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Character.AI vs Glambase

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Character.AI starts at $9.99, Glambase at $5.99. Both have a free tier.

Side by side

FactCharacter.AIGlambase
CategoryAI Companions & CharactersAI Companions & Characters
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$9.99 month$5.99 month
Public APINoNo
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb
CompanyCharacter Technologies, Inc.
Launched20212023
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Character.AI

Still the deepest character library anywhere and the reason the whole companion category exists, but it has been rebuilt around safety and identity checks, and the audience it was famous for is now locked out.

Pros

  • Character library is far larger than any competitor's, with voice calls and group scenes included
  • Free tier is genuinely usable, with the subscription mostly buying speed and memory
  • Safety changes are unusually explicit about what was removed and when

Cons

  • Age assurance defaults to face-based estimation, which is a hard stop for privacy-minded users
  • Charms are a second currency on top of c.ai+, so the $9.99 is a floor not a ceiling
  • No API, no export, and no self-hosting
  • The platform has been reshaped by wrongful-death litigation, and further restrictions are plausible

Glambase

Glambase is a creator tool wearing a companion-app skin: you build a persona, it makes the pictures and does the talking, and the platform takes a share of the earnings. Prepaying a year makes it one of the cheaper entries in the AI-influencer space. What is missing is any named company, address or jurisdiction, which is a lot to overlook for something that handles payouts.

Pros

  • Character builder covering look, voice and personality
  • Generates the persona's images on demand
  • Built-in paid chat with a creator revenue share
  • Prepaid year drops the price to $5.99/month

Cons

  • No legal entity, address or jurisdiction disclosed on the site
  • No API and no way to export the persona
  • Token allowances rather than unlimited generation

Which one fits

Choose Character.AI if you need

  • Adults who want long-running roleplay with persistent personas
  • People building and sharing characters for an existing community
  • Casual conversational entertainment rather than task work

Choose Glambase if you need

  • creators testing a virtual influencer without a photo shoot
  • people who want an always-on character chat
  • cheap experiments with AI persona monetisation

Browse all AI Companions & Characters