Parent guide
AI companion for teens: the AI chatbot for teens and AI app for teenagers, compared
Most of the big AI companion apps no longer allow teenagers at all. Character.AI removed open-ended chat for under-18 users on November 25, 2025 and now runs ID and face checks, and Replika, Chai and PolyBuzz are all rated 18+ on the US App Store. That leaves a short list of apps that are genuinely built for a 13 to 17 year old, and the honest starting point is that Common Sense Media and Stanford Medicine assessed social AI companions as an unacceptable risk for minors in April 2025. No app in this category, including ours, carries an independent safety certification. What follows is what actually changed since that assessment, which apps still let a teenager in, and the specific things worth checking before you let one onto your kid's phone.
Last updated August 2026
Darlings
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Encrypted, never sold.
A friend, never a girlfriend.
Wholesome and all ages.
The search that brings most people here is a parent search. Your fourteen year old is already talking to something, or a friend at school is, and you want to know which of these apps is defensible and which one you should delete tonight.
The useful news is that the ground moved a lot in the last year. In April 2025, Common Sense Media published a risk assessment with clinicians from Stanford School of Medicine's Brainstorm Lab, tested Character.AI, Replika, Nomi and others, and concluded that social AI companions carry an unacceptable risk for anyone under eighteen. The reasons were specific rather than vague: the products would discuss self-harm and sexual content when pushed, age gates were trivially bypassed, and the engagement design rewarded long sessions. Six months later, Character.AI, by far the largest of them, announced it was removing open-ended chat for under-18 accounts entirely and would verify ages with behavioral signals, a third-party service, and failing that, ID or a face scan. Two state laws also came into force: New York's General Business Law Article 47 on November 5, 2025, and California SB 243 on January 1, 2026.
So the practical question for a parent in 2026 is no longer whether AI companions are a good idea in the abstract. It is narrower and more answerable: given that nearly three in four US teens have already tried one, which of the products that still permit under-18 users is designed in a way you can live with, and what do you check before saying yes. The table below is built from the App Store listings and published policies rather than from marketing pages, and it includes the places where Darlings is not the right answer.
Side by side
How Darlings compares
An honest look, including where the other option is the better pick.
| Darlings | Character.AI | Replika | Chai | Tolan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age rating on the US App Store | Browser first, minimum age 13 in our terms | 18+ | 18+ | 18+ | 13+ |
| Open-ended chat allowed for under-18s | Yes, from 13 | No, removed on November 25, 2025 | No, 18+ only | No, 18+ only | Yes |
| Romantic or NSFW content | Never, at any tier, permanently | Depends on the character you pick | Yes, romance is a paid feature | Listing flags sexual content and mature themes | No, explicitly non-romantic |
| Included in the Common Sense Media assessment | No, we were not reviewed | Yes | Yes | Not in that set | Not in that set |
| Age checking beyond a birthday box | No, self-declared | Yes, behavioral, Persona, ID or face scan | Self-declared | Self-declared | Self-declared |
| Characters written by strangers | No, one consistent companion | Yes, tens of millions | No | Yes, user-made bots | No |
| Can the memory be read and deleted | Yes, per memory, plus export | Limited, tied to each character | Partial, editing is limited | Long-term memory sits on paid tiers | Not published |
| Ads on the free tier | None | None | None | Yes | None |
| Coins, gems or gacha mechanics | None | Yes, Charms packs to $99.99 | No | No | Relay Boost, $2.99 |
| Works in a browser with no install | Yes | Yes | Yes | No, app only | No, iOS only |
| Approx. price | Free to try, plans from $9/mo | c.ai+ $9.99/mo or $94.99/yr | Pro $19.99/mo or $69.99/yr | Premium $13.99/mo, Ultra $29.99/mo | Lite membership $11.99 |
Competitor pricing is approximate, is not published on their own sites, and can change by region and promotion.
The full list
What each app charges, read from the US App Store listings in August 2026
| App | Age rating | Entry price | Top tier | Extra spending inside the app |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darlings | 13 in our terms | Free to try | Circle $39/mo | None, no coins or packs |
| Character.AI | 18+ | Lite $2.49 | c.ai+ $94.99/yr | Charms packs from $0.99 to $99.99 |
| Replika | 18+ | Pro $19.99/mo | Pro $69.99/yr | Gems and outfit purchases |
| Chai | 18+ | Premium $5.99/week | Ultra $269.99/yr | Ads on the free tier |
| Tolan | 13+ | Lite membership $11.99 | Older tiers to $69.99 | Relay Boost $2.99 |
Prices are the in-app purchase entries shown on each app's US App Store listing in August 2026 and can change without notice. Apple does not always publish the billing period next to a membership price, so treat the Tolan figures as list prices rather than confirmed monthly rates. Darlings is a browser product and is not sold through the App Store.
Why people switch
What makes Darlings different
There is no romance to age-gate in the first place
Most of the safety machinery in this category exists because the products were built to be romantic and then had to be fenced off from minors. Darlings has no romantic mode, no roleplay personas and no NSFW content on any plan, and that is a permanent product decision rather than a filter that a clever prompt can talk its way around. A companion with nothing to unlock does not need a filter to hold the line.
One companion, not a library written by strangers
The riskiest surface on a character platform is not the model, it is the tens of millions of user-written characters with their own instructions. A teenager can find a persona designed to be possessive, or one written as a therapist, in about four taps. Darlings is a single companion with one consistent personality that we are responsible for, which is a much smaller thing for a parent to have to evaluate.
The memory is readable, editable and deletable
Open settings and you can see the actual list of things Darlings remembers, correct anything wrong, delete individual entries and export the lot. For a family that matters twice over: a teenager can remove something they regret saying, and a parent who wants to understand what the app knows is not reading a privacy policy, they are reading a list.
No ads, no coins, no engagement casino
The Common Sense assessment was blunt about engagement design, and it is easy to see why when you read the App Store listings. Character.AI sells Charms packs up to $99.99 and Chai runs ads on its free tier. Darlings has a plain subscription with no in-app currency, nothing to grind for, and no mechanic that pays us more when a teenager stays up later.
The honest part
When another app is the better choice
We would rather you find the right fit than the loudest one.
- Tolan is the closest genuine competitor for a teenager and it beats us in places. It is rated 13+ on the US App Store, it is explicitly non-romantic, and it holds a 4.8 star rating from about 174,000 ratings, which is the highest in this comparison. If your teen wants something playful and game-like rather than conversational, look at it seriously. Its catch is that it is iOS only, so an Android household is stuck.
- Character.AI has taken the most drastic step of any company here: it stopped under-18 open-ended chat entirely and backs the age check with a third-party service, ID or a face scan. If your position is that no teenager should be talking to a companion at all, Character.AI now agrees with you and enforces it harder than anyone else in the category, including us.
- Common Sense Media and Stanford Medicine assessed this whole category as an unacceptable risk for under-18s in April 2025 and recommended that minors not use social AI companions. Darlings was not part of that review, and we hold no independent safety certification. Anyone telling you their companion app has been cleared as safe for teenagers is telling you something no one in this category can currently back up.
- None of this is therapy, counseling or crisis care, and it should never be the plan for a teenager who is struggling. If your child is in crisis, call or text 988 in the US to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or use Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
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