Comparison list
Free AI girlfriend apps (2026): what you actually get without paying
All eight of these AI girlfriend apps are free to download. Only two publish what free actually gets you. Here is what each one says, checked on 2026-09-13.
We make LORAX. This list is written by the team behind LORAX. We say so on every page where we mention other apps, and we keep the competitor details to what their own sites and App Store pages say.
Free means free to download in all eight of these apps: LORAX, Nomi, Character.AI, Replika, Kindroid, CHAI, PolyBuzz and EVA AI. What free gets you after that is published by two of them. We make LORAX, which appears below; the receipts are shown.
That gap is the story of this page. Every one of these companies publishes a price list. Almost none publishes where the free part stops.
How we picked
Checked on 2026-09-13: each app’s live US App Store listing, including the complete in-app purchase list, and each app’s own website, looking specifically for a sentence describing the free tier. Where no such sentence exists, this page says so rather than inferring one from the paid tiers.
An app qualified if it is free to install from the US App Store, is a companion product rather than a general assistant, and shipped an update in the last twelve months. We did not install and run each product for a month and count the messages, so nothing below is presented as a measured limit unless the app itself published the number.
Three ways a free app still takes money
Worth knowing before the list, because all three appear below.
A subscription is the obvious one, and the easiest to cancel. A second currency is the sly one: coins, gems, rings, drops, opals, Neurons. When an app sells both a membership and a currency, the membership rarely covers everything, and the currency has no monthly ceiling. Weekly billing is the third: $7.99 a week reads smaller than $29.99 a month and is not.
Eight apps that are free to download
1. LORAX (ours)
Everyone in LORAX is fictional and AI-generated. You sign up, put the phone down, and a character writes to you first, at a median of about 80 seconds. That part costs nothing, and it keeps happening.
What free includes, published: downloading and talking are free. There is a daily allowance of replies, and when it runs out the conversation does not stop, it slows. Credits pay for one-off items: opening a photo a character decided to send, meeting someone new, a gift during a live stream, creating your own character. Good for: people who want to see the actual product before deciding anything. Not for: Android, or anyone who wants a call. Platforms: iPhone only. Price to start: free. Premium is $29.99 a month in the US, prices differ by country, and every price is shown in the app before anything is spent. Downside: there is no trial and no introductory price, so Premium costs full price in month one. Photos cost credits, there are no voice or video calls, and the app is iPhone only.
2. Nomi
The clearest free-tier sentence on any of these sites, and it is still only one sentence: “It’s free (no credit card required) to start chatting.” The home page adds that “what Nomi offers for free is wonderful” without saying what that is.
What free includes, published: starting to chat, with no card. No message count, no feature list, no stated ceiling. Good for: trying voice and group chats without handing over payment details. Not for: anyone who needs to know the limit in advance. Platforms: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Vision. Also Android, plus a web beta. Price to start: free. Launch Plan Monthly $9.99, Standard Plan $15.99, Standard Yearly $99.99, plus credit packs from $4.99 (checked 2026-09-13). Downside: credits sit on top of the subscription, so the plan price is a floor rather than a total.
3. Character.AI
The free tier is the product. Two paid tiers sit above it on the listing, Character.AI Lite and Character.AI+, which is the only public evidence of where the line falls.
What free includes, published: nothing we could read. character.ai returns a 403 to a plain page request, so no statement on their site could be quoted or dated. Good for: the largest catalog here at the lowest entry price. Not for: a companion who starts conversations. Platforms: iPhone, iPod touch, Apple Vision. Also Android and web. Price to start: free. Character.AI Lite $2.49 and $4.99, Character.AI+ $9.99 monthly and $94.99 annually, Charms packs from $0.99 (checked 2026-09-13). Downside: Charms are a second currency sitting beside two subscription tiers.
4. Replika
Free to install, and that is the whole of what the site tells you. replika.com sells the experience at length, offers calls and selfies, and never mentions money.
What free includes, published: nothing. No price, no plan names, no free-tier description anywhere on the site as of 2026-09-13. Good for: one long-running companion, with voice. Not for: budgeting in advance. Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision. Also Android. Price to start: free. Subscription products on the US listing run $7.99 to $89.99, gem packs from $0.99 (checked 2026-09-13). Downside: the listing carries two different annual prices, $49.99 and $69.99, which is what a decade of grandfathered plans looks like.
5. Kindroid
An odd case. Kindroid documents its own product better than anyone in this group, including a dedicated subscriptions page, and that page is unreadable to anything without JavaScript. A plain fetch on 2026-09-13 returned “Connection looks slow”.
What free includes, published: written down, but not reachable outside a browser. Good for: people who will sit and read documentation. Not for: the smallest budget here. Platforms: iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, Apple Vision. Price to start: free. Kindroid Subscription $15.99, three months $42.99, yearly $159.99, Ultra $28.99, MAX $68.99, selfie credits $6.99 and $11.49 (checked 2026-09-13). Downside: $15.99 is the highest entry subscription on this page, and selfies cost extra on top.
