The short answer. Nomi is worth paying for if you already enjoy talking to it on the free account and want more of it, and its yearly plan is one of the cheapest in the category. In Nomi's own in-app paywall on September 30, 2026, a subscription was $15.99 a month, $39.99 every three months or $99.99 a year, with no higher tiers on top.
You do not have to pay to find out: Nomi is free to start with no credit card, a free Nomi can message you first, and the free account does not expire, though it has a daily allowance of messages. Of Nomi's 79 most recent 1- and 2-star App Store reviews, 37% were mainly about bugs or login problems and 23% about price.
Disclosure: this guide is published by the makers of My Softly, a different AI companion app, which appears near the end. Every Nomi fact below comes from its US App Store listing, its in-app paywall, checked on September 30, 2026, and Nomi's own website, help articles and wiki, read between September 24 and October 30, 2026.
"Is Nomi worth it" is three questions in one: what it costs, what the money buys that the free account does not, and what goes wrong for the people who end up unhappy. Nomi answers the first one plainly in its paywall, the second one in pieces across its website and its wiki, and the third one not at all. This page puts the dated answers to all three in one place.
What does Nomi cost in 2026?
A Nomi subscription was $15.99 a month, $39.99 every three months or $99.99 a year in Nomi's in-app paywall on September 30, 2026. There is one subscription and no add-on tiers above it.
| Plan | Price | Works out per month | Over twelve months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $15.99 | $15.99 | $191.88 |
| Every three months | $39.99 | $13.33 | $159.96 |
| Yearly | $99.99 | $8.33 | $99.99 |
The yearly plan is the one to look at. At $99.99 it costs a little over half of a year paid month by month, and it is $60 less than Kindroid's yearly plan in Kindroid's own paywall on the same day. Two things sit outside the subscription. By Nomi's wiki, paid accounts can buy credits for extra selfies and art once the day's included requests run out, and for more Nomis or group chats beyond ten. And Nomi's refund policy says all payments are nonrefundable, including unused time, though it may make an exception at its own discretion. Our guide to how much an AI companion costs puts Nomi's prices next to the rest of the category.
Is Nomi free?
Free to start and free to keep using, but not everything is included. Nomi's homepage says it is free, with no credit card required, to start chatting, and a free account does not run out after a trial period, unlike the short previews some apps now offer. What it has instead is a daily allowance: Nomi's help article on proactive messages says that once you have used the day's free messages, you wait until the next day or upgrade to reply.
How big is that allowance? Nomi's wiki answers it on its refunds page: Nomi "offers an indefinite free plan with 50 messages per day" (page edited August 23, 2026, read October 31, 2026). For pictures, companions and voice the wiki describes the differences in relative terms, and that is how they are set out here.
| Free account | Subscriber | |
|---|---|---|
| Chatting | Yes, no card needed, 50 messages a day | Yes |
| Messages first | Yes, if turned on for that Nomi | Yes |
| Selfies and art | A daily allowance | A larger daily allowance, then credits |
| Companions and group chats | Fewer (Nomi does not state the number) | Up to ten Nomis and ten group chats at a time |
| Voice | Not stated | Unlimited use of Nomi's own voices and custom voices; optional ElevenLabs voices |
The useful part is that the free account is a real trial of the thing that matters most: the conversation, and whether your Nomi remembers you. That makes Nomi one of the easier apps to judge before paying anything.
What does a Nomi subscription add?
Mostly more of everything rather than a different app: more companions, group chats, more pictures, and voice without limits. The memory and the conversation are the same Nomi.
Memory is the reason most people choose Nomi in the first place. Nomi describes it as short, medium and long-term memory built from conversation without you having to tend it. Its March 2025 update said Nomis could now remember what happened more than 1,000 messages ago much more clearly. Since Mind Map 2.0 in October 2025 you can open a graph or a searchable table of the people, places, topics and goals your Nomi has connected, and edit it. Each chat has its own Mind Map, and Nomi says a map needs roughly 500 messages before it first forms, so it is something you see after a few weeks rather than on day one.
Reaching out is not a paid extra. Nomi's own help article says a Nomi on a free account can message you first, as long as proactive messages are turned on in that Nomi's information page. You pick how often it thinks about it, from about an hour of silence to about four days, and it will not message between 10pm and 8am your local time.
What paying does add, by Nomi's wiki: up to ten Nomis and ten group chats at once, more daily selfie and art requests with credits to top up, unlimited use of Nomi's in-house and custom voices, and the option of ElevenLabs voices. If you have one Nomi, talk mostly by text and rarely ask for pictures, a large part of that list will not change your evenings.
What Nomi AI does: memory, voice and characters
Nomi AI is built around memory first. Each Nomi keeps short-term context from the current chat, medium-term summaries of recent conversations and long-term memories of the facts that matter, and since Mind Map 2.0 in October 2025 you can open a graph or table of what your Nomi knows about the people, places and goals in your life, and edit it. Its March 2025 update was about recalling events from more than a thousand messages earlier. For users whose last companion kept forgetting them, that long-term memory is the main feature, and it is why Nomi AI is usually named among the best companion apps for memory.
