Character.AI is the largest product in this category by almost any measure: millions of
user-made characters, a catalogue framed as endless, and a business built on scale. Teylo
is the opposite shape on purpose, four fixed people with names rather than a library to
browse. This page compares them on the dimensions that actually differ, not on which one
is bigger.
Character.AI's rows are sourced from a Wayback capture of character.ai dated 2 Aug 2026
(the live site blocks automated fetches). Teylo's rows are current as of today.
Teylo
Character.AI
Monthly price
$19/month or $199/year, after 7 days free with no card required.
Our own published policy, checked 14 Aug 2026
$9.99/month for c.ai+, discounted to $3.99 for the first month.
Archived capture of their site via the Wayback Machine, checked 2 Aug 2026
Free tier
None after the 7-day trial. Access ends outright rather than continuing in a
reduced form.
Our own published policy, checked 14 Aug 2026
Yes. Free users can chat but are throttled under high traffic ("slow
mode"), with a virtual currency called Charms offered to skip the wait.
Archived capture of their site via the Wayback Machine, checked 2 Aug 2026
Catalogue
Four, fixed, with names. Not configurable and not user-created.
Our own published policy, checked 14 Aug 2026
Millions of user-created Characters. The homepage's own language for this is
"neverending", "unbounded" and "endless".
Archived capture of their site via the Wayback Machine, checked 2 Aug 2026
AI disclosure
The first message states plainly that they are digital friends, not people, and any
of them will say so again whenever asked.
Our own published policy, checked 14 Aug 2026
A persistent chat-header banner ("Remember: Everything Characters say is made
up!"), an expandable fiction warning, and a self-harm interstitial naming
crisis resources.
Archived capture of their site via the Wayback Machine, checked 2 Aug 2026
Age verification
States the product is for adults 18 and over. No verification mechanism is
published beyond that statement.
Our own published policy, checked 14 Aug 2026
A required 18+ check, with ID or facial verification if the initial check fails.
Under-18 access to open-ended chat was removed by November 2025.
Archived capture of their site via the Wayback Machine, checked 2 Aug 2026
Memory after a long gap
Policy: go quiet for a year and come back to the same conversation. No streaks, no
guilt, no "I missed you".
Our own published policy, checked 14 Aug 2026
Untested: Whether recall actually holds up months after a conversation, for a
paying Character.AI user.
Nobody has run this. It would take a paid account and weeks of use, on both
sides.
Independent disagreement
Each companion carries its own published disagreement dial, as part of its
design.
Our own published policy, checked 14 Aug 2026
Untested: Whether Character.AI actually disagrees in practice, over real use.
Nobody has run this. It would take a paid account and weeks of use, on both
sides.
Where Character.AI is the better choice
You want breadth. Millions of user-created characters, across every genre someone
has bothered to build. Teylo offers exactly four, permanently, and that's the entire
idea. If variety and discovery are what you're after, Character.AI has scale Teylo will
never try to match.
You want a free tier that keeps existing. Character.AI throttles free users under
load rather than cutting them off, so a free way in stays available alongside the paid
one. Teylo's trial stops outright after seven days; no reduced version of it continues
afterward.
You want the most tested disclosure system we found. A persistent chat-header
banner, an expandable fiction warning, a self-harm interstitial naming crisis resources,
and a hard 18+ gate with an identity check as a fallback. It's the most detailed
in-product disclosure apparatus in this whole category, built under real regulatory
pressure. Teylo's disclosure lives in the first message and at /safety instead of a
persistent in-app banner, because Teylo has no app to put a banner in.
Same numbers as everywhere else on the site.