How to Evaluate an AI Companion App Before You Pay

For adults. Most AI companion apps, including every one we have documented so far, require users to be 18 or older. This guide is written for adult readers.

AI companion apps are easy to start and easy to keep paying for. The moment to be careful is before you enter card details, because most of what matters is written down in documents you can read for free: the pricing page, the terms and the privacy policy.

This guide gives you a repeatable way to evaluate any companion app in about 30 minutes, without paying first. It is the same document-first approach we use for our own reviews, described in how AITried reviews AI.

Step 1: Confirm you are on the real site

Companion apps attract copycat sites and lookalike apps. Before reading anything else, check three things:

• The company name in the site footer matches the company named in the terms and privacy policy.
• The terms give a registered company name and, ideally, a registration number and address.
• The app in your app store lists the same developer name.

For example, Candy AI’s terms name EverAI Limited, registered in Malta, and its subscriptions page says charges appear as “EverAI” on your statement. If the name on a site does not match, stop. Our guide to spotting fake AI app clone sites goes further.

Step 2: Find the real price, not the headline price

Pricing pages often show a per-month figure for a long plan. Your card is charged the full amount up front. Write down three numbers for each plan:

1. The amount billed today.
2. The amount billed at renewal.
3. How often it renews.

Then check whether there is a second currency inside the product, such as tokens, credits or “gems”, and whether your plan’s allowance expires. Candy AI’s terms, for instance, say the monthly token allowance expires at the end of each billing period. Our guide to what AI companions really cost has worked examples, and you can run your own numbers in the subscription calculator.

Step 3: Measure the free tier or trial honestly

There are three common patterns, each with a different risk:

The FTC’s consumer advice on free trials is blunt: if the terms are unclear about whether a trial renews, “assume it will”. It also advises marking your calendar to cancel before the trial ends. Kindroid’s documentation, for example, says its 3-day trial needs a payment method and converts automatically unless cancelled, with a reminder email one day before.

For more on this trade-off, see free vs paid AI companions.

Step 4: Read the cancellation and refund rules

This is where people lose money. Look for answers to four questions in the terms:

• Where do I cancel? Website settings, the app store, or both?
• When does access end? Immediately, or at the end of the period?
• What is refundable? Is there a window, and what conditions void it?
• Does the payment method matter? Some services refund cards only.

The answers vary a lot. Replika’s terms say app-marketplace subscriptions can be cancelled only through that marketplace. Candy AI’s terms allow refund requests within 24 hours, denied if more than 20 tokens have been used, and for card purchases only. The FTC advises: “If it’s not clear to you how to cancel, walk away.” Our guide to cancelling an AI subscription covers the mechanics.

Step 5: Read the privacy policy for five specific answers

You do not need to read every line. Search the policy for these five points:

1. Chat content: is it listed as collected data?
2. Third parties: are chats shared with outside AI model providers?
3. Training: are conversations used to train models, and can you opt out?
4. Retention: how long is data kept after you stop using the app?
5. Deletion: is there a self-service delete option, and how long does it take?

The Mozilla Foundation’s 2024 review of 11 romantic AI chatbots found that most did not let users opt out of having their chats used for training, and that 10 of the 11 failed its minimum security standards. Policies have changed since then, which is why you check the current one. Our AI companion privacy checklist expands these five points into twelve.

Step 6: Check what “memory” actually means

Memory is the feature companion apps sell hardest, and the one documents describe most vaguely. Look for:

• Whether memory is a paid feature or included in the free tier.
• Whether you can view, edit or delete what the companion remembers.
• Whether memory survives a plan downgrade or cancellation.

Kindroid’s documentation, for example, says letting the Standard subscription lapse makes the account read-only. That kind of detail tells you what happens to a long conversation history if you stop paying. Our explainer on AI companion memory covers the terms you will see.

Step 7: Check age rules and account security

Confirm the minimum age in the terms. Then check how the account is protected:

• Can you set a strong password, or sign in through an existing account?
• Is there two-factor authentication?
• Does the app need permissions it does not obviously use?

The FTC recommends turning off unnecessary permissions and deleting apps that request permissions they do not need to work. On shared devices, sign out after each session.

Step 8: Check the wellbeing framing

Be cautious with any app whose marketing promises better mental health while its terms say it is not a health service. Mozilla’s 2024 review highlighted exactly this gap in one app’s terms and marketing. A companion app is entertainment software. It is not a substitute for professional support, and no review can tell you how one will affect you.

The pre-payment checklist

Copy this list and fill it in for each app you are considering.

If you cannot find an answer, write “not stated”. Several “not stated” answers in the billing rows is a signal on its own.

Decision table

Use your answers to make the call.

A worked example

Suppose an app’s pricing page shows a 12-month plan “from $3.99 per month”. Following Step 2, you note it is billed as one up-front charge. Following Step 4, you find refunds are allowed only within 24 hours. The decision table says: refund window under 48 hours, so start with the shortest plan. This is the situation our Candy AI review describes from that product’s own documents, where the 12-month plan was billed at $47.88 when checked on 18 October 2026.

Best for / Avoid if

This method is best for adults choosing between two or three companion apps who want to avoid billing surprises and understand data use before signing up.

It will not help if you want to know how good the conversation is. Documents cannot tell you that. Try the free tier or a short plan for that, and compare options in our guide to Candy AI alternatives.

Bottom line

Thirty minutes with the pricing page, terms and privacy policy will answer most of the questions that matter: who runs the app, what you will really pay, how to leave and what happens to your chats. Fill in the checklist, apply the decision table, and start with the shortest plan whenever the refund window is short or the renewal price is unclear.