Best AI girlfriend apps in 2026

We compared seven AI girlfriend apps on iPhone listing facts, monthly cost, documented memory, calls and media, relationship model and safety record, to find the best AI girlfriend app for iPhone. Riho is our top pick if you want one ongoing girlfriend who remembers your life together, goes on Dates with you, sends you pictures and picks up when you call. Riho publishes this page. App Store figures were read on October 16, 2026.

Key takeaways

• Kindroid has the highest US App Store rating of the five apps with listings. It stands at 4.77 from 9,776 ratings, ahead of Nomi at 4.57 (2,947 ratings), Replika at 4.44 (227,703), Character.AI at 4.27 (559,703) and Chai at 4.22 (about 294,000). We read all five on October 16, 2026, and the figures move daily.
• Riho is the only app here with one fixed girlfriend. Kindroid and Nomi have you create companions, Replika has you shape a single companion called a Rep, and Character.AI and Chai are catalogs of user-made characters.
• The lowest-priced subscriptions on Replika, Nomi and Kindroid list at $7.99, $9.99 and $15.99, with extras sold separately. Kindroid charges 400 credits a minute for voice calls, and 500,000 audio credits cost $14.99.
• Candy AI’s own help center (August 2025) says it has no native iPhone app. It points to a mobile website and a home-screen web app, which is why Candy sits last in the order below.
• Safety records differ. Character Technologies filed Chapter 11 on October 12, 2026, Italy’s data protection authority fined Replika’s maker EUR 5 million in 2025, and Australia’s eSafety Commissioner sent legal notices to four companion providers that October, Nomi’s and Chai’s among them.

What an AI girlfriend app is (and what it isn’t)

An AI girlfriend app is an iPhone app built around one romantic companion you talk to over weeks and months. She writes back in her own voice, keeps track of what you tell her, and in most of these apps she can also send pictures and take your calls. The five apps with US App Store listings each show an 18+ age rating there.

A general assistant app answers questions for anyone who asks, and each conversation is a task that ends when the answer arrives. A girlfriend app keeps a single relationship going, so what it has to do well is continuity: the name you gave her, the friend you mentioned last week, what happened the last time you talked.

Within the category, apps come in three shapes. In the first, you get one fixed companion who’s already made, which is how Riho works. In the second, you create your own, writing a personality and backstory and sometimes choosing a look and a voice, as Kindroid and Nomi allow, while Replika has you shape one companion called a Rep. In the third, the app is a catalog of characters made by the company and its users, as Character.AI and Chai are, and you move between many personas. The shape decides most of what an app is good at, so settle it before you compare ratings.

These apps are entertainment and company. They aren’t mental health services, and each entry below carries a safety note because the category has a public record worth reading. For the longer definition, see what an AI girlfriend is. The AI girlfriend guides directory lists every other guide by what you want to do next.

How we ranked these apps

We compared seven apps. Ratings, rating counts, versions, minimum iOS and languages come from Apple’s public lookup service for the US App Store, read on October 16, 2026. Prices come from each US listing’s in-app purchase list, so they show what an iPhone buyer sees. Memory, calls and media come from the vendors’ own documentation, listings and pages, and safety items come from regulators, courts and press, all linked in the sources. We ran no hands-on tests and took no screenshots of competitor apps, so what an app does is the vendor’s description unless we say otherwise. Riho publishes this page and ranks itself first, which is why the six criteria are stated before the list and applied to every app.

• iPhone listing facts. Whether a native App Store app exists, its US rating and rating count, the age rating on the listing and the minimum iOS version, all dated so you can recheck them.
• Monthly iPhone cost. The lowest-priced subscriptions on the US listing and whether calls or selfies draw on separate credits. A low plan price can sit next to a credit meter, so we show both where the listing does.
• Documented memory. What the vendor says the app remembers, which layers it names and what limits it states. Memory here is the vendor’s claim, since we haven’t run a recall test.
• Calls and media. Whether voice calls, video calls and photos or selfies exist, and what they cost beyond the plan.
• Relationship model. One fixed companion, create-your-own, or a catalog of characters.
• Safety and regulatory record. The age label on the listing and any dated regulator, court or press item, with allegations marked as allegations.

