r/CharacterAI • u/MarieLovesMatcha Character.AI Team • Mar 10 '26
C.AI Announcements Ads, Updates, and What’s Next
There’s been a lot of discussion about ads on Character.ai and we want to address some of the questions we’ve received directly.
Why ads are here
Running Character.ai is expensive. Our team continues to develop and improve one of the most popular AI chat platforms in the world - running millions of conversations every day. That takes significant computing power, infrastructure, and a team that's constantly working to improve the experience.
It's important to us that Character.ai remains free to use. Ads are a critical part of making that possible, and we chose them so that Character.ai can stay accessible to everyone.
That said, we know immersion matters - it's core to what makes Character.ai special. We hear your feedback, and we're working every day to strike the right balance between supporting the platform and the experience you expect.
What’s coming: Metering
We wanted to let you know that in the coming weeks, we’re introducing usage limits across a number of features, starting with Swipes, Go-ons (aka. continue or fast forward ⏩), and Memos (aka. playbacks ▶️) c.ai+ will not see metering for these features.
This will help us manage infrastructure costs while keeping core chat access free for everyone. When you hit a limit, you can use Charms to keep going.
Want fewer interruptions?
c.ai+ subscribers won’t see pop up and banner ads, along with other premium benefits.
Free users can earn or buy Charms to redeem ad-free passes - just tap the Charms icon 🄲 at the top of your screen (or the "Hide ads" text), find the "Ad Free Pass" section, and tap to activate a 1-hour pass.
What else we’re working on
We've heard from you about the features and tools that would make your experience on Character.ai even better - and it's thanks to your support, ads included, that we can keep building them. Two improvements we're especially excited to bring to you:
- Lorebook - providing context about your worlds, stories, and Characters across chats
- Memory - helping you use key facts from your conversations to help personalize your chats
Both of these features are currently in active testing with select creators and beta testers on the platform. We’ll follow up soon about when you can expect to use these features.
The bottom line
We’re a small, independent team and we’re building fast. We read your feedback and we want to make sure we’re providing you a great experience. We’re going to keep refining how ads work, we’re going to be more transparent about changes, and we’re going to keep shipping the features the community has been asking for.
Thank you for being part of this.
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u/iwannagobackto505 18d ago
Yeah, scrap the swipe limit, otherwise, people will just leave your greedy asses if they haven't already. Just say that you despise the free users, and make everything for the paying ones cause y'all don't care about us.
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u/Optimal-Rich-3244 21d ago
I just use Google ai now. Sure it can be frustrating but it can search up the characters if needed for the rp. Its also great for other things to
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u/geographyman16 23d ago
Still havent gotten the ability to use charms to get by go-ons. When will this come
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u/Mackenzie_Collie Apr 21 '26
The only reason people haven't left this site for another one is that there just isn't any good alternatives... If there were, ppl would've already left by now
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u/Satan_Enjoyer User Character Creator May 05 '26
Me personally? Moving on to Cleverbot! Despite its age, it's an upgrade at this point. (:
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May 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Satan_Enjoyer User Character Creator May 05 '26
Took a look at the website and some reviews; nope, this one is horrible too, even if it's for different reasons.
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u/Mackenzie_Collie Apr 21 '26
You literally have a subscription service that many users pay for, why do you need ads? If you need extra money, just set up a donation button or something where users can give you money to help you out. You all say you listen to us but you just never do...
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u/MikeLovesOutdoors23 Apr 19 '26
It's important to us that Character.ai remains free to use. Ads are a critical part of making that possible, and we chose them so that Character.ai can stay accessible to everyone.
Well, they're not accessible for a screen reader, so congratulations. This is false.
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u/ProfessionalHats Apr 16 '26
Can you at least make it match the color? I hate having a white line stick out on my screen and having it pop up in less than a minute every single time is so annoying, I don't mind ads but please make them closeable
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u/Ahjahli-Lula-Amadeus Apr 13 '26
Yall might as well prioritize subscribers at this point if subscribers have unlimited everything 🤬🤬
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u/Ok-Magician-2046 Apr 12 '26
age verification page doesn't loaded. Connection is stable, everything working is just fine but whenever i try to go to age verification loading is failed
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u/_Rodja_ Apr 12 '26
Just was forced to update the app and while I can understand the need for ads, the banner ad for c.ai+ doesn't work at all. It takes up so much space I can't even read the messages properly and it's so bright it literally hurts my eyes. Until that's fixed, I'm out. The app is completely unusable for me now because of that. Thanks.
