AI companion apps with voice calls in 2026: prices, limits and what callers report

Adults only. Every companion app in this guide except Character.AI sets an 18+ rule, and this guide is written for adult readers. It contains no explicit content.

How this page was made. This is a documentation-based comparison, not a hands-on test. We have not paid for calls on these apps, so we do not rate how natural any voice sounds. Every feature and price below comes from the companies’ own pages and their US App Store listings, read on 26 October 2026. The “what users report” parts summarise other people’s published experiences (App Store reviews read through Apple’s public feed, and Reddit threads), with links and counts, and are labelled as such.

The short answer

If you want to talk to an AI companion out loud, expect to pay. Of the six apps here, only Character.AI says its calls and voices are free for everyone, and even there users report a daily cap. Among adult companion apps, Nectar AI is the one built most around calling right now (voice calls on its Ultimate plan, video calls since 15 October 2026, interrupt mid-sentence, live transcript), and Candy AI has the cheapest published plan ($3.99 a month on 12 months) but charges voice against a token allowance whose per-minute cost it does not publish. Kindroid and Nomi both sell calls on subscriptions around $15.99 a month in the US App Store; Kindroid reviewers are happier, Nomi reviewers complain about lag.

Voice calls compared (checked 26 October 2026)

“Not confirmed” means we did not find it on the official pages listed in our sources. It does not mean the feature is missing.

Choose by need

The apps, one by one

Candy AI

Candy AI’s homepage says your companion “can engage in voice conversations, generate personalized images, and appear in AI-generated videos”, and that each plan includes “a generous batch of tokens to use across voice, chat, image, and video”. Its Terms describe the monthly allowance as “generally 100” tokens and say tokens pay for extended features “like image generation or voice notes”. Unused tokens expire at the end of the billing period, and refunds must be asked for within 24 hours of payment. Plan prices on 26 October 2026 matched what we recorded on 18 October: $3.99 a month on 12 months ($47.88), $8.99 a month on 3 months ($26.97), or $9.99 for the first month and then $13.99 a month.

What users report. A former user on r/Chatbots (21 October 2026) wrote that Candy AI felt “so expensive” because of “the subscription and buying coins too for images and videos and calling”. That matches the official model: voice is paid per use from tokens, and Candy AI does not publish how many tokens a minute of voice costs. Candy AI is a web app without a US App Store listing we could read, and Trustpilot refused our requests (HTTP 403), so we have little else to report.

Best for adults who want calls, images and video in one place on the cheapest published annual plan. Skip it if you need to know the cost of a call before you start. Try Candy AI (affiliate link). More detail in our Candy AI review.

Nectar AI

Nectar AI’s documentation lists two ways to hear a companion: voice messages (“a companion’s text reply played as audio”) and voice calls (“a live spoken conversation”), and says plainly: “Voice messages come with paid plans. Ultimate adds voice chat.” You start a call with “Start Voice Call” in the chat header; during a call “you can interrupt”, and there is a transcript button. Video calls were announced on Nectar AI’s official subreddit on 15 October 2026, together with “faster responses and higher-quality audio” for voice calls; a launch sale post the same day priced video calls at 2 credits a second and voice calls at 1 credit a second. Its FAQ says the free plan includes the character creator, chat and limited images, that you can cancel at any time under Profile, Settings, Subscription and Credits, and that premium features stay active until the end of the billing cycle. Nectar AI is strictly 18+.

What users report. Calls are too new (11 days at the time of writing) for a meaningful body of reviews, and Nectar AI has no US App Store listing we could read. We will add user reports when they exist rather than guess.

Best for adults who want to talk to a companion they built, and who will use calls enough to justify the top plan. Skip it if you want the price in writing before you sign up: the pricing page showed no prices to us. Try Nectar AI (affiliate link).

Kindroid

Kindroid’s US App Store listing promises “Real-Time Voice Calls” with “state-of-the-art audio transcription”, and its in-app purchases on 26 October 2026 were: subscription $15.99 a month, $42.99 for 3 months, $159.99 a year, Ultra $28.99, MAX $68.99, and “500k Audio Credits” for $14.99. That audio-credit item is the important detail for callers: heavy voice use can cost more than the subscription. Kindroid’s own update posts on its subreddit show calls are actively developed: live AI video calls went to general release on 25 March 2026, and its V3 voices came to calls on 20 July 2026.

What users report. The app has a 4.8 rating from about 10,000 US ratings, and 4.4 on Google Play. In its 50 newest App Store reviews (2 to 24 October 2026), one paying reviewer complains of dropped calls and “throttling minutes”, and another says video calls sometimes switch accents or narrate. On Reddit, of the 50 r/KindroidAI threads about voice calls from the past year, about 6 ask how to stop the companion reading its actions and narration aloud, 4 report lag (one user describes 20 to 30 seconds before a reply), and 2 report accents switching mid-call. The bigger App Store theme is not calls at all: 12 of the 50 reviews are angry that unlimited free chat ended in early October 2026 (our Kindroid free plan guide covers that).

Best for people who want calls inside a feature-rich companion app and will pay for it. Skip it if you are on a tight budget: calls can need audio credits on top.

