Locally AI by LM Studio
Shares rank 23 of 27 local LLM runners by recommenders
Free, uncluttered iPhone app with a wide range of local AI models and a link to desktop LM Studio. Some models are hidden in settings.
Free, uncluttered iPhone app with a wide range of local AI models and a link to desktop LM Studio. Some models are hidden in settings.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Wide range of models
“It's free, not annoying, and has a bunch of model options.”
Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “Qwen3.8-27B on the iPhone 18 Neural Engine at 15–70 tok/s (1.5 bpw)” “it’s really good and has a wide range of models”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone” Free and not annoying
“It's free, not annoying, and has a bunch of model options.”
Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “Qwen3.8-27B on the iPhone 18 Neural Engine at 15–70 tok/s (1.5 bpw)” Links to desktop LM Studio
“can link to the desktop LM Studio app which is cool”
Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “Qwen3.8-27B on the iPhone 18 Neural Engine at 15–70 tok/s (1.5 bpw)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Some models hidden in settings
“the bonsai model doesn't present in the list. You have to get it via settings.”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: 1-Bit Bonsai, the First Commercially Viable 1-Bit LLMs” Refuses some requests
“it would refuse to do so, at least from Locally AI”
Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “Qwen3.8-27B on the iPhone 18 Neural Engine at 15–70 tok/s (1.5 bpw)”
Other local LLM runners people recommend
The four most recommended other local LLM runners, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| llama.cpp | 471 | 109 | 81% | 13 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| Ollama | 350 | 247 | 59% | 12 | 1.5 yrs8 owners | — |
| LM Studio | 217 | 74 | 75% | 12 | 3 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| DS4 by antirez | 109 | 20 | 84% | 7 | 1 mo3 owners | Approved |
| Locally AI by LM StudioThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it would refuse to do so, at least from Locally AI”
“can link to the desktop LM Studio app which is cool”
“It's free, not annoying, and has a bunch of model options.”
“it’s really good and has a wide range of models”
“the bonsai model doesn't present in the list. You have to get it via settings.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.