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Character.AI vs LusyChat

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, LusyChat at $7.99. Both have a free tier.

Character.AIRoleplay chat with user-made characters, now adults onlyLusyChatNSFW AI companion chat with customizable characters, image and video generation, for verified adults.

Side by side

FactCharacter.AILusyChat
CategoryAI Companions & CharactersRoleplay & Character Chat
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$9.99 month$7.99 month
Public APINoNo
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, Android
CompanyCharacter Technologies, Inc.—
Launched2021—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 1, 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

LusyChat

LusyChat covers the standard adult-companion-chat feature set — custom characters, ongoing chat, coin-funded images and video — competently enough, but transparency is the weak point: no company name anywhere, and even the entry price for premium comes from a third-party directory rather than the vendor's own pricing page.

Pros

  • Character creation tools let users build their own personas, not just pick presets
  • Combines chat with image and video generation in one app
  • Android app exists alongside the web version, not web-only
  • Age-verification gate and fictional-character disclaimer are stated upfront

Cons

  • No company name, address, or entity disclosed anywhere on the site
  • Vendor's own site doesn't publish clear pricing — entry price had to be sourced from a third-party directory
  • Coin currency on top of subscriptions makes true cost-per-use hard to estimate

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 LusyChat if you need

  • Adults who want customizable AI companion chat with visual generation attached
  • Users comfortable with a coin/microtransaction model layered under subscriptions

More comparisons

All LusyChat alternatives →Browse all AI Companions & Characters →