Best AI Girlfriend Apps in 2026: 15 Apps Compared by Price, Free Tier and Features

There is no single best AI girlfriend app, because the apps are not trying to do the same thing. Some are catalogues of ready-made characters you browse like a dating app. Some put a character builder first and only then let you talk. Some sell flat subscriptions, others sell a subscription plus a credit currency that meters every image, video or voice call. This guide ranks the apps we have reviewed on chatbotdating.com by what each one is actually best at, with the prices and free-tier limits we found at the time of each review, so you can pick for your use rather than for a marketing screen.

Everything here is 18+ software. We treat it as entertainment, not a relationship, and we keep the descriptions non-explicit.

How we picked

Every app in the table has a full review on this site, written against the same scoring template: persona quality, memory, conversation depth, what the free tier really allows, how the paid plans are structured, and what the privacy policy says. The category winners below are chosen for the fit between an app's strengths and a specific need. Prices move often in this niche, so treat the figures as the range we saw and check the live checkout before paying.

The comparison table

Best overall: Candy.ai

Candy.ai is the safest first pick because it covers both ways people use these apps: pick from a library of pre-built personas, or build your own by adjusting appearance, personality and conversational style. Memory and continuity are solid, and voice calls, image and video generation are all there. The subscription runs around $12.99 a month with quarterly and yearly discounts.

The catch is the same one that runs through most of this category. The free tier is a teaser, with blurred images, and the heavier media features draw on token packs from about $9.99 per 100 tokens on top of the subscription. If you mostly chat, the base plan is enough. If you generate a lot of pictures, budget for tokens. Full Candy.ai review.

▶ Try Candy.ai

Best for building your own companion: Dream Companion

Dream Companion inverts the usual flow. You design appearance and temperament first, then the conversation starts, and the generated images, videos and live voice calls all feature that exact character. If catalogue apps have felt generic to you, this is the direct answer.

Go in with a number in your head. Monetisation is a subscription plus usage-based spending on photos, videos and premium features, so there is no natural ceiling, and the build-first design is deliberately engineered to create attachment before the first payment. We explain the psychology in the Dream Companion review, and list flat-priced options in our Dream Companion alternatives.

▶ Try Dream Companion

Best free tier and privacy: Secrets.ai

Secrets.ai has the most honest free plan we have tested: 20 responses a day, around 200 Moments credits a month and basic memory, enough to judge the writing before paying. Premium is $19.99 a month or an effective $13.33 on an annual plan, with 8,000 Moments for images, video and audio calls, and Ultimate at $39.99 adds group chats and personas.

It is also our privacy pick. Private Mode advertises end-to-end encryption and an opt-out from AI training, which almost nothing else in this list offers. The trade-off is that it is web-only, with no native apps. Full Secrets.ai review.

▶ Try Secrets.ai

Best for zero setup: Swipey

Swipey borrows the Tinder loop. You swipe through a carousel of pre-made AI personalities, matching unlocks a chat, and there is nothing to configure. The free tier genuinely works, with browsing, matching and chatting under a daily message cap, and Premium starts around $10 a month. It is a poor fit if you want to author every detail of a character, which is exactly what Dream Companion and DreamGF are for. Full Swipey review.

▶ Try Swipey

Best on a budget: MyLovely AI

On a 12-month plan MyLovely AI works out to $4.15 a month, billed $49.80 a year, for 300 tokens a month, unlimited chat and no watermarks. Even the free Starter tier includes basic video creation, which most competitors reserve for paying users, though the output is watermarked and limited to one character. Monthly billing is $12.99, so the saving depends entirely on committing for a year. Full MyLovely AI review.

▶ Try MyLovely AI

Best for memory: Dondi.ai and GetHarder

Two apps compete here and suit different people.

Dondi.ai leans everything on long-term memory: companions retain history and preferences across sessions, with a free daily message allowance that needs no payment details and a roughly 60-second setup. Premium runs about $13 to $20 a month depending on the current promotion, and it is browser-only. Full Dondi.ai review.

GetHarder, the rebrand of NewGirl.AI, pairs emotional memory with sliders for empathy, conflict style and attachment, and is the privacy-minded choice: anonymous use without an email, encryption by default and auto-delete timers. The free tier allows about 20 messages a day without NSFW, and Pro is a flat $16.99 a month or $149 a year, with no credit currency on top. Full GetHarder review.

▶ Try Dondi.ai

Best for character variety: FlirtCam.AI and Girlfriend GPT

FlirtCam.AI advertises more than 196 female and 32 male character types, filterable by appearance, profession, behaviour and roleplay theme, plus a builder for custom companions. It is browser-only and runs on a token economy after a handful of free intro messages, so expect to pay quickly. Full FlirtCam.AI review.

Girlfriend GPT offers a broad roster of ready-made characters and roleplay scenarios, with Deluxe around $14.99 a month for unlimited chat, images and voice, and Elite around $24.99 for premium models and custom character creation. It is run by NextDay AI, a registered company across Canada, the US and the EU, which matters if you want to know who holds your data. Full Girlfriend GPT review.

▶ Try FlirtCam.AI

Best for images and video: Lovescape

If generating pictures and clips of your companion matters more than the conversation, Lovescape has the deepest creative tools we have seen in a companion app: pose control, inpainting, negative prompts and reference-image remixing, with high-resolution output. Premium is about $12.99 a month or $5.99 billed annually with 600 chips, and chip packs top it up. Our reviewer scored it 9/10 on that strength alone. Read the Lovescape review before deciding, because the free entry point is a sample, not a plan.

Apps we would not start with

• DreamGF.ai and DreamBF.ai advertise intro prices from $12.99 that renew at roughly double, and meter voice and images with tokens on top. Fine if you read the renewal terms, a trap if you do not.
• DarLink AI has no free chat tier at all, with plans from $12.99 to $49.99 a month.
• Hornyspace publishes no verifiable pricing, company or data policy.

Before you pay for any of them

Three habits save more money than picking the right app. Check whether the headline price is an intro rate and what it renews at. Check whether images, voice and video are included or metered by a credit currency, because that is where the real cost lives in this category. And read how to delete your data, since these are intimate conversations stored on someone else's server. Our guides on what AI companion apps store about you, the real cost of subscriptions, tokens and add-ons and how to cancel without hidden renewals cover each one. Looking for a male companion instead? See our best AI boyfriend apps.

Prices and free-tier limits are those we recorded in each review and change frequently. Verify at checkout. All apps listed are 18+.