The 9 Best PolyBuzz Alternatives in 2026

Character.AI is the closest like-for-like replacement for PolyBuzz: a free, ad-supported character chat app on web, iOS and Android, with a library its sign-up page puts at more than 10 million characters. You can chat by text or live voice call and build characters with their own personality, backstory and voice. Unlike Nomi, Kindroid or Replika, which center on a companion you create, Character.AI is a catalogue first.

Where PolyBuzz publishes no prices, Character.AI's are visible before you sign up. The App Store lists c.ai+ at $9.99/mo or $94.99/yr, a Lite tier at $4.99 and $2.49 with no stated billing period, and Charms currency packs from $0.99 to $49.99. Character.AI's own pricing page could not be opened, so these are App Store prices as of November 2026. Free use carries advertising, and its limits are unpublished.

Apple rates the app 17+ with content restrictions, Age Assurance and Parental Controls, where PolyBuzz's terms set the bar at 18. Its 4.3 from 561K US ratings is the largest App Store count here. If Character.AI itself is what you are leaving, see our Character AI alternatives.

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.

Janitor AI is a community character platform on the web and iOS whose one paid plan, Janitor+, is built around context: the App Store release notes list 5x context, priority routing, smarter swipes with frontier models and a golden badge. The US App Store rates it 18+, with content restrictions and user-generated content listed.

Janitor+ costs $12.99/mo or $99.00/yr, about $8.25 a month billed annually. That is more than SpicyChat's $5.95 entry plan, but SpicyChat's cheapest tier keeps the free tier's 4,096-token context, while Janitor+ sells a fivefold increase at its only price point. The plan first appears in the iOS notes for version 2.0.0, dated 24 June 2026, so there is no cheaper tier and little track record.

The weak point is disclosure: Janitor AI's free-tier limits are not stated on its App Store page, and its own site and terms could not be opened for this ranking. Its App Store score is 4.5 from 5.9K US ratings.

SpicyChat is a web-first roleplay platform that does what PolyBuzz does not: it documents every plan's price and context window. Free users and the $5.95/mo Get A Taste plan ($60/yr) get 4,096 tokens of context, shared with the character's definition and instructions. True Supporter at $19.95/mo ($199.95/yr) doubles that to 8,192 tokens with advanced models per chat; I'm All In at $29.95/mo ($299.95/yr) reaches 32,768 tokens on all models, with front-of-queue access.

These are post-increase prices: on 8 September 2026 SpicyChat raised Get A Taste from $5.00 to $5.95 and lifted the other tiers, while existing subscribers keep their old rate on an unchanged plan. Group chat, Director Mode, a Lorebook, user personas and text-to-speech are in the feature set. Crushon.AI meters messages in credits; SpicyChat meters memory in tokens.

SpicyChat is 18+ only under its community guidelines, with age verification for adult content in France, the UK, Italy, Australia and many US states; it says verification images are not stored. For PolyBuzz's app users, platform is the catch: there is no iOS App Store app, only a home-screen web app, and Android needs a direct APK from the site.

Crushon.AI is a character chat platform with the most precisely defined free plan on this list: 100 message credits a month, unlimited use of its free models, 8K memory and 10 profile cards, at $0. PolyBuzz's FAQ calls its service free without saying what free includes.

Paid plans scale by credits. Standard is $58.88 a year, about $4.90 a month, for 2,000 credits a month, 16K-memory models and 20 profile cards; Premium is $94.88 a year (about $7.90 a month) for 6,000 credits; Luxe is $299.99 a year for 20,000. The ladder tops out at Imperial, $1,799.99 a year for 125,000 credits. Group chat and Ultra models start on paid plans, and voice messages are part of the feature set.

The free plan has a sharp edge: chat history is deleted after 7 days of inactivity, and free chats can slow at peak times. Crushon.AI's community guidelines ban characters who are not clearly adults and restrict real-looking imagery to protect people's likeness; an explicit 18+ sign-up rule was not stated on the pages reviewed. Mobile app availability was not confirmed, unlike Character.AI or Replika.

Talkie is a mobile character app with a game layer: collectible card rewards that can be traded for virtual currency, on characters powered by MiniMax models, per the site footer. Of the nine picks, Talkie is closest to PolyBuzz on money: free to use, with no published subscription price. Google Play flags ads and in-app purchases, and the website shows a Talkie+ upgrade button with a discount badge and no amount.

