Character AI vs Janitor AI: filters, age checks, privacy, and price

The Morse teamPublished November 3, 2026Facts checked November 3, 20268 min read

Character AI vs Janitor AI comes down to filters against setup. As of November 3, 2026, Character.AI bans pornographic content and nudity, checks every user's age, and is free with ads, while Janitor AI is for adults only, allows adult content on characters tagged "Limitless," and lets you plug in outside models through a proxy. Neither keeps your chats off a company's servers, and Janitor's proxy route adds two more companies to the chain.

We read Character.AI's privacy policy (effective July 1, 2026), its terms of service (last updated August 27, 2025), its community guidelines, and its help center articles on age assurance, training, export, deletion, and plans on November 3, 2026, and Janitor AI's help center articles on its model, proxies, Router, janitor+, age verification, app moderation, content rules, and deletion the same day. janitorai.com itself kept us in a waiting line all day ("Traffic is high right now, so we're letting people in slowly"), so we couldn't reread Janitor's privacy policy and terms; what they said on October 19 is in our Janitor AI alternatives guide. Both companies earn credit here. Character.AI says creators "can never see the conversations" you have with their characters, and Janitor's age check sends it only "a yes/no answer on whether you are over 18."

Character AI vs Janitor AI at a glance

As of November 3, 2026. Every Character.AI and Janitor AI fact links to that company's own page, in the table or in the sections below.

Which is more filtered, Character.AI or Janitor AI?

Character.AI, by its own rules. Its community guidelines welcome "passionate romance" and "intense action," then prohibit "illegal sexual content, child exploitation or abuse imagery, grooming, sexual extortion, pornographic content, and nudity." They add that its models "are designed with filters and limits to prevent inappropriate outputs," and that users under 18 get "an age-appropriate model" (Character.AI).

Janitor sorts characters by tag. A character must be tagged "Limitless" if it has "sexual or romantic themes" or "explicit dialogue," and Limited ones carry "no sexual or romantic characteristics" (Janitor). Its iOS and Android apps start in a "Safe Mode" that hides NSFW bots and blocks "certain explicit words," to meet app store rules, until you switch on Enable NSFW for App in Settings on the website (Janitor). Janitor has a zero-tolerance rule on any character "coded, depicted, or described as minors," and bans users who create one (Janitor).

On Janitor, the model you connect can still refuse. Its own error guide warns that "Models like Gemini 2.5 may silently fail if your prompt hits certain filters" (Janitor).

Can teens use Character.AI or Janitor AI?

Teens can sign up for Character.AI, but they can't chat, and they can't use Janitor AI at all. One comparison that ranks for this search calls Character.AI "adults-only now" (AI Companion Pick), but its terms admit users from 13, or 16 in the EEA and UK (Character.AI), and every user takes an age check, after which those verified as under 18 get "reading mode," where "Chat with characters is not available" (Character.AI). Janitor admits no one under 18, "regardless of the legal age in your country," and bans users it suspects are younger (Janitor), yet it checks ages only where the law makes it: Australia, Brazil, and the UK, through k-ID, which sends Janitor only "a yes/no answer on whether you are over 18" (Janitor). We cover what Character.AI's Persona check collects in are Character.AI chats private.

Who sees your chats on Character.AI and Janitor AI?

On Character.AI, the company does. Its privacy policy lists "chat communications" and "recordings of your voice, if you chose to use certain voice features" among what it collects, and lets it disclose personal information "to advertising and analytics providers in connection with the provision of tailored advertising" (Character.AI). Its terms say it "may access, review, screen, edit, modify and delete your content at any time and for any reason" (Character.AI). We cover who else can see what in are Character.AI chats private.

On Janitor, it depends on the model. JLLM is Janitor's "house brand," and a proxy is "the middleman between your chat and the model provider" (Janitor). Janitor's quickstart sets one up with an OpenRouter account and an API key you're told to treat "like a password" (Janitor). OpenRouter says it doesn't store prompts or responses unless you opt in, but keeps metadata such as token counts for each request (OpenRouter), and that each provider behind it "has its own data handling policies" (OpenRouter).

Janitor's fix for one common error turns on a training setting. For "No endpoints found matching your data policy," it says to "Enable Model Training under Privacy Settings" in OpenRouter (Janitor), the setting OpenRouter describes as allowing "routing to providers that may train on your data" (OpenRouter). Picking a different model clears the error without that.

