LM Studio vs Private LLM
We give LM Studio a 3.4 GPA and Private LLM a 2.2, out of 4.0. LM Studio grades higher on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms. Private LLM grades higher on value for money.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
LM Studio
Desktop app for running open AI models on your own computer
Free plan · from $20/mo
Private LLM
Offline AI chat app for iPhone, iPad and Mac with a one-time price
From $4.99 one-time
How we grade them
| 3.4GPALM StudioVery good | 2.2GPAPrivate LLMFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BThe app is free, so paying is optional. The paid plans are for cloud models in Bionic, its separate agent app: Bionic+ is $20 a month for US-hosted open source models, and Pro is $100 for 5x the usage. $20 is the going rate, though here it buys open source models, not the big-name ones. | A$4.99 once on the US App Store, with no subscription. That one purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac, every model in the catalog, and up to six people through Family Sharing. Most assistants charge more than that for a single month. |
| Free plan and trial | ALM Studio is free for home and work use. Bionic's Free plan adds the agent, local models, offline voice transcription, LM Link for up to 5 devices and limited web search. If your computer can run the models, you never need to pay. | FNothing is free. There's no free version and no trial on record, so it's $4.99 before you can open it. A small gamble at that price, but still a gamble. |
| Features | ARuns open models such as gpt-oss, Qwen, Gemma and DeepSeek on your own hardware, with document chat that stays on the device. A local server with OpenAI-like endpoints, Python and TypeScript SDKs, and MCP tools. Then there's Bionic, an agent app for code, documents, slides and spreadsheets. | BIt does one job fully: private text chat with open models, picked from a catalog of 142, with system prompts, Siri and Shortcuts, and rewrite or summarise tools in any Mac app. But it can't read documents, has no internet access, and its models are text only. |
| Ease of use | BDownload the app, download a model, start chatting. The hard part is the hardware: the docs recommend 16GB of RAM or more, and on Windows at least 4GB of dedicated VRAM. There's no rating on record for a desktop app, so a B at best. | C4.1 from about 730 App Store ratings, which is low for this category. You also choose and download a model before your first chat, and the larger ones want an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, or an Apple Silicon Mac. |
| Platforms and integrations | BMac, Windows and Linux, though not Intel-based Macs. On iPhone and iPad you reach your models through the separate Locally app over LM Link, which is still in preview. It works with Hugging Face, Claude Code and Codex, and serves an API to your own tools. | CiPhone, iPad and Mac, with hooks into Siri and Shortcuts. That's Apple only. An Android version exists as an early beta you download as an APK, not from Google Play, and no Windows or web version is listed. |
| Best for | running open AI models privately on a desktop | offline AI chat on Apple devices, paid for once |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: LM Studio and Private LLM. How we grade
Where they differ
- LM Studio starts at $20 per month (Bionic+, for cloud models). Private LLM starts at $4.99 one-time (US App Store).
- LM Studio has a free plan. Private LLM does not.
- Only LM Studio lists Windows and Linux apps.
- Only Private LLM lists an iOS app.
- Private LLM can be bought with a one-time purchase.
- LM Studio also covers AI agents.
In commonmacOSWorks offlineLocal-firstAI featuresChat assistant
At a glance
| LM Studio | Private LLM | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $20 per month (Bionic+, for cloud models) | $4.99 one-time (US App Store) |
| Free plan | LM Studio is free for home and work use. Bionic's Free plan covers the agent, local models, offline voice transcription, LM Link for up to 5 devices and limited web search. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Made by | Element Labs, Inc. | Numen Technologies Limited |
| Price read from | lmstudio.ai | apps.apple.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
LM Studio
- Running open models privately on a Mac, Windows or Linux computer
- Developers who want a local OpenAI-like endpoint for their own tools
- Agent work on code and documents with open models, through Bionic
Private LLM
- Apple users who want AI chat that never leaves the device
- People who prefer a single purchase to a monthly subscription
- Building Siri and Shortcuts workflows around a local model
Worth knowing
LM Studio
- LM Studio itself is desktop only; on iPhone and iPad its models are reached through the separate Locally app. Intel-based Macs are not supported.
- Local models need capable hardware: the docs recommend 16GB of RAM or more, and on Windows at least 4GB of dedicated VRAM.
- The paid plans cover cloud models in LM Studio Bionic, a separate app; cloud use needs an LM Studio account with available credits.
- LM Link is in preview and free for now; LM Studio says free and paid LM Link plans will follow at general availability.
Private LLM
- It cannot read documents or files, and it has no internet access for live information.
- Models cannot be loaded from Hugging Face; only those the developer has quantized are offered, and they are text-only.
- Larger models need recent hardware: the vendor recommends an iPhone 15 Pro or newer and an Apple Silicon Mac.
- The Android version is an early beta offered as a direct APK download, not through Google Play.
Key features
LM Studio
- Local model runner
- Downloads and runs open models such as gpt-oss, Qwen, Gemma and DeepSeek on your own hardware with llama.cpp, plus Apple's MLX on Apple Silicon Macs.
- Offline chat with documents
- Chat and document chat (RAG) run on the device. The docs say nothing entered into a local chat or dropped into it as a document leaves the machine.
- Local API server and SDKs
- Serves models on OpenAI-like endpoints on localhost or the local network, with Python and TypeScript SDKs, the lms command line tool and the headless llmster daemon for servers.
- MCP client
- MCP servers can be installed in LM Studio so that local models can call the tools they provide.
- LM Link
- Links your own machines over an end-to-end encrypted connection built on Tailscale, so a model on a remote device can be used as if local, including from an iPhone through the Locally app. In preview.
- LM Studio Bionic agent
- A separate app that works on code and on documents, slides and spreadsheets inside projects, using local models, LM Link models or cloud models billed in credits.
Private LLM
- On-device chat with open models
- Runs open-source models such as Llama 3.3, Qwen3, Gemma 3, Phi 4 and DeepSeek R1 Distill on the device. The site's catalog lists 142 models, filterable by device, memory and use case.
- No account and no cloud
- Prompts are processed on the device and nothing is sent to a server. The app needs no login and, according to the vendor, collects no personal data.
- Siri and Shortcuts
- Two app intents work with Siri and the Shortcuts app, and x-callback-url support lets other apps pass text in and get the model's reply back.
- Writing tools across macOS
- On a Mac, select text in any app and right-click to rewrite, summarize or correct it on-device. This works in English and major Western European languages.
- In-house quantization
- Models are compressed by the developer with OmniQuant and GPTQ, which the vendor says keeps output closer to the original model than the round-to-nearest method used by llama.cpp and MLX apps.
- System prompts and sampling settings
- The system prompt can be customized to shape how a model responds, and sampling temperature and Top-P can be changed from their defaults; those changes apply after the app restarts.
Plans
LM Studio
Free$0
Local models through llama.cpp and MLX, the Bionic agent, offline voice transcription, LM Link for up to 5 devices and limited web search.
Bionic+$20
per month
Adds US-hosted open source cloud models such as Kimi K3 and DeepSeek V4 Flash, discounted bulk tokens, and web search with page extraction.
Pro$100
per month
Everything in Bionic+ with 5x the usage limits, discounted bulk tokens and early access to new features.
Private LLM
Private LLM$4.99
one-time purchase
One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac with every model in the catalog, and can be shared with up to six people through Family Sharing.
Ways to pay less
LM Studio
No public discounts listed.
Private LLM
- Lifetime license
One purchase for every Apple device
Private LLM is bought once with no subscription. The purchase unlocks the iPhone, iPad and Mac versions and extends to a Family Sharing group of up to six people.
