Clearing up one thing first, because app descriptions blur it on purpose. "Running an LLM on your phone" means two very different things. One: the model actually runs on your phone's chip, fully offline. Two: your phone is a remote control for a model on your home PC or server. Both legit. Different problems. Know which one you are signing up for.
Category one, the standout is PocketPal AI. Real app, Android and iOS, loads GGUF model files right on the device, chats offline. Closest thing to a genuine pocket LLM. For privacy it is hard to beat: nothing leaves the phone, because there is nowhere for it to go. The tradeoff is size. Phone chips run smaller models well, and those keep getting more capable, but they are not out-reasoning a 70B on your desktop. Not yet, anyway.
Category two is where most people land. Ollama, LM Studio, or Jan on a home machine, and a local LLM management app for iOS and Android connects over your network. Phone stays light, data stays in your house, desktop-class models from the couch. The catch: an always-on machine, and an afternoon of setup.
Which do you download? True offline privacy on the go, start with a real on-device app like PocketPal AI, which doubles as an on-device AI admin app, free for the basics. Model quality with your data staying home, set up the server once and put a mobile front end on it. Either way, if you want to run LLM locally on a phone, start with the model, not the app icon. Our database of 200 open-weight models shows which ones fit phone-sized hardware and which need the server. Best local LLM for a phone is its own question, and so is best free LLM models for offline use. Want the whole private setup built for you? I do private AI setup for businesses at privateaiagent.fyi. Your data never leaves.