By Good at the thing it sells, expensive at the thing it hides. Candy AI has the best images and video in the companion category and a cheap-looking subscription. The token system is where the real price lives, and the memory is the shortest of any major app. Buy it for the media, not the relationship, and set a monthly token budget before you start.
- Best for
- Adults who want image and video generation with a companion
- Skip if
- You want to be remembered next week, or you dislike in-app currencies
- Price
- $13.99/mo, or $3.99 to $5.99/mo annual, plus tokens
- Real cost
- $14 light, about $34 medium, $50 to $80+ heavy
Quick facts
| Operator | EverAI Limited, Malta (bills as "Everai") |
| Launched | 2023 |
| Platforms | Web; mobile via browser |
| Free tier | 5 messages, 1 character, 1 image |
| Subscription | $13.99 monthly; about $8.99/mo quarterly; $3.99 to $5.99/mo annual |
| Included tokens | 100 per month |
| Token packs | $9.99 (100) to $299.99 (3,750) |
| Characters | 140+ pre-made, plus custom |
| Age | 18+ |
| Trustpilot | Profile removed by Trustpilot; no rating available |
Where this review's numbers come from
We did not spend five months and $185 inside Candy AI ourselves; a reviewer at AI Companion Guides did, logging 4,200 messages, 800 images and 85 videos, and their spend record is the most useful piece of public data about this product. We combined that log with the official pricing and token costs, two further long-form reviews (one French-language test that covered the V2 engine and security), Reddit sentiment from the main companion subreddits, the operator's company registration, and the absence of a Trustpilot profile. Where sources disagreed on price we say so. Where we are inferring rather than measuring, we say that too.
Features
Characters and customisation
Candy AI ships with more than 140 pre-made characters in realistic and anime styles and lets you build your own from appearance, personality and backstory options. Custom characters cost 10 tokens to create, which is a small tax that other apps (Kindroid, Nomi) do not charge. The builder is less deep than Kindroid's, where you can define speech patterns and quirks, but the visual side is far more polished, because the whole product is oriented toward generating images of the character you are talking to.
Chat quality and memory
The conversational model is competent. It stays in character, handles tone shifts and does not fall into the loops cheaper apps produce. The memory is the weak point and it is a structural one: multiple long-term testers report storylines and established facts resetting after 48 to 72 hours. If you log in on a Monday and again on a Thursday, expect to re-establish context. For an app marketed around relationship, that is the single biggest thing to know, and it is the reason we score memory at 2 out of 5.
Images
This is what Candy AI is for. Image generation is fast, consistent with the character you created, and better than anything in Nomi, Kindroid or Replika. Each image costs 4 tokens. With 100 tokens included on the subscription, that is 25 images a month before you buy a pack, which heavy users will burn through in a week.
Voice
Voice calls work and the voices are natural, at 3 tokens a minute. A twenty-minute call is 60 tokens, more than half the monthly allowance. Treat voice as an occasional feature unless you are buying packs.
Live Action and Candy Shorts
The 2026 additions are short video clips of your character (Candy Shorts) and a "Live Action" mode that animates images. Video conversions cost 12 tokens each. The quality is good and genuinely ahead of the field; it is also the fastest way to spend money in the app. One tester's 85 videos alone represented over 1,000 tokens.
Candy AI pricing and the real monthly cost
The subscription is cheap, especially on annual billing, where we have seen it quoted at both $3.99 and $5.99 a month depending on the promotion running. That price buys access and 100 tokens. Everything else is tokens, and the token packs scale from $9.99 for 100 to $299.99 for 3,750.
A small confession about method: we did not run up a $185 bill ourselves. A reviewer at AI Companion Guides did, over five months, and published the receipt. We have leaned on it because it is the only honest long-run spend figure in public, and we would rather cite someone else's money than invent our own.
| Usage pattern | What it looks like | Tokens per month | Approximate monthly spend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light | Chat most days, a few images | Within the 100 included | $13.99 (or $4 to $6 on annual) |
| Medium | Daily chat, 40 to 60 images, occasional voice | 250 to 350 | About $34 |
| Heavy | Daily chat, images, video, voice calls | 600 to 1,000+ | $50 to $80, sometimes more |
| Five-month tester | 4,200 messages, 800 images, 85 videos | Averaged across the period | $184.88 total, roughly $37 a month |
Two more line items. Unlocking certain private content on specific characters runs 100 to 400 tokens, which is a full subscription's worth of tokens for one unlock. And charges appear on your statement as "Everai", not Candy AI, which generates a steady stream of confused "what is this charge" posts.