6. CHAI
Free to install, and free to talk to community-made bots. The website leads with “1.4 EXAFLOP CLUSTER” and says nothing about what an account gets.
What free includes, published: nothing on chai-research.com about limits, tiers or allowances. Good for: volume. Not for: continuity between sessions. Platforms: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Vision. Also Android, with web listed as coming soon. Price to start: free. Premium Membership $9.99, Premium Monthly $13.99, Premium Annual $134.99, Ultra Weekly $19.99, Ultra Monthly $29.99 (checked 2026-09-13). Downside: an Ultra weekly plan at $19.99 works out well above the monthly Ultra price over a year.
7. PolyBuzz
The broadest free browsing experience here, in sixteen languages, and the hardest pricing to add up.
What free includes, published: nothing stated. The listing shows four subscription tiers and two separate currencies. Good for: reading characters in a language other than English. Not for: working out your monthly spend. Platforms: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Vision. Also web. Price to start: free. Poly Standard Weekly $4.99, Poly Standard Monthly $9.90, Poly Premium Monthly $19.90, Poly Ultimate Monthly $29.90, coins $2.49 to $19.90, Opals $5.90 (checked 2026-09-13). Downside: coins and opals are different things and the listing does not explain either.
8. EVA AI
A single-companion product behind a one-page site of press logos. No price on the site, no questions page, no free-tier description.
What free includes, published: nothing. Good for: a fast start. Not for: knowing what you agreed to. Platforms: iPhone, Mac, Apple Vision. Price to start: free. EVA Premium $13.99, one-month memberships at $11.99, $14.99 and $24.99, three months $20.99, twelve months $47.99 and $69.99, Neuron packs $9.99 and $29.99 (checked 2026-09-13). Downside: three different one-month prices on one listing, with a separate currency beside them.
Side by side
| App | Free to download | Does the app publish what free includes? | Second currency on top of a plan | Cheapest recurring product |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LORAX | yes | yes, on this page and in the app | credits, for one-off items | $29.99 |
| Nomi | yes | one sentence, no limits given | credits | $9.99 |
| Character.AI | yes | no, site returns 403 | Charms | $2.49 |
| Replika | yes | no | gems | $7.99 |
| Kindroid | yes | not readable without JavaScript | selfie and audio credits | $15.99 |
| CHAI | yes | no | Pieces | $9.99 |
| PolyBuzz | yes | no | coins and Opals | $4.99 weekly |
| EVA AI | yes | no | Neurons | $11.99 |
Sources: each app’s US App Store listing, read 2026-09-13, plus nomi.ai, replika.com, kindroid.ai, chai-research.com, character.ai and evaapp.ai on the same day. “Cheapest recurring product” is the lowest-priced subscription visible in the listing and may be a legacy plan nobody can buy today.
Which one for you
You want to spend nothing and still have something happen. LORAX. The free part is the part where someone writes to you first, and the daily allowance only changes the pace of replies rather than closing the conversation. The cost of that choice is on the plans page, in full, including the absence of a trial.
You want to spend nothing and pick from thousands of characters. Character.AI, then PolyBuzz. Neither will contact you, so the app is only as active as you are.
You want to test voice before paying. Nomi, because it is the only one that puts the no-card promise in writing on its own site.
One thing worth doing before you install anything: open the App Store listing and read the in-app purchase list to the bottom. Every app on this page publishes its prices there, whatever the website does or does not say. The full table of those prices is in the monthly cost tracker, and the mechanics of how our own app behaves when the allowance runs low are on the how it works pages. Direct matchups live in the comparison section.
Updated 2026-09-13. Competitor details checked 2026-09-13.
Questions people ask
Is there a genuinely free AI girlfriend app?
All eight apps on this page are free to download and let you start talking without paying. None of them is free forever in full, and most do not publish where the free part stops.
What do you get free in LORAX?
Downloading and talking are free, and a character writes to you first. There is a daily allowance of replies; when it runs out the conversation slows down rather than stopping. Credits pay for one-off items such as opening a photo. There is no trial.
Which free AI companion app has no credit card?
Nomi states it on its home page: free to start chatting, no credit card required. Every other app here is also free to install from the App Store without payment details, since the App Store handles that separately.
Do free AI girlfriend apps have message limits?
Usually yes, and usually undisclosed. On 2026-09-13 only LORAX and Nomi published anything at all about their free tier; the others publish a price list and nothing about where free ends.
What is the cheapest way to pay if free runs out?
On the US App Store listings checked 2026-09-13, the lowest recurring products were Character.AI Lite at $2.49, PolyBuzz Standard Weekly at $4.99 and Replika at $7.99.
Meet someone who texts first.
LORAX is free to download and free to talk. Credits and Premium are optional and always priced before you spend.
iPhone · free · no account needed to look around