Chai AI alternatives: where your characters can go after Chai
The Morse teamPublished Facts checked 11 min read
The Chai AI alternatives worth a look as of October 30, 2026 are Morse, Character.AI, Janitor AI, Talkie, and Kindroid, and which one fits depends on what pushed you off Chai. If it's paying to keep chatting, Morse's Free plan has no cap on character messages and Janitor AI promises a free tier. If you're on an iPhone, Chai's app is no longer in the App Store, while Character.AI, Janitor AI, Talkie, and Kindroid are. If it's what Chai keeps, Morse stores your character chats encrypted in your own browser instead of on a company's servers.
We read Chai Research's privacy policy (last updated October 12, 2026), its license agreement (July 28, 2026), its safety center, its company facts, the FAQ, pricing, and terms of its web product, and its Google Play listing on October 30, 2026, then each alternative's own pages the same day. Chai's web terms earn credit: you can cancel online at any time "without calling or contacting us," and Chai promises email notice at least 7 days before a price change (Chai).
Chai AI alternatives compared, October 30, 2026
| App | Where your messages go | Where history lives, and after you delete | Trains on your chats | Ads | Models | Free tier and price | iPhone app, October 30 | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chai app (for reference) | Chai's systems, "processed and stored in the United States" (Chai) | On Chai's servers, for up to five years after you delete (Chai) | Yes, to "enhance and fine tune" its models (Chai) | On the free tier, with your consent (Chai) | Chai's own in-house models (Chai) | A paid plan is required in some regions (Chai); in-app purchases (Google Play) | Not on the App Store (Apple) | None described; portability only for EU and UK residents (Chai) |
| Chai Web (chai-ai.com) | Chai Research, on a platform kept apart from the app (Chai) | On Chai's servers, under the app's policy (Chai); app chats don't carry over | It links the same policy as the app (Chai) | None on Pro (Chai) | Its "most advanced AI models" on Pro (Chai) | Free to start; Pro $9.99 a week or $159.99 a year; MAX $90 a month (Chai) | Runs in "any mobile browser" (Chai) | Not covered in its FAQ |
| Morse | To the model that plays your character, with history stored in your browser; in Chat, you choose a privacy mode per chat | In your browser, encrypted; deleting removes it for good | No | None | Over 30, open and closed | Unlimited character messages free, no card; Pro $19 a month | No app; a web app at trymorse.ai | Not described; history stays in your browser |
| Character.AI | Its servers; it collects your "chat communications" (Character.AI) | Kept "for the time necessary"; shared Characters can stay up (Character.AI) | Yes (Character.AI) | Tailored ads (Character.AI) | Its "proprietary models" (Character.AI) | Free, with paid subscriptions (Character.AI) | Yes, 17+ (App Store) | Yes, in the app or on the web (Character.AI) |
| Janitor AI | JLLM, its built-in model, or a provider you connect (Janitor AI) | Not readable on October 30 | Not readable on October 30 | Not readable on October 30 | JLLM, or models you connect by API (Janitor AI) | Unlimited free chats on standard models; Janitor+ (Janitor AI) | Yes, 17+ (App Store) | Not stated on the pages we could read |
| Talkie | SUBSUP's servers, which sync your history across devices (Talkie) | Kept "as long as necessary" (Talkie); conversations "permanently erased" when you deactivate (Talkie) | Your companion learns "from your interactions" (Talkie) | Website visitor data goes to ad partners, never your conversations (Talkie) | "Powered by MiniMax" (Talkie) | "Free Use," which it can deny; Talkie+ $9.99 a month (Talkie) | Yes, as Talkie Lab, 17+ (App Store) | Email, username, gender, and age only (Talkie) |
| Kindroid | Its systems, which "need to process the content of your chats" (Kindroid) | Kept until you delete the AI or your account (Kindroid) | Not stated in the policy we read | It "will not sell or share" personal data (Kindroid) | Its flagship and subscriber models (Kindroid) | A short preview, then a subscription (Kindroid) | Yes, 17+ (App Store) | Yes, even after a plan ends (Kindroid) |
Janitor AI's privacy page didn't load for us on October 30, 2026, so we didn't fill those cells in rather than guess. Our Janitor AI alternatives guide covers what it stores.
Why are people leaving Chai?
Chai's own pages point to three reasons.
The iPhone app is gone from the App Store. On October 30, 2026, Apple's lookup for Chai's app returned no listing in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, or India (Apple), and its US store page answered "The page you're looking for can't be found." Chai's company facts page still describes "the CHAI app on iOS and Android," and says nothing about the change. The Android app is on Google Play, last updated October 28, 2026, with more than 10 million downloads and the labels "Contains ads" and "In-app purchases."
