Under $10/mo

Millions of community characters with unlimited free text chat

The default starting point: unmatched variety and the most generous free tier in the category.

Memory that survives months, across up to ten companions

The memory benchmark. If continuity is your main requirement, this is the one to beat.

The original AI friend, built around emotional connection

Still the strongest product for people who want one companion and a real feeling of continuity.

A clinically grounded wellbeing companion

A companion that is honest about being a tool rather than a relationship.

SoulChat

3.8

Six hand-written companions with long-term memory, free to try without an account

A deliberately hand-authored cast of six rather than a community character library — you trade variety for characters that keep one consistent voice.

ByteDance’s no-code bot builder

Build and ship custom AI chatbots to 8+ channels with plugins and workflows — a create-your-own toolkit, not a fixed companion.

An open-weight model with a surprisingly strong free chat

Not a companion, but its free, capable chat and long memory make it a credible daily AI friend.

Google assistant with image, video and live voice

A general assistant that doubles as a companion: strong memory, Imagen image generation, Veo video and a Live voice mode.

Free character chat that runs locally or in the cloud

The most generous free tier in the category: unlimited chat on locally run models, 600 cloud messages a day, no card required.

Self-hosted AI platform with personas, RAG and a 500k+ community

The power-user pick: run any model locally or in the cloud with zero data retention and full control.

miHoYo's free desktop AI companion blending letter chat, music generation and a live wallpaper

A free, polished ambient companion from the Genshin studio: piano performances, MIDI-to-music-video generation and pen-pal letters.

Open-ended roleplay and story writing with strong models

A roleplay and creative-writing tool built on capable open models, with a scenario builder and image generation for the worlds you create.

Open-source chat UI with a community agent marketplace

A serious open-source option: self-host it, plug in any model, and browse community personas — more assistant than romantic partner.

Free chat with Zhipu's GLM frontier models

A capable free general assistant — the closest free peer to DeepSeek for everyday chat.

A screen-aware gaming companion that plays along with you

A gaming-focused companion that reads your screen and roleplays along, with voice, Live2D-style visuals and a Romantic mode on higher tiers.

Anime companion and character chat with built-in image generation

A community-driven anime companion hub: build your own character or talk to thousands of user-made ones, with image generation baked into the chat.

Moonshot AI's free assistant, now on the K3 model generation

A generous free general assistant from Moonshot; strong on long documents and agentic work.

An AI dating assistant that drafts the perfect reply

A dating coach, not a companion: screenshot a conversation and get context-aware replies for Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and more.

Romance-first companion with an optional mature mode and a 40+ character roster

A romance-first companion with image generation and an optional mature mode — SFW by default.

AI characters that live in your group chats

A multiplayer twist: add customizable AI characters to Discord, Telegram or the web with persistent memory, free.

Character depth built around an AI boyfriend

One of very few sites that treats male companions as the main product rather than an afterthought.

Scenario-driven character roleplay with world building

A polished roleplay platform built around scenarios and lorebooks, priced below most rivals.

Chat with community-made AI characters, free to start

A lightweight character-chat app focused on a big community library and quick conversations, with image generation as a paid add-on.

3D-avatar AI girlfriend from the studio behind Anima

A mobile-first virtual girlfriend with hardware-accelerated 3D/AR avatars and 2.5M+ downloads.

A personal AI agent with Deep Memory that builds mini-apps for you

A personal companion-agent rather than a character roster; free during its current rollout.

Unlimited free text chat across 20M+ characters

The closest thing to Character.AI with a looser filter — as long as you accept an older model on free.

Voice-forward character roleplay with collectible cards

A mobile-first roleplay app that leans on voice and a playful card-collecting loop.

AI wingman for dating-app messages, IRL openers and profile polish

The most complete dating assistant: openers, replies, IRL intros, ask-outs and polite breakups, with tone controls.

A polished desktop app for local companions

The easiest way to run a local companion without touching a terminal.

