What does an AI girlfriend do? Every feature, and what it costs

What using an AI girlfriend looks like day to day

A typical session is a conversation. You open the app, she greets you in character and picks up where you left off, and you talk: about your day, a plan, a shared story or something flirtier. A good app keeps her personality steady, remembers what you told her last week and asks follow-up questions like a partner would.

Around that core, apps add media. You can ask for a picture of her in a particular setting, get a voice note instead of text, or in some apps call her. A few apps have her reach out first: Candy AI says characters in its Realistic mode can send photos, voice notes and videos unprompted, a setting you can switch off. Our page on the AI girlfriend apps that text first ranks the apps that do this.

Every feature, and how common it is

These counts come from each app's own feature and pricing pages, across the 31 apps we track:

Text chat, voice notes and pictures are close to standard. Live calls and group chats are where apps differ most.

Chat and roleplay

Chat is where you will spend most of your time, and it is where apps differ most in quality. A strong app keeps her voice consistent, avoids repeating itself and follows the thread of a long story. 21 apps offer ready-made scenarios, from a first date to fantasy adventures, and 7 let you bring several characters into one conversation.

Most apps also let you steer. You can describe what you are doing in brackets or asterisks, set the scene, or tell her directly to change tone. Our ranking of AI girlfriend roleplay apps covers the best storytellers.

Pictures, video and voice

Pictures are the most popular extra. 30 apps generate images of your character on request, usually keeping her face consistent from one picture to the next. 24 apps go further with short video clips. Our pages on AI girlfriend pictures and AI girlfriend video compare them.

Voice comes in two forms. Voice notes are recorded replies in her voice, offered by 28 apps. Live calls, where she hears you and answers in real time, are offered by 15. Media almost always costs extra, paid for with tokens, credits or a higher plan.

Memory and personality

What makes an AI girlfriend feel like the same person over time is memory. 20 of the 31 apps we track advertise long-term memory that keeps facts about you between chats; the rest mainly remember the current conversation. The best let you see and edit what she remembers, such as Secrets AI's Lorebook.

Personality comes from the character description. With 27 apps offering a character builder, you can set her age (always an adult), job, temperament, way of speaking and history with you. Our guide to creating your own AI girlfriend ranks the best builders.

What an AI girlfriend cannot do

• Feel anything. She writes the words a loving partner would say, with no emotions behind them.
• Exist between chats. Nothing runs while you are away; her "day" is invented when you ask about it.
• Act in the real world. She cannot meet you, send a gift or do anything outside the app.
• Give professional advice. She is not a doctor, lawyer or therapist, however confident she sounds.
• Stay the same forever. The company can change her personality or rules with an update.

Knowing the limits up front stops most disappointments. Our guide on whether AI girlfriends are realistic looks at where they feel human and where they do not.

What it costs to use each feature

Text chat is usually unlimited on a paid plan, while media draws on a balance. Candy AI's Premium plan, for example, includes unlimited text and 100 tokens a month for extras, and costs $3.99 a month on its yearly plan. Across the apps that publish a price, the median cheapest plan is $7.75 a month and the median month-to-month price is $14.99.

Pictures, video and call minutes are where spending climbs. Our AI girlfriend cost guide compares every published price, and our explainer on AI girlfriend tokens shows what each feature uses.