How we picked
Most AI girlfriend apps call themselves free, but what they mean varies a lot: some give you unlimited chat, others a handful of messages before the paywall. We've sorted these by how much you actually get without paying, using what each app offered when we last checked.
Camsoda AI is the clear winner for free use: text chat is unlimited with every character in its library, and you don't need a card. SpicyChat's free tier is genuinely usable across its huge library of user-made characters, Joi lets you chat free too, and DreamGF and Swipey let you design your own character before you pay, though DreamGF's free plan is capped at about 20 safe-for-work messages a day. Candy AI and Kupid AI give you a short preview, enough to see whether you like them.
What's almost never free is the rest: voice messages, generated photos and video, longer memory and custom characters usually need premium or tokens. If you're going to pay, compare the yearly prices: Camsoda AI's works out at $4.99 a month, while Candy AI's premium ran about $6 to $13 a month plus tokens when we checked.