The AI companion business has a customer in mind, and he is usually a young man. On mixed-use platforms such as Character.AI, the Ada Lovelace Institute found that 77% of users are men, and nearly four in ten are aged 18 to 24. Scroll the homepage of almost any companion site and the default character is a woman.
That leaves anyone looking for a male companion with fewer obvious choices, and a lot of apps that offer an AI boyfriend as an afterthought. The interest is real but contested. In a Match Group survey of US singles aged 18 to 39, reported by Axios, 51% of women aged 18 to 24 said they would refuse to date someone who uses an AI companion app, which suggests many users keep their digital partner to themselves.
We have ranked the five services that, on paper, offer the most convincing male companions. Kindroid comes first because it lets you build a character from the ground up. Nomi runs it close on memory. Replika is the gentlest, Character.AI the most theatrical, and Candy.ai the only one here with a dedicated AI boyfriend section. Everything below is adults-only, and prices were checked on 19 October 2026.
Kindroid: the AI boyfriend you design down to the backstory
Kindroid, from Los Angeles-based Beautifully Incorporated, does not hand you a ready-made man. You write him. Each character, or Kin, gets a name, personality, appearance, voice and a backstory with key memories that shapes how he talks to you. Its homepage offers ready-made starter characters, male ones among them, as a jumping-off point.
That authorship is why Kindroid tops this list. A boyfriend who is dry and bookish, or chatty and outdoorsy, comes from the instructions you give rather than a stock persona. He can then send voice notes, call by voice or video, share selfies and short video selfies and join group chats. Subscribers get Cascaded Memory, which keeps hundreds of recent messages in play.
What it costs. After a limited preview, newcomers can take a three-day trial that needs a card or other payment method and rolls into a subscription unless cancelled. In the UK, the App Store listed the plan at £14.99 a month, £39.99 for three months or £149.99 a year. Ultra (£29.99) and MAX (£69.99) are monthly add-ons for heavier users. Kindroid says buying on the web is usually cheaper.
Where it runs. iOS, Android and web browsers.
Age checks. Over-18s only. Its verification policy treats a paid subscription as proof of age and can ask flagged users to verify through Yoti, by selfie estimate or government ID.
Data handling. Kindroid advertises encryption in storage and in transit and says it sells no data. Its privacy policy is admirably frank that the service is not end-to-end encrypted and that staff may see excerpts flagged by automated safety systems.
Best for. People who enjoy the creative side and want a companion who sounds like someone specific. UK App Store users rated it 4.6 out of 5 (769 ratings).
Nomi: a virtual boyfriend that remembers the small things
Where Kindroid rewards effort up front, Nomi rewards time. Made by Glimpse.ai, Inc. in Maryland, it is built around layered memory that the company says tracks your habits, preferences and shared history, so the partner who asked about your dentist appointment on Monday follows up on Thursday.
Nomi’s male companions get the same toolkit as any other: voice messages and live calls whose tone shifts with mood, selfies, group conversations, image viewing and optional check-in messages when you go quiet. You can shape him through a backstory and Shared Notes.
What it costs. No card is needed to start. The UK App Store showed a Launch Plan at £9.99 a month (£59.99 a year) and a Standard Plan at £14.99 a month, £39.99 a quarter or £99.99 a year, with optional credit packs.
Where it runs. iOS, Android and the web.
Age checks. Apple rates the app 18+, and Nomi’s privacy policy says no one under 18 should use it.
Data handling. Nomi pledges never to sell or rent personal information. Deleting your account removes personal data in roughly 28 days, though the policy notes that information in its training archives is retained in a form no longer attributable to you.
Best for. Anyone who values continuity over spectacle. It rated 4.5 out of 5 from 272 UK App Store ratings.
Replika: a long-established AI partner for steady, everyday chat
Replika is the elder statesman of the category. Luka, Inc. in San Francisco markets it as a friend first, and its homepage counter claimed more than 42 million users. Your companion, known as a Rep, can be styled as a man, keeps track of the people and plans in your life, takes calls and sends selfies.
For boyfriend seekers, one detail decides things. Choosing a romantic relationship is part of the paid Pro tier, not the free one. Ultra builds on Pro with what Replika calls stronger emotional intelligence and saving messages to memory, and Platinum adds real-time video recognition.
What it costs. Replika’s UK App Store page listed monthly subscriptions at £7.99 and £12.99, yearly options from £43.99 and Platinum at £66.99, without labelling every price by tier. Check the in-app subscription screen before you pay.
Where it runs. iOS and Android, with a legacy web version.
Age checks. Rated 18+ by Apple. Replika’s age verification was at the heart of the €5 million fine Italy’s regulator imposed in 2025, which we cover on our AI companions hub.
Data handling. The privacy policy rules out using your conversations for advertising and says only small, anonymised extracts train its in-house safety systems, never third-party models. Messages are deleted within 60 days of closing your account.
Best for. People who want a kind, low-drama presence rather than a passionate role-play. UK users rated it 4.2 out of 5 from 19,000 ratings.