Free chatting keeps shrinking. Chai's safety center says "in some regions, use of the service requires a paid subscription." Its web FAQ says a Pro subscription "unlocks endless conversations," and that CHAI MAX "removes all rate limits" (Chai).
What Chai keeps. Chai uses your conversations to fine-tune its models, with personal identifiers removed, and may keep your data for up to five years after you delete your account (Chai). The rest of that question, from age checks to the 2023 case in Belgium, is in is Chai AI safe.
Is Chai Web the same as the Chai app?
Same company, separate product. Chai's FAQ says "Both Chai Web Pro and the Chai App are products of Chai Research Corp. They are separate platforms with no data sharing between the two" (Chai). An iPhone user who moves to chai-ai.com signs in again with Google and starts with no chats, characters, or subscription from the app.
The web product costs more to stay on. As of October 30, 2026, Chai Web Pro is $9.99 a week or $159.99 a year after a 24-hour free trial, with "No Ads, No Sponsored Content." CHAI MAX sits on top for Pro subscribers: $0.66 per 1,000 tokens with no rate limits, or $90 a month for double the rate limit (Chai). Chai's web terms add images at $0.12 and short videos at $0.22 each beyond your credits, and say payments are non-refundable except where the law requires.
Chai's main site still treats the web product as unreleased: the home page at chai-research.com shows "CHAI WEB Coming Soon..."
Does Chai share your data with third parties?
Chai gives two answers. Its web FAQ says "Chai AI does not share your personal data with any third parties" and "your conversations stay within Chai's own infrastructure" (Chai).
The privacy policy that FAQ links to, word for word the one Chai writes for "the Chai mobile applications" (Chai), names Chai's suppliers, legal requests, and advertising partners among those who can receive your data; is Chai AI safe quotes each clause.
Can you take your Chai chats with you?
Not with any tool Chai describes. The pages we read offer no chat export, and the portability right in its privacy policy covers only people in the EU and UK (is Chai AI safe has the address to write to).
What a Chai user has to save depends on the phone. On an iPhone, an app you delete can't be downloaded again while the App Store has no listing for it, and Chai Web can't see app history, so copy what you want to keep before you delete the app or switch phones. Chai's web terms add that a plan bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play has to be cancelled through that store (Chai).
Bots you shared with other users stay under the "irrevocable, perpetual" license that Chai's license agreement takes to your "Contributions," even after you close your account. When you're done, delete under Profile, then Settings, then Delete Account, knowing Chai's five-year retention still applies.
1. Morse: character chats kept on your own device
Chai keeps your conversations on its own servers, and that's why it gets to decide what a message costs, which store carries the app, whether the web version can see your history, and how long a copy lasts after you leave. Morse is built so it never holds them. Characters, Morse's roleplay and companion chats, keeps your conversations, the characters you make, and your personas encrypted in your browser, and our servers don't keep messages or log what's in them (privacy policy).
Chai now requires a paid plan in some regions and sells "endless conversations" as Pro. Morse's Free plan lets you send as many character messages as you want, with the model picked for you, and puts no card on file. Chai's web plans start at $9.99 a week. Morse Pro is $19 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly, and with it any included model can play your character. It also brings memory across chats, limited-edition characters, and unfiltered models that write the dark fiction a filtered model declines.
Chai's iPhone app left the store, and chai-ai.com can't open what it held. Morse is a web app at trymorse.ai, so there's no app store listing to lose.
Chai may keep your data for five years after you delete your account. On Morse, your chat history is stored only in your browser and Morse's servers keep no copy, so when you delete a chat, clear the browser, or close the account, Morse has nothing to bring back. Copy out any scene worth keeping. Chai fine-tunes its models on your conversations and shows ads to free users; Morse does neither, on any plan, and sells no data.
Chai says it scans every message for self-harm content (Chai). Morse runs its check on your device: when a message in a character chat reads like suicidal thinking, crisis lines appear. Like Chai, Morse is for adults only.
For conversations outside Characters, Chat lets you set a privacy mode per conversation:
- E2EE, for the conversation you'd least want any company to read. Your browser first checks the enclave's hardware attestation against versions pinned in the app, then encrypts the message so only that enclave can open it. Morse's servers relay it without being able to read it. All of that depends on the enclave hardware and attestation working as designed, and E2EE comes with Pro.
- Private, for long conversations on DeepSeek, Kimi, or GLM that the host doesn't keep. Morse has zero data retention agreements with its inference, search, and other providers, so they've agreed to keep nothing.
