An AI companion app (some sites say AI companion platform) is built around one character who remembers you, talks to you by voice and can be set up as a friend or a partner. Of the five companion apps we checked between 29 October and 2 November 2026, only Nomi publishes an answer to all five questions a buyer needs: how memory works with a number attached, whether voice calls cost extra, how to set the relationship, what the free plan allows and what the paid plan costs. Nomi’s wiki says up to 150 Mind Map entries are eligible for recall at once, and Nomi lists its paid plan from $15.99 a month.
I read each app’s help centre, pricing page, terms and privacy policy, all listed in the sources at the end. We have not paid for these apps, so nothing here carries a score. The order follows how many of those five questions each app answers on its own pages, and ties keep alphabetical order. Commission plays no part in it, and how we test explains what a paid test would add. Every app on the list says it is for adults 18 and over.
Candy AI pays us a commission if you subscribe through our links. The other four apps pay us nothing. If you already lean toward Candy AI, you can see Candy AI’s current plans (affiliate link). Its help centre says a refund is possible “within 24 hours of payment, but only if you have used 20 tokens or fewer.”
Memory, voice, relationship and price, side by side
This table answers the five questions from each app’s own pages. “Not found” means we read the pages listed at the end and the app does not say.
| App | Memory, as published | Voice calls | Friend or romantic setting | Free plan | Lowest published paid price | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nomi | Up to 150 Mind Map entries recalled at once | Paid plans only | Friend, Mentor, Romantic or Custom, no paid marker | Free, no card, 400-character messages | $15.99/mo, $99.99/yr | 2 Nov 2026 |
| Candy AI | 20 memory slots on Premium Plus | Spend tokens (beta) | Not found | 5 messages, 1 character, 1 image | $3.99/mo billed $47.88/yr | 29 Oct 2026 |
| Kindroid | Journals up to 500 entries, 20 to 500 characters each | With a subscription | Not found | 50 messages once (15 in some regions) | Not published (checkout only) | 2 Nov 2026 |
| Replika | Memory tab, no size published | Paid plans only | Romance and other roles need Replika Pro | Friend chat free | Not published (in app only) | 2 Nov 2026 |
| Secrets AI | “Basic” free, “premium memory” on Premium | Paid plans only (cost moments) | Not found | 20 messages a day | $19.99/mo, $109.99/yr | 2 Nov 2026 |
Kindroid and Replika show their prices only at checkout or inside the app, so the chart cannot place them. Kindroid’s subscription page says “Buying on the web is usually cheaper than through the App Store or Google Play.”
The 5 AI companion apps, in order
Nomi: best for a companion with a documented memory
Nomi answers all five questions on its own pages. Its Mind Map stores what the companion knows about you, and the wiki says “each entry can be a max of 10,000 characters.” Not every entry is in play at once.
Nomi’s relationship types are Friend, Mentor, Romantic and Custom, and the wiki page on them marks none as paid. It adds that “Relationship types are not rigid limits.” Nomi charges for voice. Its wiki says “Voice is available with paid Nomi subscriptions,” and that covers hands-free voice calls. Free chat needs no card, and free messages stop at 400 characters against 800 on a paid plan. Nomi’s own comparison article lists $15.99 a month, $39.99 a quarter or $99.99 a year, and gives free accounts two images a day. Pass on it if you want to hear your companion without paying. Our Nomi AI overview covers its privacy terms.
Candy AI: best for images and voice in one paid app
Candy AI answers four of the five questions. Its Premium Plus tier lists “Memory slots (20)”, and its help centre says “detailed conversation memory is generally tied to the active chat itself.” The same article says Reset Chat “effectively starts the interaction fresh.” Voice messages and “Voice Calls (beta)” spend tokens. Premium Plus includes 330 free tokens a month, and paid users get unlimited chat messages.
The free plan allows you to “Send up to 5 messages in chat (across all characters)”, plus one custom character and one image. On 29 October 2026 the US price was $3.99 a month billed as $47.88 a year, or $9.99 for the first month and $13.99 a month after. We found no friend or romantic setting in its help centre. Candy AI is a poor fit if you want a free companion you can talk to every day. Read our Candy AI review, or visit Candy AI (affiliate link: we earn a commission if you subscribe).
