AI Actions vs Draw Things
Side-by-side comparison · Updated September 2026
| Description | The AI Actions app offers powerful AI-related actions (including GPT-4o, GPT-4, and GPT 3.5) for Apple's Shortcuts app, facilitating interaction with the ChatGPT API. It requires users to supply their own OpenAI API key, which is securely stored in the keychain. The app is optimized for macOS, but requires an Apple silicon Mac for the App Store version, due to Apple's restrictions. A non-App Store version is available for Intel Mac users, although it doesn't receive automatic updates. The app also supports DALL·E and boasts enhanced customizability and longer text handling compared to the official ChatGPT app. | Draw Things is a local AI image and video creation app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. It suits creators who want to choose their models, work with existing images and keep local generation on their own Apple hardware. Its free local workflow does not require a subscription or token allowance. Download the app and the models you need before relying on offline access; optional Cloud Compute is a separate workflow with account and network requirements. Start with a text prompt or an existing image, choose a compatible model and refine the result. The official app listing describes image-to-image, inpainting, outpainting, ControlNet, pose editing and an infinite canvas. You can import community diffusion models and LoRAs, or train LoRAs on-device. The current product also supports image-to-video workflows. These options make it useful for testing visual concepts and editing selected regions, but model choice, available memory and device performance affect what you can practically generate. We have not benchmarked rendering speed or output quality. The provider lists a Free Edition for local compute and a free Community account for Cloud Compute and Lab Hours. Draw Things+ is advertised at US$8.99 per month, with higher cloud limits, custom LoRA uploads and additional cloud features. Numeric cloud quotas are not published on the reviewed pricing page. The US App Store also lists optional Boost Bundles, but check their current in-app entitlements before buying. Enterprise access is available by contacting the provider for organization deployment, on-premise inference and application integration; no public enterprise price is shown. Local and cloud privacy should be considered separately. Draw Things describes local creation as offline and says most creations and data can stay on the device. Its policy documents an optional Apple sign-in identifier for Cloud Compute and subscription transaction information for paid access. Uploaded LoRAs are stored on cloud servers until you delete them or the account. The app release history also mentions Google sign-in, while the policy still describes Apple sign-in; check the current account flow rather than assuming that every sign-in method has identical data handling. The policy says it does not use third-party analytics or advertising frameworks for tracking. Use the official Apple listing for Draw Things, Inc., app ID 6444050820, to distinguish it from similarly named apps. The US listing carries an 18+ age rating. For a first project, use a non-sensitive reference image, confirm the chosen model fits your device and test a modest output before attempting larger images or video. Review imported model, LoRA and source-image licenses before commercial work: free software access does not itself grant rights to every model or generated asset. Draw Things is the stronger fit here when model control and local editing matter; compare a simpler fixed-model generator if you mainly want to turn short text prompts into images. |
| Category | AI Assistant | Art Generator |
| Rating | No reviews | No reviews |
| Pricing | Pricing unavailable | Freemium |
| Starting Price | N/A | Free |
| Plans | — |
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| Use Cases |
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| Tags | AIChatGPTShortcutsmacOSIntelligent Assistant | local AIimage generationimage-to-imageinpaintingvideo generation |
| Features | ||
| Supports GPT-4o, GPT-4, and GPT 3.5 | ||
| Integration with ChatGPT API | ||
| Secure API key storage in keychain | ||
| Apple silicon Mac optimized | ||
| Non-App Store version available for Intel Macs | ||
| Supports DALL·E | ||
| Longer text processing | ||
| Customizability options for power users | ||
| Enhanced AI functionalities on macOS | ||
| No automatic updates for non-App Store version | ||
| Local image generation on iPhone, iPad and Mac | ||
| Offline creation after downloading compatible models | ||
| Image-to-image, inpainting, outpainting and ControlNet | ||
| Infinite canvas and image-to-video workflows | ||
| Imported diffusion models and LoRAs | ||
| On-device LoRA training | ||
| Optional Community and paid Cloud Compute | ||
| View AI Actions | View Draw Things | |
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