Alternatives
Character.AI bankruptcy: what it means for your chats and the best alternatives
Character.AI is not shut down. Its parent company, Character Technologies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on 12 October 2026 to sell the business under court supervision, and the app keeps running while that happens. If no buyer agrees to continue the platform, the company says it will be wound down, so exporting your data now is the sensible step.
What happened to Character.AI?
Character Technologies, Inc., the company behind Character.AI, filed a voluntary Chapter 11 case in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on 12 October 2026, according to Bloomberg Law and CBS News.
The goal is a court-supervised sale. Disney is the so called stalking horse bidder: it offers $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual licence to certain Character.AI intellectual property, plus transition services, and other bidders can top that offer. The company expects the sale to close in late November or early December 2026. TechCrunch reports assets and liabilities of between $50 million and $100 million each.
CEO Colin Adams named "significant legal, regulatory and operational headwinds" as the reason, according to CBS News. The filing follows lawsuits by families and US states over the safety of minors on the platform, some of which were settled earlier in 2026.
Is Character.AI shutting down?
Not as of 21 October 2026. The website and apps are running and nothing has been switched off.
What decides the future is the sale. Adams wrote that if no bid comes in from a buyer that continues the platform, "the platform will be wound down", as quoted by TechCrunch. Disney's offer is a licence to intellectual property, not a purchase of the app, so it does not by itself keep Character.AI running. Whether someone else bids for the platform should become clear when the sale process ends.
What happens to my chats, characters and c.ai+ subscription?
For now, nothing changes. Character.AI says subscriptions remain active and that it will notify subscribers in advance if changes affect paid features, according to CBS News.
On data, the company says user data "continues to be protected under our Privacy Policy". That same policy allows user information to be shared in connection with a sale of company assets, and Straight Arrow News reports that the company has not said whether chats are part of what is being sold. Deleting your account is possible in the app or on the website, but SAN notes the policy allows some data to be kept for legal obligations.
How do I export my Character.AI chats?
Request a data export in your Character.AI account settings, on the website or in the app, under the account or privacy section.
According to reports citing Character.AI's help center, the export covers your whole account rather than single chats, processing can take three to four weeks, and the download link in the email expires after seven days. With the sale expected to close in late November, it makes sense to request it now. A few more tips:
- Copy the definitions, greetings and example dialogues of characters you made yourself into a text file. They are the part you can most easily rebuild elsewhere.
- Save single conversations you care about by hand, for example as a PDF, so you do not depend on the export arriving in time.
- No other app imports Character.AI exports one to one, X-Friend included. Treat the export as your archive, not as a transfer.
Why are users looking for alternatives now?
Mostly uncertainty. People who have chatted with the same characters for months do not want to wait until late November to find out whether the platform survives.
The older reasons have not gone away either: the content filter that also applies to c.ai+ subscribers, memory that fades in long chats, and stricter age checks since open-ended chat for under 18s ended on 25 November 2025.
Which Character.AI alternatives are there?
It depends on what you used Character.AI for. A big character library and one companion are very different products.
| App | Best for | Content rules | Price (US App Store, Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janitor AI | Closest to c.ai: community characters, bring your own model | Depends on the model you connect | Web; free built-in model, paid upgrade |
| Talkie Lab | Casual, gamified characters | 18+ | $9.99 a month, $49.99 a year |
| Kindroid | One companion you control in detail | 18+ with in-app content controls | $15.99 a month, $159.99 a year |
| Nomi | Memory and group chats | 18+ | $15.99 a month, $99.99 a year |
| Replika | One long running companion with a 3D avatar | 18+ | $7.99 to $14.99 a month |
| X-Friend | One companion you build, with calls, live video and games | 18+ with age check; selfies stop at lingerie | €7.99 a week, €139.99 a year (Google Play, Germany) |
Where does X-Friend fit, and where does it not?
X-Friend fits if what you liked about Character.AI was one character you came back to every day.
You build your companion in a creator with 14 questions; the app gives her or him a face and a voice and remembers what you tell it over weeks. Beyond chat there are voice messages, phone calls, live video calls, scenes for roleplay and games like chess inside the conversation. Explicit conversation is part of the 18+ mode, which requires an age check. Premium costs €7.99 a week or €139.99 a year (Google Play, Germany); there is no free trial, but a 3 day money-back guarantee.
It does not fit if you want thousands of user made characters. X-Friend has a public catalogue of characters and scenes, but it is far smaller than Character.AI's library. It runs on Android and in the browser, including on iPhone; the iPhone app is not in the App Store yet.
Questions people ask
Is Character.AI shutting down?
Not as of 21 October 2026. Character Technologies filed for Chapter 11 on 12 October 2026 to sell the business, and the platform keeps running during the sale. The company says it will wind the platform down if no buyer agrees to continue it. The sale is expected to close in late November or early December 2026.
Did Character.AI go bankrupt?
Its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on 12 October 2026. Chapter 11 is a reorganisation and sale procedure, not an immediate closure.
Is my c.ai+ subscription still active?
Yes. Character.AI says subscriptions remain active and that it will tell subscribers in advance if changes affect paid features. You manage or cancel c.ai+ where you bought it, for example in the App Store or Google Play.
How do I export my Character.AI chats?
Request a data export in your account settings on the website or in the app. Reports citing the help center say it covers the whole account, can take three to four weeks, and the email link expires after seven days.
Who is buying Character.AI?
No buyer for the platform had been announced by 21 October 2026. Disney is the opening bidder with $20 million for a non-exclusive licence to certain intellectual property, which is not a purchase of the app. Other bidders can top it.
What is the best Character.AI alternative?
For the same community character library, Janitor AI. For one companion with strong memory, Nomi or Kindroid. For one companion you build yourself with voice messages, calls and live video calls, X-Friend.
Where to go from here
- X-Friend as a Character.AI alternative
- The best Character.AI alternatives for adults in 2026
- X-Friend prices and plans
- All X-Friend features
- Replika vs Character.AI: which one is right for you in 2026?
Sources
- Bloomberg Law, "Character.ai Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in Delaware", 13 October 2026.
- CBS News, "Character.ai files for bankruptcy, citing legal and operational woes", 13 October 2026.
- TechCrunch, "Just 5 years in, interactive chatbot platform Character.AI files for bankruptcy", 13 October 2026.
- Straight Arrow News (SAN), "Character.AI's bankruptcy leaves millions of users' chats in limbo", October 2026.
- Notebookcheck and Tom's Guide on exporting Character.AI data, citing the Character.AI help center, October 2026.
- Character.AI blog, 29 October 2025 (open-ended chat for under 18s ending 25 November 2025).
- US App Store listings for Kindroid, Nomi, Talkie Lab and Replika, checked 20 October 2026. Janitor AI help center.