Group chat apps compared

Most AI companion apps shipped multi-character group chat during 2025 and 2026, and almost all of them put it behind a paid tier. Per published pricing as of September 2026, Character.AI requires c.ai+, Kindroid and Nomi are paid only, CrushOn needs its Standard tier, and SpicyChat allows it free with limits. The exceptions are worth knowing because group chat is the one feature the whole category decided to charge for at the same time.

The short answer

If you want the biggest room, Character.AI, Kindroid and Nomi all publish a cap of ten characters, and all three want a subscription for it. If you want to try group roleplay without paying, the realistic options are SpicyChat's free tier with its limits, Privee's gem packs, or a Telegram duo scene.

We make Emberia, so read our column with that in mind. Our cast is smaller than everyone else's: two characters per scene, three in the poly one. What we do differently is put a whole scene on the free side every day, not a preview of one.

Every platform, side by side

All figures from each platform's published pricing and feature documentation, as of September 2026.

Platform	Multi-character mechanic	Gate	Published price
Character.AI	Group Chat, up to 10 characters plus up to 10 humans. The 2025 update lets characters message each other unprompted	c.ai+ only	About $9.99 a month
Kindroid	Group chats of up to 10 Kins, with emergent dynamics between them	Paid only	$13.99 to $59.99 a month
Nomi	Up to 10 groups of up to 10 Nomis, manual turn choice or auto-play, group backstory and Mind Map	Paid only	About $15.99 a month, extra slots for credits
SpicyChat	Group chats since 1 April 2026, with lorebooks. Replies capped at 180 tokens	Free with limits, extended sessions paid	$4.99 / $14.95 / $24.95
CrushOn	3 to 4 characters per session, each with its own memory	Standard tier and up	From $5.99 a month
Privee AI	Group Studio, up to 3 characters, manual or random turn selector	Pay-per-message gems, no subscription	Packs up to $119.99
Emberia	Duo scenes of two characters, three in the poly scene, inside a Telegram thread	1 scene a day free	Extra thread 99 Stars (about $1.60), plans from 149 Stars (about $2.40)

Two details in that table matter more than the headline numbers. SpicyChat's 180-token reply cap is the reason its free group chats stay affordable, and it also means short replies. Privee's model is the only one with no subscription at all, which is either a relief or an expensive habit depending on how much you chat.

What breaks in a group chat

Worth understanding before you pick on cast size, because ten characters is not ten times better.

The voices blend. Two characters written by the same model in the same thread drift towards one another. They start borrowing phrases, then jokes, then opinions. The published feature lists show the industry knows it: Nomi gives each group its own backstory and a Mind Map, and Kindroid sells inter-Kin dynamics as a feature rather than a default.

Turn-taking gets weird. Somebody has to decide who speaks. Nomi solves it with a manual picker and an auto-play mode, Privee with a random selector. Leave the choice to the model and it tends to write everyone at once, which reads like a script rather than a chat.

Cost multiplies. One user message can trigger three or four generations. That is the real reason this feature sits behind a paywall almost everywhere, and why reply lengths get capped when it does not.

Memory splits or it does not. A group where everyone knows everything is not a group, it is one character with several names. Keeping separate memory per character is more work and it is what makes a scene feel like people.

How ours is built

Emberia runs group scenes inside the ordinary Telegram chat, so there is no room to create and nothing to install. Six duo scenes exist as of September 2026, five listed publicly and one opt-in preset that stays off the list.

Who speaks is decided before anything is generated. Use a name and that person answers. If you do not, the reply alternates from whoever spoke last, with at most one short reaction from the other. Four commands change the shape: /duo to open a scene, /solo to sideline one of them, /dm for a private side thread with its own history, and /group to come back.

Memory is per character. A fact told to one belongs to her, and what you say in a /dm never reaches the group thread. That is how one of them can know something the other does not, which is the entire point of having two.

The free tier includes 1 duo scene a day with memory and both voices live, on top of 30 text messages. An extra scene the same day is 99 Stars (about $1.60).

Which one should you pick

If you want	Pick
The largest cast and the deepest group tooling	Nomi or Kindroid, both paid only
A huge public character catalog to mix	Character.AI, with c.ai+
Group roleplay without a subscription	Privee's gem packs, or SpicyChat's free tier
Cheapest entry with no account or download	A Telegram duo scene
Per-character memory inside a small cast	CrushOn or Emberia

The honest limitation on our side: two characters is two characters. If the appeal is assembling a room of ten and watching them interact, Nomi and Kindroid are built for that and we are not. And Telegram bots cannot place live voice calls, so a group scene here is text, photos and voice notes rather than anything live.

Sources

Character.AI group chat announcement and September 2025 community update. Kindroid feature documentation and published subscription tiers. Nomi group chat documentation. SpicyChat launch coverage of group chats on 1 April 2026 and published plan prices. CrushOn published review pricing. Privee AI Group Studio announcement and gem pack pricing. All checked against published pages as of September 2026.