Anima AI in 2026: what it is, pricing, iBoy and is it still worth it

Desk research: Anima’s terms (updated 9 January 2025) and privacy policy at myanima.ai, the Google Play listings for Anima and iBoy, the US App Store listing for iBoy, 2026 third-party reviews and published user reports, checked in October 2026. AI Companion Radar takes no money from any app and uses no affiliate links.

Anima is a text-first “AI friend” app for iPhone, Android and the web that has been on the stores since about 2020, sells a paid romantic mode on top of a free friend mode, and has a boyfriend twin called iBoy. It costs $7.99 to $12.99 a month or $39.99 a year, as reported, with no credits or tokens. It has no image, selfie or video generation, memory that drifts after a week or two unless you maintain its Bio tab, a privacy policy that trains on your data with no opt-out, and three different company names across its legal pages, store listings and reviews. Radar scores it 5.8. It still suits one kind of user well: someone who wants a cheap, friendly chat partner on their phone and does not care about pictures. This guide covers what Anima is in 2026, who runs it, what it costs, how iBoy fits, what the policies say and who should still pick it.

Anima’s Google Play listing, rated Everyone with over a million installs, September 2026.

What Anima is

You create one companion, choose an avatar or upload a photo, and talk. A relationship mode decides how it talks back: friend is free, romantic partner and mentor are paid. Around the chat sit mini-games (trivia, “truth or lie”, “would you rather”), a story mode, personality tests and a Bio tab where you type in facts the companion is supposed to keep permanently. Reviews in 2026 describe voice calls on the premium tier, as reported; we could not confirm the feature from the official site. The web version at myanima.ai mirrors the apps.

What Anima does not have is as important. There is no image generation of any kind, no selfies, no video. Memory works on two layers: conversational recall, which 2026 testers say starts repeating phrases and losing details after seven to twelve days of daily use, and the Bio, which holds. If you use Anima, the Bio is the memory; the chat is the mood.

Who actually runs it

This is the first thing that should give a careful buyer pause. The terms of service at myanima.ai name ICHIGOICHIE TECH LIMITED, a Delaware company, with disputes heard in Alexandria, Virginia for US users and in Limassol, Cyprus for everyone else. The privacy policy on the same site names Labane Corp. Ltd. of Limassol, Cyprus as the data controller. Google Play lists the developer of both Anima and iBoy as LABANE CORP. Limited, and the App Store lists LABANE CORP. LTD as seller of iBoy. Most independent reviews, and our own September 2026 profile, name Apperry Ltd, which was the App Store seller of Anima for years, as reported. So: ICHIGOICHIE TECH LIMITED on the terms, Labane Corp on the privacy policy and the stores, Apperry Ltd in reviews. These are probably related entities or a succession of them, but nothing on the site says so, and a user who wanted to exercise GDPR rights would have to guess which one to write to. Compare Replika (Luka, Inc.) or Nomi (Glimpse AI), where one name appears everywhere.

What it costs, refunds and cancellation

Anima has no public pricing page, its FAQ was hosted on a Notion page that returned nothing when we checked, and the App Store listing for the main app did not load for us. Prices therefore come from store in-app purchase lists and 2026 reviews, and they vary by store and region.

The free tier gives unlimited plain chat in friend mode. Romantic mode, extended roleplay and the mood tools are paid or capped. There are no tokens, so a subscription unlocks everything and the monthly bill is the plan price and nothing else, which is simpler than the credit systems at Eva AI or Nomi. The weak spot is transparency: a $7.99-to-$12.99 range for the same plan is a sign that introductory offers and regional pricing are doing a lot of work, and you only see your price inside the app. For a published price list with per-image and per-second video rates to compare against, MyBabes (Radar score 8.3) prints everything on its pricing page, though it is web-only, EUR-priced and a very different, adult-leaning product. Our best free apps list ranks the free tiers in this category, where Anima’s unlimited friend mode does well.

The terms say purchases are generally non-refundable and that you must cancel at least 24 hours before the end of a trial or billing period. EU, EEA, UK and Swiss users keep a 14-day withdrawal right unless they waive it at purchase, which the stores arrange at checkout. Store-billed subscriptions are cancelled in iPhone Settings or Google Play; web subscriptions from the account settings at myanima.ai. Store refunds follow Apple’s or Google’s rules.

iBoy, listed on Google Play as “Anima: My Virtual AI Boyfriend”, rated Mature 17+, September 2026.

iBoy: the boyfriend twin

iBoy is the same product aimed at people who want a male companion, sold as a separate app. On Google Play it is listed as “Anima: My Virtual AI Boyfriend” from LABANE CORP. Limited, with 4.1 stars from about 13,800 reviews, over a million installs, a Mature 17+ rating for sexual themes and strong language, and an update dated 15 August 2026. On the US App Store it appears as “AI Boyfriend Chat: iBoy” (the listing name has changed repeatedly), rated 18+, with 4.5 stars from about 4,900 ratings and a latest version 2.61.11 dated 1 July. Earlier Radar notes recorded iBoy’s last substantive update as July 2024, and both stores still show the same 2.61.x version line, so the 2026 dates look like maintenance builds rather than new features; treat the app as lightly maintained.

