5 AI companion apps we would not pay for in 2026

Desk research: official terms, subscription pages, app-store listings, breach records, press reports and public user reviews, checked in September 2026. AI Companion Radar takes no money from any app and uses no affiliate links.

The five AI companion apps we would not pay for in September 2026 are Chai, CrushOn AI, Muah AI, SoulFun and Botify AI. None of them is on this list because the chat is bad; in most cases the chat is the best part. They are here because of documented problems around the payment: limits that arrived without notice, prices you cannot confirm before paying, terms that contradict the marketing, a serious data breach, or a meter that keeps running after you subscribe.

Free use is a different question from paying. Several of these apps are reasonable to try at no cost with a spare email address, and we say so where it applies. This page is only about whether to hand over card details.

Chai’s App Store listing, where weekly, monthly and annual subscriptions sit beside an undocumented “Pieces” currency, September 2026.

How we picked

We started with the lowest overall Radar scores in our directory of 43 apps and researched each candidate again: terms of service, subscription pages, store listings, Trustpilot, breach databases and press coverage. An app made the list only if its problems are documented in a source a reader can check, and only if they bear on the decision to pay: pricing honesty, refunds, policy clarity, data security or reliability for subscribers. Weak features alone were not enough. For each entry we set out what the app promises, what the documents and user reports show, what would change our mind, and a better-documented alternative for the same need. Every app also gets its real strengths. Small review samples are flagged as small.

Summary table

1. Chai

What it promises. Chai is a phone-only character chat app with a swipeable feed of around 25 million community-made bots, fast replies and an 18+ rating. Premium removes adverts and the message recharge timer; Ultra adds a stronger model and a priority queue. The US App Store listing in September 2026 shows Premium at $13.99 a month or $134.99 a year, Ultra at $19.99 a week or $29.99 a month, a separate $9.99 “Premium Membership” item, and “200 Pieces” for $2.79. The listing holds 4.3 stars from about 278,000 ratings, so plenty of users are content.

What the record shows. On 18 February 2026, PiunikaWeb reported users hitting an unannounced “token limit” that froze conversations for hours, and in some cases for up to a week, with no countdown and no explanation of how tokens are counted. The report says free and paying users were both affected. At the time, the Play Store description still advertised “Unlimited free messages”; when a user pointed this out on Reddit, the founder replied, “We should probably update that”. A second report on 29 May 2026 described “Message Removed” pop-ups and waits of 1 to 24 hours for free users, with no official statement. Chai publishes no price page, the purpose of Pieces is undocumented, and the weekly Ultra plan works out at roughly $87 a month. Memory is the other constant complaint: reviewers describe bots losing the thread after a few dozen messages on every tier.

PiunikaWeb’s 18 February 2026 report on Chai’s unannounced token limits, as displayed in September 2026.

What would change our mind. A public price page, published limits for each tier, advance notice of changes, and a store description that matches the product.

Better for the same need. Kindroid (Radar score 7.6) has native iOS and Android apps, unlimited free text on its Lite model and memory limits published in characters per tier. Its weaknesses are a stacked bill if you add Ultra and MAX, and a filtered mobile app. See best mobile apps. Radar score for Chai: 4.2.

2. CrushOn AI

What it promises. CrushOn AI markets itself as unfiltered character chat, with a very large user-made library, group chats, text-to-speech and a choice of third-party models on the paid tiers. Its real strengths are that the basic models are unlimited on the free tier and that the stronger models write well.

What the record shows. The terms of service, as recorded in our directory research (last modified July 2025), prohibit transmitting material that is “NSFW, pornographic, or otherwise sexually explicit”. The product is sold on exactly that material, so paying customers rely on tolerance, not on a written permission. The pricing and terms pages returned errors to us in September 2026, and third-party price tables contradict one another: one lists Standard at $5.99 for 2,000 credits rising to a $199.99 Imperial tier, another a $49.90 unlimited Deluxe plan. Credits are the practical limit. Single-source reports put a message on the top models at 14 to 42 credits, which turns 2,000 credits into a few hundred messages. Refunds are refused except for billing errors, as reported.

Trustpilot showed 1.8 out of 5 from 22 reviews when we checked in September 2026, 91% of them one-star, on an unclaimed profile. The sample is small but the themes are consistent: billing disputes, forgetful models and an age gate that, since about August 2026, asks users in the UK, Australia, Brazil and parts of Europe for a card charge of $1 to $2 (ID upload is the free alternative). Mozilla’s February 2024 review gave CrushOn its privacy warning label, along with all ten other romantic chatbots it examined.

