Character AI alternative apps that allow 18+ roleplay and custom characters

What is Character.AI?

Character.AI is a general chat app where you talk to AI characters made by other users or by yourself. The company says it "empowers people to connect, learn, and tell stories through interactive entertainment" and that millions of people visit every month (Character.AI about page). Its safety pages say hundreds of millions of user-created characters exist on the platform (Character.AI teen safety). It runs on the web and has iPhone and Android apps, and it is owned by Character Technologies, Inc.

Character.AI is not an AI girlfriend app, and it is not in our dataset of 31 apps, so it has no score here. Everything this page says about it comes from its own pages or the news coverage we link. The apps we rank instead are companion apps built for adults: they are 18+ only, allow explicit roleplay, and are designed around characters you come back to, often with pictures, voice and memory.

Two changes shaped the platform. In 2023 Reuters reported that Character.AI had stripped pornographic content from the app (Reuters, via TimesLive). On 29 October 2025 the company announced that users under 18 would lose open-ended chat by 25 November 2025, and that it would add new age assurance (Character.AI blog).

How strict is the Character.AI filter?

Strict, and there is no switch to turn it off. Character.AI says it uses "proprietary tools that seek to block certain violating content before it can be posted", backed by a Trust and Safety team whose moderators work around the clock (Character.AI content moderation). Its teen safety page adds that it has input controls for all users, and that content breaking its terms or community guidelines "will be blocked" from the conversation. That covers adult accounts too.

In January 2026 Android Authority reported that the company has said pornography will never be allowed, that users describe the filter as almost prudish, and that trying to get around it can lead to account suspension (Android Authority). The same report found workarounds such as odd spellings or bracketed prompts to be unreliable.

Users under 18 get a separate model with more conservative classifiers and a narrower set of characters, and since the 2025 change they cannot have open-ended chats at all. The company's age assurance uses an in-house model plus third-party tools including Persona to put each user in the right experience.

So if your roleplay keeps getting cut off, a cleverer prompt is not the fix. An app whose rules allow what you want to write is, and every pick on this page allows 18+ roleplay once you confirm you are an adult.

Character.AI vs the top 3 alternatives

Character.AI is not in our data, so its column shows only what its own pages say, checked September 2026. The other three columns come from each app's published pricing and feature pages.

Character.AI wins on the size of its community library: nothing in our data comes close to hundreds of millions of characters. The alternatives win on what you are allowed to write with a character. All three make pictures of your character, and two of the three take live calls and run group chats. You can keep Character.AI for SFW stories and use one of these apps for 18+ roleplay.

Getting Character.AI-style roleplay on an 18+ app

The habits you built on Character.AI carry over. The apps here use the same building blocks: a character with a personality and backstory, a persona that tells the AI who you are, and a scenario that sets the scene. All ten picks support custom characters and scenarios, and nine support personas (Candy AI is the exception).

1. Start with the character. Write a short description: name, personality, how they talk and what they want. Our guide to creating your own AI girlfriend walks through each field.
2. Set your persona. Tell the app your name and your role in the story, so the character reacts to you and not to a generic user.
3. Write an opening scenario. Two or three sentences on where you are and what just happened get far better replies than "hi".
4. Use group chat for ensemble stories. Secrets AI, OurDream, Selira AI and TryNectar AI let more than one character share a scene.

Memory is the biggest difference between these apps for long stories. Candy AI remembers within a conversation, while the other nine keep a long-term memory, and Secrets AI stores the cast, world and plot in a Lorebook you can edit. Our AI girlfriend roleplay ranking goes further into story features.

What Character.AI alternatives cost

Character.AI has a free tier with ads, basic memory and a daily taste of its premium chat styles. Its c.ai+ plan removes ads and adds what it calls its best memory for $94.99 a year (Character.AI subscribe page, September 2026). Nine of the ten alternatives are free to start too, but their free plans are a trial, not a full product: Candy AI stops at 5 messages, TryNectar AI allows 15 a day, and Selira AI does not cap text chat. OurDream has no free plan at all. Our free AI girlfriend ranking lists the free limits app by app.

Published entry prices for the picks, per month:

• Selira AI: $3.60 on a 12-month plan, $7.99 month to month
• Candy AI: $3.99 on a yearly plan, $13.99 month to month
• TryNectar AI: $5 on a yearly plan, $9.99 month to month
• FantasyGF: $5.83 on a 12-month plan, $12.99 month to month
• My Dream Companion: $5.84 billed yearly, $11.99 month to month
• Dondi.ai: $5.99 on a yearly plan, $14.99 month to month
• Infatuated AI: $6.99 on a 12-month plan, $9.99 month to month
• Secrets AI: $9.17 on a yearly plan, $19.99 month to month
• OurDream: $9.99 on its annual plan, $19.99 month to month
• DarLink AI: shown only after sign-up

Pictures, video and calls usually cost tokens or credits on top of the plan. If you mostly write text roleplay, a low plan goes a long way; heavy picture use is where the bill grows.

Age checks, privacy and who runs these apps

Every app on this page is for adults only and asks you to confirm you are 18 or over before explicit chat. Secrets AI treats age verification and consent verification as core parts of its platform rather than add-ons.

Character.AI is run by Character Technologies, Inc., and all ten alternatives now name their company too, which gives you someone to contact about a charge or a data request. Refund rules differ far more than prices do:

Three habits keep roleplay on these apps low-risk: read the billing and refund rules before you pay, keep your full name, address, workplace and photos of real people out of characters and stories, and start on a monthly plan with a reminder set before any yearly renewal. Our guide to AI girlfriend app safety covers data deletion and payments, and the Secrets AI review and Candy AI review cover the top two in full.

How we chose these Character.AI alternatives

We filtered our database of 31 apps down to those that allow 18+ chat, let you create your own characters and support roleplay scenarios. That removes apps without scenarios, such as Nomi AI and DreamGF, apps whose character builder is not live yet, such as GoLove AI, and clean companion apps, such as Replika. More apps pass than fit on one page, so we list the ten highest scores. Five apps tie on 8.0: DarLink AI and Dondi.ai take the last two places on our unrounded score, just ahead of HeyGF, Lovescape and My Lovely AI.

Character.AI has native iPhone and Android apps. App store rules limit explicit content, so many 18+ companion apps run in the browser instead, and none of the ten picks has a store app in our data. You can usually save them to your home screen. Our AI girlfriend app guide shows which apps do have store apps. Scores are built from what each app publishes on its own pages and re-checked monthly, as set out in our methodology.