Reviews of iBoy on both stores say the same things as reviews of Anima: pleasant, available, forgets what you said three messages ago, and tends to wait for you to drive the conversation, as reported. One App Store reviewer notes “extreme sexual activity and cursing” on the paid tier, which is a useful reminder that the romantic mode is not tame once unlocked. If a boyfriend companion is what you want, our best AI girlfriend apps ranking has a companion piece on boyfriend apps, and Replika and Kindroid both let you set a male partner without a separate app.

iBoy’s US App Store listing as “AI Boyfriend Chat: iBoy”, rated 18+, with weekly, monthly and yearly Premium prices, September 2026.

Policies: training, age and the “Everyone” rating

Training. The privacy policy says data is used “to train and improve our AI models”. No opt-out is described. Oddly, chat content is not named as a collected category; the listed categories are account data, device data and sign-in data from Apple or Google. Either conversations are not covered, which would be unusual for a companion app, or the policy is incomplete. Retention is “as long as it is reasonably necessary”; deletion is by request. There is a GDPR section with standard contractual clauses and a California section.

Age. The terms require users to be 18. The same terms then say that “all users who are minors in the jurisdiction in which they reside (generally under the age of 18) must have the permission of, and be directly supervised by, their parent or guardian to use the Service”. The privacy policy says the company does not knowingly process data from people under 18, then sets 16 as the minimum age for independent use with parental consent below that. Three documents, three ages. There is no age verification beyond a self-declared date of birth.

Store ratings. The main Anima app is rated Everyone on Google Play, while its App Store listing is 17+, as reported, and iBoy is Mature 17+ on Play and 18+ on iOS. An app that sells a romantic and NSFW mode behind a paywall should not carry an Everyone rating, and this combination is why Anima’s policy sub-score is 5.

Anima’s terms of service, which name ICHIGOICHIE TECH LIMITED and require users to be 18 while also addressing supervised minors, September 2026.

Why the Radar score is 5.8 and who it still suits

Radar scores weight conversation 30%, memory 20%, media 20%, pricing honesty 15% and policy clarity 15%. Anima scores 6 for conversation (pleasant, light, repetitive over time), 6 for memory (the Bio works, the chat drifts), nothing for media because there is none, 6 for pricing honesty (simple plans, but a price range instead of a price and no public list) and 5 for policy (training with no opt-out, contradictory age clauses, an Everyone rating on a romantic app, three operator names). That comes to 5.8, in the lower third of our directory, alongside Promptchan and Gethoney and ahead of Eva AI at 5.1.

• Someone who wants a free, unlimited, friendly chat on their phone. Friend mode costs nothing and has no daily cap, which few rivals match.

• Light daily conversation and games. Trivia, “would you rather” and story mode are a gentler frame than roleplay-heavy apps.

• A cheap romantic mode without credits. At $39.99 a year, as reported, it undercuts most of the field, and nothing inside is metered.

• People who will maintain the Bio. If you treat the Bio as the memory and update it, continuity is acceptable.

It does not suit anyone who wants images or video, reliable long-term memory, a clear adult-content policy, or a single accountable company name on the documents. For those, see best memory and adult-friendly apps.

Questions people ask

What is Anima AI?

A text-first AI friend app on iOS, Android and the web with a free friend mode, a paid romantic mode, mini-games and a Bio tab for permanent facts. It has no image or video generation.

How much does Anima AI cost?

About $7.99 to $12.99 a month or $39.99 a year, as reported in 2026, with lifetime offers around $99 to $199. There are no credits; the subscription unlocks everything.

Who owns Anima AI?

Its terms name ICHIGOICHIE TECH LIMITED (Delaware), its privacy policy and the app stores name Labane Corp of Limassol, Cyprus, and reviews name Apperry Ltd, the long-time App Store seller. The site does not explain how they relate.

Is Anima AI safe?

It is an established app with GDPR wording and no known breach, but the policy trains on your data with no opt-out, age checks are self-declared, and the age clauses contradict each other. Keep sensitive details out of the chat.

What is iBoy?

Anima’s boyfriend version, listed on Google Play as “Anima: My Virtual AI Boyfriend” and on the App Store as “AI Boyfriend Chat: iBoy”, from the same developer, with a 4.1 Play rating and a Mature 17+ label.

Is Anima AI worth it in 2026?

For free, friendly chat, yes. For paid romance it is cheap but thin, and for anything involving images, video or strong memory the answer is no; Radar scores it 5.8.