💬 Chatbots and assistants · 🎨 Art, music and story makers
Character.AI
By Character Technologies, Inc.. Visit Character.AI
Warning: read this before you buy or sign up. Checked 2026-10-24.
Warning: Character.AI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 12, 2026 and is being sold under court supervision, with Disney as the opening bidder; the app may close if no buyer keeps it running. It lets people chat and role-play with AI characters made by other users. After lawsuits over harm to teens, it removed open-ended chat for under-18s in November 2025 and offers them guided Stories and other formats instead, with age checks.
Our take: Skip it for children and teens; it is a cautionary tale about AI companions, and its future is uncertain.
| Ages it suits | 18+ for open chat; 13-17 limited to guided formats |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | Terms (Aug 2025): do not sign up if you are under 13, or under 16 in the EEA or UK. Since November 2025 the company says users under 18 can no longer use open-ended chat, enforced with age checks. (terms) |
| Price | Free, with paid extras. Free; c.ai+ paid subscription (price not on a page we could load); subscriptions stay active during bankruptcy (Oct 2026) |
| Works on | Web, iPhone and iPad, Android |
| Account | The child's own account |
| Ads | Not stated |
| In-app purchases | Yes |
| The AI in it | Its own language models play user-made characters in open-ended chat and role-play; under-18s get guided story formats instead of free chat. |
What's good
- Open-ended chat removed for under-18s
- Age checks with an outside provider
- Parental Insights emails for linked parents
Watch for
- In bankruptcy; may shut down or change owners
- Chats and data may go to a buyer
- Companion-style chat can pull teens in
- Age checks can be dodged or misfire
Data and privacy
Not checked in full: the privacy page did not load for us. In its bankruptcy notice the company says data practices are unchanged and users can export or delete their data; news reports note its policy allows data to pass to a buyer in an asset sale. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
Common Sense Media (Apr 2025) rated it an unacceptable risk and said no one under 18 should use it. TechCrunch reported the bankruptcy follows lawsuits including one over a 14-year-old's suicide and a Texas investigation.
In the Big Index
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Where these facts come from
- https://character.ai/tos
- https://blog.character.ai/
- https://blog.character.ai/an-update-on-character-ai/
- https://blog.character.ai/u18-chat-announcement/
- https://blog.character.ai/continuing-to-build-upon-our-safety-priorities/
- https://institute.commonsensemedia.org/risk-assessments/character-ai
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/13/just-5-years-in-interactive-chatbot-platform-character-ai-files-for-bankruptcy/
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.