Ahh, Character AI: The app that lets you chat all day with bots, but won’t let you plan a heist (or any other fun stuff, for that matter).

If there’s one fun I like then chatting with AI characters it’s chatting with AI characters without paying for it. But that raises a question: How good is Character AI if it’s free to use?

In this Character AI review I am breaking down the most important features along with some awesome tips here and there.

What is Character AI?

Character AI is an advanced artificial intelligence platform that allows users to create and interact with virtual characters through text and voice. It offers extensive customization options, including prompt-based character creation and voice recording. Character AI is known for its diverse range of AI characters, from educational bots to role-playing adventures, making it a versatile tool for various applications.

Every AI girlfriend app goes through a detailed performance review, tailored specifically to include our unbiased, data-based tests. We evaluate based on 24 tests that contribute to 6 performance factors;

Character Diversity
Conversation
Customization
Image Quality
Privacy
Value for Money

Not all performance factors are weighted equally, as shown in the pie chart below.

Our testing and selection process is incredibly detailed and rigorous. The links below have detailed write-ups on our testing process, scoring formulas, and the precise criteria for how we review an AI girlfriend app.

You can see our complete testing and scoring process here.

Who Created Character AI?

Beta Character AI was created by Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, the beta model was made available to use by the public in September 2022.

Both creators are reputable players in the AI chatbot industry with Noam Shazeer even being featured as one of the 100 most influential people in AI by time.com.¹

Pros

Free to use
Vast library of AI characters
Mobile app

Cons

NSFW Filter
Some privacy concerns

Character AI Is Made For…

If you recognize yourself in one of the following categories then I am very confident you will benefit from Character AI.

AI Roleplay Beginners

If you are a greenie (we’ve all been there) and are new to AI roleplay then Character AI is THE best place to start learning the ropes.

It has tons of characters, is safe to use, and best of all: is completely free baby!

Folks on a Tight Budget

Ever heard the saying;

“You pay peanuts, you get monkeys”

Well, Character AI is nothing like that. In fact, it is one of the few AI chatbots that DOESN’T require you to open your wallet at all. Best thing of all? It has fantastic features.

It almost felt too good to be true when I discovered that Character.ai launched a product with this caliber of quality completely for free.

Character AI Is Not Made For…

If you recognize yourself as one of the following people then I don’t think Character AI is made for you

NSFW Fanatics

Wanna know what one of the most asked questions about Character.ai is according to Google Trends??

Can Character AI be NSFW?

Search queries for ‘character ai’ on Google Trends

The answer is no. Character AI does not allow NSFW and has a very strict filter to prevent users from generating NSFW content. This is the reason NSFW Character AI alternatives like OnlyChar AI and GirlfriendGPT popped up.

Full Guide >> Does Character AI Allow NSFW

An Immersive AI Roleplay Experience

Although Character AI recently released a feature that allows you to create and generate voice messages it significantly lacks in other features.

Most AI chatbots these days give you the full package

✅ Permanent memory
✅ In-chat images
✅ External Image Generator
✅ Group roleplay
✅ Vivid Discord community

Character AI has none of these features and is very limited by just offering chatting.

Best Features of Character AI

After spending a couple dozen hours using Character AI I got a pretty good understanding of the wow’s and not-so-wow’s of this SFW chatbot.

5.0

Character Diversity

Starting with one of the biggest pros of Character AI Review: It has a GIGANTIC library of Characters.

Character.ai is the biggest AI chatbot besides ChatGPT with a market share of 15.6%.²

Over 16 million AI chatbots have been created on Character AI so far.³

Yes, you read that right: 16 million characters have been created on C.AI of which the majority are public and ready for some epic roleplay sessions.

What makes the characters from Character.ai stand out is its incredible character diversity – going far beyond just fun banter. You can;

Learn a new language
Plan your week with your personal assistant
Talk about your day with a psychiatric

Heck, there’s even an AI character that lets you plan an entire vacation from the date to what hotel you’re staying in and which amenities you should visit.

Although the conversation quality of Character.ai depends on how well-prompted the AI character is, it’s good to know that C.AI has one of the most skilled prompt engineers in the world and therefore some incredible characters.

Regarding the voice messages I mentioned earlier, now you can record your own voice and Character.ai will use it for the bots you create.