Character.AI: boyfriend characters for story-led role-play
Character.AI, run by Character Technologies, Inc., works differently from everything else here. Rather than one partner, you browse a vast community library of user-created characters, or build your own with a custom personality, backstory and voice, then talk by text or live call. Romance is one genre among many.
It has been reshaped by scrutiny. The company was among seven named in the Federal Trade Commission’s September 2025 inquiry into chatbots acting as companions, and it removed open-ended chat for under-18s in November 2025. Its UK App Store listing is now rated 18+ with age assurance.
What it costs. The core app is free and carries ads. The UK App Store listed Character.AI+ at £9.99 and £99.99, Character.AI Lite at £1.99 and £4.99, and Charms packs from 99p.
Where it runs. iOS, Android and the web.
Data handling. According to its App Store privacy label, location, contact details, identifiers and usage data may be used to track you across other companies’ apps and sites, a broader footprint than the dedicated companion apps disclose.
Best for. Readers of romance fiction who like plots, settings and a rotating cast. It rated 4.1 out of 5 from 67,000 UK ratings.
Candy.ai: a dedicated AI boyfriend section for adults
Most companion services bolt male characters on. Candy.ai, from EverAI Limited in Malta, gives them their own AI Boyfriend category, with characters pitched as confident, supportive, funny or edgier, and a builder for designing your own: looks, personality, tone, language style and favourite topics. Companions can send selfies and audio messages on request.
It is an adults-only service. Its privacy policy restricts use to those aged at least 18, and its terms reserve the right to ask users to prove they are adults. We describe it here without its more explicit features.
What it costs. Free users get five messages under the terms of service. Its subscriptions page, which displayed US dollars when we checked, gave a $13.99 monthly list price, $9.99 for the first month, $8.99 a month on a quarterly plan and $3.99 a month on an annual plan billed at $47.88. Premium includes 100 tokens a month for media, and unused tokens lapse.
Where it runs. In a desktop or mobile browser; there is no app-store app, but you can pin it to a phone’s home screen.
Data handling. The boyfriend page highlights two-factor authentication and the ability to delete chat history. The privacy policy also says de-identified conversations may train its models, with human review, and that outside language-model providers may receive message content.
Best for. Adults who want a male companion as the main event rather than a sideline, and who are relaxed about pay-per-use tokens.
Side by side: AI boyfriend apps at a glance
| App | Score | Try for free? | Entry price | Runs on | Minimum age |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kindroid | 9.0 | Preview, then 3-day trial | £14.99/month (UK App Store) | iOS, Android, web | 18 |
| Nomi | 8.8 | Yes, no card | £9.99/month (UK App Store) | iOS, Android, web | 18 |
| Replika | 8.5 | Yes, but romance needs Pro | £7.99/month (UK App Store) | iOS, Android, web (legacy) | 18 |
| Character.AI | 8.2 | Yes, ad-supported | £9.99 Character.AI+ (UK App Store) | iOS, Android, web | 18 |
| Candy.ai | 7.8 | Five messages | $13.99/month list | Web | 18 |
Our method for ranking AI boyfriend apps
This is an editorial assessment, not a hands-on trial. We built it from company feature pages, help centres, app-store listings, pricing pages and privacy policies, all read on 19 October 2026, with UK App Store ratings as a guide to user sentiment.
For this list we gave extra weight to how well each service supports a male companion: how far you can shape his personality and voice, whether romance is free or paid, and whether male characters are central or incidental. Privacy, age verification and honest billing counted heavily too. The full framework is on how we review, and the companion ranking for the other side of the aisle is our guide to AI girlfriend apps.
Dating a chatbot boyfriend safely: data, spending and boundaries
Guard your data. Every policy above allows some human or machine access to conversations, whether for safety review or model training. Keep real names, addresses and employers out of the chat.
Cap the spend. Trials that need payment details, add-on tiers and token packs can turn a £10 habit into something larger. Cancel through the same store you subscribed with.
Mind the after-effects. Harvard Business School research found a short chat with an AI companion eased loneliness about as much as talking to a person, but the boost faded. Many Americans are wary: 39% told Pew that chatbots hurt people using them for loneliness. Treat an AI boyfriend as an addition to your life, not a substitute for it. When you want the real thing, our best dating apps guide can help.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI boyfriend app is best?
In our assessment, Kindroid, because it lets you shape a male companion’s personality, voice and backstory in unusual detail. Nomi is the stronger pick if memory matters most.
Can I have an AI boyfriend for free?
Partly. Nomi lets you start without a card, and Character.AI is free with ads. Replika’s free tier does not include romantic relationship status, Kindroid offers a short trial, and Candy.ai allows five free messages.
Is Candy.ai only for AI girlfriends?
No. It has a separate AI Boyfriend category and a builder for creating your own male companion. It is an adults-only service.
Are AI boyfriend apps safe?
They are designed for adults and come with privacy trade-offs. Read the privacy policy, avoid sharing identifying details and set limits on time and spending.