AI companion site pricing: subscriptions, tokens, bundles and PPV

AI companion site pricing works best as a two-layer model: a subscription that unlocks unlimited text chat, plus prepaid tokens for anything expensive to generate, such as images. Add bundles and pay-per-view unlocks on top. Leading sites charge roughly $10 to $14 a month list price and push buyers toward discounted quarterly and annual plans.

That is the short version. The longer version is where operators make or lose money, because every pricing choice changes three things at once: how many visitors convert, how much cash you collect up front, and how many chargebacks and refunds you absorb later. This guide breaks down the four building blocks of AI companion pricing, shows what the best-known brands actually charge, explains the card network rules that limit free trials, and walks through how to test prices without corrupting your data. It is written for affiliates, media buyers, agencies and creators who run or plan to run their own site, not for end users shopping for an app.

How do AI companion sites price their product?

Almost every AI companion site that earns real revenue combines some version of the same four building blocks. The mix differs, but the logic is consistent: charge a predictable recurring fee for the cheap-to-serve core experience, then meter the expensive parts.

The reason this hybrid structure dominates is cost. Generating a reply to a text message costs a fraction of a cent on modern models, while generating images costs meaningfully more per request. A flat subscription that included unlimited images would be unprofitable for exactly the heavy users who love the product most. Metering images through tokens fixes that, and it also creates a second revenue stream from the users with the highest intent.

What do leading AI companion apps charge in 2026?

Public price points from the best-known brands are the most useful benchmark you have, because your visitors have usually seen them. Two examples cover both ends of the market: a mainstream character chat app and an adult companion site.

The Candy AI figures come from RoboRhythms' pricing breakdown, last updated in September 2026, and the c.ai+ figures from eesel AI's Character.AI pricing guide. Both brands change promotions often, so treat these as reference points rather than fixed numbers. For a deeper look at how the adult side of that model works, see our Candy AI operator teardown.

The wider category is growing but concentrated. According to Appfigures data reported by TechCrunch, AI companion apps earned $82 million in mobile revenue in the first half of 2025, revenue per download rose from $0.52 in 2024 to $1.18 in 2025, and the top 10% of apps captured 89% of category revenue. Pricing and packaging are a big part of what separates that top tier from the hundreds of apps that barely monetize.

How should you price subscription tiers?

The subscription is the front door, and its job is conversion. Three decisions matter most.

Keep the free tier small but real

A free tier should prove the product works, then stop. Candy AI's free tier allows a handful of messages and a single image before the paywall, according to RoboRhythms. That is enough for a visitor to feel the chat quality and the character's personality, and not enough to satisfy them. If your free tier answers every need a casual user has, most will never pay.

Use the monthly price as an anchor

Most leading sites set a monthly list price in the $10 to $14 range and then make longer plans look dramatically cheaper. Candy AI's annual plan works out to $3.99 a month against a $13.99 monthly price, about 71% less. Character.AI's annual plan saves about 21% against twelve monthly payments. The monthly plan exists partly so the long plan looks like a bargain next to it.

Decide how much cash you want up front

Long plans are a cash flow decision, not just a discount. Take Candy AI's prices: an annual buyer pays $47.88 on day one. A monthly buyer at $13.99 has to renew into a fourth month before they are worth more than the annual buyer ($13.99 times 4 is $55.96). If your typical monthly subscriber churns before month four, the deep annual discount earns you more per buyer and hands you the cash immediately, which you can put straight back into traffic. If your retention is strong, a shallower annual discount protects revenue. Your own cohort data should set the discount, not a competitor's promo banner.

A practical starting structure for a new site:

• Free: a short message allowance and one or two images.
• Monthly: $11.99 to $14.99, unlimited text, a small monthly token allowance.
• Quarterly: roughly 30% to 40% below the monthly rate, billed every three months.
• Annual: 50% to 70% below the monthly rate, billed once, shown as the "best value" option.