Google Play lists in-app items from $0.49 to $199.99 each without a breakdown, and the FAQ says recharges are non-refundable. The draw is scale: 50M+ downloads and a 4.5 average from 867K ratings, the largest rating count among these picks.

Talkie's FAQ is candid that the AI's memory is technically limited, so older parts of a conversation are forgotten; Nomi is the pick if memory matters. The FAQ prohibits pornographic and violent content, says all AI settings are moderated and states that conversations are kept private, and Google Play rates the app Teen. On iPhone, the US App Store carries a different app from the same developer, Talkie Lab.

Chai is an Android chat app built on models the company trains in-house, unlike Talkie, which runs on MiniMax. As of 1 October 2026 Chai reports more than 1 million daily users and $120M in annualized revenue, a figure Reuters reported on 14 October.

Pricing is as opaque as PolyBuzz's. Chai publishes no subscription price; Google Play lists in-app items from $0.99 to $899.99, and the Premium and Ultra tiers are priced in the app by region. The free app is ad-supported with unpublished limits, and in some regions Chai requires a paid subscription to use it at all. Compare Crushon.AI, where the $0 plan is spelled out to the credit.

Chai calls itself an 18+ service, with systems that refuse sexually explicit content; Google Play rates it Mature 17+, and users can switch on safety filters and report anonymously. The weak spots are platform and reception: the site's iOS link returned a 404 in the US and German App Stores on 10 November 2026, the web version is listed as coming soon, and the Google Play score is 2.7 from 857K ratings, the lowest here.

Nomi is a companion app rather than a character library: you create Nomis, and the app keeps short-, medium- and long-term memory of what you tell them, including in group chats where members share memory. Voice, selfies and art generation are built in. Where Talkie's FAQ admits its AI forgets older conversations, memory is the core of Nomi's pitch.

With no price list on nomi.ai, the numbers come from the App Store: a Launch plan at $9.99/mo or $59.99/yr, and Standard at $15.99 (period not stated), $39.99 a quarter or $99.99 a year. Credits are extra, from $4.99 for 40 to $99.99 for 1,800. Chatting starts free with no card, but the free-versus-paid split is not listed.

Apple rates Nomi 17+ with content restrictions and Age Assurance; nomi.ai's home page carries no 18+ statement. The App Store score is 4.6 from 3.0K US ratings. Against Kindroid, Nomi is the cheaper route to a memory-first companion, and our best AI companion apps ranking compares it with other one-to-one apps.

Kindroid is a paid companion app with the best App Store score of the nine, 4.7 from 10.9K US ratings, and the only pick with no free tier. New users get a 3-day premium trial that needs a payment method and converts to a paid plan unless cancelled (14 days with a friend's gift code, one trial per person). For PolyBuzz users used to a free app, that is the biggest change here.

Its docs say the exact price appears at checkout and varies by platform, with the web usually cheaper. On the US App Store the base subscription is $15.99, three months $42.99 and a year $159.99. Ultra ($28.99) and MAX ($68.99) are monthly add-ons that require Standard, so Standard plus Ultra is $44.98, against Nomi's $9.99 Launch plan. Extra companion slots cost $3.49, selfie credits start at $6.99 and 500k audio credits are $14.99.

The terms require users to be 18 or the local age of majority, let Kindroid request proof of age, and prohibit using a person's likeness without permission.

Replika is a single-companion app: one AI friend you talk to, call and customize as an avatar, rather than a character library like PolyBuzz or Character.AI. Image generation, app integrations and internet access are on the feature list. Its 4.4 from 228K US ratings is the second-largest App Store count here, behind Character.AI.

The terms say basic features are free, subject to usage limits Replika can change at any time, and that prices are shown at checkout. On the App Store, monthly plans are listed at $7.99 and $14.99, annual plans at $49.99 and $69.99, and Platinum at $89.99, without describing what each includes. Virtual-currency top-ups require an active subscription, and payments are generally non-refundable.

Replika is adults-only (18+) under its terms, which also bar companions from impersonating specific real people without written consent. Against Kindroid it keeps a free tier; against Crushon.AI, whose $0 plan is written down to the credit, its free allowance is a moving target.