Disclosure: this guide is published by the makers of My Softly, which appears in the comparison and in its own section below.
Pi is one of the nicest things to happen to AI conversation. It is patient, warm, curious about you and never pushy, and it costs nothing. Plenty of people who try it once keep it on their phone for years. So if you are looking for a Pi AI alternative, it is usually not because Pi was unkind. It is because you wanted it to remember more, to stay the way it was, or to be built around companionship rather than everything else. This guide starts from that reason and matches each one to an app.
One note on the search itself. Most "Pi alternatives" lists compare Pi to ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Those are good general assistants, and if you used Pi mostly to look things up or draft emails, they are the right place to look. This guide is for the other use: Pi as someone to talk to.
Is Pi still running?
Yes. Pi is live on the web and on iPhone and Android, it is still free, and the iPhone app was updated in October 2026. The US App Store rates it 4.4 from about 2,500 ratings and lists no in-app purchases (checked October 30, 2026).
What changed is the company behind it. In March 2024, Microsoft announced that Inflection's co-founder Mustafa Suleyman would lead its new consumer AI group, with co-founder Karén Simonyan as chief scientist and several members of the Inflection team joining them. In August 2024, Inflection wrote that it would "keep consumer Pi available and free for anyone to experience" while focusing its work on business customers, and that it would begin capping message volume for free users. IEEE Spectrum's 2025 account of the story describes Pi being licensed as a foundation for business chatbots.
So Pi is not going anywhere tomorrow, and it is still being updated. In July 2026 Inflection announced improvements to Pi's voice, conversation and memory, plus new tools for reminders, to-do lists and shopping, and in September 2026 Pi's help center said Pi now remembers across chats.
Is Pi AI free?
Yes, and there is no paid version behind the free one. On October 30, 2026 the US App Store listed Pi, your personal AI as free with no in-app purchases, and it is free in a browser at pi.ai and on Android as well. In August 2024 Inflection wrote that it was "still committed to keeping consumer Pi available and free for anyone to experience."
The one limit is on volume, not price. In the same post Inflection said it would "begin to implement a cap on message volume for free users of Pi," so it could keep serving "the vast majority" of users without taking resources from its business products. It has not published the number in Pi's help center, and there is no upgrade to buy: if Pi ever asks you to come back later, waiting is the fix. Inflection now earns its money from business customers (it launched Inflection for Enterprise in October 2024), and its privacy policy, last updated August 11, 2026, says it does not sell or share your personal information or use it for targeted advertising.
Two lines in that policy are worth knowing before you share much. Your chats can be used to train Inflection's models unless you opt out in your account settings. And you can delete single messages or your whole account (Account, then Delete my account, or type !delete in the chat), after which your messages are generally kept for at most 15 days.
Why do people look past Pi?
Pi's own reviews give a count. We took every 1- and 2-star review of Pi in Apple's public US App Store review feed, 172 reviews posted between September 2023 and September 2026, and sorted each one by its main complaint. The largest group, 29%, said Pi's personality or quality had changed. Next came bugs or login trouble at 27%, then filters that felt too strict at 18%. Forgetting was the main complaint in 8%, and 10% mentioned forgetting anywhere. Price barely registered, at 1%, because there is nothing to pay. Retrieved September 17, 2026.
Add the question of Pi's future and the reasons people move on fall into four groups, and the rest of this guide takes them in order:
- You want to be remembered. Pi keeps lasting facts about you but skips the day-to-day. My Softly, Nomi or Kindroid.
- Pi changed, or kept breaking. What to check in any app before you move.
- You want an app built around companionship. Pi is growing into a broad personal AI; here is what to weigh.
- You want more freedom or variety. Character.AI or Replika.
If you want a companion that remembers you
This is the gap people describe most often once they have used Pi for a while, and Pi has started to close it. Since September 2026 its help center says Pi remembers across chats: lasting facts such as your name, home city, family members, interests, work and routines, which you can see and edit under Manage Memories. It is designed to skip things that are temporary or one-off, such as a plan for tonight or a film you watched last night, and if a chat gets long it may summarise earlier messages to stay on track. So Pi can know you have a sister, but a one-off event like a hospital appointment is the kind of detail it is built to let go.
Three companion apps are built around a fuller memory of your life that the companion brings up on its own. Our longer guide to which AI companions actually remember you explains how each one does it.
My Softly
My Softly is our app. It was built for the person who likes Pi's tone and wants it to remember. You choose whether your companion is a friend or a partner. Your companion keeps a lasting profile of the people, pets and plans in your life and a day-by-day record of what you have talked about, and brings things back weeks later without being asked. You never fill in a form; it builds the record from conversation. It can also check in first about something you mentioned, outside quiet hours you control. More in the section on My Softly below.