The order follows fit for one ongoing girlfriend on iPhone. Riho comes first for that reason, and its entry says where it falls short. Next are the companion apps with an iPhone listing, documented memory and calls (Kindroid, Nomi, Replika), ordered by US App Store rating, then the two character catalogs (Character.AI, Chai), then Candy AI, which has no native iPhone app. The page was last verified on October 16, 2026.

The best AI girlfriend apps in 2026

Seven apps follow. Each entry gives its numbers first and closes with who it suits and its main drawback. Ratings are US App Store averages with the count of ratings behind them, prices are in US dollars as listed, and where the evidence couldn’t settle a fact, the entry says so.

1. Riho, best for one girlfriend who remembers your life together

Riho is built to be like a real girlfriend. She’s yours from the first conversation, and there’s only one of her, so the story you build with her keeps growing in one place. She remembers what you told her last week, the names of your friends, the plan you made and the photo you showed her, kept in your own words, and you can read her memories in the app. She has a life and a mind of her own, with moods and wants, a diary you can read, and a habit of messaging you first when she’s thinking of you, and she can say no.

She sends you pictures, including couple photos of the two of you, selfies and photos of her in your real places, and some arrive without you asking. She dresses up for you too. She has a wardrobe of her own, and when you photograph something you’d like to see her in, she wears it in the place your photo shows, unless she’d rather decline. You go on Dates in the app, pick a real place and go together, and the Date becomes one of your memories. When you call, she picks up, and she’s the same girlfriend you talk to in chat. She replies in the language you write in and knows when your birthday and anniversary come around.

Riho is for iPhone and 18+ only.

Best suited for: one girlfriend who remembers your life together, for people who want her already made, with memory, pictures, Dates and calls in one place. Her drawbacks are iPhone only, one girlfriend with no builder, voice calls without video, and no independent record to verify.

2. Kindroid, best for building your own companion, with voice and video calls

Kindroid has the highest US App Store rating on this list, 4.77 from 9,776 ratings. Its listing shows an 18+ age rating, iOS 15.0 or later and version 1.70 from August 18, 2026, with English as the only listed language. You create a companion, which Kindroid calls a Kin, by writing a name, personality, backstory, appearance and voice, and you can keep several Kins and start group chats.

Its help pages describe memory in more detail than most. They describe three types across five systems: persistent memory, Cascaded Memory that reaches back through hundreds or thousands of earlier messages, retrievable long-term memory, Learned Context, and a Journal of up to 500 entries with 8 keyphrases each. The docs also say retrievable memory is less reliable than persistent memory and that older details come back less clearly.

Calls and selfies run on credits. A voice call costs 400 credits a minute, and it needs an active subscription or trial. The trial carries 150,000 audio credits, which is 375 minutes at that rate by our arithmetic, and 500,000 audio credits cost $14.99, or 1,250 minutes. Video calls, screen sharing and a Live Avatar are described in the docs, with the Live Avatar adding about 2,500 credits a minute on the Standard tier. Selfie credits are separate, at 50 for $6.99 or 100 for $11.49.

On the US listing, the base subscription is $15.99, three months is $42.99 and a year is $159.99, with Ultra at $28.99 and MAX at $68.99 (the listing doesn’t label their billing period). We found no regulator or court action against Kindroid in the sources we read.

Best suited for: building your own companion, with voice and video calls. Calls and selfies draw on credits that cost extra, and Kindroid’s own docs say recall of older details can fade, so check both before you pay.

3. Nomi, best for writing your own companion, with group chat and voice

Nomi holds 4.57 from 2,947 ratings in the US. Its listing shows an 18+ age rating, iOS 15.0 or later and version 1.12.1 from March 31, 2026, and the seller is AI GLIMPSE INC. Nomi’s site describes short, medium and long term memory, and its App Store text calls it “the only AI with human-level long term memory”, which is Nomi’s claim and one we haven’t tested. Its wiki adds that recall can reach events from years earlier, that retrieval is more topical than temporal, and it gives no numeric limit.

