Character.AI
Chat with millions of user-made AI Characters, or build your own.
- Starting price
- Free tier; c.ai+ $94.99 / year
- Free trial
- Free tier
- Output
- Conversations with user-created AI Characters, plus character videos, Scenes and Streams
Overview
Character.AI is an interactive entertainment platform built around Characters: AI personas that users create, publish and talk to. Millions of them already exist, anyone can add one, and creators find an audience through the platform itself, so the catalogue is the product rather than a single assistant. Beyond text conversation it generates media from those Characters, turning an image and a short script into video and collecting everything in a community feed. A free tier covers conversation; the c.ai+ subscription adds ad-free use and unlimited access to top models.
Our take
Character.AI is the odd one out among AI assistants because it is not trying to be one. It is built for storytelling and company, and it should be judged on whether the Characters are fun rather than on whether the answers are right, which means the usual assistant checklist of web sources, document handling and coding help largely does not apply. The catalogue is the draw and also the risk: anyone can publish one, so what a Character does depends on whoever made it, and finding the ones worth keeping takes browsing. The under-18 restriction and the age check are worth knowing before signing up, and anyone looking for a work assistant should look at a general chatbot instead.
Key Facts
| Category | |
|---|---|
| Starting price | Free tier; c.ai+ $94.99 / year c.ai+ is listed at $94.99 per year, down from $119.88. The subscription page offers a monthly option but does not show its price. |
| Free trial | Free tier |
| Output | Conversations with user-created AI Characters, plus character videos, Scenes and Streams |
| Users | Millions of monthly users |
Screenshots
Placeholders. They are replaced as soon as the vendor sends material, and both open the same short form.
Features
- Ecosystem
- Web, iPhone and Android apps, with a community feed of user-created Characters, Scenes, Streams, Posts, Voices and Comics, plus in-house c.ai Series microdramas
- Live web search and sources
- No. There is no live web search and no cited sources; the vendor's own Character guide warns under Factuality that Characters make things up and that any Character may confidently tell you things that are verifiably false
- Files and long documents
- No document or file upload. Context is carried by memory instead: pinned messages, 15 on the free tier and 30 with c.ai+, and a Lorebook, basic on the free tier and advanced with c.ai+. The guide also notes that a Character may forget things said early in a long conversation
- Images, voice and video
- AvatarFX generates a character video from an image and a short script in seconds; Characters also have Voices, and Scenes and Streams build storylines and shows on top of the videos
- Coding help
- No coding features are published. The documentation covers creating Characters, dialogue and images, and the plan comparison lists chat styles, memory and feature limits rather than code execution, repositories or developer tooling
- Model choice
- Yes, presented as chat styles rather than model names: PipSqueak 2 is the most capable style available without a subscription, DeepSqueak is the strongest style and needs c.ai+
- API
- No. Character.AI's help centre states that it does not currently have an API, and points anyone with an unusual use case to info@character.ai instead
Integrations
Integrations coming soon.
Deployment and Support
- Deployment
-
- Cloud (SaaS)
- Browser-based
- Support
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- Email helpdesk
- Community forum
- Onboarding
-
- Documentation and knowledge base
- Company size
-
- Freelancers
Pros and Cons
Strengths
- Millions of user-created Characters, and anyone can publish one
- AvatarFX turns an image and a short script into a character video in seconds
- Free tier covers conversation without a subscription
- Runs on the web and as iPhone and Android apps
Limitations
- Users under 18 no longer have open-ended chat with Characters
- Built for interactive entertainment rather than work tasks
- Characters are user-created, so what each one does depends on its author
Pricing
-
Free
$0
Conversations with Characters, with lower daily feature limits than c.ai+.
-
c.ai+
$94.99 / year
Listed at $94.99 per year, down from $119.88. Adds no ads, unlimited access to top models, advanced chat styles, enhanced memory with 30 pins, an advanced Lorebook, the highest daily feature limits, priority support and 20% bonus Charms. A monthly option exists but its price is not shown.
Alternatives and Comparisons
What users say
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