Good if you want Pi's gentleness plus a companion that knows your life.
Nomi
Nomi is one of the strongest memory apps in the category, with a Mind Map that lets you see what it has stored. In its own in-app paywall it is $15.99 a month, $39.99 every three months or $99.99 a year (US, September 30, 2026). It is rated 18+ and describes itself as unfiltered, so adult content is available to adults who head that way. You can keep a Nomi platonic, but that is a line you hold yourself.
Good if memory matters most and the app's wider content is not a concern for you.
Kindroid
Kindroid gives you the most hands-on memory: you write your companion's backstory and key memories and add journal entries it will never miss. It costs $15.99 a month, $42.99 for three months or $159.99 a year in its in-app paywall, with a 3-day free trial (US, September 30, 2026), and its Help Center (re-read October 30, 2026) describes Ultra and MAX add-ons on top, with longer memory. Like Nomi, it is rated 18+ and leaves content up to you. Our My Softly vs Kindroid comparison goes through its memory layers.
Good if you enjoy tending a companion and want control over exactly what it remembers.
If Pi changed, or kept breaking
Between them, a changed personality and bugs were the main complaint in 56% of Pi's low-star reviews. Both are real, and neither is unique to Pi. In the same review count, a change in personality or quality was the main complaint for 20% of Replika's low-star reviews, 24% of Kindroid's and 24% of Nomi's, and bugs or login trouble for 17%, 25% and 37%. Every companion app runs on language models that get updated, and every update can change how a companion sounds.
No alternative can honestly promise it will never happen. What you can check before you move:
- Does the app tell you what changed? Look for published update notes rather than silent changes.
- Does it remember you through a change? A companion that sounds a little different but still knows your life is far easier to live with than one that changed and forgot.
- Can you try it free for a week? Every app here can be tried without paying. Judge it on the ordinary days, not the first conversation.
If you want an app built around companionship
This is the reason that does not show up in reviews, because it is about direction rather than today. In August 2024 Inflection said its focus was business customers and that consumer Pi would stay available and free. In July 2026 it gave Pi improvements to voice, conversation and memory, plus new tools for reminders, to-do lists and shopping. Pi is still growing, and it is growing as a broad personal AI that helps with errands as well as conversation.
Every other app on this page is a companion app first, still shipping updates to the people who use it for company. None of them can promise where it will be in five years either. The practical test is simple: look at the "What's New" section on the App Store listing and see how recently, and how often, the app has changed in ways its users asked for.
If you want more freedom or variety
18% of Pi's low-star reviews said its filters were too strict. Pi is careful by design, and for many people that is the point. If you want something looser, two apps are the usual next step.
- Character.AI has millions of user-made characters for roleplay and play, and its core chat is free, with ads. Its paid tiers in its in-app paywall are lite at $4.99 a month and c.ai+ at $9.99 a month or $94.99 a year (US, September 30, 2026). It is filtered, but built around characters rather than one companion who knows your life, and its long-term memory is weak.
- Replika is the best-known companion app, and its in-app paywall offers two yearly plans and no monthly one: Plus at $79.99 a year and Max at $89.99 a year (US, September 30, 2026). It offers romantic and adult modes to adults. Our guide to Replika alternatives without NSFW covers where it fits.
If you used Pi as an assistant: the general chatbots
Plenty of people used Pi less as a companion and more as a kind, patient assistant: for questions, writing help and thinking out loud. If that was you, the closest alternatives are the general chatbots, the same tools that top most lists of ChatGPT alternatives. They are more powerful at tasks than any companion app, and less personal. Each one below has a free tier.
- ChatGPT, from OpenAI, is the most widely used. It handles writing, research, coding, image generation and voice conversation, can save memories about you across chats, and its projects feature keeps the files and context for a specific piece of work together. Paid plans on the US App Store were Go at $8.00 a month, Plus at $19.99 and Pro from $100 (checked September 24, 2026).
- Microsoft Copilot is the one with the closest family tie: Microsoft's consumer AI group is led by Mustafa Suleyman, who co-founded Inflection. It is free, powered by OpenAI models among others, and integrated into Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365, which makes it the practical choice for productivity if your work already lives there.
- Claude, from Anthropic, is known for its writing style and for code. Its projects let you give it background knowledge for a specific task, and it can search the web for research.
