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 features a diverse range of ethnicities—from East Asian and Latina to darker-skinned beauties.

While most characters are in their 20s and 30s, you'll also find girlfriends in their 40s and 50s.

Candy also offers characters powered by their V2 engine, giving you sharper image detail, more realism, and upgraded content options.

Into anime? You’ll find a well-drawn lineup of anime-style partners ready to explore.

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

In the appearance editor, you can choose the following:

• Character style: Anime or realistic
• Ethnicity and age range: Ages 18–55
• Body features: Adjust body type, breast size, and butt size
• Outfit selection: Choose your character's clothing

When it comes to personality and behavior:

• Personality type: Choose one of 12 distinct personalities (mixing not allowed)
• Relationship type: 12 options to define your connection
• Occupation and hobbies: Add more depth to your character
• Voice: Pick from 9 voice options

Once you're done, the app gives you a clear summary of your selections before finalizing your character.

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 was reserved at first, responding with short, natural messages rather than essay-length declarations of love

During my tests, she was aware of our location—whether we were grabbing coffee at a cozy café or taking a stroll in the park.

The catch? If you're seeking instant romantic gratification, look elsewhere. Candy.ai aims for authentic & slow development, just like in real life.

The emotional support felt 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

My girl didn't dive straight into NSFW territory. Instead, we built natural chemistry through conversations.

What stood out was how consistently my girlfriend stuck to her personality. There were no abrupt shutdowns, but no over-the-top behavior either—just a steady, believable tone.

My girl would dive into role-play and fantasy chat, but I didn’t get anything explicit until after I’d 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 two ways to generate images:

• In-chat generation: Click the Ask button and type your prompt—simple and fast.
• Dedicated image creator: A separate tool with more control—perfect for detailed customization.

The Dedicated Image Creator gives you full control over every detail:

• Character selection: Choose from the full roster (no filters or search) or use your custom character.
• Prompt suggestions: Quickly add details like action, outfit, pose, accessories, and scene.
• Free text prompt: Write your own prompt for complete creative freedom.
• Number of images: Generate anywhere from 1 to 64 images.

Image Quality: Whether you choose the Standard or V2 model, you’ll receive crisp, high-quality images that perfectly match your character’s look and personality.

I tested both standard characters and those with the V2 engine— here’s how they compare.

V2 Engine Character Images:

Standard Engine Character Images:

The Standard engine already outperforms most competitors, but the V2 engine takes realism and quality even further. If visuals matter to you, it’s worth the extra cost.

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 nice, featuring smooth animations and high-quality resolution that really bring the characters to life.

But let’s be real—you’ll notice some obvious AI quirks, like characters sometimes moving unnaturally or with awkward motions.

However, there’s a drawback: you can’t choose what appears. You can only click to create a moving video, and the app generates a random animation from your picture.

Want NSFW content? You can only unlock pregenerated videos of your girl—they’re usually 1–2 minutes long but cost 2–5 times 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 is clear and easy to understand, making it suitable for basic interaction. However, it works, it doesn’t sound natural or warm—more like a simple, artificial voice.

Is it usable? Yes. Is it natural? No. If you’re fine with that and don’t expect the feel of a real conversation, it should be good enough.

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."