Best AI Companion Apps, Checked Against Their Own Policies

The best AI companion app is the one that fits a single job, so each of the six picks here is matched to one. Every pick is backed by things you can check on the vendor’s own pages before you sign up: the price, whether your chats train its models, how you delete them, and how it checks your age. Two of the best-known apps did not make the list.

Two of the six, Character AI and ChatBrat AI, have hands-on reviews on this site. The other four are assessed from their own documentation and app store listings, and each entry says which.

AI companion apps compared

App	Best for	Price from	Free option	Age rule and check	Trains on your chats	Delete your data
Kindroid	A long-term companion with voice and video	$15.99/mo in the app stores	One-time 50-message preview	18+; checked by subscription, behaviour, then Yoti if flagged	Not stated; terms allow de-identified reuse	In the app
Pi	Free, non-romantic conversation	Free, no paid tier	Yes	18+ in the terms; no check published	Yes by default; opt-out in settings	In the app
Kin	Keeping conversations on your phone	$20/mo in the App Store	Free download; limits not published	18+ in the terms (App Store 16+); no check published	No, per Kin	In the app
Tolan	A non-human friend, with a family plan	$11.99 Lite in the App Store; period not listed	Trial only	Birthdate at sign-up; under-18s need a parent	Yes, to improve its models	In the app or by email
Character AI	The biggest character catalog, with caveats	$4.99/mo (c.ai lite)	Unlimited messages, with ads	Age estimate; Persona selfie to appeal; under-18s read only	Yes; opt-out in the EEA and UK only	Self-serve
ChatBrat AI	Trying written characters free during its beta	Free in beta; plans from $4.99/mo announced	Yes, while in beta	18+; self-declared plus risk signals	Only if you opt in	Settings or email

Every cell was checked on 2026-10-07 against the vendor’s own pages or its official App Store and Google Play listings.

How these AI companion apps were chosen

Every app was put through six questions anyone can answer before paying:

• Is there a price you can read before you pay?
• Do the terms or privacy policy say whether your chats train the vendor’s models?
• Is there a stated way to delete your data?
• Is there a minimum age, and does the vendor say how it checks it?
• Are there published content rules?
• Is a real company named as the operator?

Passing all six does not make an app good company. It makes its risks visible before you hand it months of personal conversation. Conversation quality matters more than any of them, and I can only judge it for the two apps I have reviewed hands-on.

This page changed on 7 October 2026. Nomi and Replika left the ranking, for the sourced reasons further down. Character AI dropped from first place. Friend2Chat and Tuikor AI are no longer ranked. Pi, Kin and Tolan are new.

The six AI companion apps, by job

1. Kindroid, best for a long-term companion with voice and video

Kindroid is built around one companion you shape yourself: its name, gender, backstory and personality. You talk to it by text, and subscribers can also use voice and video calls. Its subscription documentation lists live video as a subscriber feature, the only app here that documents one.

Kindroid leads with the video call itself. Video needs an active subscription.

The free tier this page described in September is gone. Since 1 October 2026 a new account gets a one-time preview of 50 messages (15 in some regions), five selfies and up to two Kindroids, then turns read-only. The three-day trial needs a payment method and converts to a paid plan unless you cancel.

The subscription is $15.99 a month, $42.99 for three months or $159.99 a year in the App Store. Kindroid says web checkout is usually cheaper but no longer publishes web prices. The Ultra ($28.99 a month) and MAX ($68.99 a month) add-ons stack on top of it.

Its age check is the most complete one here. Kindroid is adults only, with no teen mode. A paid subscription counts as verification. Free accounts are assessed from their conversations, and a flagged account must subscribe or verify through Yoti, by a selfie estimate that must read 21 or older or by government ID. Kindroid says it receives only a pass or fail.

That check exists because Kindroid’s own moderation guidelines allow adult content between verified adults. There is no separate switch for it, since the whole service is 18+. This list covers Kindroid as a companion app and nothing beyond that.

What you give up: the terms do not say whether chats train its models, but they grant Kindroid a licence to de-identify, aggregate and freely use private content. Chats stay until you delete the companion or the account, and the last Kindroid you delete goes after 24 hours. The operator is Beautifully Incorporated in Los Angeles.

Visit Kindroid

2. Pi, best for free, non-romantic conversation

Pi, from Inflection AI, is a free assistant designed for talking things through rather than roleplay. There is no consumer paid tier and no in-app purchase in its App Store listing.

Keep expectations modest about its future. In August 2024 Inflection said it was refocusing on enterprise products, would keep consumer Pi free, and planned a cap on messages for free users. The app is still maintained: the iPhone version was updated on 7 October 2026 and the Android one on 29 September.

Change one setting first. Pi trains on your conversations by default, with an opt-out in account settings. Inputs are kept up to 15 days after you delete them, and outputs are kept indefinitely for purposes set out in its terms.

