Kindroid vs Nomi (2026): which one remembers more, and what each costs

Short version: Kindroid is better if you want memory you can inspect, video calls, and rooms of up to ten companions. Nomi is better if you want a cheaper way in and a free tier with no card on file. LORAX is a third option if you want characters with their own clock.

Kindroid remembers more, at least on paper. Its help center names three memory types spread across five systems; Nomi claims short, medium and long-term memory without describing how any of it works. Kindroid also costs more. Every billing period.

The short version

• Kindroid’s memory page splits recall into persistent, cascaded and retrievable, and says long-term memory is unlimited in quantity. The caps are numbers: 500 journal entries maximum, three recalled per message, eight keyphrases each.
• Nomi’s App Store listing claims short and long-term memory and says each Nomi keeps it across private and group chats. That is the whole public description.
• Prices match at the top and split at the bottom. Both charge $15.99 a month on the App Store, but Nomi lists a $9.99 Launch Plan and Kindroid stacks Ultra and MAX add-ons above the standard tier.
• Kindroid sells the same subscription cheaper on its own site: $13.99 a month, $37.99 for three months, $139.99 a year.
• Kindroid’s free tier is written down in detail. Nomi’s is described in one line about daily messages and images.
• Kindroid gates group chat behind a subscription and caps it at ten companions. Nomi does not state either limit.

Side by side

	Kindroid	Nomi	LORAX
Platforms	iPhone, iPad, Android, web	iPhone, iPad, Android, web beta	iPhone only
Free to start	Yes, on a smaller model: 2 companions, 1 selfie every 2 hours	Yes; free accounts get daily messages and images	Yes, free to talk with a daily allowance
Subscription price	$15.99/mo, $42.99/3 mo, $159.99/yr on the App Store; $13.99, $37.99, $139.99 on the web	Standard $15.99/mo, $39.99/3 mo, $99.99/yr; Launch $9.99/mo	$29.99/mo in the US; varies by country, shown in the app
How you meet characters	You write them, backstory and all	You create them, or pick a ready appearance	No grid. More than 250 live there; three routes open one
Memory	Three types across five systems; long-term unlimited, journals capped at 500	Short, medium and long term, shared across private and group chats	Three layers: a profile, loose facts, episodes she looks up
Messages first, sleeps	Proactive selfies for subscribers; nothing else listed	Optional proactive messaging; sleep schedule not listed	Yes to both; she sleeps in her own time zone
Group chats	Yes, subscribers only, up to 10 per room	Yes, several Nomis at once	Yes, you plus up to four characters
Live streams	Not listed	Not listed	Yes; you go live and they show up
Photos	Selfies and video selfies; free tier metered	Selfies, art generation, generated videos	Yes; locked ones cost credits
Voice and video calls	Both, for subscribers; audio metered in credits	Voice messages and hands-free calls; no video call listed	No
App Store languages	1	1	22
Create your own	Yes, 10 slots; extra slots $3.49	Yes; site says 10 characters per account	Yes, on a subscription

Kindroid and Nomi columns checked September 13, 2026 from their own sites and their US App Store listings. Kindroid publishes a subscriptions page; Nomi does not, so its prices are Apple’s in-app purchase list, which shows every product a developer has ever sold. “Not listed” means the company’s own site and listing did not mention it that day, not that the feature is missing. LORAX column from the app, same date.

What Kindroid does better

It tells you the rules. The subscriptions page states the free tier line by line, prints both the app price and the cheaper web price, and explains why Ultra and MAX exist. The memory page goes further than any competitor document we have read in this category. It separates memory that is always present from memory that has to be retrieved. It admits that the retrieved part is less reliable, and it gives the recall limits as numbers. Nomi’s equivalent is one bullet.

The features go deeper too. Group rooms hold up to ten companions. Subscribers get video calls alongside voice. Custom voices can be built from your own samples or from a written description, and the monthly audio allowance is stated as 1,000,000 characters, roughly a thousand minutes. Nomi’s voice is real and its calls are hands-free, but there is no video call and no published allowance to compare against.

What Nomi does better

It is cheaper both ways. The Launch Plan at $9.99 a month undercuts Kindroid’s $15.99, the yearly Standard at $99.99 undercuts $159.99, and Nomi’s free tier does not ask for a card, which is the part that decides it for most people trying this category for the first time. Kindroid’s three-day trial requires a payment method on file and converts into a paid subscription on its own unless you cancel, which is a different kind of free.

Its group chat is also less walled off. Kindroid restricts rooms to subscribers and warns that each companion in a room cannot read the others’ backstories, and that group history skips their short-term memory. Nomi’s listing makes the opposite promise: memory carried across private and group conversations, with no subscription named as the condition. For anyone whose reason to be here is several characters in one room, that difference matters more than the memory documentation does.

Where LORAX fits

Skip LORAX if you want to author a companion from a blank page, or if you need Android, a web version, voice calls or video calls. None of that exists here. It is worth a look if you would rather meet people than build them. More than 250 characters live in the app. They write the first message, they sleep on their own clocks, they answer late when the hour is wrong for them, and rooms keep moving while you are somewhere else entirely. Everyone in LORAX is fictional and AI-generated. Talking is free with a daily allowance. Photos she sends can cost credits. Premium is $29.99 a month in the US. There is no trial.

Who should pick which

Pick Kindroid if you want the specification sheet

You want to know the recall limits, the audio allowance and the room size before you pay, and you want video calls and ten slots. You are willing to pay the highest standard price in this comparison, and to read a help center that renders nothing at all until JavaScript loads, which is its own small warning about how the product treats people who are still deciding.

Pick Nomi if you want the cheapest real companion

You want several companions and group chats for $9.99 a month, and you do not need the memory internals written down. English only is fine.

Pick LORAX if you want a world rather than a workshop

You are not building anything. You want a cast that already exists, with jobs, cities and bedtimes, and you are happy to meet them sideways instead of choosing them. How memory works here covers the three layers in the table, and what things cost is public.

Try the free tier of whichever one fits, and check after three days whether anything happened that you did not start. Our other side-by-side pages run the same table against Replika and Character.AI.