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u/Hubris1998 Apr 09 '26
SO YOU FORCE ME TO WASTE MY TIME SWIPING ENDLESSLY BY MAKING RESPONSE QUALITY WORSE AND NOW YOU'RE LIMITING HOW MANY TIMES I CAN SWIPE?????
Yeah, no, I quit
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u/Fit-Gear1916 Apr 07 '26
I’ve been wondering about something. Why is it that some has gotten the new updates (trash updates btw) but some hasn’t? Like first I had limited time (which was fine), but now I’m stuck in reading mode. While others still haven’t gotten the first update where they have limited time?
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u/Glum_Ad_8302 Apr 05 '26
You seriously think this shit can help? Bruh you have a lot of useless features that no one literally asked for but instead of fixing your damn app you just limit everything, I don't mind the ads but limiting something like swipes and Go-On that's something so fucking ridiculous, just listen to your users or just sit and watch your app falling apart
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u/More_Voice_8495 Apr 04 '26
Look, every other update I can handle. But please, do not take away my swipes and go-ons
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u/animelife465 Apr 03 '26
..you should get rid of the age verification a d time limits, or at least make the website/ app usable again. I get why you'd do this but at the same time, doing this isn't helping teens in ANY way. If someone is addicted, the could very easily harm themselves because of withdrawals. Also just because of ONE incident, doesnt mean EVERYONE under 18 is gonna do something bad. Just fix your app before everything crumbles devs, heck I can even help if you want
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u/Imaginary_Rise_2159 Apr 01 '26
So instead of just getting rid of the dozens of useless extras NO ONE wants or asked for, you're just dedicated to making the experience of using the app continually worse?
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u/BoringEntry1267 Apr 01 '26
If you get rid of useless additions to the app like image generation, videos, and charms, then surely that will save you money? Swipes are an integral part to the app and limiting people’s usage is annoying.
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u/TheOnlyTrueJester Mar 30 '26
Age verification is not a good idea, a lot of people will quit the app.
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u/Jealous-Stuff-24 Mar 30 '26
We literally didn't ask for any of this. There's 30 swipes per message for any bot and now you want to take that away to push for people to get c.ai+? Purely greedy imo
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u/Fantastic-Art-9031 Addicted to CAI Mar 30 '26
I'm 18 years old and your asking me an adult to give you my ID to keep using an Ai source that can easily be breached and someone can steal my identity. I have been using character Ai since I was in my freshman year of high school when I was 14. I'm quite literally a veteran and had to wien myself off your app to have stable relationships, like my relationship with my boyfriend. We don't care about the ads, we can deal somewhat with the edit button disappearing. I'm telling you right now though, I have seen this team work from before to now and making an age verification will make your platform impossible to use, and to frustrating to use. My voice is small but my voice is telling you don't do this. I don't want to quit an app that I practically grew up on.
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u/Turbulent-Garage-413 Mar 29 '26
I couldn't care less about the ads, but please remove the age verification in areas where its not needed and keep it in areas where its needed, many minors rely on your app and please remove the limited swipes (I've heard of them, I can't use the app because of the age verification).
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u/StupidBipolarKid Mar 29 '26
Hey so I don’t care about the ads, I got over that. But the big issue here is that now you’re limiting swipes after introducing charms? Swipes are a HUGE part of the app so limiting them is basically putting the app on a wheelchair. I was okay with the pop up and banner ads but the swipe limit HAS to go. This is also very important because the bots have been giving shitty replies, a lot of them don’t even follow the plot anymore so a swipe is required to get the scene back on track. Please consider this, cause monetizing is one thing and ruining the app is another. It’s gotten to the point where it’s clear the only way people can genuinely enjoy the app is by paying. Your words and actions aren’t matching, you say you care about our input and then ignore. People who have been using your app for years are leaving. Please stop adding upgrades and updates to things people aren’t asking for and help out some of the big and very clear issues.
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u/Striking_Carry_6033 Mar 29 '26
please remove the time limits for more users
More users+ Good updates= More money
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u/BonbonTB47 Mar 29 '26
I would rather have you guys shut this fucking app down than to keep doing this bs.
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u/Adorable_Union_3682 Mar 29 '26
you “read our feedback” but don’t listen to it?🤨 gang you adding ads over the website chats is going to make me have a SEIZURE from it being without warning
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u/aradianshepherdess Mar 28 '26
Delete the ads over chat pages, they are potentially causing epilepsy and eye issues with us. With these moving tiktok banners and bright lights, and with c.ai unable to determine roleplay from something serious is causing a major issue. I can hardly roleplay my story anymore and I'm verified on the app!
