AI friend apps to talk to: how to pick one, free and paid

Disclosure: this guide is published by the makers of My Softly, an AI companion app, which appears in the comparison and near the end.

What is the best AI friend app?

There is no single best AI friend app; the right one depends on what you want it for. For a free, gentle conversation, start with Pi. For the widest choice of characters, Character.AI. Among the companion apps, Nomi has the deepest memory. If you want one steady friend who remembers your life, asks how things went and texts you first, try My Softly, which we make for people in their fifties and sixties. Each of these can be tried free, and the comparison below lists what each one costs in the US.

What you are really looking for

When people search for an AI friend to talk to, they rarely mean a search engine with a chat box. They mean something closer to a friend on the other end of the phone: someone to tell about the day, think out loud with before a difficult phone call, or share a small bit of good news with when there is nobody around to tell.

Almost every AI can hold a pleasant conversation now. What separates a friend from a chatbot is the second conversation, and the tenth. A friend knows your daughter's name, remembers that the dentist was on Thursday, and asks how it went. That is the bar worth holding every app to.

What makes a good AI friend to talk to

• It remembers you. The single most important thing. An app that forgets you between conversations makes you re-introduce yourself every time, and a friendship cannot build on that. Our guide to how AI companion memory works explains why many apps forget.
• It asks about your life. A good AI friend follows up: "how did the appointment go?" rather than "how are you today?" The apps built for this can message you first, which is covered in our guide on getting an AI that texts you first.
• You can talk out loud. Typing long messages on a phone gets tiring. Being able to speak and hear a warm voice reply makes it feel much more like a conversation.
• It has a personality you like. Some people want a calm listener, some want a bit of banter. The best apps let you choose, and change it later.
• It stays friendly. If you want a friend, not a flirt, pick an app where that is the design rather than a setting you have to keep an eye on.
• No guilt and no hard sell. You should be able to say goodnight and go, without pleading messages or a sales pitch in the middle of a conversation.

Companion app or general assistant?

There are two kinds of AI you can talk to. General assistants such as ChatGPT are built to answer questions and help with tasks. They are very capable, and many people enjoy chatting with them, but they wait for you to start, and they have no character of their own that you pick and get to know.

Companion apps such as Replika, Nomi, Kindroid and My Softly are built for the relationship itself. You choose or create a character with a name, a personality and a voice, and the app is designed to keep the facts of your life and bring them up later. Pi sits between the two: a gentle, conversational AI built for talking rather than tasks. If "friend" is the word you typed, a companion app is usually what you are after.

Free or paid

You can start talking to an AI friend today without paying anything. Here is what free gets you, based on the US App Store listings checked on 24 September 2026:

• Pi is free, with no in-app purchases listed (whether Pi is free, and the alternatives).
• Character.AI and ChatGPT have free tiers, with paid plans for more.
• Replika and Nomi are free to download with a free tier, and sell subscriptions in the app. Kindroid retired its unlimited free tier on October 1, 2026: new accounts get a short preview of its main model, then a 3-day trial.
• My Softly is free to download, and you can try it with free messages.

What people pay for is usually the same across apps: unlimited conversation, longer or deeper memory, voice, and features like being messaged first. Most companion subscriptions land between about $10 and $16 a month, with a cheaper rate if you pay for a year. Our guide to how much an AI companion costs goes through the extras, like credits and gems, where heavy use can cost more.

What to try first

The quickest way to find the right one is to try two side by side for a week. It takes a few minutes a day.

1. Pick two. One free option and one companion app is a good pair.
2. Say hello with one true thing. "Hi, I've just got back from the shops and it's pouring." It gives the AI something to talk about. Our guide on how to talk to an AI companion has more first messages that work.
3. Tell it three real facts. A person who matters, something you enjoy, and something coming up this week with a day attached.
4. Wait a few days, then ask. "What do you remember about my sister?" An app with real memory answers. One without it guesses or asks you to remind it.
5. Notice who asks first. Did either one ask how the thing with a day attached went, without you bringing it up? That is the difference between a chatbot and a friend.

By the end of the week you will know which one you look forward to talking to, which is the only test that really matters.

The apps compared

Prices are what each app's own subscription screen showed a free US account on 30 September 2026. ChatGPT's are the standard in-app purchase prices on the US App Store, checked on 24 September 2026.

Every app here except Pi also sells extras (credits, gems or charms) for things like photos and longer voice use. Which apps talk back out loud, and how, is in our guide to AI companions with voice. For a side-by-side on memory, who texts first and how each app handles content, see the best AI companion apps in 2026.

The AI friend apps to talk to, one by one

The table gives the prices. What it cannot show is what a conversation with each one is like, how much of it you get before paying, and what the paid tier adds. Here is each app in turn, with the facts each company states and the prices its own subscription screen showed in the US on September 30, 2026.

