Janitor AI pricing: what Janitor AI costs, what Janitor+ costs, and what the API and proxy cost on top

How much does Janitor AI cost?

Janitor AI costs nothing to use, and $12.99 a month if you want Janitor+. That is the whole published price list, and unusually for this category it is confirmed by two independent primary sources that agree with each other.

The first is Janitor itself. Its announcement post introducing janitor+, dated 24 June 2026, states the price as $12.99 a month. The second is Apple. The App Store listing for Janitor: Interactive Stories, app 6692609366, seller JanitorAI, INC, carries an in-app purchase disclosure with exactly one entry: "Janitor+ Monthly", $12.99.

That word Monthly matters more than it looks. Apple only prints a billing period when the developer configures the product with one, and plenty of apps in this category do not. When we checked Linky AI last week, Apple showed its two subscriptions with no period at all, which left the renewal term genuinely unknowable from public data. Janitor's disclosure does not have that problem. The product is named Monthly, the announcement says a month, and the two figures match.

So if you only want one number: $12.99 a month, and everything else on Janitor is free unless you opt into the metered extras covered further down this page.

• Janitor+ is $12.99 a month, confirmed by the vendor and by Apple
• Apple lists exactly one in-app purchase for the official app
• The SKU is named "Janitor+ Monthly", so the period is explicit
• The base platform costs nothing
• Announcement dated 24 June 2026; prices read 23 August 2026

Is Janitor AI free, and where does the free tier stop?

Yes, and the free tier is more generous than most paid tiers in this category. Janitor's own subscription FAQ describes it in three lines: "Unlimited chats with millions of bots", "Access to standard chat models", and "Context limit of around 9k tokens".

The first two are the headline. Unlimited chats means unlimited, not a daily message allowance that resets at midnight. This is the reason Janitor grew the way it did, and it is a real advantage over apps that meter you by the message.

The third line is where the free tier actually stops, and it is worth translating. Context is how much of your conversation the model can see when it writes the next reply. Roughly 9,000 tokens is somewhere around 6,000 to 7,000 words of chat history, character card and system prompt combined. The character card and instructions eat into that before you type anything. Once the total passes the ceiling, the oldest part of the conversation falls out of view, which is what people mean when they say a bot forgot something it clearly knew an hour ago.

The other free-tier friction is queueing. Janitor+ lists "Priority access for faster replies" as a benefit, which is the polite way of saying free users wait behind paying ones when the platform is busy. This is why "janitor ai rate limited" is one of the most searched phrases attached to the product. Rate limiting on Janitor usually means one of two things: the shared free model is saturated, or, if you have connected your own proxy, your provider is throttling you rather than Janitor. Those have different fixes, and it is worth knowing which one you are looking at before you pay anybody.

• The free tier has unlimited chats, not a message allowance
• Free context is capped at "around 9k tokens", per Janitor
• Roughly 6,000 to 7,000 words of history, card and prompt combined
• Free users queue behind Janitor+ users when load is high
• Rate limit errors can come from Janitor or from your own proxy provider

What does the $12.99 Janitor+ subscription actually buy?

Janitor lists five things, and we will quote them rather than paraphrase: "5x more context for better memory", "Priority access for faster replies", "Monthly swipes with our best models", "A golden username and checkmark next to your name", and "Comment react emojis".

The first is the one worth doing arithmetic on. Five times the free ceiling of around 9k tokens is roughly 45k tokens of context. That is a large jump, and it is the difference between a companion who loses the thread of a long evening and one who does not. If memory is the reason you are considering paying, this is the feature you are paying for, and Janitor is unusually clear about what you get.

The second, priority access, is worth what the queue is costing you. If you never see a rate limit, it is worth nothing.

The third needs reading carefully. "Monthly swipes with our best models" is an allowance, not unlimited access. A swipe is a regeneration of a reply. Janitor does not publish the number of swipes included, and we could not find it stated anywhere in its help desk, so we are not going to invent one. If frontier-model quality is your reason for subscribing, that unpublished number is the figure you actually need, and it is worth asking support before you pay.