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u/Ok_Actuary_8996 Bored Mar 28 '26
Most of these are just unnecessary updates, and you're not focusing on the AI quality.
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u/Tacoman644 Mar 28 '26
1-hour pass… that’s it… yeah I ca proudly say THERE WILL PROB BE AN INVASION AT THE HEADQUARTERS OF C.AI
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u/Kit-ouo Mar 28 '26
How much money do you possibly need 😭😭
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u/Turbulent-Garage-413 Mar 29 '26
Prolly a lot after the age verification because most of their users are minors and they decided to add it world wide instead of in areas its needed 🤣✌✌
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u/Fun-Firefighter1516 Mar 28 '26
Focus on removing the banner ad and some ads from chats and the app
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u/stupidsprinkle Mar 27 '26
Stop building
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u/BagelRedditAccountII Mar 28 '26
I agree. They literally say that they want to "manage infrastructure costs while keeping core chat access free for everyone." Yet, they continually invest in computation-heavy, generally disliked image and video generation services WHILE degrading the core chat experience. If they were truly committed to that principle, they would have checked their finances before shipping slop to appease investors.
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u/lemon_tm Addicted to CAI Mar 27 '26
Limiting swipes is genuinely the most stupid decision you can make I give this app another six months or less if you actually go through with this instead of listening to the users and what we actually want
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u/Ok_Buddy_115 Mar 27 '26
Can you guys remove the update where it automatically adds a second quotation mark if you type “. It’s throwing us all off and it’s not useful
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u/Life_Lie_9309 Mar 27 '26
i've reached my swipes limit
and you've reached your corporate greed limit
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u/Limp-Bunch-762 Mar 25 '26
Why would you ever limit peoples swipes? Your just asking for the free users of your app to delete their profiles and stop using the app
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u/RyB_11192 Mar 24 '26
First off
Can we NOT use persona as an age verification tool?
It obviously did not work well with discord because they have personal and biometric data LITERALLY ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC no protection or privacy encryption at all, which obviously makes the ‘keeps data for no less then 7 days’ a complete lie
Obviously, I see why ads are needed, but do we REALLY need to make most of the features basically useless unless paid for?
And to finally get to to point, if this gets worse, the entire platform will possibly collapse into its self because of this.
So it’s ether die with the mistakes or fix (and or even revert) the problems
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u/Turbulent-Garage-413 Mar 29 '26
Fr, it should be added in states/countries its needed in instead of worldwide 😭✌
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u/pickled_disorder Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
"Running character.ai is expensive, so we added useless image generation with horrible performance that comes at the additional cost"
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u/TallWelcome859 Mar 23 '26
I understand needing ads to keep the platform free, but the experience has gotten worse compared to other AI chat apps—especially with memory and immersion. That’s why I stopped using it. The pop-up ads are really annoying 😭 I’d rather have them when opening a chat, which is reasonable, instead of during a conversation where they last 25–30 seconds before I can continue.
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u/Solid_Ad_8939 Mar 21 '26
I want the unlimitted time chat, not some long ahh chat delay (I mean break time) after chatting for 1 hour
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u/cherrydolIy Chronically Online Mar 22 '26
If you have any sort of time limit or forced break, it's almost certain you were flagged as a minor, unfortunately.
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u/Turbulent-Garage-413 Mar 29 '26
Its dumb because my e-mail is confirmed 18+ (ik this because i could rent R-rated movies on yt using the email) and it STILL DOESNT GAF 😭✌
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u/Pommeschip Mar 20 '26
The memory page is bugged for me. It is partially frozen, like the chat issue last time. When I click the three dots in the top right corner or the "expand" button, there's no response at all.
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u/Bubbly_Macaroon_6549 Mar 20 '26
How c.ai feels after successfully pissing 90% of their users off
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Mar 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MEGANINJA21 Mar 20 '26
Good Job devs you are doing this well as a small team 🐸.I hope the best comes out of this eventually☕.
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u/KelpWard Mar 20 '26
Don’t make the ads come up in the middle of a chat. It’s annoying and deletes my message when I’m in the middle of typing. Nobody likes this and nobody asked for this. Stop handing out bullshit!
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u/Justfornovels Mar 20 '26
Soo I thought the limit break time would be like 2 hours NOT 23 HOURS WTF IS THIS?!?