These are starting points to test against, not proven benchmarks for your traffic.

How should you price tokens and credits?

Tokens let you charge for what costs you money to produce. The pricing logic has three layers.

1. Price each action by its cost and perceived value. Start from what a generation costs you, then add margin. RoboRhythms reports that Candy AI charges about 4 tokens per generated image and 10 tokens to create a custom character. Actions that cost more to produce, or that users value more, cost more tokens.

2. Build a pack ladder with a volume discount. Candy AI's smallest pack is $9.99 for 100 tokens, about $0.10 per token, and its largest is $299.99 for 3,750 tokens, about $0.08 per token. That 20% discount at the top rewards the heaviest spenders for buying more at once. A 4-token image therefore costs a user about $0.40 at the small pack and about $0.32 at the largest. A simple ladder for your own site might look like this:

This ladder is an illustrative example, not a recommendation for every niche.

3. Size the included allowance carefully. Candy AI includes 100 tokens a month with Premium, roughly 25 images. That is enough to show users what images add and small enough that engaged users run out. If the allowance is too generous, nobody buys packs. If it is too stingy, new subscribers feel cheated in week one and refund. Watch the share of subscribers who exhaust their allowance in the first two weeks; if it is very high, consider a slightly bigger allowance paired with a one-time starter bundle.

Our guide to AI chat pricing goes deeper on per-message versus subscription versus token models for the chat layer itself.

When do bundles and pay-per-view beat a price increase?

Raising your subscription price affects every buyer, including the price-sensitive ones you want to keep. Bundles and pay-per-view let you charge more to the people who want more, without touching the entry price.

Bundles that tend to work

• Starter bundle: first month plus a token pack at a visible discount versus buying both separately. Show the combined list price crossed out next to the bundle price.
• Character stack: access to several related characters (for example, three personas in the same niche) for less than three separate unlocks.
• Story or content arc: a set of premium scenes or image sets released together, priced as one purchase.

Keep bundles additive. A bundle should give buyers something they would not otherwise buy, not a cheaper route to what they already pay full price for. If your top tier sales drop when a bundle launches, the bundle is cannibalizing them.

Pay-per-view unlocks

Pay-per-view works because it charges at the moment intent peaks: in the middle of a conversation, when a user wants a specific premium item now. Use it sparingly. If every second message hits a paywall, users stop engaging and retention falls. A good rule is to keep the core relationship (text chat with the character) inside the subscription and put only clearly premium extras behind unlocks. Candy AI follows this pattern, charging between 100 and 400 tokens for its private premium content according to RoboRhythms, while text chat stays unlimited on Premium.

What rules limit free trials and introductory offers?

Free trials look like an easy conversion lever, but in adult and high-risk billing they carry real compliance and chargeback risk. Card networks have specific rules.

Visa's policy for subscription merchants offering free trials or introductory promotions requires merchants to send an electronic reminder, by email or text, with a link to online cancellation at least seven days before the first recurring charge after a trial or intro offer ends. It also requires the enrollment receipt to state the length of the trial and that the cardholder will be charged unless they cancel. The same reminder applies when the price or billing period of a recurring agreement changes, which matters if you plan to raise prices on existing subscribers.

In practice, many operators prefer a paid introductory offer (for example, a discounted first month) over a free trial. A paid intro filters out people who never intended to pay, tends to produce fewer "I did not authorize this" disputes, and keeps you clear of rules that only apply to free trials. If your billing runs through an adult-specialist processor, your contract and the processor's compliance team will set additional requirements; our guide to fan site payment processors covers who accepts AI adult content and on what terms.

If you also sell inside an app store, the rules differ again. Apple's subscription documentation supports three introductory offer types (free trial, pay as you go, and pay up front), lets customers redeem one introductory offer per subscription group, and offers win-back offers for lapsed subscribers. Most adult AI companion sites sell on the web instead, which keeps pricing control with the operator.

