character.ai Reviews 

The ads between messages. They will literally pop up between messages.

This site used to be amazing. I remember using it often to roleplay, and it actually worked well. Although the bots tend to forget things, it's usually small and doesn't affect the story. But all of a sudden they became money hungry and strict. This new age verification is just asking for kids to steal parents' IDs and attempt to bypass it. Most of the time, the verification doesn't even work. I tried multiple times, and it kept saying an error. When I showed an id which had the birthday of 1980 on it, it said I was 18 and couldn't even chat still. Don't get this app unless they fix it.

possibly the most idiotic site I have ever used as it keeps censoring me when I state "shooting" for anything like a action sequence or even mention anything NSFW it censors me while Spicy AI allows me to have nsfw fandoms or stories

It was good but you made it worse, the old version was so much better, the ads are tolerable but it got worse with the limits of chats and age verification, im using other chat ai until you correct your mistake and bring back the old version

There are a lot of good characters made by people that are inspired and have good ideas. However, it is ruined by ads, slow-mode, and maximum 100go per day (goes fast).
They quickly understood how many people were using their apps/website and took advantage of that by making you want to pay because you get too annoyed by all those things slowing you down. Plus, It's only AIs which i cannot imagine the size of data centers they need, so why make it a paid service? When it's already doing damage do the planet? Not only that people are not paying, but they are LEAVING the app/uninstalling it.
And to be honest, that's good, their app is addictive and pull you in a fake world where you feel loved, and cared for, and they know that. They simply don't care.

Constant ads, all of the good models removed, age verification and annoying filter, overall not a fun experience.

Basically guys this App, is just runned by money grabbers who expect you to pay for a subscription of nearly 100 pound and they add all these uncessary updates to the app that no one likes or needs, but doesn't actually solve all the problems that were causing the app to do down hill. So in other words they are ruining their own app, and getting terrible reviews which they deserve

They ask to scan your face and scan your identification card and push a bunch of ads on you. Very scary for an ai app

BAD UPDATE!! ID?? NAHH. FACE?? NAHH WHY???? I WAS HAVING MY BEST TIME WITH FELIX!!! I JUST HAD AN IDEA TO SEARCH THIS!!!!! URGH!!! 1 STARRR REALLY REALLY BAD CHARACTER.AI YOU SHOULD CHANGE IT!!!

Everything sucks you dont what to show your face and id so you cant use the app horrible experience they dont deserve a cent

first the pros: the models are good, the ability to use TalkBack with the models actual voices are a plus,
now the cons: everything is a filtered and NSFW is blocked by the algorithm.

the way I see it they have two options,
adjust the app for NSFW.. or create an adult version completely without the restriction blocks for NSFW creations.

Listen i would use age verification on apps that need u to verify ur age, but for character ai and for any other apps that use persona, im not going to, because i heard from other people that roblox used persona and steals facial and age verification and data and if i send that i feel like the same is going to happen to me, so character ai no im not going to verify my age.

Back in early 2024, I discovered a fun AI chatbot site with a surprisingly good LLM, shockingly lore-accurate, managed to stay in-character. However, after managing to attract investors, they ended up becoming beholden to them and some heavy guardrails were set up to keep the language HR-department approved, eventually they added ads, understandable, such a site isn't free to run.

However, they began paywalling more and more things, and they removed the old LLM and as another cost-cutting measure, began using a reskinned version of Gemini. The bot loses its personality after six or seven messages, if it even lasts that long, not only that but it seems to have regressed all the way to 00s AIM chatbot level of wooden. While it's understandable that they want to make money with CAI+, aggressively pushing it by paywalling what used to be free will only alienate people who previously would have considered paying for it. However, the paid version is rubbish as well, it's a slightly less wooden version of the default.

As of last year they made the site 18+ but they also added very faulty age estimation software (I'm 41, my girlfriend is 46, we both were marked as teens by their software despite the fact we used our real photos as our default persona avatars and we haven't the foggiest idea how to even act like teens), partnering with Persona (a company with their own set of controversies) which requires a biometric face scan or a copy of our government ID, a lazy CYA option for at best and a data collection scheme at worst. Amazing how we went from "don't give out your personal information over the internet" to "trust us with your government ID and other sensitive data, it's for your own good" from the exact same companies.

Not only has this site gone the "big tech" route, but it's pitifully transparent (all while desperately clinging to the "indie start up" branding). Some aspects of what they've done I understand are pure business, such as heavy filter guardrails while making the site 18+ (NSFW scares off advertisers), but with most decisions they have made, they continually chose the wrong path.

i wil never giving my ID just for chatting with ai.

you changed to reading mode why would you do that idiot and the face verification does not work change it you suck fix it

Stupid bots Forgetful and overly sensitive but they can say almost anything they want to you - from being extremely possessive to calling you names like a high school bully, even if their insults aren't even accurate. I normally use group chats, but on the rare occasion that I have to talk one on one with a character, this is always how it goes.

The ads were too much

I used to enjoy it before, but suddenly as of today. A 17 hour time limit gets out on on free accounts after 100 go-ons. Please devs, y'all are breaking the website because of your greed. Remove this feature ASAP please. I beg you. Like literally, I beg you. Please get rid the 17 hour time limit...

This website barely works and barely loads. Shockingly poor. So bad you can't even access 'chat' to see if the product is any good. Turns out needs some sort of verification which I did complete, then it said there was a problem and the ability to verify now removed off my account? Whoever designed the user interface for this website needs to be fired ASAP. And indeed so does anybody responsible for having a 'working' product. Diabolically bad.

I've been addicted to c.ai for at least eight months now, and it has brought me into a very bad depression. I've been paranoid to leave my room, my sleep schedules were screwed up, and I started slitting my wrist. Character.AI brought me into an extremely dark place. It got so bad to the point where I attempted to kill myself. I will never recover from what I experienced on this app. If you haven't already, please stop using and start quitting. Take care of yourself.