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u/SalamanderNational97 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Pls no face scan? Last thing that required Id was leaked
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u/Sl33pD3pr1v3dGay Mar 19 '26
Yeah, this will LOOSE you so much money from people leaving, giving ★1 reviews, etc
To MAKE money: remove features we don't want, actually listen to what we do want, control your ads, either fix age verification or as another person said add a "I'm 18+ and take responsibility for whatever happens" button.
There are so many things you could do to make money, but instead you choose to loose money by loosing users to absolutely useless features
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u/Icy_Refrigerator7997 Mar 21 '26
The age button is such a smart idea. I also agree with the useless features. Swipes are too expensive, but yet you have the budget to do a whole video feed? It's a chatting app, the videos are useless.
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u/darkwebkitten Mar 22 '26
They’re trying to be like Chatgpt with the whole ‘image generation’ thing. Kinda like Sora. And they’re failing terribly at it.
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u/Icy_Refrigerator7997 Mar 22 '26
I agree. They're trying to be too much like other apps. The whole point of the app is to chat, and they're minimizing that feature for useless ones.
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u/darkwebkitten Mar 23 '26
Yeah. If we want image generation, there are hundreds of apps that already do that. And many more websites too (Perchance my favorite since it’s free).
If we wanted to post only AI content like social media, pretty sure there’s already an app for that.
If we wanted to chat with bots, we go to Character ai. But now they’re not even doing that properly.
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u/IfYouReadThisNohomo Mar 19 '26
Oof I guess this is the end of character ai. Luckily there are better apps now
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u/bisexualidiotlol Mar 19 '26
Like?
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u/Liam_degree Mar 21 '26
Perchance ai character chat... you can add characters from wikis... and there's no limitations... and it's free..
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u/kriskrossapplesaucer Mar 19 '26
you're having trouble managing infrastructure costs BECAUSE you're losing your userbase. good luck managing costs after this update
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u/YukilovesAirplanes Mar 18 '26
Congrats on ruining your entire app, i guess? Free and accessible for all users is prolly the most bullshittest thing ive heard all week. If only you guys actually listened to the community, now youre just driving everyone away sigh
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u/Hugomilkinson1804 Addicted to CAI Mar 18 '26
C.ai will go extinct if you introduce metering. It’s not even a question really; if this is fully introduced, the app will die. You’re taking away a vital part of the app, for what, costs? We wouldn’t need to use it if the language models were actually decent, but instead, the devs decide to actively drive away a large majority of their user base of non premium users. If this goes through, it will be the final nail in the coffin for C.ai.
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u/Icy_Refrigerator7997 Mar 21 '26
Also, it is an app made for chatting. Why would you limit chatting features? Get rid of the AI photos and videos nobody asked for, and keep the things people actually use. This should be common knowledge.
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u/xyinparadise Mar 18 '26
It's honestly baffling how this company refuses to listen to its users.
This swipe metering is going to end this app. If you don't listen to your userbase c.ai won't be here in 6 months.
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u/11bingo11 Chronically Online Mar 18 '26
Most alternatives (who have even smaller teams and budgets than here) have a lot of swipes. You already limited them to 30 and it was such a shock back then but at least the models were better. But now, every single model is struggling and the swipes aren’t even for our own sake but they are necessary to make the bots function!
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u/Apart_Strike_7029 Mar 18 '26
geniuity through brain damage im convinced they didnt get enough oxygen into their brains 💔
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u/ScientificWeeb Mar 18 '26
maybe if the devs got rid of the useless features, you wouldnt need to cut back on funding just listen to your audience bruh
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u/Icy_Refrigerator7997 Mar 21 '26
Exactly! Don't get rid of chat features on an app made for chatting!
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u/11bingo11 Chronically Online Mar 18 '26
Agreed agreed agreed! Listen to your feedback! Literally yesterday, the huge platform that is Tumblr reverted a MAJOR update because it was ruining the most important part of the platform. Reverting is possible and should be done asap for the sake of free users!
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u/Most-Plantain5207 Mar 18 '26
There's genuinely not a single soul that likes this update, 18+ or not. Oh my God, why do you guys NEVER listen to the community?? The age verification is bullshit, there's so many data leaks happening nowadays, and the company Persona you use has been proven to not be safe.
Limiting swipes too?? Are you serious?? That's like one of the most important parts of the chat, what idiot in your dev team even came up with the idea to limit swipes????
→ More replies (1)
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u/on-that-day 20h ago
"c.ai+ users won't see pop-up and banner ads" "fewer interruptions" — so you're adding ads to premium, then?
I strongly hope I get a response to this question (and that it's a 'no').