The 9 Best AI Companion Apps in 2026

Replika is the longest-running app on this list, around since 2017, and it is built around one persistent companion rather than a library of characters. Its App Store page says the companion remembers people, routines, plans and goals, checks in proactively, takes voice and video calls, sends selfies and generates images. Unlike Character.AI or Talkie, there is nothing to browse: you shape one relationship over time.

Pricing is tiered and only partly transparent. Replika's help centre describes Pro (relationship status, voice messages, background calls, selfies, premium voices), Ultra (everything in Pro plus smarter conversations, self-reflections and saving messages to memory) and Platinum (Ultra plus real-time video recognition, Training Mode up to 100 times a week and up to 10 selfie videos). The US App Store lists the cheapest monthly purchase at $7.99 and the cheapest annual at $49.99 without naming the plan, and Replika Platinum at $89.99. Free Use gives limited access that Replika can deny at its discretion, with no published caps.

Privacy is the main caveat. Italy's Garante fined Luka Inc., Replika's developer, in a decision dated 10 April 2025, citing no legal basis for processing, an inadequate privacy notice and age-verification problems; the amount was reported as €5M. The app is rated 18+ and sits in the App Store's Health & Fitness category. Saved memories you can inspect require Ultra, the middle tier.

Nomi is a single-companion app whose pitch is memory. The homepage describes three layers, short-term, medium-term and long-term, so a Nomi is meant to recall details from much earlier conversations rather than only the current chat. Voice messages and hands-free voice calls are included, and the company says the voice tone follows the companion's emotion.

With no public price page, Nomi's App Store listing is the reference. As of November 2026 the Launch plan costs $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and Standard costs $15.99 a month, $39.99 a quarter or $99.99 a year; 40 extra credits sell for $4.99. Annual Launch is therefore far cheaper than Kindroid's $159.99 annual Standard, its closest rival on memory. You can start free without a credit card, but daily limits are not published.

The trade-off is control over what gets remembered. Reddit users report that the official memory box is small, so long-term recall leans on the app's automatic layers. Nomi's 4.6 score also rests on 3,017 ratings, a fraction of Replika's 227,658.

Kindroid is a subscription-only companion app with the highest published entry price on this list and the most memory machinery. Its docs describe short-term context, Cascaded Memory for the medium term, enhanced long-term memory and journal recall, and subscribers get voice and video calls plus selfies. Kindroid also sells extra context: Ultra ($28.99/mo) and MAX ($68.99/mo) are add-ons that stack on Standard.

Standard costs $15.99 a month, $42.99 for three months or $159.99 a year on the US App Store, $60 more per year than Nomi's annual Standard at $99.99; Kindroid's docs say web prices, visible after login, are usually cheaper. The free tier and the Lite plan closed on 1 October 2026. New users now get one preview per person: 50 messages, 5 selfies, 5,000 audio credits and up to 2 Kindroids, after which the account turns read-only. Calls are not part of the preview, and the 3-day trial needs a card.

The App Store score of 4.7 from 10,875 ratings trails only Sesame and Tolan on this page. Full context is the expensive part: Standard plus MAX comes to $84.98 a month at App Store prices.

Pi is a free personal AI from Inflection that works as a conversation partner rather than a character. It runs on the web and iOS, has a voice mode, and its prompts steer toward hard conversations, decisions and learning instead of roleplay or romance. Unlike Replika or Kindroid, Pi has no paywall: the App Store listing shows it as free with no in-app purchases, and pi.ai shows no paid plan as of November 2026.

Free comes with gaps of a different kind. Pi offers no persona building, and Reddit threads describe weak memory, so it suits talking through one problem better than a months-long relationship. Usage limits are not published. Inflection's terms say the service is not intended for anyone under 18, and the App Store rates it 18+. The iOS app was updated on 7 November 2026, so the product is still maintained.

Sesame is the other fully free pick, but it has no web version; Pi works in a browser as well as on an iPhone.

Sesame is a voice-first assistant that some people use as a companion; the company itself describes the product as personal agents for talking things through, not as a companion app. You pick one of four agents, Maya, Miles, Simone or Charlie, and talk by voice or text, and Sesame says memory grows over time and stays continuous across both. The iOS app launched on 26 May 2026 and there is an Android version.

Privacy controls are spelled out on the App Store page: an Incognito mode that saves nothing to memory or to Sesame's servers, deletion of your data at any time, and a statement that the developer runs no ads and does not sell user data. As of November 2026 the app is free with no in-app purchases, which makes Sesame and Pi the only picks without a paid tier. The App Store rates it 18+.

