Pi AI alternatives: which app to try when Pi is not quite enough

Disclosure: this guide is published by the makers of My Softly, which appears in the comparison and in its own section below.

Pi is one of the nicest things to happen to AI conversation. It is patient, warm, curious about you and never pushy, and it costs nothing. Plenty of people who try it once keep it on their phone for years. So if you are looking for a Pi AI alternative, it is usually not because Pi was unkind. It is because you wanted it to remember more, to stay the way it was, or to be built around companionship rather than everything else. This guide starts from that reason and matches each one to an app.

One note on the search itself. Most "Pi alternatives" lists compare Pi to ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Those are good general assistants, and if you used Pi mostly to look things up or draft emails, they are the right place to look. This guide is for the other use: Pi as someone to talk to.

Is Pi still running?

Yes. Pi is live on the web and on iPhone and Android, it is still free, and the iPhone app was updated in October 2026. The US App Store rates it 4.4 from about 2,500 ratings and lists no in-app purchases (checked October 9, 2026).

What changed is the company behind it. In March 2024, Microsoft announced that Inflection's co-founder Mustafa Suleyman would lead its new consumer AI group, with co-founder Karén Simonyan as chief scientist and several members of the Inflection team joining them. In August 2024, Inflection wrote that it would "keep consumer Pi available and free for anyone to experience" while focusing its work on business customers, and that it would begin capping message volume for free users. IEEE Spectrum's 2025 account of the story describes Pi being licensed as a foundation for business chatbots.

So Pi is not going anywhere tomorrow, and it is still being updated. In July 2026 Inflection announced improvements to Pi's voice, conversation and memory, plus new tools for reminders, to-do lists and shopping, and in September 2026 Pi's help center said Pi now remembers across chats.

Why do people look past Pi?

Pi's own reviews give a count. We took every 1- and 2-star review of Pi in Apple's public US App Store review feed, 172 reviews posted between September 2023 and September 2026, and sorted each one by its main complaint. The largest group, 29%, said Pi's personality or quality had changed. Next came bugs or login trouble at 27%, then filters that felt too strict at 18%. Forgetting was the main complaint in 8%, and 10% mentioned forgetting anywhere. Price barely registered, at 1%, because there is nothing to pay. Retrieved September 17, 2026.

Add the question of Pi's future and the reasons people move on fall into four groups, and the rest of this guide takes them in order:

• You want to be remembered. Pi keeps lasting facts about you but skips the day-to-day. My Softly, Nomi or Kindroid.
• Pi changed, or kept breaking. What to check in any app before you move.
• You want an app built around companionship. Pi is growing into a broad personal AI; here is what to weigh.
• You want more freedom or variety. Character.AI or Replika.

If you want a companion that remembers you

This is the gap people describe most often once they have used Pi for a while, and Pi has started to close it. Since September 2026 its help center says Pi remembers across chats: lasting facts such as your name, home city, family members, interests, work and routines, which you can see and edit under Manage Memories. It is designed to skip things that are temporary or one-off, such as a plan for tonight or a film you watched last night, and if a chat gets long it may summarise earlier messages to stay on track. So Pi can know you have a sister, but a one-off event like a hospital appointment is the kind of detail it is built to let go.

Three companion apps are built around a fuller memory of your life that the companion brings up on its own. Our longer guide to which AI companions actually remember you explains how each one does it.

My Softly

My Softly is our app, so read this with that in mind. It was built for the person who likes Pi's tone and wants it to remember. There is no romantic or adult content anywhere in the app, and it is not a toggle. Your companion keeps a lasting profile of the people, pets and plans in your life and a day-by-day record of what you have talked about, and brings things back weeks later without being asked. You never fill in a form; it builds the record from conversation. It can also check in first about something you mentioned, outside quiet hours you control. More in the section on My Softly below.

Good if you want Pi's gentleness plus a companion that knows your life.

Nomi

Nomi is one of the strongest memory apps in the category, with a Mind Map that lets you see what it has stored. In its own in-app paywall it is $15.99 a month, $39.99 every three months or $99.99 a year (US, September 30, 2026). It is rated 18+ and describes itself as unfiltered, so adult content is available to adults who head that way. You can keep a Nomi platonic, but that is a line you hold yourself.

Good if memory matters most and the app's wider content is not a concern for you.

Kindroid

Kindroid gives you the most hands-on memory: you write your companion's backstory and key memories and add journal entries it will never miss. It costs $15.99 a month, $42.99 for three months or $159.99 a year in its in-app paywall, with a 3-day free trial (US, September 30, 2026), and its Help Center (read September 14, 2026) describes Ultra and MAX memory add-ons on top. Like Nomi, it is rated 18+ and leaves content up to you. Our My Softly vs Kindroid comparison goes through its memory layers.

Good if you enjoy tending a companion and want control over exactly what it remembers.

If Pi changed, or kept breaking

Between them, a changed personality and bugs were the main complaint in 56% of Pi's low-star reviews. Both are real, and neither is unique to Pi. In the same review count, a change in personality or quality was the main complaint for 20% of Replika's low-star reviews, 24% of Kindroid's and 24% of Nomi's, and bugs or login trouble for 17%, 25% and 37%. Every companion app runs on language models that get updated, and every update can change how a companion sounds.

