9 Best AI Roleplay Chatbots of 2026

Character.AI is the default pick for character chat because of its scale: the sign-up page advertises access to 10M+ Characters, all created by users, from fictional heroes to study helpers. Its Character Creation tools let you write a personality and backstory and give the character a voice, and you can move between text chat and live voice calls in the same app. Creators can share characters and follow other creators, so there is always something new to try. The help center states that the service is free to use. On the US App Store, Character.AI Lite is listed at $4.99 and Character.AI+ at $9.99, with a yearly Character.AI+ option at $94.99, and Charms packs from $0.99 sit on top. The app is rated 18+ in the US store, and the help center itself reminds users that Characters can invent facts and links. Memory and companion features are less of a focus than on Nomi or Kindroid. We compared documented features and published prices rather than testing the app.

Nomi ranks second because it puts memory at the center of the product. The company says each Nomi has short, medium and long-term memory and can recall an immersive roleplay, and that memory carries across private chats and group chats with several Nomis at once. Customizable backstories and Shared Notes let you shape a character's identity or set the rules of a story. Nomis can also send selfies, generate art, exchange real-time voice messages, open links you send and look at your photos. On the US App Store the Launch Plan is listed at $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and the Standard Plan at $15.99 a month, $39.99 a quarter or $99.99 a year. Nomi Credits for extras start at $4.99 for 40. The trade-off is scope: Nomi is about building your own companions, not browsing thousands of public characters as on Character.AI or Janitor AI. We compared documented features and published prices rather than testing the app.

Kindroid has the most complete feature list among the companion apps here. You write the character's personality, backstory and key memories, and the app keeps long-term memory of past chats. Calls go further than rivals: real-time voice calls with expressive voices you can design from a description, and live video calls where the avatar lip syncs and reacts, with optional camera or screen sharing. With proactivity switched on, a Kindroid can message you first or send a voice note or selfie. Invite-only Rooms bring friends and their AIs into one group chat for collaborative storytelling, and the AI can search the web and look at images you send. Kindroid states there are no ads and that user data is not sold, and its site advertises 4M+ downloads. The cost is the main drawback: the US App Store lists the Kindroid Subscription at $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year, with Ultra at $28.99 and MAX at $68.99. We compared documented features and published prices rather than testing the app.

Janitor AI is a community story platform first. Its home page advertises 15M+ users and more than 650,000 characters, each tagged by genre, gender and point of view, with the character card's token count shown, which helps roleplayers judge how detailed a bot is. The iPhone app, Janitor: Interactive Stories, describes itself as a place to step inside stories, aimed at people who love romantasy, fanfiction and interactive fiction, from enemies-to-lovers slow burns to epic fantasy. The app is a free download, and the US App Store lists Janitor+ at $8.99 and $12.99 a month, $9.99 a week and $99.00 a year, so the price you see may depend on the offer. Compared with Nomi or Kindroid there is less emphasis on companions, voice or video, and the App Store rating is 18+. For readers who want a large catalog of romance and fanfiction characters made by other fans, it is one of the strongest options. We compared documented features and published prices rather than testing the app.

Poe, from Quora, is a general AI app rather than a roleplay app, but it earns a place because of its bot ecosystem. The App Store listing says users can talk to over 1 million custom bots, including natural conversations with recreations of favorite characters, and anyone can build and share a bot in under a minute with a custom knowledge base. Because Poe hosts models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others, a character bot can run on a frontier model, and you can bring several bots into one chat thread, which works for multi-character scenes. Poe includes both free and subscription bots. The US App Store lists a Basic subscription at $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year and Plus at $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year. What Poe lacks are companion features: there is no relationship memory, selfies or video calls as on Nomi or Kindroid. We compared documented features and published prices rather than testing the app.

Replika is the original AI companion: the App Store listing says it has been available since 2017, and replika.com shows a counter of 42,160,934 users worldwide. It is built around one companion, your Rep, that you talk to by text, voice call or video, and that remembers your people, plans and goals so you do not have to repeat yourself. Newer features include proactive suggestions, app integrations, internet access, image generation and avatar customization. Luka states that conversations are private and not shared with third parties. For roleplay, Replika is narrower than the apps above it: there is no public catalog of characters and fewer tools for scenes or group stories, and the company now pitches it at real-life support rather than fiction. The US App Store lists subscriptions from $7.99 a month and $49.99 to $69.99 a year, a $14.99 monthly option and Replika Platinum at $89.99. We compared documented features and published prices rather than testing the app.

Talkie mixes character chat with a game layer. Its FAQ explains that users chat with AI personas and earn card rewards based on the topics discussed, and those cards can be traded for virtual currency. The characters run on models from MiniMax, and the Google Play listing shows 50M+ downloads and a Teen rating. Creation tools cover AI image, video, audio and music, and the FAQ says creators of original characters can earn revenue shares. Content rules are stricter than on Janitor AI or Chai: pornographic and violent content is prohibited, and character settings are moderated before changes go live. Talkie is candid that AI memory is limited, so long stories will drift, which is a weakness against Nomi or Kindroid. Talkie+ is promoted on the site, but we could not confirm a US dollar price on a vendor page, so the price is marked pending. We compared documented features and published prices rather than testing the app.

Chub AI is for experienced roleplayers more than newcomers. Its subscription page sells a single plan at $20 a month with unlimited access to all of its LLMs, including Soji 1.6T with a 60K context, plus unlimited voice and multimedia generation and early access to new models. Chub explains that Soji is several times the size of models used on similar platforms and that the plan supports uncensored models. The API works anywhere that accepts OpenAI-style APIs, so you can use Chub's models inside other roleplay front ends. Two rules stand out. Payment is crypto-only, which Chub says keeps it free of pressure from card networks, and unlimited means a single user, with concurrent requests returning a 429 error. New users get one-time trial credits worth a few dozen messages. The crypto requirement and the technical setup put it below the mainstream apps, but it is the strongest option for power users. We compared documented features and published prices rather than testing the app.

Chai is one of the oldest consumer character apps, launched on the App Store in November 2022 according to Chai Research, and the company trains its own language models for social chat. The Google Play listing describes a large selection of characters, each with its own voice and personality, and shows 10M+ downloads. Chai Research says its annualized revenue run-rate reached $120M as of 1 October 2026. Since then the app has moved to adults only: its Safety Center says users must be 18 or older and that age checks run through Persona, by selfie estimation or ID. Safety filters can hide mature content, reports are anonymous, and Chai says its models refuse sexually explicit and self-harm content. The Google Play listing contains ads, and Chai says some regions require a paid subscription. We could not find a US dollar subscription price on a vendor page, so the price is marked pending. We compared documented features and published prices rather than testing the app.