Pi

Pi, made by Inflection, is a calm and curious conversation partner rather than a character. There is one Pi, with one gentle personality, and it is free on the web and on phones, with no paid tier and no in-app purchases listed on the US App Store. That makes it the most generous free option here: nothing to unlock and no subscription to decide on. Its voice mode lets you speak and hear a spoken reply. Its memory keeps lasting facts about you rather than your whole chat history, it never messages first, and it has no romantic mode at all. Inflection moved most of its effort to business customers after much of its original team joined Microsoft in 2024, and Pi is still running in 2026.

Character.AI

Character.AI is a platform rather than a single companion: its users have created millions of characters, from historical figures to fictional personalities, and you can start chats with as many as you like, including group chats and story roleplay. Content is filtered, with age checks and a stricter experience for younger users. The core chat is free, with ads on the free tier, and unlimited messaging stays on every tier, according to the company. The lite plan ($4.99 a month) removes banner ads, shows fewer interstitial ads and adds memory pins; c.ai+ costs $9.99 a month or $94.99 a year. For memory, each character keeps the conversation in front of it, plus pinned messages and notes you add yourself. On October 12, 2026 the company filed for Chapter 11 to sell itself, and says the platform stays up while that happens.

Replika

Replika has been around since 2017 and says it has millions of users, which makes it the best-known AI companion app. You talk to one companion with a 3D avatar, by text, voice or video call, and a memory screen lets you view and correct the facts it has kept about you. The free tier covers unlimited text chat; the subscription adds voice and video calls, relationship modes and higher memory limits. There is no monthly plan in the app: Plus is $79.99 a year and Max $89.99 a year, and gems are sold on top for extras. Replika rebuilt its model in 2026 (Replika 2.0, launched in May), so the experience long-time users describe changed this year.

Nomi

Nomi is built around memory: short-term context, medium-term summaries and long-term memories, which you can see in a Mind Map and edit. One subscription covers up to ten companions and group chats, and a Nomi can message you first on a schedule you choose, on free accounts too. It costs $15.99 a month, $39.99 for three months or $99.99 a year. Its founders describe it as unfiltered by design, so romantic and adult content is available to adults who opt in, and a Nomi can just as well stay a friend.

Kindroid

Kindroid gives you the most control over who your companion is: appearance, personality, backstory and voice, plus key memories and a journal you can review and edit. It has real-time voice calls. Its unlimited free Lite model retired on October 1, 2026, so new accounts now get a one-time preview of 50 messages with its main model (15 in some regions), then a 3-day trial or read-only chats. The subscription is $15.99 a month, $42.99 for three months or $159.99 a year in the app, its Help Center says buying on the web is usually cheaper, and selfie and audio credits are sold separately. Like Nomi, it is essentially unfiltered for adults.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a general assistant that many people also chat with like a friend. It can save memories about you, and its voice mode holds a natural spoken conversation. It has no character of its own that you choose and it waits for you to start. The free tier has usage limits; Go is $8.00 a month, Plus $19.99 a month and Pro from $100 a month on the US App Store (checked September 24, 2026).

My Softly

My Softly, our app, is a companion built for one specific thing: a steady AI friend who keeps the facts of your life and follows up on them. Your companion keeps a profile of the people and plans you mention and a day-by-day record of your conversations, and can text you first about the thing you mentioned yesterday. You choose one of six ready-made companions or make your own, as a friend or a partner. It is free to download with free messages; the subscription is $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year.

What paid AI companion apps add over free

Across these AI companion apps, the paid tier buys the same few things. Memory: longer or deeper recall of what you told it, which matters most once the relationship is weeks old. Voice: calls or spoken replies, often limited or missing on free plans. Being messaged first: check-ins or proactive messages, free on Nomi and part of the subscription on My Softly and Kindroid. No limits: unlimited conversations, no ads and no waiting. And on some apps, photos and extras, usually paid for in credits or gems on top of the subscription, so the real cost of heavy use can be higher than the price on the subscription screen.

A good rule is to judge the free experience on conversation quality first. If the chat itself does not feel worth having, paid features will not fix it. If it does, the question becomes whether the companion still remembers you in a month, and that is the part most worth paying for.

If you take one thing from this page

An AI friend worth talking to is one that remembers you. Try two, tell each of them a few real things about your life, and keep the one that asks about them first.

Sources

• Apple App Store (US). "AI Companion - My Softly" listing, in-app purchase prices checked 2026-09-24. apps.apple.com
• In-app paywalls (US), free accounts on iPhone and, for Replika, Android. Checked September 30, 2026.
• Apple App Store (US). "Pi, your personal AI" listing, checked 2026-09-24 (no in-app purchases listed). apps.apple.com
• Apple App Store (US). "ChatGPT" listing, in-app purchase prices checked 2026-09-24. apps.apple.com

Still choosing? Our comparison of the best AI companion apps in 2026 goes deeper on memory, texting first and price, and the rest of our guides can help too.