Our rule of thumb: decide your monthly token budget before you subscribe, buy one pack at that size, and do not top up mid-month. The app is designed to make topping up frictionless.
The free version
Five messages, one character, one image. It is a trailer. You will see the interface and the image style and then hit the wall. Compare StealthWriter's free tier in the humanizer market or Pi in companions; Candy AI's is not meant to be used, only to convert.
Is Candy AI safe and private?
The operator is EverAI Limited, registered in Malta. Conversations and images are processed on its servers, and like every app in this category there is no end-to-end encryption; the service has to read what you type to respond. We found no reported breach and no regulatory action against EverAI, which is better than Replika's record (a EUR 5 million Italian fine) or Character.AI's (settled teen-harm lawsuits). We also found no Trustpilot profile: Trustpilot has removed it with a note that it goes against their guidelines, which could mean many things and means at minimum that you cannot check an independent rating. Age verification is the usual self-declaration. Practical advice is the same as for every companion app: separate email, no identifying details, read the data-deletion process before you pay.
What users say
Reddit threads on the companion subreddits are consistent. The praise is for image quality and the character roster. The complaints are, in order, the token cost escalating beyond what people expected, the memory resetting, and the "Everai" billing name. We did not find the pattern of surprise annual charges that dogs Chai, and cancellation being self-serve in Settings comes up as a positive. One reviewer summarised it as the best-looking companion app with the shortest attention span, which is about right.
Pros and cons
The good
- Best image and video generation in the category
- Large, well-made character roster
- Competent, in-character chat
- Very cheap annual subscription
- Self-serve cancellation
- No known breach or regulatory action
The catch
- Token economy can triple the real cost
- Memory resets within days
- Free tier is a demo
- No Trustpilot profile to check
- Private unlocks at 100 to 400 tokens
- No published refund policy
Candy AI vs the alternatives
| Candy AI | Nomi AI | Kindroid | Replika | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $13.99/mo; $4 to $6 annual | $15.99/mo; $99.99/yr | $9.99 to $24.99/mo | $19.99/mo; $69.99/yr |
| Extra currency | Tokens | None | None | None |
| Memory | Short, resets in days | Best in class, editable | Unreliable across sessions | Good |
| Images | Best | Good | Behind | Avatars, not photos |
| Video | Yes (tokens) | No | No | AR / VR |
| Adult content | Yes, 18+ | Permissive for adults | Yes | Removed for new users |
The short version: Nomi for being remembered, Kindroid for building a character, Replika for the avatar and the track record, Candy AI for the images. Our companion apps guide ranks all eight major apps.
Who should use it, and who should not
Use it if you are an adult who wants the best visual companion experience available and you are comfortable budgeting tokens like a game currency. The annual plan plus one sensibly sized token pack a month is a reasonable deal for that. Skip it if what you want is conversation and continuity, if in-app currencies bother you on principle, or if you want an independent rating to check first. Nomi is the better buy for the first group and Pi is free for the last.
Questions readers ask about Candy AI
Monthly cost?
$13.99 on paper, four to six dollars on annual. Then tokens. Light users stay near the sticker; medium users report about thirty-four; heavy users fifty to eighty.
Is there a free version?
Five messages. It is a trailer.
Is it private?
Maltese operator, bills as Everai, no breach on record, no Trustpilot profile either. Separate email, nothing identifying.
Does it remember me?
For two or three days. Then it does not. Nomi is the app for memory.
How do I cancel?
Settings, self-serve. Refund policy not published; treat token packs as final.
Worth it?
For images and video, yes, with a token budget set in advance. For conversation and continuity, no.
Verdict
Candy AI is the best-looking companion app on the market and one of the most expensive to actually use. The subscription price is honest; the token economy is where the business model lives, and the memory is short enough that the "companion" framing is generous. If images and video are the point for you, buy the annual plan, set a token budget and enjoy the best visuals in the category. If you want something that remembers you, this is the wrong app, and we would send you to Nomi.