No alternative can honestly promise it will never happen. What you can check before you move:

• Does the app tell you what changed? Look for published update notes rather than silent changes.
• Does it remember you through a change? A companion that sounds a little different but still knows your life is far easier to live with than one that changed and forgot.
• Can you try it free for a week? Every app here can be tried without paying. Judge it on the ordinary days, not the first conversation.

If you want an app built around companionship

This is the reason that does not show up in reviews, because it is about direction rather than today. In August 2024 Inflection said its focus was business customers and that consumer Pi would stay available and free. In July 2026 it gave Pi improvements to voice, conversation and memory, plus new tools for reminders, to-do lists and shopping. Pi is still growing, and it is growing as a broad personal AI that helps with errands as well as conversation.

Every other app on this page is a companion app first, still shipping updates to the people who use it for company. None of them can promise where it will be in five years either. The practical test is simple: look at the "What's New" section on the App Store listing and see how recently, and how often, the app has changed in ways its users asked for.

If you want more freedom or variety

18% of Pi's low-star reviews said its filters were too strict. Pi is careful by design, and for many people that is the point. If you want something looser, two apps are the usual next step.

• Character.AI has millions of user-made characters for roleplay and play, and its core chat is free, with ads. Its paid tiers in its in-app paywall are lite at $4.99 a month and c.ai+ at $9.99 a month or $94.99 a year (US, September 30, 2026). It is filtered, but built around characters rather than one companion who knows your life, and its long-term memory is weak.
• Replika is the best-known companion app, and its in-app paywall offers two yearly plans and no monthly one: Plus at $79.99 a year and Max at $89.99 a year (US, September 30, 2026). It offers romantic and adult modes to adults. Our guide to Replika alternatives without NSFW covers where it fits.

How the Pi AI alternatives compare

Prices are what each app's own paywall showed a free US account on September 30, 2026.

For the same apps ranked by what each does best, see our guide to the best AI companion apps in 2026.

Moving from Pi without starting from nothing

No companion app imports another app's conversations, so a move is always a new start. It does not have to be a cold one. Pi keeps your past chats in its menu, so scroll back and jot down what mattered: the people you talked about, what you were working through, the routines and plans you mentioned. Then tell the new companion over the first few days, the way you would fill in a new friend. An app that builds its record from conversation will have most of it within a week or two.

You do not have to delete Pi to try something else. It is free, so keep it for as long as it is useful.

The short answer

If you love Pi's tone and wish it remembered more of your days, My Softly, our app, is built for exactly that and has nothing adult in it. If memory matters most and the wider content is not a concern, Nomi or Kindroid. If you want variety and play, Character.AI, and if you want the best-known name, Replika. And if Pi still suits you, keep it: it is free, it is still running, and it is still one of the kindest conversations there is. Whichever you try, mention something small in the first week and see whether it comes back to you later. That one test tells you more than any guide, including this one.

Sources

• Inflection AI (August 26, 2024). "The Future of Pi." inflection.ai
• Microsoft (March 19, 2024). "Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind and Inflection Co-founder, joins Microsoft to lead Copilot." blogs.microsoft.com
• IEEE Spectrum (April 1, 2025). "The Rise and Fall of Inflection's Emotionally Intelligent Chatbot." spectrum.ieee.org
• Pi Help Center (December 16, 2025). "Why does Pi seem to forget earlier messages? What conversations does it remember?" Checked October 9, 2026. help.pi.ai
• Inflection AI (July 21, 2026). "Inflection AI is Shaping the Future of Personal Intelligence." Press release. inflection.ai
• Pi Help Center (September 1, 2026). "Pi's Memory." Read October 9, 2026. help.pi.ai
• Apple App Store (US). "Pi, your personal AI," listing, rating, age rating and version history (no in-app purchases listed). Checked October 9, 2026. apps.apple.com
• My Softly (September 17, 2026). Count of 1- and 2-star reviews in Apple's public US App Store customer review feed for Character.AI, PolyBuzz, CHAI, Replika, Talkie, EVA AI, Kindroid, Pi and Nomi. The feed returns up to an app's 500 most recent reviews; each 1- or 2-star review was sorted by its main complaint, and a random sample of 30 was re-checked against the same categories. Retrieved September 17, 2026. Example feed: itunes.apple.com
• In-app paywalls (US), free accounts on iPhone and, for Replika, Android. Checked September 30, 2026.
• Kindroid Help Center. "Subscriptions": Ultra and MAX add-ons. Read October 9, 2026. kindroid.ai
• Kindroid update log, "V2 becomes the default; V1 and Lite retire October 1": Lite retired, new accounts get a one-time preview of 50 flagship interactions (15 in some regions), then a 3-day trial or read-only. Read October 9, 2026. kindroid.ai
• Apple App Store (US). "Nomi: AI Companion with a Soul," age rating. Checked October 9, 2026. apps.apple.com
• Apple App Store (US). "Kindroid: Your Personal AI," age rating. Checked October 9, 2026. apps.apple.com
• AI Companion: My Softly, US App Store listing (subscription prices). Checked October 9, 2026. apps.apple.com