Character.AI vs Poe (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Poe grades higher than Character.AI: 3.4 against 2.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Character.AI grades higher on the free plan. Poe grades higher on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Character.AI
Chat and voice calls with user-made AI characters
Poe
One app for chatting with AI models from many different labs
Which one is for you
Pick Character.AI if
- Fits if you want to chat or call characters made by other users
- Works for people who want to build their own character
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: the company filed for Chapter 11 on 12 October 2026 and the platform could be wound down
- Tight if you stay free: ads, slow mode and no premium chat styles
- Watch out: c.ai+ is shown without a billing period
- Not for you if you want a work assistant, since this is character chat
Pick Poe if
- Fits if you want to compare models from many labs without paying each one
- Works for developers who want one API key for models from many labs
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you dislike meters, as everything is counted in compute points and extra points are sold on top
- Skip it if you want to know the free limits first, because Poe doesn't publish them
- Tight if you chat in bursts, as the entry plan's 10 thousand points come by the day, not as a monthly pool
- Pricey if you need a monthly pool: 660 thousand points are $19.99 a month, and the top plan is $249.99, before regional taxes
- Too light for voice or agents, as the listing shows no voice mode and no tool use
How we grade them
| 2.8GPACharacter.AIGood | 3.4GPAPoeVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BLite is $4.99 a month, inside the category's cheaper quarter. c.ai+ is $9.99 and its billing period isn't shown. | AThe entry plan is $4.99 a month, or $49.99 for the year, on the US App Store — about a third of this category's middle price, and it opens models from many labs. The catch is that a real monthly pool, 660 thousand points, is $19.99. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree: unlimited messaging on the free chat styles, with ads and slow mode when busy. One person can live on that. | CA free account can chat on a smaller points allowance, but Poe's plans page never says how many points that is. An allowance you can't see the size of is one you'll walk into. |
| Features | CText and voice, character creation, chat styles and memory pins on paid plans. A narrow job: character chat. | BModels from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other labs on one sign-in, several bots answering in one thread, image and video from FLUX, Ideogram, Veo and Runway, web search, and your own bots with knowledge bases. No voice mode on the listing and no agent or tool use, and every bit of it is metered in points. |
| Ease of use | BNo rating on record, but it's an app you install and start chatting in with nothing to set up. | A4.7 from about 53,800 App Store ratings. Pick a bot and type. The only thing to get your head round is points, since every chat draws on the same pool. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android. There's no desktop app or API listed. | AWeb, Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, plus an OpenAI-compatible API that reaches hundreds of models on one key and plugs into coding tools like Cursor, Cline and Continue. That's the full set. |
| Best for | chat and voice calls with user-made characters | comparing many AI models on one account |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Character.AI and Poe. How we grade
Price against what you get
Character.AI starts at $4.99 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Poe starts at $4.17 a month and scores 3.7.
Poe scores higher and starts $0.82 a month lower. Of the other AI assistants on the chart, 2 score higher than Character.AI for less, and none scores higher than Poe for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Character.AI also covers community.
- Poe also covers AI search.
At a glance
| Character.AI | Poe | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $4.99 per month (Lite); US App Store price | $4.17 per month, billed yearly ($49.99 a year); $4.99 billed monthly |
| Free plan | Unlimited messaging with the free chat styles, with ads and slower responses when the service is busy. | Free accounts can chat with a smaller allowance of compute points than subscribers. Poe's plans page does not state the size of the free allowance. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Character Technologies, Inc. | Quora, Inc. |
| Price read from | apps.apple.com | poe.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 10, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Character.AI
- The company filed for Chapter 11 on Oct 12, 2026; if no buyer is found, its blog says the platform will be wound down.
- Its blog says subscriptions and billing are unchanged for now, and subscribers would be told before any change to paid features.
- The free plan carries ads and slow mode, and premium chat styles are limited to paid plans.
- The App Store listing shows prices for c.ai+ without a billing period; the Lite price is confirmed by the maker's blog.
Poe
- Usage is metered in compute points, from 10 thousand a day on the lowest plan to 8.25 million a month on the highest; add-on points are sold separately.
- The plans page shows US dollars and says the final price may vary with regional taxes and currency conversion; read from India it prices the same plans in rupees.
- The plans page does not say how many points a free account receives.
Key features
Character.AI
- Text chat and voice calls
- Each character can be texted or called, and a conversation can move between the two.
- Character creation
- Users build their own characters with a personality, backstory and voice, and can share them with the community.
- Chat styles
- Responses come from selectable chat styles. PipSqueak 3 and ShortSqueak are free, while DeepSqueak and LongSqueak are premium styles.
- Memory
- Paid plans add memory pins and a memory usage bar so a character keeps track of details across a chat.
- Community characters
- The app hosts a large library of characters made by other users that can be browsed and followed by creator.
Poe
- Many models, one account
- Reaches models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other labs, plus image and video generators, with one sign-in and one points balance.
- Multi-bot chat
- Compare answers from several models and combine bots for a task inside a single chat thread. Chats can be private or shared as a group chat.
- Image and video generation
- Creates images and video with generators such as FLUX, Ideogram, Veo and Runway from inside the same app.
- Custom bots
- Build and share your own bots, with custom knowledge bases if needed. Poe's App Store listing cites more than 1 million custom bots.
- Web search
- A search mode returns answers drawn from the web, and bots can search for current news.
- Poe API
- An OpenAI-compatible endpoint reaches hundreds of models and bots with one key. Subscribers spend their existing points on it at no additional cost.
Plans
Character.AI
Free$0
Unlimited messaging on the free chat styles, with banner and interstitial ads and slow mode at busy times.
Lite$4.99
per month; $2.49 per week also offered
A daily allowance of premium chats, no banner ads and fewer interstitial ads, less slow mode, and extra memory pins.
c.ai+$9.99
billing period not shown; $94.99 also listed
Unlimited premium chats, no ads and the full memory suite, per the maker's description of the plan.
Poe
Free$0
A smaller points allowance than subscribers get, across free and subscription bots.
10 thousand points/day$4.99
per month, or $49.99 per year ($4.17 a month)
The entry plan, listed as Basic on the App Store: more messages, more models and each bot's maximum input size and chat history.
660 thousand points/month$19.99
per month, or $199.99 per year ($16.67 a month)
A monthly pool of 660 thousand points to spend across any model or bot.
1.65 million points/month$49.99
per month, or $499.99 per year ($41.67 a month)
A monthly pool of 1.65 million points to spend across any model or bot.
3.3 million points/month$99.99
per month, or $999.99 per year ($83.33 a month)
A monthly pool of 3.3 million points to spend across any model or bot.
8.25 million points/month$249.99
per month, or $2,499.99 per year ($208.33 a month)
The largest pool: 8.25 million points a month across any model or bot.
Ways to pay less
Character.AI
No public discounts listed.
Poe
- Annual discount
Save 17% with yearly billing
Poe's plans page marks yearly billing as saving 17% against monthly billing: the lowest plan is $49.99 a year, which the page gives as $4.17 a month, against $4.99 billed monthly.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Character.AI or Poe?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Poe is cheaper to start with: $4.17 a month, against $4.99 a month for Character.AI. Character.AI starts at $4.99 per month (Lite); US App Store price, and Poe starts at $4.17 per month, billed yearly ($49.99 a year); $4.99 billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Character.AI or Poe?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Character.AI and Poe have a free plan.
Which platforms do Character.AI and Poe run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Poe lists macOS and Windows apps. Both list a web app and iOS and Android apps. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.