Mozilla’s February 2024 announcement that all 11 romantic chatbots it reviewed, including CrushOn.AI and Chai, earned its privacy warning label, as displayed in September 2026.

What would change our mind. Terms that permit what the homepage advertises, a pricing page that loads and states credits per message for each model, and a refund window.

Better for the same need. Janitor AI (Radar score 6.7) offers unlimited free text roleplay and an in-app Router with around 70 third-party models billed at displayed per-token rates. Its free model’s context is short and it has no images or voice. Radar score for CrushOn: 4.6.

3. Muah AI

What it promises. Muah AI sells an uncensored companion with photos, voice messages and, on the top tier, live phone calls, on the web and in native apps. It is genuinely permissive, and phone calls are rare in this category. Reviews in 2026 put VIP at $19.99 a month or $69.99 a year and ULTRA VIP, the tier with video and US-only phone calls, at $99.99 a month.

What the record shows. Have I Been Pwned records that in September 2024 Muah.AI “suffered a data breach” which “exposed 1.9M email addresses alongside prompts to generate AI-based images”. The entry was added on 8 October 2024, the day 404 Media broke the story, and is flagged as sensitive. Its summary states that many prompts were highly sexual and that many described child exploitation scenarios. The person who found the flaw told 404 Media the site was “basically a handful of open-source projects duct-taped together”. According to the same reporting, the site’s administrator said the attack was sponsored by competitors and offered no evidence. Malwarebytes added on 11 October 2024 that extortion attempts using the data had been reported. No source we found mentions passwords or payment data. The point for a would-be subscriber: email addresses, many containing real names, were tied to the most private text users typed.

Have I Been Pwned’s entry for the September 2024 Muah.AI breach, listing 1.9 million affected accounts, September 2026.

Two years on, the site, pricing, FAQ and terms pages all returned errors to our fetcher, so we could read no refund policy and no published account of security changes. Reviewers also report crashes and characters forgetting their own names.

What would change our mind. A published post-incident report or independent security audit, readable terms with a refund policy, and a public price page.

Better for the same need. Candy AI (Radar score 8.0) covers adult chat, images and voice calls under terms that name the operator and set out refund windows. Its weakness is token spend: regular media users report $25 to $60 a month. For video in place of calls, MyBabes (Visit MyBabes) prints per-second prices, but it is web-only, has no voice calls and its token table takes study; phone users, voice users and pure text roleplayers are better served by Kindroid, Nomi and Janitor. Radar score for Muah AI: 5.4.

4. SoulFun

What it promises. SoulFun offers text and voice chat with customisable characters on the web, iOS and Android, plus photo requests and advertised video calls. Independent reviewers rate the text chat as coherent and in character and the voice as natural, and the company replies to complaints on Trustpilot, which many rivals do not.

What the record shows. This entry rests on SoulFun’s own documents, which we read in September 2026. The subscription terms list one plan, Premium at $19.99 a month, with “1000 coins per month”, and the coin prices: one coin per text message, 10 per minute of voice and 20 per minute of video. A subscriber is therefore buying about 1,000 messages, roughly 33 a day, or 100 minutes of voice, not unlimited chat. At two cents a message that is an expensive meter in a category where unlimited text on paid plans is the norm. To stop renewal on the web you must “submit a request via Feedback Form”; there is no cancel button in the terms, and they add that cancelling “will not result in a refund for any previously charged fees”.

SoulFun’s subscription terms, which list 1,000 coins a month and a charge of one coin per text message, September 2026.

The terms of service, dated 12 August 2023 and governed by Hong Kong law, prohibit “pornographic, indecent, lewd” content, while the character library leans adult. Reviews in 2026 found the video-call button did nothing. Trustpilot showed 2.1 out of 5 from 15 reviews in September 2026, another small sample, with complaints about billing, repetition loops and coins deducted for failed images.

What would change our mind. Unlimited text on the paid plan, a self-service cancel toggle, terms updated to match the product, and video calls that work or are withdrawn from sale.

Better for the same need. Nomi (Radar score 6.9) includes unlimited messages, voice messages and hands-free calls for $15.99 a month, less on longer terms. Its weaknesses: no refunds, no public price page, and images that stop short of explicit. See best voice and calls. Radar score for SoulFun: 5.3.