Does either one train on your chats?

Character.AI does. Its help center says it keeps "certain data that you share with us to help train and improve our AI models," and only users in the EEA and UK can opt out, under Settings, Account, Manage Account & Data, Model Improvement on the web. Opting out still leaves your data in use for "search, recommendations, and safety classifiers" (Character.AI).

Janitor's help center doesn't say either way, and its privacy policy was behind the waiting line on November 3. With a proxy, training is also up to the model provider and your OpenRouter settings, as above.

What do Character.AI and Janitor AI cost?

Both have a free tier with unlimited chats. Character.AI's free plan shows banner and full-screen ads. (c.ai) lite "starts at $4.99/mo," varies by region, and "reduces ads. It does not remove them" (Character.AI, Character.AI). c.ai+ renews at "$9.99/month," or "$94.99/year," in US dollars, with no ads and unlimited premium chat styles (Character.AI).

Janitor's free tier gives "unlimited chats with millions of bots" with "a context limit of around 9k tokens." janitor+ adds "5x more context" and priority replies, and Janitor's help page doesn't list its price (Janitor). Router, for subscribers on the web, bills "per token" for outside models, with "$1 launch credits" that expire a year after you claim them and aren't refundable (Janitor). A free OpenRouter proxy allows "50 free messages/day," or 1,000 a day after adding $10 once (Janitor).

How do you leave each one?

Character.AI lets you export your data from Profile Settings, Account, Manage Account & Data, Export Data, though it "can take 3-4 weeks," and the download link lasts 7 days (Character.AI). Deleting your account is "permanent and cannot be reversed" (Character.AI). Our Character.AI account deletion guide walks through what stays behind.

Janitor's deletion runs through Settings, Security, Delete account, and needs a 6-digit code sent to your email. Support "cannot manually delete accounts" for you, and deletion removes "posts, characters, personas, and profile information" for good (Janitor). We found no export guide in Janitor's help center.

How Morse keeps your character chats on your device

Character.AI and Janitor AI both keep your roleplay with the company that runs them, and Janitor's proxy route hands it to two more. Morse is built so your character chats are kept on your device instead.

• Your chats stay in your browser. Characters, Morse's roleplay and companion chats, keeps your character chats, the characters you make, and your personas in your browser, encrypted. Unlocking them takes two keys, one that never leaves your device and one our server gives you when you sign in. Our servers don't keep messages or log their content.
• No proxy, no key. Over 30 models, open and closed, come with one account, so there's no OpenRouter key to paste and no training setting at a proxy to check.
• No training, no ads. Morse doesn't train AI on your content, sell your data, or show ads, on the Free plan too.
• Unlimited character messages on Free. The Free plan costs $0, needs no card, and gives unlimited character messages with the model picked for you. Pro, at $19 a month, runs character chats on any included model and opens unfiltered models that write the dark fiction other apps refuse.
• Your Character.AI library comes with you. Morse's free importer brings your Character.AI characters, chats, and personas, with an exporter that runs only in your browser.

Morse is for adults, who confirm they're 18 or older, and character chats show crisis lines when a message reads like suicidal thinking, a check that runs on your device. In Chat, each conversation also gets a privacy mode, from Anonymous to end-to-end encrypted, which we explain in end-to-end encrypted AI chat. Your history is stored only on your device, so clearing your browser deletes it for good, and we can't recover it either; keep anything you need.

Choose Character.AI, Janitor AI, or Morse

• Choose Character.AI if you want its polished apps, voice calls, and strict content rules, and you're fine with ads on the free plan and your chats training its models.
• Choose Janitor AI if you want millions of user-made bots, adult content on Limitless characters, and the freedom to wire in any model, and you'll manage a proxy's settings yourself.
• Choose Morse if you want character chat with no proxy, no ads, and no training, with your chats stored encrypted on your device and your Character.AI characters brought along.

Start free, or send a message from the home page without an account first.

Morse publishes this comparison. We've tried to keep it fair; if something's wrong or out of date, email hello@trymorse.ai.

Character.AI is a trademark of Character Technologies, Inc. Morse is not affiliated with or endorsed by Character Technologies, Inc.

Janitor AI is a trademark of JanitorAI Inc. Morse is not affiliated with or endorsed by JanitorAI Inc.