Local AI runtime recommendations — platform: ios
Beginner pick: Apple Foundation Models. Built into iOS 26, ~3B on-device model, zero download, fully private.
Power-user pick: PocketPal AI. Run any GGUF from HuggingFace fully offline.
Runtimes:
name: Apple Foundation Models
what: On-device ~3B model API (iOS 26+)
status: stable
name: PocketPal AI
what: llama.cpp wrapper app, any GGUF
status: stable
name: fullmoon
what: Open-source MLX Swift app (Apple Silicon)
status: stable
name: Enclave AI
what: Free offline assistant with on-device voice
status: stable
name: Private LLM
what: Paid app, 140+ models, Neural Engine accelerated
status: stable
name: Layla
what: Cross-platform offline app (GGUF + ExecuTorch)
status: stable
name: Google AI Edge Gallery
what: Google's on-device Gemma app
status: stable
name: LLM Farm
what: Open-source on-device runner
status: stable
Gotcha: Phones realistically run 1B-4B class models. Anything larger thermally throttles or OOMs.
Ceiling: 1B-4B at Q4 on 8GB iPhones; iPad Pro M4 (16GB) handles more.