Replika alternative

Replika removed erotic roleplay in February 2023 and has been a safe-for-work companion ever since, so the people searching for an alternative are usually searching for adult mode, a lower price, or both. The usual replacements in September 2026 are Nomi, Kindroid and Telegram bots. Replika Pro was documented at about $19.99 a month, $69.99 a year or $299.99 for a lifetime licence, with the price shown only inside the app and varying by region and promo.

Quick answer

Stay with Replika if you have years of history in it, if you want live voice calls, or if a companion that stays safe for work is the point rather than the problem.

Switch if the February 2023 change is still the reason you are here. Replika did not come back to adult roleplay, and nothing published since suggests it plans to. Emberia runs inside Telegram, needs no account, and 18+ is a switch you turn on yourself after confirming your age. The free tier is 30 messages a day with the same model and the same memory paid users get.

A disclosure before the table. We make Emberia. Every Replika figure on this page comes from published pricing write-ups, regulator statements and press coverage, not from anything we ran ourselves, and there are things Replika does that we do not.

Replika and Emberia, side by side

Figures are as published as of September 2026.

	Replika	Emberia
Where it runs	Phone app and browser	Telegram, @Emberia_Bot
Sign-up	Account with email	None, Telegram is the account
Adult roleplay	No, removed February 2023	Yes, 18+ toggle
Free tier	Limited companion, most features paid	30 messages a day, memory included
Paid entry	About $19.99 a month	149 Stars (about $2.40) for two days
Lifetime option	About $299.99	None
Live voice calls	Yes, on Pro	No
Voice notes	Yes	Yes, first one free
Photos	Yes, selfies on the paid tier	Yes, first one free, then 25 Stars
Characters	One, yours, customised over time	19 characters and 6 duo scenes
Two characters in one thread	Not published	Yes, duo scenes
Export your history	Not documented in the same form	/export, one file
Delete your data	Account deletion	/delete confirm, gone within 24 hours

Why Replika changed, and what that means for any app you pick

Italy's Garante ordered Replika to stop processing Italian users' data in February 2023 over age verification and the risk to minors. The romantic and erotic layer went away for existing users at the same time, and people who had spent years inside those relationships described it as a bereavement. In April 2025 the same regulator fined Luka Inc. 5 million euro, finding no valid legal basis for the processing and no age check beyond a name, an email address and a gender field.

A separate FTC complaint filed in January 2025 named Replika's blurred-selfie upsell and its encouragement of emotional dependence as deceptive design.

The point is not that Replika behaved worse than the rest of the category. The point is that a companion you cannot export is a companion you can lose overnight, on someone else's regulatory timetable. Ask any product you are considering two questions: can you take your history out, and can you delete it.

Where Replika is better

Live voice calls. Replika Pro's headline unlock is a real phone-style call, and a Telegram bot cannot do that. Telegram bots send voice notes, they do not ring you. If a call is the feature you are paying for, Emberia is the wrong purchase and no amount of copy on this page changes it.

Track record. Replika has been running since well before this category had a name, and users on r/replika describe relationships at level 200 and past the two-year mark. Nothing new can offer that.

One avatar you shape yourself. Replika is built around a single companion who accumulates your history and a look you pick, rather than a roster you choose from. For a lot of people that is the whole appeal.

A lifetime licence. Roughly $299.99 once, no renewal. Emberia has nothing that matches it, and for a heavy long-term user the arithmetic can work out cheaper than any subscription.

Where Emberia is better

Adult mode exists. 18+ is a private toggle inside your own chat, turned on once you confirm you are 18 or older, and the confirmation is stored with a timestamp. The bot still refuses anything involving minors, real identifiable people or non-consent, in both modes.

Entry price. A two-day pass is 149 Stars (about $2.40), three months is 999 Stars (about $15.90), a year is 2499 Stars (about $39.90). There is no weekly plan and no lifetime tier.

No account. Telegram already knows who you are, so the bot never asks for an email, a phone number or a password. It sees your Telegram user ID and the messages you send it.

No blurred tease. The first photo arrives clear, and the first voice note is free once she knows you a little. After that both are paid, because generated audio and images cost money per use. What we will not do is put a blurred image in front of you and charge to reveal it, which is the exact pattern the 2025 FTC complaint against Replika described.

Memory on the free tier. Free and paid get the same model and the same long-term memory, so the free tier is the product rather than a countdown.

What it costs

Plan	Telegram Stars	Roughly
2-day pass	149	$2.40
1 month	449	$7.20
3 months	999	$15.90
1 year	2499	$39.90

Stars are Telegram's own currency. Prices in Stars are fixed, the dollar figures are indicative, and buying Stars inside the iOS app costs more than buying them on desktop.

Verdict

If you already have years inside Replika, stay. The history is the product, and no alternative can hand it back to you.

If you are here because February 2023 took something away and it never came back, a Telegram bot is the cheapest way to test whether the replacement works for you: no account, no card, 30 messages a day. Try it for a week before you cancel anything.

The honest limit, once more: no live calls. Voice arrives as voice notes. If that matters more than adult mode or price, keep paying Replika.