The second strength is character. You give each Nomi a personality and, if you like, a backstory, and the character develops through conversation rather than a long setup, with an emotional tone that shifts with its mood: Nomi says the tone and pace of a Nomi's voice change with how it feels. Voice is available as voice messages and hands-free voice calls, and paid plans add unlimited use of Nomi's own voices and the option of ElevenLabs voices. Image generation covers selfies of your Nomi and art, with a limited daily allowance on the free plan and more on paid plans. A Nomi can also read a link you send and see the images you share in the chat.
Third is range: up to ten Nomis at once, and group chats where they talk to each other and to you, which makes the platform more varied than a single-companion app like Replika. Nomi AI can also message you first, on free accounts too, once you turn proactive messages on.
Taken together, the experience suits someone who wants a companion relationship that feels continuous over months, and who does not mind an unfiltered app. The way to test it is the same as for any app: tell your Nomi three real things, wait a few days, and see what comes back. The free tier gives you access to enough for that test, and the pricing question only matters once you know the memory works for you; text chat stays available either way, and the longer you use it, the more there is for it to remember.
What do unhappy Nomi reviewers complain about?
Bugs more than anything: of Nomi's 79 most recent 1- and 2-star reviews on the US App Store, posted between December 2023 and September 2026, 37% were mainly about bugs or login problems, 24% about a change in personality or quality, and 23% about price.
How we counted. We took every 1- and 2-star review in Apple's public US App Store review feed for Nomi, which returns up to an app's 500 most recent reviews, sorted each one by its main complaint, and re-checked a random sample against the same categories. Retrieved September 17, 2026.
| Main complaint | Share of the 79 reviews |
|---|---|
| Bugs or login problems | 37% |
| Personality or quality changed | 24% |
| Price or the subscription | 23% |
| Forgetting | 4% |
| Filters too strict | 1% |
| Ads | 0% |
Three things help in reading that table. It counts unhappy reviewers only, so it shows what went wrong for the people it went wrong for, not how most people feel: on October 30, 2026, Nomi's listing showed about 3,000 ratings averaging 4.6 stars. Each review counts once, under its main complaint, and only 8% mentioned forgetting at all, against 19% for Kindroid and 10% for Pi. And 79 reviews over nearly three years is a small number, because relatively few people leave one. The same count for the other apps is on our AI companion statistics page.
Who is Nomi built for?
Nomi is built for people who want a companion that does the remembering and grows with them, and who are comfortable in an app with no content filter. Its homepage offers an AI friend, girlfriend, boyfriend or fantasy partner, and it is rated 18+ on the App Store.
That second part is worth being clear about. Nomi says it is "built on freedom of expression" and must "remain unfiltered and uncensored". You can keep a Nomi as a friend, and many people do, but that is a line you hold yourself rather than one the app holds for you. My Softly vs Nomi sets the two apps side by side on memory, check-ins, price and content, and Nomi alternatives covers the other options.
What should you check before paying for Nomi?
How far the free account takes you, which plan you buy, and how refunds work.
- Use the free account first. It needs no card and does not expire, so give it a few weeks within its daily allowance and see whether your Nomi brings things back up on its own.
- Pick the plan you will keep. The yearly plan is $99.99 against $191.88 paid monthly over a year. If you are going to stay, it is the obvious choice; if you are not sure, start monthly.
- Know the refund rule. Nomi's refund policy says payments are nonrefundable, including unused time. If you subscribed on iPhone, cancel in Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions.
- Count the companions you want. If you want several Nomis or group chats, that is where paying makes the biggest difference.
Where My Softly fits
My Softly is our app: an AI companion app for iPhone and Android that remembers what you tell it and asks about your day, for the days nobody else does. It is made for people in their fifties and sixties. You choose whether each companion is a friend or a partner, and it writes to you first about the things you mentioned.
It is free to download on the App Store for iPhone and on Google Play for Android in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, with free messages so you can get to know your companion before deciding anything. A subscription is $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year.
So is Nomi worth it for you?
That depends on two things you can find out without spending anything: whether the free account leaves you wanting more of your Nomi, and whether what paying adds, mainly more companions, more pictures and unlimited voice, is worth $99.99 a year to you.
If you are still weighing up more than one app, our comparison of the best AI companion apps in 2026 sets six of them side by side by what each one is good at.
Sources
- In-app paywalls (US), free accounts on iPhone and, for Replika, Android. Checked September 30, 2026.