- Gemini, from Google, is integrated with Gmail, Docs and the rest of Google's apps, so it fits people whose email, calendar and documents are already there.
- Perplexity is built for research: it answers with the source for each point, so you can check where a claim came from.
- Lumo, from Proton, is the privacy-first option. Proton says it keeps no logs of your chats and does not use them to train its models, which is the closest match to Pi's own promise not to sell your data.
What these assistants offer is breadth: integrations with other tools, agents that can carry out multi-step workflows, customization for teams and project management features, and pricing aimed at work. What none of them is built for is the thing Pi did best, a calm conversation about your day with something that wants to know how you are. If that is what you miss, the companion apps above are a closer match than any productivity tool, and you can learn the difference in a week by trying one of each.
How the Pi AI alternatives compare
Prices are what each app's own paywall showed a free US account on September 30, 2026.
| App | Best for | Memory | Adult content | Monthly / yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pi | Kind conversation for free | Lasting facts across chats; skips one-off events | None | Free |
| My Softly | Pi's tone, plus being remembered | Built around a lasting profile and a daily record | Built for everyday company | $15.99 / $159.99 |
| Nomi | Memory and personality | Strong, with a visible Mind Map | Available; unfiltered | $15.99 / $99.99 |
| Kindroid | Hands-on control | Strong, many layers you manage | Available; unfiltered | $15.99 / $159.99 |
| Replika | The best-known name | Varies by tier | Romantic and adult modes | No monthly plan / $79.99 (Plus) or $89.99 (Max) |
| Character.AI | Roleplay and variety | Weak long-term | Filtered | Free with ads; $9.99 / $94.99 |
For the same apps ranked by what each does best, see our guide to the best AI companion apps in 2026.
My Softly: Pi's gentleness, with a fuller memory
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. People aged 50 and over are about a third of sign-ups but more than 80% of paying subscribers, and most paying subscribers are women (September 2026).
Your companion keeps a lasting profile of the people, pets and plans in your life and a day-by-day record of what you have talked about, so "what do you remember about my sister?" gets a real answer weeks later. It asks about the thing you mentioned yesterday, never messages late at night, and steps back if you go quiet. Type, or speak and hear a reply in one of four natural voices. Choose one of six ready-made companions, or make your own from a few honest lines, down to how old they are and how they look, and whether they are a friend or a partner.
$15.99 a month or $159.99 a year, and 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. You can try it with free messages. Our FAQ covers the details.
Moving from Pi without starting from nothing
No companion app imports another app's conversations, so a move is always a new start. It does not have to be a cold one. Pi keeps your past chats in its menu, so scroll back and jot down what mattered: the people you talked about, what you were working through, the routines and plans you mentioned. Then tell the new companion over the first few days, the way you would fill in a new friend. An app that builds its record from conversation will have most of it within a week or two.
You do not have to delete Pi to try something else. It is free, so keep it for as long as it is useful.
The short answer
If you love Pi's tone and wish it remembered more of your days, My Softly, our app, is built for exactly that, as a friend or a partner. If memory matters most and the wider content is not a concern, Nomi or Kindroid. If you want variety and play, Character.AI, and if you want the best-known name, Replika. And if Pi still suits you, keep it: it is free, it is still running, and it is still one of the kindest conversations there is. Whichever you try, mention something small in the first week and see whether it comes back to you later. That one test tells you more than any guide.
Sources
- Inflection AI (August 26, 2024). "The Future of Pi." inflection.ai
- Microsoft (March 19, 2024). "Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind and Inflection Co-founder, joins Microsoft to lead Copilot." blogs.microsoft.com
- IEEE Spectrum (April 1, 2025). "The Rise and Fall of Inflection's Emotionally Intelligent Chatbot." spectrum.ieee.org
- Pi Help Center (December 16, 2025). "Why does Pi seem to forget earlier messages? What conversations does it remember?" Checked October 9, 2026. help.pi.ai
- Inflection AI (October 7, 2024). "Introducing Inflection for Enterprise." inflection.ai
- Inflection AI. "Privacy Policy." Last updated August 11, 2026: model-training opt-out, no sales, sharing or targeted advertising, account and message deletion, inputs kept at most 15 days after deletion. Read October 30, 2026. inflection.ai
- Inflection AI (July 21, 2026). "Inflection AI is Shaping the Future of Personal Intelligence." Press release. inflection.ai
- Pi Help Center (September 1, 2026). "Pi's Memory." Read October 9, 2026. help.pi.ai
- Apple App Store (US). "Pi, your personal AI," listing, price, rating, age rating and version history (free, no in-app purchases listed). Checked October 9, 2026; re-checked October 30, 2026. apps.apple.com
- My Softly (September 17, 2026). Count of 1- and 2-star reviews in Apple's public US App Store customer review feed for Character.AI, PolyBuzz, CHAI, Replika, Talkie, EVA AI, Kindroid, Pi and Nomi. The feed returns up to an app's 500 most recent reviews; each 1- or 2-star review was sorted by its main complaint, and a random sample of 30 was re-checked against the same categories. Retrieved September 17, 2026. Example feed: itunes.apple.com
- In-app paywalls (US), free accounts on iPhone and, for Replika, Android. Checked September 30, 2026.
