How to choose an AI character chat app

There are a number of AI character chat apps, and their marketing pages tend to describe the same product. These are the six questions that actually separate them — and Chatbuddy's answers, stated plainly so you can check them against anyone else's.

1. Who writes the cast?

Some platforms are open marketplaces where anyone can publish a character. Others ship a curated cast. Open marketplaces give you enormous range and wildly uneven quality; curated casts give you the reverse.

Chatbuddy is curated. 70+ characters across ten categories, each with written material behind it, and the cast is growing. You cannot upload your own.

2. Text, voice, or both?

Voice changes the experience more than any other feature, and it is also the most expensive thing these apps do — which is why it is usually metered.

Chatbuddy offers live avatar conversations in real time with a selection of characters, and text chat with the full cast. Each character's page states which it supports.

3. How does the pricing actually work?

This is where the real differences hide. Flat monthly fee, metered usage, or a mix — and if it is metered, what a minute of conversation actually costs.

Chatbuddy is a paid subscription with metered credits. Chit Chat is $9.99/month for 1,000 credits; Big Talker is $19.99/month for 2,000 credits plus the specialist agentic characters. Roughly, a minute of live avatar streaming consumes about 40 credits, while text chat consumes credits as words are exchanged. Credits do not roll over, and you can buy additional blocks of 1,000. There is no trial tier.

4. What are the content rules?

Every platform in this category draws a line somewhere, and where it draws it should be easy to find before you pay.

Chatbuddy is entertainment for adults, 18+. It is explicitly not for medical, legal or financial advice, and its characters are not a substitute for professional help of any kind. The full usage restrictions are in the FAQs.

5. Where can you use it?

Worth checking before you subscribe rather than after.

Chatbuddy operates territory restrictions — it is not currently intended for use in the UK, Switzerland, the EU, OFAC-sanctioned countries, or several US states. The current list is in the FAQs and the Terms & Conditions.

6. Who are the characters, really?

The question most worth asking, and the one most easily skated over.

Chatbuddy's characters are fictional AI personas. A character modelled on a historical figure is a characterisation — it does not speak for that person, and nothing it says is a quotation or a citable source. If a platform implies otherwise about its historical characters, treat that as the answer to this question.

How to use this list

Take the six questions to whichever apps you are weighing up, including this one, and see which ones answer them without hedging. An app that will not tell you plainly what a minute costs, or who wrote its characters, has told you something anyway.