The 4.9 App Store score is the highest on this page, but it comes from 1,993 ratings, the smallest base of the nine, for an app under six months old. Sesame has not announced future pricing, there is no web version, and its positioning as an everyday assistant may drift further from companionship. Treat it as a voice partner rather than a relationship app.

Tolan is a companion app from Portola that pairs each user with an alien-style character, also called a Tolan, which the company describes as a friendly guide for everyday life. It is the only pick rated 13+ on the App Store; the FAQ says it is designed for teens and adults and recommends parental involvement under 18. Users known to be under 18 get AI reminders and hourly prompts to take a break. Unlike Replika, which sells a relationship status in its Pro tier, Tolan is positioned as a friend and guide.

Memory comes from logging. The FAQ says all in-app conversations are stored on company servers and used to build the Tolan's memory, and you can delete your account and data from the profile screen. Portola cites its own survey in which 86 percent of respondents said their Tolan helped them through an emotionally difficult experience; that is a company figure, not an independent study.

Pricing is the weak point. Tolan lists no prices on its website, and the US App Store shows a Lite Membership at $11.99 and Plus at $24.99 without billing periods, next to several older plans from $4.99 to $69.99 marked (Old). New users get a limited trial that can be extended by tasks such as inviting a friend, with no stated length. Voice is not documented in the FAQ. Its 189,795 App Store ratings, averaging 4.8, are the second-largest base among the single-companion apps here, after Replika.

Character.AI is a character platform, not a single companion: you pick from millions of user-made characters or build your own, give them voices, and talk by text or live voice call. That makes it the opposite of Replika or Nomi, where one companion accumulates memory over time; on Character.AI memory is per character and limited. Its App Store listing is the most rated on this page, with 561,338 ratings.

The free tier is real, but its caps are not published. Paid access comes in two tiers on the US App Store, and the listing shows no billing periods for either: Lite appears at two prices, $4.99 and $2.49, and c.ai+ at $9.99 and $94.99. The app is rated 18+. Character.AI's company blog announced that open-ended chat for users under 18 would end no later than November 25.

At 4.3, Character.AI has the lowest App Store score on this list. Pick Character.AI for range rather than continuity: Talkie offers a similar library with plans labelled by period, while Replika and Kindroid build a deeper single relationship.

One risk to weigh: Character Technologies filed for Chapter 11 on 12 October 2026 to run a court-supervised sale. As of November 2026 the app is online and subscriptions remain active; bids are due 24 November and the sale hearing is set for 3–4 December, so prefer a monthly plan over an annual one until the outcome is known.

Talkie is a character library app in the same mould as Character.AI: users publish characters, each shows a count of how much it has been used, and the most popular reach six figures. Voice is part of the experience. On the US App Store the app is listed as Talkie Lab - AI Playground from SUBSUP PTE. LTD., whose developer website is talkie-ai.com, and it scores 4.7 from 61,896 ratings.

Pricing is clearer than Character.AI's. The App Store lists a 1 Month plan at $9.99 and a 1 Year plan at $49.99, plus Talkie+ Pro at $24.99 a month and Gems packs from $1.99 to $19.99. A review reports that memory requires the subscription, and Talkie's FAQ says older conversations can be forgotten, so it is a poor fit if you want one companion to keep a long history.

Talkie's FAQ prohibits pornographic and violent content and says AI settings are moderated; the App Store rates the app 18+. Like Character.AI, Talkie is better for sampling many personalities than for a single long relationship, which Replika and Nomi handle better.

Paradot, from WITHFEELING.AI, presents its companion as an AI being with its own emotions and memory, and sells extras on top: Google Play lists Dream Avatar, Dating Space and Live Gallery as in-app purchases. It runs on Android, Mac and Windows in six languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese. Paradot's site also links an iOS app called Dotify, which did not appear in a US App Store search.

Prices are not published anywhere. Paradot's terms say paid subscriptions are bought inside the app through Apple or Google, but neither paradot.ai nor the Google Play page shows an amount, so you cannot compare it with Nomi's $9.99 Launch plan or Replika's $7.99 entry price before installing. Free-tier limits are not published either.

The rating is the lowest on this page: 4.1 from 79.2K Google Play reviews, the only score here not taken from the App Store. Reviewers complain about long replies and weak recall of things the app lists as remembered. Google Play rates it Mature 17+ for sexual content and strong language. It earns its place for desktop apps and language coverage, not for value or reliability.