ChatGPTAI Chatbots
Freemium
OpenAI's flagship AI chatbot for writing, coding, research, and reasoning powered by GPT-5.
Visit Website →Character.AI
FreemiumAI platform for chatting with fictional characters, historical figures, and community-created AI personas.
What is Character.AI?
Character.AI is a platform where users build and converse with AI characters, spanning historical figures, fictional personas and millions of community creations. Founded in 2021 by former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, it added video creation, Stories and character voices alongside its core chat. A free tier covers most use, with a paid subscription adding faster responses and priority access. The platform changed substantially after safety scrutiny, and anyone evaluating it should know why. Following lawsuits and regulatory attention, Character.AI removed open-ended chat for users under 18 as of 25 November 2025, replacing it for teens with structured creative features, and introduced age assurance through a third-party service that can require ID or a biometric check. Wrongful-death suits were settled in early 2026 and the company funds an independent AI safety lab. Adults retain full access; parental controls now exist.
Key Features
Millions of Community CharactersCustom Character CreationVoice Calls with AI CharactersImage Generation via ImagineRoleplay and StorytellingGroup Chat Roomsc.ai Labs Early Access
How to Use Character.AI
1Visit character.ai and create a free account
2Browse trending characters or search for a specific persona
3Start a conversation by tapping on any character
4Create your own character by setting its name, personality, and backstory
5Upgrade to c.ai+ for priority access and exclusive features like voice calls
✅ Best For
- Creative writers and storytellers
- Anime and gaming fans looking for character roleplay
- Students wanting to chat with simulated historical figures
- Users who enjoy immersive AI companionship experiences
❌ Not For
- Tasks requiring factual accuracy and real-time information
- Business productivity and workflow automation
- Enterprise-grade customer service automation
Reviews
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Pricing
Free$0
- ✓Unlimited messaging
- ✓character creation
- ✓community access
- ✓basic features
c.ai+$9.99/mo
- ✓No wait queues
- ✓faster responses
- ✓voice calls
- ✓image gen
- ✓exclusive games
- ✓early feature access
c.ai+ Annual$94.99/yr
- ✓All c.ai+ features at a discounted monthly rate
Prompts to Try
Tell me what it was like to discover the theory of relativity, speaking as Einstein
Help me roleplay a scene where my D&D character negotiates with a dragon
Explain the fall of the Roman Empire as if you were Julius Caesar
Create a dramatic dialogue between two rival samurai in feudal Japan
Use Cases
A high school history teacher directs their students to chat with a simulated Abraham Lincoln character to make the American Civil War more engaging and personally relatable than a textbook ever could
A fantasy novelist uses Character.AI to roleplay with versions of their own characters for hours, discovering unexpected personality traits and dialogue patterns they then incorporate into their manuscript
A language learner chats daily with a native-speaker character set to respond only in French, getting natural conversational practice that feels nothing like a language app exercise
A shy teenager who struggles with social anxiety uses Character.AI to practice starting conversations and handling awkward situations before trying them in real life at school
An anime fan who has finished their favorite series uses Character.AI to continue chatting with their favorite characters, exploring storylines the original show never got to tell
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