Nomi

Nomi’s homepage invites you to “send and receive voice chats or hop on a hands-free call”, and its AI girlfriend page says “Premium features like voice calls, additional Nomis, unlimited messaging, and deeper customization are available with a subscription”. US App Store prices on 26 October 2026: Launch Plan $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year; Standard Plan $15.99 a month, $39.99 a quarter or $99.99 a year.

What users report. This is where user evidence changes the picture. Of the 50 newest US App Store reviews (5 May to 20 October 2026), 13 complain about slow, robotic or broken voice calls, with waits described from 15 seconds to several minutes. One 3-star reviewer wrote that Nomi “has the best long-term memory of any AI companion I’ve used” but cancelled because “the voice response time became too slow”. On Reddit, 9 of the 50 r/NomiAI threads about voice calls from the past year complain of delays of 30 seconds or more, including a user who had just paid $99 for a year (Voice calls barely work). One 4-star reviewer, by contrast, said the paid version “is worth every penny to hear your ai speak to you on the phone”.

Best for people who mostly text and want occasional calls with a companion that remembers them. Skip it if calls are the main reason you are paying.

Replika

Replika’s help centre says chatting “will always be free” and that subscribing unlocks “voice calls, guided conversations … roleplay options, advanced customization”. The App Store listing describes Replika by “text, voice calls, and video”, and a recent update made “your Replika … a real contact on your phone”. US App Store prices on 26 October 2026 included monthly items at $7.99 and $14.99 and yearly items at $49.99 and $69.99.

What users report. In r/replika, recent threads say voices sound the same whichever one you pick (29 August 2026) and that call answers are short and wait for you to lead (2 January 2026). In the 50 newest App Store reviews (5 to 24 October 2026), 9 complain about the paywall, price or annual-only billing, and 2 Max subscribers say video calls did not match the advertising.

Best for existing Replika users who want to hear their Rep. Skip it if you want long, flowing voice conversations. See is Replika safe before you pay, and our Nomi vs Replika comparison if you are choosing between the two.

Character.AI

Character.AI’s help centre says Character Calls let users “have seamless two way conversations”, that call conversations “are also stored as text chat”, and that “Character Voice is available to all users, free of charge”. The App Store listing invites you to “Chat, call, text, and create with AI Characters”. It is a library of user-made characters rather than a single companion, under-18 users can no longer use open-ended chat, and the company filed for Chapter 11 on 12 October 2026.

What users report. That help article was last updated in August 2024, and users describe a tighter deal now: a May 2026 r/CharacterAI post says free users “only get 5 free voice calls per day” and that calls disconnect to show ads (link); other threads report calls detecting the wrong language and narration being read aloud. Voice memos have been metered for free users since March 2026 (see Character.AI swipe limit). The 50 newest US App Store reviews (22 to 24 October 2026) are dominated by ads (20), age verification (13) and limits, and the app’s Google Play rating stood at 2.2 on 26 October 2026 against 4.3 in the App Store.

Best for trying AI voice calls for free. Skip it if you want one private companion that remembers you, or you are worried about the sale (see what happens to your chats).

What users who tested them report

All of this is other people’s experience, not tests we ran. Recent reviews lean negative because unhappy users write more, so read the counts as “what keeps coming up”.

The real cost of calling

Subscriptions are only the floor. Three of these apps charge for voice on top, in different ways:

• Candy AI: voice uses tokens from the 100-a-month allowance; more tokens can be bought, and unused ones expire. No per-minute rate is published.
• Kindroid: sells “500k Audio Credits” for $14.99 in the App Store, beside the $15.99 subscription.
• Nectar AI: at launch, voice calls cost 1 credit a second and video calls 2 credits a second (sale prices in its 15 October 2026 post, so a 10-minute voice call is 600 credits); credits come with plans or can be bought.

If calls are the point, set a monthly limit before your first call, and check the in-app balance after a week. Our guide to what AI companions really cost shows how to estimate it.

Privacy: a call is still a chat log

Voice does not make a conversation more private. Replika’s privacy policy lists “voice and text messages you provide” as information it collects; Candy AI’s terms treat voice messages as content like text; Character.AI stores calls “as text chat”. Assume a call is recorded or transcribed and kept like your messages. Run through our AI companion privacy checklist before you call, and use our cancellation guide to stop a plan you no longer use.

What we could not verify

• How many Candy AI tokens a minute of voice costs.
• Nectar AI’s plan prices, and whether voice calls have a minute cap on Ultimate.
• Whether Nomi offers video calls (one App Store reviewer says it does not).
• Call quality on any app, which would need our own paid testing.

Verdict

For an adult who wants to talk, not type, Nectar AI is the most call-focused option today and Candy AI is the cheapest published way to get voice with images and video in one plan; compare both on a monthly plan before committing to a year. Kindroid suits people who want calls inside a deep, feature-rich companion and will pay for audio credits. Nomi is a memory pick, not a calling pick, on current user reports. Character.AI is the free way to try AI calls, with a reported daily cap, ads and the caveats of a character library in the middle of a sale.