5. Botify AI

What it promises. Botify AI, from Ex-Human Inc., hosts more than a million user-made characters with group chats, voice calls, selfies and short clips. Reported prices are low: Premium at $7.99 a week or $29.99 a year, Ultra at $14.99 a week or $79.99 a year. Reviewers enjoy the group chat most, and at the annual price little money is at risk. Our objection is about trust and platform, not the size of the bill.

What the record shows. On 27 February 2025, MIT Technology Review reported that Botify hosted bots resembling underage celebrities and characters, some of them featured on the homepage, which engaged in sexually charged conversation; one had received about six million likes. The bots were removed after the magazine’s enquiry, and founder Artem Rodichev said the cases “reflect instances where our moderation systems failed to properly filter inappropriate content”. No independent audit of the fixes has been published. Apple later removed Botify and Ex-Human’s Photify AI from the App Store. In April 2026, 9to5Mac reported that Ex-Human had sued Apple, saying Apple cited “dishonest or fraudulent activity” without identifying specifics and withheld $500,000 in revenue. The dispute is unresolved and the apps remain on Google Play, so iPhone users have only the browser.

Botify AI’s Google Play listing; the iOS app is no longer in the App Store, September 2026.

On price, the weekly plan is the default trap: $7.99 a week is about $35 a month for a product that costs $29.99 a year. Voice and video burn Energy on every tier (about 100 Energy per clip, as reported), and we found no pricing page or refund policy on the official site.

What would change our mind. An independent moderation audit, a settled App Store position, and a first-party pricing and refund page.

Better for the same need. SpicyChat (Radar score 6.6) has group chats, published flat pricing from $5.95 a month and documented third-party age verification. Its weaknesses are a 4K context on the cheap tiers and no iOS app either. See best for roleplay. Radar score for Botify AI: 5.3.

Also considered

• Eva AI (Radar score 5.1): reviewers like the emotional tone, but it is mobile-only, has no public price page and is quoted at anything from $9.99 to $18.99 a month. Mozilla’s 2024 review counted 955 trackers in its first minute of use. It missed the list because we could not document a specific failure towards paying users, only opacity.

• Linky AI (Radar score 5.1): $17 a month plus coin packs for gacha card draws, memory that reviewers say fades after about a dozen exchanges, and an analysis of 7,435 reviews that found 67% negative sentiment behind a 4.4-star rating. Those figures come from third-party review sites, so it stays here until first-party evidence is stronger. It is SFW and free text is unlimited.

• Romantic AI (Radar score 5.3): a subscription of about $14.99 covers chat while every image costs 15 Hearts, there is no voice, and Mozilla recorded 24,354 trackers in one minute of use in 2024. The dual billing is disclosed, which keeps it off the main list.

• Replika (Radar score 6.1): prices appear only in-app and all sales are final, but the free tier is unlimited and the product is stable, so the risk is modest if you check the price on your own screen first.

Questions people ask

Is Chai worth paying for in 2026?

Not in our view. Premium is $13.99 a month for an app that imposed unannounced token limits in February 2026 while its store listing promised unlimited messages, and memory is weak on every tier. The free tier is fine for casual use where it is still available.

Is CrushOn AI safe to subscribe to?

We found no breach record, but its terms prohibit the explicit content it advertises, its pricing page did not load in September 2026 and refunds are refused in almost all cases. Use the free basic models if you are curious, and do not pre-pay for a year.

What happened in the Muah AI data breach?

In September 2024 about 1.9 million email addresses were exposed together with image-generation prompts, according to Have I Been Pwned, which added the breach on 8 October 2024 after 404 Media’s report. Being in the data says nothing about what a given user typed, but the pairing of emails and prompts is why it was classed as sensitive.

Does SoulFun Premium include unlimited messages?

No. SoulFun’s subscription terms give 1,000 coins a month for $19.99 and charge one coin per text message, 10 per minute of voice and 20 per minute of video.

Are these apps fine to use for free?

Often, yes. Chai, CrushOn, Botify and Muah all have free tiers, and the risk without a card is mostly your time and your data. Use a dedicated email address, share nothing you would not want leaked, and see best free apps for stronger free options.

How can I check an AI companion app before paying?

Look for a public price page, a per-item list for any tokens or coins, a refund window, terms that allow what the marketing promises, and a named operating company. Then search the app’s name in a breach database and pay monthly before committing to a year.