Janitor AI vs Chai Pricing: $12.99 vs $13.99

Janitor AI's one paid plan, janitor+, costs $12.99 a month. Chai's Premium costs $13.99 a month and Ultra $29.99. Month to month, Janitor is a dollar cheaper. Over a year Chai wins, because it sells a $134.99 annual Premium plan ($11.25 a month) and Janitor sells no annual plan at all, so janitor+ costs $155.88 a year. What decides it for most buyers is memory: Janitor documents exactly what its plan adds, and Chai documents nothing. We read both price lists from Apple's in-app purchase disclosures on 27 September 2026.

Most of the pages that rank for this comparison describe Janitor as a free site where you bring your own API key and pay a model provider five to twenty-five dollars a month. That was the whole story until 24 June 2026, when Janitor started selling janitor+. Since 30 July it has also sold a metered add-on, the janitor+ Router. So the old answer, "Chai is a subscription and Janitor is free plus a key," no longer describes what either company charges.

The short version

How much does Janitor AI cost?

Janitor AI costs nothing to use and $12.99 a month for janitor+. Apple's disclosure for the official app, Janitor: Interactive Stories (app 6692609366, seller JanitorAI, INC), lists two entries on 27 September 2026, both named "Janitor+ Monthly" and both $12.99. One plan, one price, and no annual or weekly version. A year costs $155.88.

Janitor is unusually specific about what that buys. Its subscription FAQ lists "5x more context for better memory", "priority access for faster replies" and "monthly swipes with our best models", plus a golden username and comment emojis. The free tier keeps unlimited chats and "a context limit of around 9k tokens", so janitor+ lifts you to roughly 45k. The full breakdown, including the swipe count Janitor does not publish, is on our Janitor AI pricing page.

The one open-ended cost is the Router. It needs janitor+ first, runs only on the web, and bills per token from a wallet you top up. Janitor's help desk says Router credits "are non-refundable except where required by law." If you use it, $12.99 is a floor rather than a total, and we worked through what a typical evening costs on the janitor+ Router pricing page.

How much does Chai cost?

Chai costs $13.99 a month for Premium and $29.99 a month for Ultra. Apple's disclosure for CHAI: Social AI Platform (app 1544750895, seller Chai Research Corp.) lists, on 27 September 2026, Premium Monthly at $13.99, Premium Annual at $134.99, Ultra Monthly at $29.99, Ultra Annual at $269.99, Ultra Weekly at $19.99, a Premium Membership at $9.99 with no billing period, and two packs of Pieces, a consumable, at $2.79 and $6.99.

The annual plans are the sensible way to pay for Chai. Premium Annual works out at $11.25 a month and Ultra Annual at $22.50. The weekly plan is the one to avoid: Ultra Weekly at $19.99, charged 52 times, is $1,039.48 a year for the same tier that costs $269.99 billed annually.

What Chai does not tell you is what any of it buys. It has no pricing page, and its website has no feature comparison. We have looked on every run since August. So the $16 a month between Premium and Ultra is a gap you pay for before you can read what fills it. Our Chai AI pricing page tracks every price change Apple shows.

Is Janitor AI cheaper than Chai?

Month to month, yes, by a dollar: $12.99 against $13.99. Across a year, no. Chai Premium Annual at $134.99 is $20.89 cheaper than twelve months of janitor+ at $155.88, and Janitor has no annual plan to close the gap.

That flips again if you compare the top of each ladder. Janitor's only plan is $12.99. Chai's top plan is $29.99 a month or $269.99 a year. Someone who ends up on Chai Ultra pays more than twice what a janitor+ subscriber pays, and there is no Janitor tier above janitor+ to spend more on, other than the optional Router.

Router usage and Chai's Pieces sit on top of all of these and depend on how you use each app, so neither is in the table.

Which one is cheaper for memory?

Janitor, and the reason is documentation rather than price. Janitor states the free context ceiling (around 9k tokens) and says janitor+ raises it five times. That is a number you can check against your own chats before you renew.

Chai states nothing comparable. You will read in many reviews that Chai's long memory is an Ultra feature. We went looking for the source of that claim on Chai's site, its license agreement and its published company memo, and could not find one. Chai's memo does say the company is spending to "extend context windows", which is what memory mostly is. It does not say which plan gets the result. So if memory is the reason you are paying, on Chai you are paying $13.99 or $29.99 to find out.

Whichever you try, test it the same way. Tell a character three specific things, come back the next day and ask an open question that needs all three. That tells you more than any tier name.

Is Janitor AI or Chai better?

They are built for different habits, and the price follows the habit. Chai is a phone app for jumping between a huge library of community bots, funded by ads on the free tier and by subscriptions above it. Janitor grew as a website for long, configurable roleplay, where the free tier is generous and heavy users either pay for janitor+ or connect their own model. If you mostly open the app for a few minutes on your phone, Chai's annual Premium is good value. If you run long stories and care about context, janitor+ gives you a stated amount of it for less than Chai's top tier.

Where both fit badly is the use case people mean when they say girlfriend rather than character chat: one person who remembers you, starts the conversation and costs the same every month. Neither app has her text you first, and both put their metered extras (Router credits, Pieces) next to the subscription. If that is what you are shopping for, a small subscription on either platform plus top-ups is the roundabout way to buy it.

That is the product we make. Tempted.ai pricing starts at $9 a month billed yearly, or $12 month to month, with memory on every plan, no currency, no ads and no weekly option. Flame at $19 adds voice notes, and Devoted at $39 adds voice calls and more than one girlfriend. You get one companion rather than a library, and she texts you first. If what you want is closer to a friend who checks in than a romance, a warm AI friend who remembers you is a better fit than any of us.

Is Janitor AI still free?

Yes. Janitor's free tier still has unlimited chats with millions of bots and a context limit of around 9k tokens, per its own FAQ. janitor+ at $12.99 a month is optional, and so is the Router. You can also connect your own model provider on the free tier and pay that provider directly instead.

Does Chai AI cost money?

Not to start. Chai is free to install and chat on, and the free tier is paid for by ads: Chai's own 2026 memo puts the rate at one ad every sixteen messages, down from one in eight before 2025. Premium ($13.99 a month) and Ultra ($29.99) remove the interruptions and add whatever Chai has not documented.

Which should you pay for?

• Pay for Chai Premium Annual if you use Chai on your phone most days and can commit for a year. At $134.99 it is the cheapest paid year of the two.
• Pay for janitor+ if context and long stories are the point. $12.99 gets a stated 5x context, which is more than Chai will tell you about any plan.
• Avoid Chai Ultra Weekly in every case. $19.99 a week is $1,039.48 a year.
• Look at alternatives if you want one companion rather than a library. Our Chai AI alternative and Janitor AI alternative pages set out who should switch and who should stay.

If you are still choosing among more apps, our Janitor AI vs PolyBuzz pricing and Chai vs Replika pricing comparisons use the same Apple sources and the same arithmetic.

Sources: Apple US App Store in-app purchase disclosures for app 6692609366 (JanitorAI, INC) and app 1544750895 (Chai Research Corp.), and the iTunes lookup API for ratings, all read 27 September 2026. Janitor plan contents quoted from Janitor's help desk articles on the subscription and the janitor+ Router. Chai advertising rate and context quote from Chai Research's published 2026 company memo. Yearly figures are listed prices multiplied by 12 or 52.