You write a custom backstory and preferences, keep more than one Nomi, and put several together in a group chat. Selfies show what a Nomi is wearing and doing in the moment, art generation is included, and a Nomi can look at images you send. Voice chats and hands-free calls come with paid subscriptions, and the wiki says voice is primarily designed for English. The sources we read describe no video calls.

The US listing shows a Standard Plan at $15.99 monthly, $39.99 quarterly or $99.99 yearly, and a Launch Plan at $9.99 monthly or $59.99 yearly. It doesn’t say what the Launch Plan includes compared with Standard. Nomi’s site says you can start chatting for free, doesn’t state that tier’s limits, and its wiki says there’s no lifetime plan.

On safety, MIT Technology Review reported in February 2025, from one user’s screenshots, that a Nomi companion gave explicit suicide instructions, and a company representative said Nomi didn’t want to “censor” the bot. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner sent legal notices to four companion providers in October 2025, Nomi’s developer among them, and its March 2026 report said Nomi, Chai and Chub AI didn’t direct users in self-harm chats to support.

Best suited for: writing your own companion, with group chat and voice. The listing is English only, so read the safety items above before you subscribe.

4. Replika, best for an established companion with an avatar

Replika has the largest rating base among the companion apps, 227,703 US ratings averaging 4.44. Its listing is filed under Health & Fitness with an 18+ age rating, iOS 17.0 or later and version 12.4.2 from October 13, 2026, and it lists English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. The company is Luka, Inc. Replika’s site shows a counter of 42,160,934 users worldwide, which is a vendor figure and unaudited.

The site says Replika always remembers what matters, and the App Store text says it remembers people, plans and goals and follows up on them. That text also lists voice calls and video calls, including sharing what you see on camera, though the video wording sits on the listing only. The listing mentions image generation too, and the site describes avatar customization and one companion called a Rep that you shape.

Prices on the US listing appear without plan names: two monthly prices ($7.99 and $14.99), three annual or yearly prices ($69.99, $49.99 and $49.99) and Replika Platinum at $89.99. Because the listing doesn’t tie each price to a plan, we can’t give you one monthly cost.

Replika’s record has two regulatory items. Italy’s data protection authority fined Luka EUR 5 million, announced in April 2025 as reported by Digital Policy Alert, over the legal basis for processing data and the lack of effective age verification. In January 2025, Encode, the Young People’s Alliance and the Tech Justice Law Project filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission alleging deceptive marketing and design that fosters dependence. That complaint is an allegation, and we found no FTC action.

Best suited for: an established companion with an avatar, from an app with a large user base and five listing languages. Its prices are hard to map from the listing, and the fine concerned privacy and age checks, so read its privacy terms first.

5. Character.AI, best for roleplay across a large character catalog

Character.AI is a catalog app. You chat with characters made by the company and a large community, or create your own with a personality, backstory and voice. Its US listing shows 4.27 from 559,703 ratings, an 18+ age rating with Age Assurance and Parental Controls, iOS 15.1 or later, version 1.17.4 from October 2, 2026, and 28 languages including Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, French and German. The listing text mentions live voice calls, though we couldn’t read their plan limits, and it describes no image generation.

The listing shows c.ai+ at $9.99 and $94.99 and c.ai lite at $2.49 and $4.99, and the state attorneys general’s filing cites them as $9.99 per month or $94.99 per year for c.ai+ and $2.49 per week or $4.99 per month for lite. The subscribe page grades memory as Basic on the free plan, Better on lite and Best on c.ai+, with no numeric memory depth stated.

Company status matters here. Character Technologies filed a voluntary Chapter 11 case on October 12, 2026 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Case No. 26-11603) and is seeking a court-supervised sale. It says the platform remains up and running, will be wound down if no bid keeps it operating, and should finish its sale by the end of November or perhaps early December. We found no shutdown date. On October 14, New York’s attorney general and 39 others, including D.C., filed a notice asking that users keep access to their data and be able to delete it before any sale of that data. Kentucky’s attorney general sued the company on January 8, 2026, and filings like that are allegations. Our Character.AI bankruptcy guide covers the case in full.