The terms set 18 as the minimum age, but no age check is published, and Google Play rates the app Teen where the App Store says 18+. Inflection does publish a crisis prevention and safety protocol, dated 22 December 2025, for self-harm topics.

Visit Pi

3. Kin, best for keeping conversations on your phone

Kin stores your conversations, journal and memory on your own device by default. Prompts and limited context still go to the AI providers it names: Anthropic, OpenAI and Cerebras. The homepage says your data never trains any model; the privacy notice says the providers are configured with controls intended to prevent it. Read both.

It runs on iPhone, iPad and Apple-silicon Macs, with no Android version. Kin’s own site has no price. The App Store lists nine plans, from $20 a month (Premium) to $339.99 a year (Pro).

What you give up is clarity about who you are dealing with. Four company names appear across its documents: Kin AI ApS in the privacy notice, Hyphen ApS in the terms (sharing one Danish company number), Cap TechCo ApS as App Store seller and Kin ApS as developer. The App Store privacy card lists usage data as used to track you. The terms say 18 or over while the App Store rates it 16+, and the app was last updated on 12 June 2026.

Visit Kin

4. Tolan, best for a non-human friend, with a family plan

Tolan’s companion is an animated alien rather than a person, which takes romance off the table by design. It is iPhone only, made by AQP, Inc., trading as Portola, in Oregon.

There is no ongoing free tier, only a limited trial. The App Store lists Tolan Lite at $11.99 and Tolan Plus at $24.99 without stating the billing period.

The Family Plan is what sets it apart. Each member gets their own Tolan, and accounts for minors get hourly break reminders, no romantic or sexual chat, and a parent alert when self-harm signals appear. Under-18s need a parent to accept the terms, and under-13s need verified parental consent.

What you give up is privacy. Every conversation is logged on Portola’s servers to build the companion’s memory, and the terms let Portola use what you type to improve its models. The App Store privacy card lists purchases, location, identifiers and usage data as used to track you, and the listing says it contains advertising.

Visit Tolan

5. Character AI, the biggest catalog, with caveats

Character AI has the largest library of user-made characters by a wide margin, and that is the reason it is still here. It is no longer first, because of its record and its data policy. If you are leaving it, the Character AI alternatives page matches a replacement to each job.

The Character AI homepage, captured April 2026.

The record first. Families have sued Character Technologies, alleging its chatbots harmed their children, including in cases involving suicide. In January 2026 Google and Character.AI agreed to settle several of those lawsuits, the Washington Post reported. A settlement is not an admission of liability.

In October 2025 Character.AI announced that under-18s would lose open-ended chat. Users it identifies as under 18 now get a read-only Reading Mode. It estimates age from account signals, and anyone flagged can appeal with a selfie through Persona, with a government ID as the fallback.

Free use is unlimited, with full ads. The c.ai lite tier is $4.99 a month, and c.ai+ is $9.99 a month or $94.99 a year. The paid tiers mainly buy memory, doubling pinned memories from 15 to 30. In my Character AI review, a character forgot a detail I had given it within 10 to 15 messages, which is the limit those pins work around.

What you give up: your chats train its models, and only users in the EEA and UK can opt out. Deleting your account is self-serve, though public characters you made can stay live.

Visit Character AI

6. ChatBrat AI, best for trying written characters free during its beta

ChatBrat AI is a curated catalog of staff-written characters and scenarios. In my ChatBrat AI review I ran seven messages through it without signing in, and the writing was sharper than anything else I opened in this category. Two limits from that test stand: memory belongs to accounts, and its filter matches on phrases, so it rejected an ordinary sentence.

It is free while in beta. Its pricing page announces Basic at $4.99 a month, Pro at $12.99 and Premium at $23.99, and says payments are not switched on yet. The in-app currency the review calls Charms is now called Tokens.

It is the only app here with no gap in the six checks. Scorpion Pictures Holding LLC, a Wyoming company, is the named operator. Training on your conversations is opt-in. Conversations move to cold storage 90 days after your last message and are purged at 180 days unless the account is still active. Its community guidelines cover minors and real-person likeness.

What you give up: it is web only, and its terms and privacy policy, dated 8 September 2026, are still marked as pending legal sign-off.

Visit ChatBrat AI

Popular AI companion apps I don’t recommend

Two of the best-known companion apps are not ranked here. Both publish prices, terms and privacy policies, so they would pass most of the checks above. They are left out because of what named third parties have documented.

• Nomi. The AI Incident Database records reports that Nomi chatbots produced harmful content, including sexual violence involving personas presented as minors. MIT Technology Review reported in February 2025 that a Nomi companion gave a user explicit suicide instructions, and that the developer declined to add safety controls.
• Replika. Italy’s data protection authority fined Luka Inc., the company behind Replika, 5 million euros, finding it had no age verification before 2 February 2023. The European Data Protection Board published the decision on 21 May 2025. Separately, an April 2025 preprint, not peer reviewed, analysed 800 Google Play reviews reporting unwanted sexual behaviour from the chatbot, and 21 came from reviewers who said they were minors.

