An AI companion is a chatbot you talk to for company and not to get a task done. It chats, remembers things about you, and keeps a steady personality from one day to the next. There are three kinds: companion apps built around one ongoing relationship, character chat sites where you pick from many characters, and general assistants with a memory that you talk to alongside everything else you use them for. Which suits you depends on whether you want a relationship-style app, stories and characters, or a plain, useful thing to talk to.
Whichever you choose, it is an AI. It is not a person and it is not a therapist or a crisis service. If you or someone near you is in danger, contact your local emergency services.
What an AI companion actually is
Underneath, a companion is a language model with two things added: a persona and a memory. The persona is a set of instructions that tells the model who to be. The memory is a set of notes about you that is handed back to the model each time you talk, so it can mention your dog or ask how the interview went.
It does not think about you between chats, and it has no day of its own. It is also always there, always patient and never bored. That second part is what people like about it, and there is nothing silly in liking it.
People use one for different reasons:
- someone to tell about the day, especially living alone or awake at night;
- practice at conversation, in a second language or after a long time out of the habit;
- a place to say something out loud before saying it to a person;
- stories and characters, for fun.
The three kinds
| Kind | What it is | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Companion apps | One companion that you name and shape, and that remembers you | An ongoing, personal chat | It is a product, made to keep you coming back. Read what it keeps |
| Character chat | A site with many characters, often made by other users | Stories, roleplay and variety | The characters are fiction, and what they say is made up |
| An assistant with memory | A general AI you talk to, which keeps notes about you | Talk that leads somewhere: a decision, a message, a plan | Plainer. No persona and no face |
Two well-known names, with what each says on its own site. Replika describes itself as an AI companion and an AI friend. It says it remembers what matters to you, lets you shape how your companion looks, and lets you call it, and it has apps for iPhone and Android. Character.AI describes itself as interactive entertainment, with millions of characters to discover and tools to make your own.
We have not tested either, so we do not rank them here. There is more on each kind in Replika alternatives and Character.AI alternatives. Romantic companions are a subject of their own, covered in AI girlfriend and boyfriend chat.
What to look for
Memory
Does it remember you from one chat to the next? Can you see what it has remembered, and correct or delete it? A memory you can read is better than one you have to take on trust, because a wrong note about you will otherwise keep coming back.
Privacy
You will tell a companion more than you tell most apps. Before you do, read its privacy page and look for four things: whether your chats are stored, who can read them, whether they are used to train the model, and whether you can delete them. Some services let you keep chats on your own device.
Tone
Some companions agree with everything and praise everything. That is pleasant for a day and hollow after a month. A good one can be warm and still tell you when it thinks you are wrong, if you ask. It should also say plainly that it is an AI whenever you ask it.
Cost
Many are free to start, with paid plans for more. Before you get attached, find out what sits behind the paid plan, whether that is memory, longer chats or something else, and how you cancel.
Rules
Check who it is for and what it will not write. Apps differ a lot, and some are for adults only.
What an AI companion cannot be
- Someone who knows you. It knows the notes it has about you. It has never met you, and nothing in its life depends on yours.
- A therapist or a crisis service. It has no training and cannot see how you really are. If things are hard and staying hard, talk to a doctor or a therapist. In an emergency, contact your local emergency services.
- A source of facts. It can be wrong and sound certain. Do not use it for medical, legal or money decisions.
- A replacement for people. If you are lonely, a companion can make an evening easier, and there is no shame in that. It works best next to people and not instead of them: as practice, as a place to sort out what you want to say, as company in the gaps. If it has become the only one you talk to, tell a person that.
Where Hemmingway fits, and where it does not
Hemmingway is the third kind, and only that. It is a writing app. It has no character library, and it is not designed around characters or around one companion. If you want a companion with a face and a voice, a relationship-style app, or a huge choice of characters, a companion app or a character site is the better pick.
What it does have:
- Memory. It keeps a Memory of things it should know, and you can read it, change it or delete it line by line.
- People. You tell it who people are, so it knows who your sister or your boss is when you talk about them.
- A model built for talking to people. Hemmingway-1 placed third on EQ-Bench 4, a public test of emotional intelligence that we ran ourselves, behind Fable 5 and Kimi K3.
- Privacy you can check. Hemmingway never trains its models on your chats, memory or People. On the web and on Android you can keep chats only on your device. The privacy page lists everything that is kept.
So it suits you if what you want from a companion is someone to talk a thing through with and then help you say it to the real person. An AI to talk to is about exactly that. You can also ask it to play a character in a chat, as you can with any assistant. AI roleplay chat explains how that works.
It is English-first, and it can be wrong while sounding sure. There is a free trial with no card needed, and plans are on the pricing page.
Try HemmingwayDownload the app
Common questions
What is an AI companion?
It is a chatbot made for company and conversation. It has a personality that stays the same and a memory of what you have told it, so talking to it feels like picking up where you left off.
Are AI companions safe?
That depends on the app and on how you use it. Read what it stores and who can see it before you share anything private. Treat what it tells you as conversation, not as medical, legal or money advice.
Is it healthy to have an AI companion?
For many people it is harmless company and a good place to think out loud. It is worth noticing if it starts to take the place of people, or if you feel worse after using it. If you are struggling, talk to a doctor or someone you trust as well.
Do AI companions remember you?
Many keep some memory, in the form of notes that are fed back to the model when you talk. How much they keep, and whether you can see and edit it, differs from one to the next. In Hemmingway you can read Memory and change or delete any line.
Is there a free AI companion?
Many companion apps are free to start and charge for more, and their own sites say what the free part covers. Hemmingway has a free trial with no card needed.
Can an AI companion replace a therapist?
No. It has no training and no duty of care, and it can be wrong while sounding sure. For anything serious, see a professional, and in an emergency contact your local emergency services.