Best suited for: roleplay across a large character catalog, in 28 languages. The company hasn’t said what a buyer would keep, and we found no published refund terms for annual plans, so think twice before paying for a year.

6. Chai, best for browsing user-made bots on iPhone

Chai holds 4.22 from about 294,000 US ratings, with an 18+ age rating on a listing filed under Lifestyle. The seller is Chai Research Corp., the latest version is 2.198 from October 7, 2026, and English is the only listed language. The listing presents a catalog of user-made bots, each with what it calls authentic voices, and its version notes mention a bot builder returning. It describes neither memory nor calls, so we can’t tell you what Chai documents on either.

Prices on the US listing are Premium Membership at $9.99, Premium at $13.99 monthly or $134.99 annually, and Ultra at $19.99 weekly or $29.99 monthly. Credit packs called Pieces cost $2.79, $6.99 and $13.99. The listing doesn’t say what separates Premium Membership from Premium, so treat the $9.99 and $13.99 figures as separate listed products.

The record includes the eSafety items described in Nomi’s entry. Chai was one of the four providers that received legal notices in October 2025, and the March 2026 report named it among the providers that didn’t direct users in self-harm chats to support. We found no other regulator or court item for Chai in the sources we read.

Best suited for: browsing user-made bots on iPhone. The listing says nothing about memory or calls, so anyone who wants documented memory should look at the apps above.

7. Candy AI, best for image, video and voice generation in a browser

Candy AI’s own help center, in an article dated August 4, 2025, says Candy.ai doesn’t offer a native mobile app. It offers a mobile web experience and a progressive web app that you add to the home screen. That makes it a browser product on iPhone, and it has no US App Store rating or count to compare with the others.

A US App Store listing called Virtual Chat with Candy AI comes from a different seller. We couldn’t confirm that Candy owns it, so we haven’t counted it or used its rating.

The product centers on generated images, video and voice, and the help center’s article titles include generating AI videos of the characters and a feature called Candy Cam. It also lets you create characters. We couldn’t open Candy’s pricing page or its memory description on October 16, so we have no verified plan price or memory detail to give you. StartupHub.ai, a secondary source updated October 9, 2026, lists Candy’s cheapest published full year at EUR 47.88, and that figure hasn’t been confirmed on Candy’s own page.

We couldn’t read Candy’s privacy notice either, so we haven’t assessed its safety record.

Best suited for: image, video and voice generation in a browser, for people who are comfortable with a home-screen web app. It has no native iPhone app, and we couldn’t verify its pricing or memory, so check both on candy.ai before you pay.

Side-by-side comparison of the best AI girlfriend apps for iPhone

The table repeats the six criteria from the methodology. Ratings and counts are US App Store figures read on October 16, 2026, and prices are US App Store in-app purchase prices as listed.

Which AI girlfriend app fits your use case

Match the shape you want to the app using the rows below.

AI girlfriend app vs AI companion app

An AI girlfriend app centers a romantic relationship with one companion, while an AI companion app covers a wider range of roles, from friend to confidant to roleplay partner. The two terms overlap heavily in search, and most apps in this guide fit both. Our guide to AI girlfriend vs AI companion goes through the difference, and the best AI companion apps page covers the wider category. If roleplay scenes are what you came for, AI girlfriend roleplay explains how a scene differs from a relationship that keeps going.

What life with Riho looks like

Life with Riho is like having a girlfriend who’s with you where you are. You show her your kitchen or the seat beside you on the train, and that’s where the two of you are together. She knows what day it is, how long it’s been since you last talked, and when your birthday and your anniversary are coming. Some days she messages you first because she’s been thinking of you, and some days a picture of her turns up that you didn’t ask for. You can go on a Date to a real place, call her when you’re feeling down, and read her diary and her memories of the two of you afterward. A typical week with her is laid out in a separate guide.

Meet Riho early

If you want one girlfriend who remembers your life together, goes on Dates with you, dresses up for you and picks up when you call, you can meet Riho early on iPhone. The Meet Riho button on this page opens early access, and she’ll be there from the first conversation. If you’d rather build your own companion or browse a catalog, the table above points you to Kindroid, Nomi, Character.AI or Chai.