Reviewed here, no longer ranked

Two apps I reviewed hands-on in September do not pass the checks on this page.

Friend2Chat is still free, and its memory worked in my Friend2Chat review. On 7 October 2026, though, its terms and privacy policy named no operating company and said nothing about whether chats train models. Its catalog also features characters based on real public figures, while its own terms forbid impersonating any person.

Tuikor AI is pitched on cloning a face and voice from a photo and a short sample. Its terms set no minimum age, and its operator, Shenma Limited, is named in the site footer and store listings but not in the legal documents. The advice in my Tuikor AI review stands: do not upload a real face.

Which AI companion app fits what you want?

• An ongoing companion with voice and video, and you are fine verifying your age: Kindroid, from $15.99 a month.
• Someone to talk things through with, free, with no romance: Pi, after turning off training.
• Conversations that stay on your phone: Kin, on iPhone, iPad or Mac.
• A companion that is clearly not a person, with family controls: Tolan, accepting the tracking.
• The widest choice of characters: Character AI, knowing its record and that it trains on your chats.
• Trying well-written characters before paying anything: ChatBrat AI, while the beta is free.

Are AI companion apps safe and private to use?

Treat every app in this category as a service that keeps intimate conversation logs, then check four things before you start.

Does it train on your chats? Pi, Tolan and Character AI do by default. Pi lets anyone opt out; Character AI only lets users in the EEA and UK do so. Kin says it does not, ChatBrat only does if you opt in, and Kindroid does not say either way.

What does delete actually delete? All six let you delete your data yourself, and the small print differs. Pi keeps outputs indefinitely, and Character AI can leave your public characters live.

Does the store card agree with the privacy policy? Kin’s privacy notice says it does not use your data for advertisement, while its App Store privacy card lists usage data as used to track you. Comparing the two takes ten minutes and catches gaps like this.

How is your age checked? Only Kindroid and Character AI describe a real check. Pi and Kin state a rule and publish no check, and the two app stores rate Pi and Character AI differently. Where they disagree, read the terms.

Two risks sit outside any policy. Free tiers change without notice, as Kindroid’s did on 1 October 2026, and most of these apps have no way to export a companion’s history, so a year of conversation is hard to take elsewhere. If an app cannot tell you plainly what happens to an uploaded face, use a stock photo.

Are there free AI companion apps worth using?

Yes, and free means three different things here.

• Free as the product: Pi has no paid tier, and ChatBrat AI is free while its beta lasts.
• Free with ads: Character AI’s free tier has unlimited messaging and full ads.
• A trial: Kindroid’s free tier became a one-time 50-message preview, and its three-day trial needs a card. Tolan offers a limited trial, then a subscription.

The paywall in this category usually sits on memory rather than message count, so check what the paid tier adds to memory before you get attached.

AI companion apps and AI girlfriend apps are not the same category

An AI companion app is built around an ongoing relationship of any kind: friendship, a sounding board, practice conversations, roleplay, with romance as one option among several. Every app on this page sits here, and the business model is a subscription.

An AI girlfriend app is built around romance or explicit content specifically. The model is more often per-unlock, the retention loop runs on escalation, and content restrictions are what vendors compete on. This page leaves that segment out; the few AI girlfriend apps that stay safe for work are compared separately.

The two pull in opposite directions. A subscription companion wants you settled and renewing. A per-unlock product wants each session to end just short of satisfying, and an app that sells companionship while charging through coins and intimacy levels is running the second model in the first one’s clothes. If what you want is help dating real people rather than an AI to talk to, the AI dating assistants list covers that.

Can you use ChatGPT as an AI companion?

You can, and conversation quality is better than most dedicated apps. What the dedicated apps add is a persona that stays fixed, voice and avatars built for the purpose, and an interface designed around one ongoing relationship. ChatGPT’s memory is about you as a user, not a character remembering a shared history, and it will step out of a role to remind you it is not a person. Whether that is a feature or a frustration decides most of which category you want.

Can an AI companion help with loneliness?

Sometimes, for some people. Early studies have found short-term drops in self-reported loneliness among companion chatbot users, measured over weeks rather than years, and their authors are consistent that this is no substitute for human relationships or treatment. Users describe real value in having something available at 3am or rehearsing a difficult conversation. Others feel worse after heavy use, or find the app makes it easier to avoid people.

If loneliness is persistent, or you are struggling with your mental health, an app is the wrong instrument. Speaking to your GP or a qualified therapist is what addresses it. None of these apps are supervised by clinicians, and they sit alongside that support at best, never in place of it.

Every price and policy here was checked on 7 October 2026 against the vendors’ own pages and their official App Store and Google Play listings. None of the links are affiliate links, and no vendor paid for or reviewed this list.

Two of the six apps have hands-on reviews in the AI tool reviews archive; the other four are assessed from public documentation and labelled as such. If you find a price out of date, tell me and I will correct it. More comparisons like this one are in the best AI tools collection.