Kindroid: best for a long free preview of a paid companion
Kindroid’s docs say its memory “consists of three types: persistent, cascaded, and retrievable.” You can also write journal entries, with “up to a 500 hard cap of entries each” per journal, each “20 to 500 characters long.” Cascaded memory and Learned Context are for subscribers.
New accounts get “50 messages with standard paid memory (15 in some regions)”, 5,000 audio credits for voice on messages and up to 2 Kindroids. The account then goes read-only, and Kindroid says “Read-only accounts can’t send messages, regenerate, make calls, or receive proactive messages.”
A subscription adds “Voice calls, video calls and more voice messages”, and new users are eligible for a 3-day premium trial. Kindroid publishes no price. On 31 October 2026 its docs said “You’ll see the exact price for your country and platform at checkout.” We found no relationship setting in the docs we read. Choose something else if you want to know the price before you sign up. See our Kindroid overview.
Replika: best for a free friend, with romance paid
Replika says “chatting with Replika will always be free”, and its free chat keeps the Friend role. Romance costs extra. The help centre says “Additional relationship options beyond “friend” like romantic partner, mentor, etc., are unlocked starting with a Replika Pro subscription.” The other roles are Romantic partner, Sister/Brother and Mentor. Voice calls are paid too, and Replika Ultra adds “the ability to save messages to memory.”
Replika publishes no memory size and no price. The cost “is shown in the app on the subscription screens and in the relevant store.” Its subscription page also says free use “may be denied at Replika’s discretion.” Avoid it if romance is the point and you will not pay. Read our Replika overview, or the Replika alternatives page if the paywall is the problem.
Secrets AI: best for a daily free allowance
Secrets AI’s free plan gives “20 messages per day (resets daily, max 100 for custom characters)”, and the wiki says “This limit is tied to your device.” Free accounts get a “Basic memory system”, and Premium promises “unlimited messaging and premium memory” without a number. Calls cost moments, and “The FREE tier does not include a moment grant and cannot purchase moments.” Premium costs $19.99 a month or $109.99 billed yearly, with 8,000 moments a month. The site’s age gate says “You must be at least 18 years old to use Secrets.” We found no relationship setting. Look elsewhere if you need more than 20 free messages a day. Our Secrets AI overview has its refund and arbitration terms.
What each app keeps from your chats
A companion app hears more about your life than most apps, so the data clause matters as much as the memory feature.
- Replika’s help centre says its memory works “without retaining a permanent record of your conversations.” Its privacy policy, last updated 28 October 2026, says “we keep your conversation history for 24 months for text messages” while your account is open. The help article describes the companion’s memory, and the policy describes the history the company stores.
- Replika uses “small portions of Messages and Content data to train our proprietary safety algorithms”, and says that data is “not used to train third-party large language models or other AI systems.”
- Candy AI uses interactions to “train and develop our AI models and moderation technologies”, and may include “human review of de-identified and/or anonymized interactions” (privacy policy revised 19 October 2026).
- Secrets AI uses data to “train and improve our AI models”, and its privacy policy of 10 April 2026 says chat history is deleted when you delete your account.
- Kindroid’s privacy policy, effective 29 October 2026, says chats are “encrypted at rest and in transit” but “Kindroid is not end-to-end encrypted.” It keeps chats “until you delete a specific AI or delete your account.” We found no explicit clause on training with chats.
- Nomi says it “does not sell or rent your personal information to third parties.”
Our AI girlfriend app privacy page compares how long these apps keep your data after you leave.
Why Character.AI is not on this list
We left Character.AI out because its privacy policy, effective 1 July 2026, sets a minimum age of 13 (16 in the EEA and UK). We read it on 18 October 2026. We list only apps that say they are for adults. Character.AI also filed for Chapter 11 in October 2026. If you are leaving it, our Character AI alternatives page compares adult apps on price and privacy.
Which AI companion app to try first
- Choose Nomi if you want a free companion with a written memory and a romantic option, and can pay later for voice.
- Choose Replika if you want a free friend and accept that romance and calls are paid.
- Choose Kindroid if you want to try a paid-grade companion for 50 messages before deciding.
- Choose Candy AI if you will pay from the start and want images and voice in one app.
Pick one, set the relationship first, and count how many messages you get before the paywall. If you want a male companion, our AI boyfriend apps page compares how each app sets one up.