Most AI chatbots require you to pick from a limited selection of voices so I think this function is super cool and definitely rare.

That said, Character AI is very limited with interaction options and doesn’t allow you to call your AI character, generate images, or do anything else except chat and generate voice messages.

It also has a very strict NSFW filter which doesn’t just prevent you from generating adult content, but also things like:

Violence
Swearing
Criminal activities

Which makes it very difficult to roleplay scenarios like robbing a bank or, in my case, invading another country.

invading another country with Strategy Game Bot

Learn More >> How to Roleplay on Character AI

If you want to try NSFW roleplay then you need an NSFW C.AI alternative like Herahaven AI.

5.0

Customization

Character.ai isn’t what you call a walk-in-the-park when it comes to creating your own AI character. It requires some blood, sweat, and maybe even some tears.

The AI chatbot requires you to prompt your own AI character. In other words, you need to type things like;

Character description
Personality
Greeting

If you want to learn how to create characters then I recommend checking out one of the following guides:

In the first guide, you’ll find templates for GirlfriendGPT (an alternative to character AI) but it’s still helpful since both AI platforms are almost identical when it comes to customization.

Customizing Your AI Voice

Customizing your own AI voice is very simple compared to creating characters. Simply record your voice and upload it as an MP3 file.

Section where you can customize voice — Create Voice

Your voice recording should be between 10-15 seconds long and without any background noise. The AI will then analyze your voice and save it to the library.

Now when we go back to the character creation screen, your voice will appear in the “Select voice” tab under “My voices”.

P.S. Don’t worry, your voice recording is private unless you say otherwise.

3.0

Image Quality

I will keep this section really short: Character AI does not allow you to generate in-chat images and is limited to chatting and generating voice responses.

4.0

Privacy

According to Character AI’s privacy policy, your chats, images, and characters are being saved in their database which makes sense since this allows you to save your conversations.

Character AI has not made an official statement saying they do or don’t monitor chats.

However, it’s generally considered safe and private. According to Unite.ai they regularly audit their platforms to ensure all safety measures are still in place.⁵

Read More >> Is Character AI Safe

5.0

Value for Money

In terms of value for money, it can’t get any better than this. Character AI is completely free to use. Yep, you get unlimited chat messages, voice generations, and custom characters for a grand total of $0.00.

Character AI does have a paid plan ($9.99/month) called C.AI+ which includes:

Skip the waiting rooms
Faster response times
Early access to new features
c.ai+ Community Access
Profile badge

What do Customers Say About Character AI?

The Character AI reviews I found on the internet are surprisingly negative. It got a 2.1 out of 5 on TrustPilot which is extremely low.

Despite the popularity of Character AI a lot of users are complaining about the customer support, bugs, waiting room, NSFW filter, and new layout.

Review about character AI on TrustPilot — Character AI review on TrustPilot

Character AI Review: Final Verdict

Editor’s Rating

How We Review

Overall Rating

4.7

Character AI’s free plan provides unlimited messages, voice generation, and access to over 16 million custom AI characters.
Both the prompt-based character creation and voice recording features of Character AI are very good.
You should buy Character AI if you’re a beginner or looking for a free app with unlimited messages and access.

Character AI receives a rating of 4.7 out of 5, excelling in character diversity and customization. However, it lacks in conversation quality, image generation, and privacy, impacting its overall appeal and usability for users.

For more details about our Character AI review read the section below.

	Character AI
Overall Rating	4.7
Read Review	Character AI Review
Character Diversity	5.0
AI Characters	60 Million+
Anime Characters
Male Characters
Conversation	4.0
AI Memory	25 Messages
Reply Speed	< 3 seconds
Voice Messages
Sexting
Group Roleplay
Customization	5.0
Ethnicities	Infinite
Memory Injection
Name Selection
Image Quality	3.0
Allows Pictures
Allows NSFW
Image Generator
Image Generator Difficulty	N/A
Image Generation Speed	N/A
Max Images in Queue	N/A
Privacy	4.0
End-to-end Encryption	No
Chat Monitoring	No
Billing Discretion
Safety Analyses	Is Character AI Safe
Value for Money	5.0
Minimum Monthly Cost	$0.00/month
Payment options	Creditcard Paypal
Free Trial

5.0