How do you test prices without wrecking your data?

Pricing tests fail more often from bad method than bad ideas. A clean process:

1. Change one variable at a time. Test the monthly price, or the annual discount, or the token allowance. Not all three at once.
2. Split by visitor, not by day. Assign each new visitor randomly to a price and keep them there. Day-of-week and traffic-source swings will otherwise drown the result.
3. Segment by traffic source. Paid adult traffic, organic search and a creator's own audience have different willingness to pay. A winning price on one source can lose on another.
4. Measure revenue, not just conversion. Track paid conversion rate, revenue per paying user, token pack attach rate, refund rate and chargeback rate. A cheaper price that doubles refunds is not a win.
5. Wait for renewals. Read early conversion after a week or two, but judge the test on revenue per visitor after at least one renewal cycle. Monthly tests need 30 to 60 days to tell the truth.
6. Account for processing costs. High-risk billing carries higher fees. CCBill's pricing page notes that rates depend on risk level, volume and vertical, and lists annual card brand registration fees of $950 for Visa and $1,000 for Mastercard for certain high-risk categories. Very low price points can lose a large share of each sale to fixed per-transaction fees.

Worked example: what a pricing mix earns

Here is a simple model for one month, using hypothetical inputs so you can see how the pieces add up. Swap in your own numbers.

On a white-label platform that pays a revenue share of up to 60% of total site revenue, that month would be worth up to $10,650 to the operator. Now look at sensitivity. Raising the token pack attach rate from 25% to 30% adds 50 buyers at $15, or $750 in site revenue, worth up to $450 more to you, without changing your subscription price or your traffic. That is why usage pricing and bundles usually deserve testing before a headline price increase.

For a fuller model of traffic, conversion and payback, see how much AI companion sites earn. If you would rather not build billing, token systems and price testing yourself, a white-label AI companion platform such as WhiteLabelFans runs the stack while you focus on traffic and niche selection.

Frequently asked questions

How much should an AI companion site charge per month?

Most established sites list a monthly plan between about $10 and $14 and steer buyers toward discounted longer plans. Candy AI lists $13.99 a month and Character.AI's c.ai+ lists $9.99. Start in that range, then test against your own traffic, because paid adult traffic, search visitors and a creator's fans each respond differently to price.

Should I use tokens or a pure subscription?

Use both. A subscription covers cheap-to-serve text chat and gives you predictable recurring revenue, while tokens meter expensive actions such as image generation. A pure subscription that includes unlimited images loses money on your heaviest users. A pure token model adds friction to every conversation. The hybrid model is what most of the category's top earners use.

Are free trials a good idea for adult AI sites?

Often not. Visa requires a cancellation reminder at least seven days before a trial converts, plus clear disclosure at signup, and free trials tend to attract people who never meant to pay, which raises dispute rates. A low-priced paid first month usually converts better quality buyers and keeps you clear of the trial-specific rules.

How big a discount should an annual plan get?

It depends on retention. If most monthly subscribers churn within three or four months, a deep annual discount (Candy AI's works out to about 71% off) collects more per buyer and front-loads cash for acquisition. If your subscribers stay longer, a smaller discount, closer to Character.AI's roughly 21%, protects revenue. Let your cohort data decide.

What metrics should I track when testing prices?

Track paid conversion rate, revenue per paying user, revenue per visitor, token pack attach rate, refund rate and chargeback rate, split by traffic source. Judge the result on revenue per visitor after at least one renewal cycle. Conversion rate alone is misleading, because a lower price can raise conversions while lowering total revenue.

Sources

• RoboRhythms: Candy AI pricing review with every tier and the real token cost
• eesel AI: Character.AI pricing and what c.ai+ includes
• TechCrunch: AI companion apps on track to pull in $120M in 2025
• Visa: Updated policy for subscription merchants offering free trials or introductory promotions
• Apple Developer: Auto-renewable subscriptions
• CCBill: Pricing