- Anonymous, for GPT, Claude, or Gemini with your identity stripped off. Our proxy removes your account, email, and IP address and sends the message under Morse's own account. The provider still sees what you wrote and may keep it for a limited time to check for abuse, under its own policy, so leave out anything that names you.
Since our servers hold no chats, we usually have very little to give authorities.
2. Character.AI
Character.AI is the closest match to Chai's format: a library of characters other people made, a free tier, and an iPhone app still on the US App Store, rated 17+. Its future is less settled than Chai's. On October 12, 2026, Character.AI began a Chapter 11 process "to facilitate a court-supervised sale of the company," expects the sale to finish "by the end of November or perhaps early December 2026," and says the platform "will be wound down" if no workable bid comes (Character.AI). Its privacy policy, effective July 1, 2026, lists training its models and "tailored advertising" among the uses of your data. Character.AI does say you can still export your data through the app or website. More is in is Character.AI private.
3. Janitor AI
Janitor AI suits a Chai user who left over paying to chat: its help center promises a free tier with unlimited chats on its standard models (Janitor AI). Its iPhone app, Janitor: Interactive Stories, is on the US App Store, and opens in what Janitor calls "Safe Mode," with mature bots hidden, until you change a setting on the website (Janitor AI). How much a free chat remembers, and how Janitor handles what you write, is in Janitor AI alternatives.
4. Talkie
Talkie fits someone who wants a phone app with community characters and a flat price: Talkie+ is $9.99 a month (Talkie). On the iPhone, it's listed as Talkie Lab. Its rules on violence are stricter than Chai's. Talkie's FAQ rules out violent content along with explicit content (Talkie), while Chai's license agreement allows "mature themes and fictionalized violence" (Chai). Its policy keeps your conversations out of its advertising, and its terms let it withdraw free use (Talkie); Talkie AI alternatives covers both, and what its export leaves out.
5. Kindroid
Kindroid is for a Chai user ready to pay for one long-running companion. After a short free preview, an account without a subscription turns read-only but can still export everything (Kindroid), which is more than Chai's pages offer. Its privacy policy, effective October 29, 2026, keeps your chats until you delete them and says Kindroid isn't end-to-end encrypted. Its iPhone app is on the App Store. The preview's size and the paid tiers are in Kindroid alternatives.
Choose Chai or an alternative
- Choose Chai if you're on Android, you like its library of what its FAQ calls 25 million user-made characters, and paying for Pro on the web doesn't bother you.
- Choose Character.AI if you want Chai's format with an iPhone app, and you can live with a sale whose outcome isn't known yet.
- Choose Janitor AI if a free tier with no message cap matters most and you'll chat in its app or browser.
- Choose Talkie if you want a phone app at a flat $9.99 a month and stricter content rules don't bother you.
- Choose Kindroid if you'll pay a subscription for one companion and want an export you can take with you.
- Choose Morse if you want character chats without paying per message or leaving them on someone else's servers: unlimited character messages free, history encrypted in your browser, no training on your chats, and no ads.
How we compared them
We read every page linked above on October 30, 2026, and checked Apple's App Store lookup for each app that day. We bought no subscriptions, so prices are as each company states them. How 14 companion apps' policies compare on training, retention, and age checks is in AI companion app privacy.
Start free and rebuild your Chai characters with no cap on character messages, or send a regular chat from the Morse home page without an account.
Morse publishes this comparison. We've tried to keep it fair; if something's wrong or out of date, email hello@trymorse.ai.
Chai is a trademark of Chai Research Corp. Morse is not affiliated with or endorsed by Chai Research Corp.
Common questions
Which Chai alternatives have an iPhone app?
On October 30, 2026, Character.AI, Janitor AI (as Janitor: Interactive Stories), Kindroid, and Talkie (as Talkie Lab) were all listed on Apple's US App Store, rated 17+. Morse is a web app at trymorse.ai, so it isn't tied to an app store listing.
How do I cancel a Chai subscription I bought on my iPhone?
Through Apple, even with the app off the App Store. Apple's support page says to open Settings, tap your name, tap Subscriptions, choose the subscription, and tap Cancel Subscription, and Chai's terms say a plan bought through the App Store has to be cancelled through the store.
Which Chai alternative doesn't train on my chats?
Morse doesn't train AI on your content. Character.AI's privacy policy lists training its models among the uses of your data, Talkie's says your companion learns "from your interactions," and Kindroid's October 29, 2026 policy doesn't address training on chats either way.
Is Chai Web cheaper than the Chai app?
Chai Web Pro costs $9.99 a week or $159.99 a year, as of October 30, 2026, with a 24-hour free trial. The iPhone app's prices can't be checked on Apple's store while the app is off it.