An AI dating simulator to practise romance safely

From the Replika makers: a judgement-free space to practise flirting and relationships with AI crushes — not a sexbot.

Community character chat with mature mode and cheap annual billing

A Character.AI-style alternative that allows mature content and undercuts most rivals on annual billing.

Talk to fictional, historical and celebrity-style characters

A character-chat site built around recognizable names — fictional, historical and celebrity-style personas you can message for free with caps.

Customisable companions with voice cloning and screen awareness

A flexible companion builder: 2D/3D avatars, voice cloning, long memory and screen sharing, with an optional NSFW toggle.

Unlimited chat with a structured memory system

Cheap, memory-first, and one of the few sites that lets the free tier actually test memory.

Text-only character chat with separate SFW and NSFW modes

A straightforward text character-chat app with a 6,000+ character library and separate SFW/NSFW modes — no voice or image generation.

A voiced alien companion that is refreshingly un-creepy

The most interesting voice-first companion to appear recently: friendship without romantic framing.

An emotionally intelligent companion with voice calls and mood tracking

Wellbeing-first companion with a memory graph and fine-grained emotion detection; Pro is $3.99/mo or $29.99/yr.

Mobile companion for friendship, flirting or roleplay

Cheap on the annual plan and flexible in tone, with a browser app alongside the mobile ones.

Uncensored-leaning character chat with 3D avatars

Freemium character chat with avatar extras; beware the many clone domains impersonating it.

Build and train your own AI companion from scratch

A build-your-own companion toolkit: train custom AI pets with your own datasets, custom voices and image generation.

Anime companions alongside a strong art generator

The best pick if you want anime-style characters and image generation in one place.

Free anime and K-pop idol character chat on mobile

Unlimited free messages across a 160k-download character app — just tolerate the ads and the Web3-flavoured website.

Mobile character chat with a mature-mode toggle

Busy and ad-heavy on free, but the character roster is broad and it is one of few with a clear 17+ rating trail.

Spicy AI roleplay across web and mobile apps

Adult roleplay platform whose web domain is parked (Sedo); iOS and Android apps are live with in-app purchases.

Anime chat with voice and a fast-growing roster

A newer anime-first entrant with solid voice work; worth watching rather than committing to.

Story-driven social roleplay with author-built worlds

A thoughtful, moderation-friendly take on AI roleplay that stays firmly in narrative territory.

Face-to-face video calls with a friendly AI

A neat demonstration of realtime video conversation; useful, if shallow.

Daily free messages with a broad character library

A fine free-tier stopgap; the paid tiers do not clearly beat the leaders.

Free AI chat and roleplay with story-driven characters across fantasy, mystery, anime, drama and romance.

Browser-based AI roleplay site with a large character library spanning fantasy, mystery, anime and romance scenarios. Free tier plus Plus/Pro subscriptions and red-gem packs. No native app found; no explicit NSFW marketing on scraped pages.

Voice and text AI girlfriend chat with long-term memory, safe-for-work.

SFW AI girlfriend chat with voice replies, long-term memory and custom companion creation. Free tier gives 100 lifetime texts and 50 voice replies; subscriptions from $6.99/mo add unlimited text plus monthly credits. Explicitly no adult content.

AI girlfriend chat that replies with 5-second video messages

Texting-style AI companion chat where replies can arrive as 5-second AI-generated video clips of the character's face and voice. Four preset companions (two female, two male), no live calls, no custom characters yet. 18+ framing but no explicit content sh

Live video and voice calls with AI characters you pick or build: their face on screen, answering in real time, and you can interrupt. Free daily text allowance.

Prelulu puts characters on camera: live video and voice calls where they answer in real time, plus text chat and a character builder. Free daily text allowance; paid plans from $9.99/mo. Web, iOS and Android.

Hand-written AI companions who remember you and never judge — free to try, no sign-up needed

A small cast of voiced, photogenic companions with persistent memory and up to 20 custom characters of your own, behind a single $9.99/mo Premium tier.