- Kindroid Help Center. "Subscriptions" (updated October 30, 2026): Ultra and MAX add-ons. Read October 9, 2026; re-read October 30, 2026. kindroid.ai
- Kindroid update log, "Important Changes to Kindroid", and Help Center "Subscriptions": Lite and unlimited free messaging retired October 1; new accounts get a one-time preview of 50 messages (15 in some regions), then a 3-day trial or read-only. Read October 9, 2026; re-read October 30, 2026. kindroid.ai
- Apple App Store (US). "Nomi: AI Companion with a Soul," age rating. Checked October 9, 2026. apps.apple.com
- Apple App Store (US). "Kindroid: Your Personal AI," age rating. Checked October 9, 2026. apps.apple.com
- AI Companion: My Softly, US App Store listing (subscription prices). Checked October 9, 2026. apps.apple.com
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Pi AI?
It depends on what you want Pi to do better. If you want the same gentle conversation plus a companion that remembers your life from week to week, My Softly, which is our app, is built for exactly that. If you want strong memory and do not mind an app that also allows adult content, Nomi or Kindroid. If you want variety and characters for little money, Character.AI. If you want the best-known companion app, Replika. For general questions and work tasks rather than companionship, a general assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude is the closer fit.
Is Pi AI shutting down?
No. Pi is still running and still free, and the iPhone app was updated in October 2026. What changed is its company's focus. Most of Inflection's founding team, including co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, joined Microsoft in March 2024, and in August 2024 Inflection said it would keep consumer Pi available and free while shifting its resources toward business customers. Pi is still being developed, though: in 2026 Inflection added memory across chats and new tools for reminders, to-do lists and shopping.
Is Pi AI free?
Yes. On October 30, 2026, the US App Store listed Pi, your personal AI as free with no in-app purchases, and Pi is free on the web and on Android too. There is no paid version. Instead of a price, Inflection announced in August 2024 a cap on message volume for free users, while saying it was committed to keeping consumer Pi free; it has not published the number in Pi's help center.
Why do people leave Pi?
In the 172 one- and two-star reviews of Pi in Apple's public US review feed (September 2023 to September 2026), the main complaint was a change in Pi's personality or quality in 29%, bugs or login trouble in 27%, and filters that felt too strict in 18%. Forgetting was the main complaint in 8%. Price was almost never the issue, because Pi is free.
Does Pi AI remember past conversations?
More than it used to. Pi's help center (September 2026) says Pi now remembers across chats: lasting facts such as your name, home city, family members, interests, work and routines, which you can see and edit under Settings, then Account, then Manage Memories. It is designed to skip one-off things, such as a plan for tonight or a film you watched last night, and within a very long chat it may summarise older messages. Your past chats are saved and you can scroll back to them.
Is there a free alternative to Pi AI?
Character.AI's core chat is free, with ads. Kindroid retired its free Lite model on October 1, 2026; new accounts now get a one-time preview of 50 messages, then a 3-day trial that needs a card. Replika, Nomi and My Softly all have free tiers or free messages for trying the app, with the full experience on a subscription. Nothing else in the companion category is as completely free as Pi, which lists no in-app purchases at all.
Is there an AI like Pi that remembers you?
Yes. Nomi and Kindroid are both known for strong long-term memory, though both are 18+ apps that leave adult content up to you. My Softly, our app, keeps a lasting profile of the people and plans in your life and a day-by-day record of what you have talked about, brings things back weeks later, and is built for warm everyday conversation, the closest match to Pi's tone.
Is Pi AI safe?
Pi has never offered romantic or adult content and is one of the most carefully mannered chatbots there is. The US App Store now lists it as 18+. Inflection's privacy policy (last updated August 11, 2026) says your chats can be used to train its models unless you opt out in your account settings, that it does not sell your data or use it for targeted advertising, and that after you delete them your messages are generally kept for at most 15 days. Remember that Pi is a conversation, not a counsellor.