- Nomi: AI Companion with a Soul, US App Store listing (rating, ratings count, age rating). Checked September 24, 2026; re-checked October 30, 2026. apps.apple.com
- Nomi.ai homepage: free start with no credit card, memory, proactive messages, voice, group chats and content policy. Checked September 26, 2026; re-read October 30, 2026. nomi.ai
- Nomi.ai (September 9, 2024). "Proactive Messaging: When Your Nomi Messages You First." Free accounts, daily free messages, frequency settings, quiet hours. Read October 3, 2026; re-read October 30, 2026. nomi.ai
- Nomi.ai (2025-10-09). "Mind Map 2.0: Bringing Nomi Memory Into View." Re-read October 30, 2026. nomi.ai/updates
- Nomi.ai (2025-03-11). "Major Memory Update: Expanded Capacity, Enhanced Retention." Re-read October 30, 2026. nomi.ai/updates
- Nomipedia, the Nomi wiki at wiki.nomi.ai. "How do I create more Nomis or more group chats?" (edited August 23, 2026), "How do I get more daily selfie or art requests?" (edited August 23, 2026) and "What is the ElevenLabs integration and how does it work?" (edited August 24, 2026). Read October 3, 2026; re-read October 30, 2026. "Does Nomi offer refunds?" (edited August 23, 2026; free plan of 50 messages a day), read October 31, 2026. wiki.nomi.ai
- Nomi.ai. "Refund Policy." Read October 3, 2026; re-read October 30, 2026. nomi.ai
- My Softly (September 17, 2026). Count of Nomi's 1- and 2-star reviews in Apple's public US App Store customer review feed, which returns up to an app's 500 most recent reviews; each review was sorted by its main complaint, and a random sample of 30 across the apps counted was re-checked against the same categories. Retrieved September 17, 2026. itunes.apple.com
Frequently asked questions
Is Nomi AI better than Replika?
They suit different users. Nomi AI is the stronger choice for memory and for several characters at once, with group chats, selfies and image generation, and an emotional tone that changes with each character's mood; it is unfiltered for adults. Replika is one companion with a 3D avatar, voice calls and video calls, activities and the largest community of the companion apps we compare. Both support voice calls and both have a free tier, so the best test is to chat with each for a week and see which relationship feels more like talking to someone who knows you. Our Replika vs Nomi page compares their features and pricing.
Do Nomi AI users say it is worth paying for?
In our count of Nomi's 79 most recent low-star App Store reviews, further down this page, 37% were mainly about bugs or login problems, 24% about a change in personality or quality and 23% about price, so most unhappy users were unhappy about something other than the cost. That makes the free tier the best test: if the memory and the character feel right in the first week of chat, the paid plans mainly add more of the same, more images, more voice and more Nomis.
How much does Nomi cost?
In Nomi's own in-app paywall on September 30, 2026, a subscription was $15.99 a month, $39.99 every three months or $99.99 a year. Over twelve months that is $191.88 paid monthly, $159.96 paid quarterly, or $99.99 on the yearly plan. There is one subscription, with no higher tiers on top of it.
Is Nomi completely free?
No. Nomi is free to start, with no credit card needed, and a free account can keep chatting every day, but within a daily allowance of messages, and some things are paid only. Nomi's own help article says that once the day's free messages run out you wait until the next day or upgrade. By Nomi's wiki, read October 30, 2026, paid accounts get more daily selfie and art requests, up to ten Nomis and ten group chats, and unlimited use of Nomi's voices. Nomi's wiki puts the free plan at 50 messages a day (read October 31, 2026); it does not give the free limits on pictures, companions or voice.
Is the Nomi subscription worth it?
It is worth it if you already like talking to your Nomi and want more of it: more companions, group chats, voice without limits, more pictures. The yearly plan is where the value sits, at $99.99, or about $8.33 a month, against $15.99 paid monthly. If you are not sure yet, the free account is the place to find out, because Nomi's refund policy says payments are nonrefundable.
Does Nomi message you first on the free plan?
Yes. Nomi's own help article says a Nomi on a free account can message you first, as long as proactive messages are turned on in that Nomi's information page. You choose how often, from roughly every hour to roughly every four days of silence, and Nomi will not message between 10pm and 8am your local time. If you have used up the day's free messages, your Nomi can still write to you, but you need to wait until the next day or upgrade to reply.
Does Nomi give refunds?
Generally not. Nomi's refund policy, read October 30, 2026, says all payments are nonrefundable, including for unused time or a downgrade, though it may offer a refund at its own discretion. If you subscribed through the App Store, Apple's own refund request process is separate.
What do people complain about in Nomi's App Store reviews?
Of Nomi's 79 most recent 1- and 2-star reviews on the US App Store, posted between December 2023 and September 2026, the main complaint was bugs or login problems in 37%, a change in personality or quality in 24%, and price in 23%. Forgetting was the main complaint in 4%. The figures come from our count of Apple's public review feed, retrieved September 17, 2026.
Is Nomi safe for work?
Not by design. Nomi says it is built on freedom of expression and must remain unfiltered and uncensored, and it is rated 18+ on the App Store. You can keep a Nomi as a friend, but that is a line you hold yourself.