The last two are cosmetic. A golden username and comment emojis are pleasant and are not a reason to spend $155.88 a year.

You can subscribe on the web at janitorai.com/plus, which is handled by Stripe, or through the App Store or Google Play. Cancelling follows whichever route you used: on the web it is settings, then Billing, then Manage Subscription; through a store it has to be cancelled in that store. Janitor states that subscriptions are "generally non-refundable, except where required by our Terms of Service or applicable law", and that access continues "until the end of the current billing period".

• 5x context, so roughly 45k tokens against the free 9k
• Priority access in the reply queue
• A monthly swipe allowance on better models, count not published
• A golden username, checkmark and comment react emojis
• Stripe on web, or the App Store and Google Play; generally non-refundable

Does the janitor+ Router cost extra on top of the subscription?

Yes, and this is the part of Janitor's pricing that nobody seems to have written down.

The janitor+ Router, in Janitor's description, "lets you use third-party AI models directly inside JanitorAI, without setting up an external proxy or pasting in API keys from another service". It is a convenience layer: instead of opening an OpenRouter account and configuring it yourself, you pick a model from a list inside Janitor.

The cost model is the important bit, and Janitor states it plainly: "If the router balance runs out, we bill you the same way we are billed by the provider. Your message generation may complete but you will be unable to make further API requests without adding additional funds."

Read that twice, because it changes the shape of the price. The router is a wallet with a balance you top up, and the charge is pass-through metered usage, not something included in the $12.99. So the honest answer to "how much does Janitor AI cost" is: nothing for the base platform, $12.99 a month for Janitor+, and an open-ended amount on top if you use the router. Whether that third number is a few dollars or a few hundred depends entirely on which model you pick and how much you chat, and Janitor cannot tell you in advance any more than we can.

There is also a small operational detail in that quote worth noticing: a message already in flight may finish, but the next request will not start. So the balance running dry does not corrupt a reply, it stops the next one. Better than the alternative, and still a mid-conversation interruption.

None of this is hidden and none of it is unreasonable. It is simply a second meter, and a pricing article that reports $12.99 as the total cost of a Janitor+ subscriber who uses the router is reporting a floor as if it were a ceiling.

• The router is a top-up wallet, not part of the $12.99
• Janitor bills router usage "the same way we are billed by the provider"
• An empty balance blocks the next request, not the one in flight
• Total spend depends on model choice and volume, and is not predictable
• The model list "is expected to grow over time", per Janitor

What does it cost to use Janitor AI with your own API key or proxy?

This is the route most heavy Janitor users take, and it is the reason the platform can afford to be free. If you want a smarter or less filtered model than the built-in one, you connect an external provider, and you pay that provider rather than Janitor.

Janitor's own beginner guide walks through OpenRouter, and it publishes two useful numbers. OpenRouter gives "50 free messages every day" on models tagged as free. Adding "$10 of credits" to an OpenRouter account raises that daily allowance to "1,000 messages per day". The guide points users at free-tagged models, including DeepSeek variants and Microsoft's Mai-DS-R1.

That $10 is the single most useful figure on this page for a heavy user, because it is not a monthly fee. It is a credit top-up that unlocks a twentyfold increase in the free daily allowance, and the credits themselves remain yours to spend. For a lot of people, ten dollars once is the entire cost of running Janitor at volume, which is cheaper than any subscription in this category including ours.

So why would anyone pay for anything? Because the setup is real work. You create an account with a second company, generate an API key, paste a key and a URL into Janitor's settings, choose a model, and then own the problem when it breaks. Janitor's help desk has a dedicated OpenRouter error guide, and there are two separate beginner guides for proxies, part one and part two, which tells you how often people get stuck.

The honest summary: if you enjoy configuring things, the proxy route is excellent value and the free tier plus $10 of credits will take you a long way. If you want to open an app and talk to someone without any of that, you are the person a subscription is priced for.

