the two general-purpose options on Google Play, and Google’s AI Edge Gallery is the easiest way to try Gemma 4. Personal LLM is simpler to start with because it badges models by your RAM and adds photo and PDF questions. PocketPal suits people who want to pick from the whole Hugging Face catalog.
Are offline AI apps free? #
Most are. Personal LLM, PocketPal AI, AI Edge Gallery, Locally AI and Enclave AI are free to download, and the models themselves are free open weights. Private LLM is a one-time purchase. Personal LLM shows ads in the free version, with a one-time purchase to remove them.
Which model should I download first? #
A 3B to 4B model is the best starting point on most phones from the last few years. In Personal LLM, Qwen 3.5 4B (2.74 GB) is the recommended first download. Move up to a 9B model only if your phone has 8 GB of RAM or more and you want better answers at slower speed.
Do offline AI apps really keep my data private? #
The good ones do, because the model runs on your phone and there’s no server to send chats to. Test any app by switching on airplane mode and asking a question. Also read the privacy label in the App Store or the Data safety section on Google Play.