Character.AI vs NovelAI
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
Character.AI
Chat and roleplay with AI-built characters and personas
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NovelAI
Encrypted AI story writing and anime image generation by subscription
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| RECATOOLS Score | 6 / 10 | 7 / 10 |
| Capability | — | |
| Value for money | — | |
| Ease of use | — | |
| ASEAN readiness | — | |
| API quality | — | |
| Pricing | Freemium | Subscription |
| Free tier | Full access with queue times during peak hours | One-time trial: 30 images (up to 1024x1024), 50 text and 100 TTS generations for email-verified accounts; no ongoing free plan |
| Paid from | c.ai lite from $4.99 a month in the US | $10/month (Tablet); Scroll $15; Opus $25 adds Xialong and Anlas-free images |
| Has API | ✗ | ✗ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✗ |
| Users | 20M+ monthly active users (below ~28M 2024 peak; varies by source) | 2.5M+ total users (2023) |
| Founded | 2021 | 2021 |
| Maker | Character.AI (Google licensing deal) | Anlatan Inc. |
| Verdict | Character.AI is still the dominant platform for building and chatting with AI personas — a very large user-made character library, near-zero friction to start, and personas consistent enough to keep sessions running long... |
NovelAI remains the most private of the AI fiction tools — stories are encrypted so the company says it cannot read them — and its writing tools (lorebooks, memory, fine-grained generation settings) suit long-form storyt... |
| Full review → | Full review → |
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Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.