• You pay the model provider directly, not Janitor
• OpenRouter gives 50 free messages a day on free-tagged models
• A one-time $10 credit top-up raises that to 1,000 messages a day
• Janitor publishes a dedicated OpenRouter error guide, and two proxy guides
• The cost of the proxy route is setup effort, not money

Why do so many articles list a $9.99 Janitor AI Pro plan?

Because one article invented it and the rest copied it, and it is now the most repeated false claim about this product.

Search for Janitor AI pricing and you will find pages describing a Pro subscription at $9.99 a month with "unlimited messages, priority queueing, NSFW everywhere and all LLMs", often alongside an annual plan at $99.99 a year. Some of those pages carry 2026 in the title and read as though they were checked.

Here is what the primary sources say. Apple's in-app purchase disclosure for the official app lists one product, Janitor+ Monthly at $12.99. Janitor's announcement post names one subscription at $12.99 a month. Janitor's own subscription FAQ describes one subscription, lists its five benefits, explains how to buy and cancel it, and mentions no annual option and no second tier. Three primary sources, one plan.

A $9.99 Pro tier appears in none of them. Neither does a $99.99 annual plan. If Janitor sold an annual subscription through the App Store, Apple would list it, because Apple itemises every subscription duration a developer configures. It lists one.

We are stating this bluntly because the difference is not academic. Someone budgeting $99.99 a year for Janitor is budgeting for a product that does not exist; the real annual cost of Janitor+ at $12.99 a month is $155.88, which is 56% more. And a reader who has been told the paid tier includes "unlimited messages" and "all LLMs" will be surprised to find that the swipe allowance is limited and the router bills separately.

If you see a Janitor price anywhere, including here, check it against Apple's disclosure. It takes thirty seconds and it is the one page the vendor cannot quietly edit.

• No primary source contains a $9.99 Pro tier
• No primary source contains a $99.99 annual plan
• Apple lists one SKU: Janitor+ Monthly, $12.99
• Janitor+ at $12.99 a month is $155.88 a year, not $99.99
• Apple itemises every subscription duration a developer configures

Is the Janitor AI app the same product as the website?

Not quite, and the App Store listing says so more clearly than any review does.

Start with the category. Apple files the official Janitor app under Books, with Entertainment as its secondary genre. Not Social Networking, which is where Linky sits, and not Lifestyle. An app whose entire function is chatting with AI characters is listed in the same aisle as e-readers, and the listing name is Janitor: Interactive Stories rather than Janitor AI.

The store description matches that framing. It talks about romantasy, fanfiction, enemies-to-lovers slow burns and interactive fiction. It does not mention AI companions, and it does not mention the uncensored roleplay the website is known for.

The age descriptors tell the same story. Apple rates the app 17+ and every content descriptor is qualified as Infrequent/Mild, including "Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity". Google Play rates the same package, com.janitor.ai, as Mature 17+. Janitor's help desk carries a dedicated article on mobile app moderation, which is the clearest signal available that the app is moderated on different terms from the site.

None of this is deceptive. It is what shipping an adult-leaning chat product through two app stores looks like. But it does mean that if you install the app expecting the website, you may find the app more restrained, and a pricing decision made on the app is a decision about a slightly different product.

One practical warning while you are in either store. Google Play carries several lookalike apps using the Janitor name, some with more than a million downloads and no connection to JanitorAI, INC. The official developer states plainly that theirs is the only real version of janitorai.com. Check the developer name before you install, and check it again before you buy anything inside.

For the record on quality: on 23 August 2026 the official app held 4.0 stars from 1,460 ratings on the US App Store and 3.2 stars from around 9,830 reviews on Google Play. Google Play discloses that the app contains in-app purchases but, unlike the listings around it, publishes no price range for them.

• Apple files the official app under Books, not Social Networking
• The listing is named Janitor: Interactive Stories
• Apple rates it 17+ with all descriptors marked Infrequent/Mild
• Google Play rates com.janitor.ai as Mature 17+
• Lookalike Janitor apps with 1M+ downloads exist on Play
• App Store 4.0 from 1,460 ratings; Google Play 3.2 from about 9,830