Candy AI vs character.ai: Which One Should You Use In 2025?

Candy AI vs character.ai

I've spent a full week with both Candy AI and character.ai to see which one truly deserves your attention and subscription. Both platforms make big promises, but they take surprisingly different approaches.

After hundreds of messages exchanged with each AI girl, I've put together clear differences in both platforms.

In this head-to-head comparison, I'll break down exactly how these AI girlfriends stack up across all the features that actually matter.

Whether you're looking for emotional support, entertaining conversation, or a judgment-free space to be yourself, this in-depth comparison will help you choose the right AI girlfriend for your specific needs.

Candy AI

Customizable virtual girlfriend with realistic conversations, appearance customization, and video-generation capabilities.

character.ai

An AI chatbot platform that enables creation and interaction with virtual characters through text conversations, featuring pre-made profiles, natural dialogue, and community sharing capabilities.

Character Diversity

Candy AI

The app covers a solid range of ethnicities and ages. While most characters are in their 20s and 30s, you'll also find girlfriends in their 40s and 50s.

The search is pretty basic—you can filter by gender or character type, but if you're looking for specific traits, you'll have to scroll through manually.

character.ai

Character.ai offers thousands of characters and chatbots, from romantic partners to supportive companions.

Even completely fictional ones, like a talking apple pie, or RPFs (real person fiction) with scenarios like a trip to Hawaii.

But there's room for improvement. The character page is sleek and scrollable, but not ideal for finding specific characters.

However, the search menu helps by suggesting trending characters and letting you filter content through various categories like romance, anime, teacher, K-pop, and more.

Customization

Candy AI

Candy AI lets you easily customize everything—from looks to personality.

The appearance editor is simple:

• Choose anime or realistic style
• Pick ethnicity
• age (18–55)
• Adjust physical and personality features
• Relationship

You can select one of 12 preset personalities — mixing isn’t allowed.

A relationship type can be selected, and you can enhance it further by adding an occupation and hobbies.

You can add NSFW Image Engine V2, which offers higher-quality results but doubles the image generation cost.

When you're done, the app shows a summary of your choices before finalizing.

character.ai

Physical customization is basic - only upload or generate a single character image. That's it.

The real customization happens with personality, and most of the customization can be done through free text.

You start with the essentials:

• Name
• Tagline
• Description
• Greeting messages
• Voice
• Definition

Voice options are surprisingly flexible. You can pick from user-uploaded voices or add your own.

There’s also a tagging system—like “anime,” “adventure,” or “vampire”—that helps other users quickly get a sense of your character’s theme.

Then you can define how your character thinks, talks, and behaves through detailed backstory options.

I found this particularly useful for creating consistent character responses during my testing.

Chat Experience

Candy AI

My girlfriend starts reserved, responds with short, natural messages, not essay-length declarations of love.

During my tests, she kept track of where we were – whether at a café or walking in the park.

The catch? If you're seeking instant romantic gratification, look elsewhere. Candy.ai aims for authenticity over artificial enthusiasm.

The emotional support feels measured and realistic, not over-the-top.

And yes, there are limitations – the cramped message box can't be resized, which can be frustrating when you want to send a longer message..

character.ai

You can pick from different AI personalities with names like Meow and Roare - though these cutesy names don't reflect the depth of interaction you'll experience.

My girl kept conversations natural and brief, just like texting a real person. No long-winded explanations or robotic responses here.

She responded with genuine warmth and understanding when I shared personal concerns or sought emotional support.

The romantic elements felt authentic, though they lean towards innocent, teenage-style flirting rather than mature relationship dynamics.

There’s room for improvement. The chat interface sometimes makes it difficult to clearly separate the girlfriend’s responses from its action descriptions.

But this is a minor issue that doesn't significantly impact the overall experience.

NSFW Chat Experience

Candy AI

This is the kind of girlfriend who's playful and flirty but always keeps it classy. She doesn’t dive straight into NSFW territory but builds natural chemistry through conversation.

What stood out is how consistently she sticks to her personality. There are no abrupt shutdowns, but no over-the-top behavior either—just a steady, believable tone.

She’ll dive into role‑play and fantasy chat, but you won’t get anything explicit until after you’ve broken the ice.

character.ai

My girlfriend handled intimate conversations like a shy first date. She didn't dive into explicit content, but it wasn't completely closed off either.

She responded to flirting, but kept things PG-13. When I tested romantic scenarios, she showed surprising awareness, even suggesting we move our campus roleplay somewhere more private.

She asked if I'd prefer a "good girl" or "bad girl" personality, but don't expect either version to get too wild. The responses stay firmly in the realm of subtle hints and playful teasing.

The biggest limitation? Conversations can hit a wall if you push for more explicit content.

If you're seeking a slow-burn romantic experience with light flirting, you'll find what you're looking for. If you want anything more explicit, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Image Generation

Candy AI

Candy.ai offers a premium engine to produce photos that look natural and match your character's personality settings.

The standard engine already outperforms most competitors, but the premium version pushes the realism further.

But whether you choose Standard image generation or the v2 model, you'll wait a few extra seconds per image compared to other AI girlfriend apps.

character.ai

There isn't any image generation feature available. If seeing your AI girlfriend is important, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Video Generation

Candy AI

The videos look good, but let's be real: you'll spot some obvious AI quirks, like characters sometimes moving in weird ways (my girlfriend walked backward in one clip). Still, for early-stage tech, it's decent.

The real deal-breaker? Cost. Your monthly subscription will cover a few videos.

Want NSFW content? That'll cost you 2-5 times more than your monthly fee. Per video.

character.ai

The app provides a script-to-scene generator: upload a photo, choose a voice, write a short script, and the system brings it to life.

The result? A stylized video clip that plays out your custom scene. It looks good, feels personal—but don’t expect Hollywood realism. It’s more of an animated moment than live-action.

Note: Video generation is a beta feature, currently available only to subscribed users. It’s experimental and may be changed or removed at any time.

Voice Generation

Candy AI

The voice works, but it's not what you might expect. It's clear enough to understand every word, but there's no hiding its artificial nature.

Is it usable? Yes. Is it natural? No. If you're okay with basic voice interaction and don't expect the warmth of a real conversation.

character.ai

The voice sounds human-like with smooth, natural speech that fits the character’s personality, but the narrative voice can sometimes be a bit annoying, so be prepared.

But there's a catch. While the voice quality impressed me, the emotional range fell flat.

Privacy

Candy AI

The policy does not specify whether your chat messages are encrypted during transmission or stored.

They collect your data, including chat logs and any content you create.

However, they don't clearly explain how that data is protected, so be mindful of what personal information you share.

On your bank statement, charges will appear under the name "Everai."

character.ai

Your chats are encrypted during transmission, but that's where the strong privacy ends.

The company can read your conversations, and they store everything from your chat history to device information.

While they won't sell your data, they do share it with partners like Google Analytics.

Your bank statement isn’t discreet—it clearly shows the company name, "character.ai."