Introduction #

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes central to mobile applications, a critical architectural decision emerges: should AI processing occur on-device or in the cloud? This choice has profound implications for bandwidth usage, app latency, user privacy, cost, and overall user experience. On-device AI processes data locally on the user’s smartphone or tablet, whereas cloud AI relies on powerful remote servers accessed over the internet. Both approaches come with distinct benefits and challenges. Understanding these differences is essential for developers, product designers, and users interested in AI, mobile technology, and privacy.

This article offers an objective comparison between on-device AI and cloud-based AI, focusing on how on-device AI specifically helps reduce bandwidth consumption and improve app latency. It will also highlight relevant examples such as [Personal LLM](https://ll