How to make Character AI voices, and what to expect

Where I have to be honest: the exact steps, menus and options for creating or choosing a voice aren't on file. Neither is whether you can record your own voice for a character. I won't make up button names that might send you hunting through the wrong screen.

The app's own help pages are the right place for the clicks, and this page is for everything around them.

Here's what is on file, and why it matters for voice:

• Voice calls are a listed feature of Character AI
• You can create your own characters, so a voice can belong to a character you designed
• The free plan offers unlimited messaging, with ads, slow mode at busy times and limited daily features
• c.ai+, the $9.99 monthly plan, drops both slow mode and ads and raises daily limits to the highest level

My take: start on the free plan and play with voice before you pay for anything. You'll learn quickly whether hearing a character adds something for you or whether you're a text person at heart. Plenty of people are, and that's fine.

Experimenting tends to leave a trail of half-finished test chats behind it. When you're done trying voices and want a tidy list again, my guide to clearing out old Character AI chats shows how to remove the ones you don't need.

The table right after this section lines Character AI up with Candy AI and OurDream AI, two apps where voice plays a bigger role. Glance at the voice row first. It shows at a look who treats voice as a core feature and who treats it as a bonus.

My advice: don't subscribe for voice alone until you've used it free and hit a wall. If you do hit one, the obvious step is c.ai+ for $9.99 monthly, and c.ai lite for $4.99 sits in between with a daily allowance of premium chat styles. Neither plan lists voice as its headline benefit, so I'd think of them as comfort upgrades that may make voice smoother rather than a voice plan.

That spread is useful to know, because it tells you what to do about it. If the first voice disappoints you, the answer is often a different voice, not a different app. Here's how I'd approach it:

• Try more than one voice before deciding voice isn't for you
• Judge a voice on a calm scene first, since emotional moments are where tone slips
• Match the voice to the character's personality, not just to how it sounds in one line
• Keep the chat short while you compare, so you're judging the voice and not a long plot

I like that you can mix and match here. A character you built yourself can be anyone you want, and a voice that fits them makes the whole thing feel more like your own creation rather than a default somebody else chose.

If you want the wider picture of the app beyond voice, including memory pins and how the paid plans compare, my Character AI review covers all of it. The matrix just below shows how voice sits among the other features on three apps, so you can see whether Character AI's approach is enough for you.

• Candy AI: voice calls are listed, and reviewers rank its voices and phone calls among the best, calling them expressive and its voice notes dependable. The cheapest single month costs €13.99
• OurDream AI: voice calls are listed, and the Deluxe Annual plan includes 100 minutes of voice calls
• Nomi AI: voice calls come with the paid Standard Plan, from $15.99 a month, though one review mentions a 15 to 20 second lag before a reply is heard
• GirlfriendGPT: the Deluxe plan at $35 a month includes text-to-speech voice messages, and a review calls the Elite tier's live call audio real-time
• SpicyChat: text-to-speech for AI replies arrives on Im All In, at $29.95 a month

My pick for voice alone is Candy AI, because its audio gets the warmest description of the group. The catch is that it's web only and its free start is small, so you'll likely be paying before you hear much. Its adult content also sits behind the paywall, which matters if that's part of what you want.

If you're happy with Character AI's characters and just want better sound, I'd honestly stay put and try more voices first. Switching apps means rebuilding characters, and that's a bigger cost than it sounds. A voice is one part of a companion; the character you spent evenings shaping is the bigger part, and it doesn't travel with you to a new app. Give the voices you already have a fair chance before you start over somewhere else.

Nomi AI is my quieter recommendation for people who want a steady companion who can talk. It's on iOS and Android as well as the web, so voice on the phone is easy. That lag would bother me on a long call, but for short check-ins it matters less.

For a full ranking of Character AI alternatives with prices and content levels, see apps I'd consider instead of Character AI.

On OurDream AI, $19.99 buys the Standard Monthly plan, with 1,000 dreamcoins added each month. The Deluxe Annual plan is $359.88 a year, which works out to $29.99 a month, and bundles 100 minutes of voice calls with 5,000 dreamcoins a month. Deluxe Monthly is $59.99. The cost of a single minute of voice outside those plans isn't on file.

What is on file is a warning from other reviewers: voice calls drained coins fast, including images generated during a call that the reviewer hadn't asked for, and the coin meter was cited as the main thing holding the voice score back at 3.6/5. My read: if you want long calls, the Deluxe Annual plan's fixed minutes are the only predictable way in, and that's a big commitment for something you haven't heard yet.

Candy AI is simpler on paper. Its plans include voice calls among their features, plus 100 tokens a month. What a token buys for voice isn't on file, so I'd treat the tokens as a bonus rather than a budget.

So here's how I'd think about the money. If you only want a character to speak now and then, Character AI's free plan or c.ai+ at $9.99 is the cheapest place to find out whether voice matters to you. If you know you'll use voice every day and want quality above all, a year of Candy AI, which averages €3.99 a month, gets you a highly rated voice for little money.

And if you want long calls with a companion plus images and video, OurDream AI's Deluxe plan makes sense only once you're sure.

One more thing: all of these renew automatically. Before paying for voice anywhere, know where the cancel button lives. My help guides on billing and cancelling cover each app step by step, so you never pay for a month of voice you forgot about.

My general advice, which works on any app: decide how the character talks before you pick how they sound. Are they warm, dry, dramatic, shy? Write that into how you describe the character, then choose a voice that could plausibly say those lines.

If the tone slips in emotional moments, which reviewers mention, a steadier voice often suits a gentler character better.

I love this part, honestly. It's where you get to make a companion that feels like yours, whether that's a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a friend or someone who doesn't fit any of those labels.

What I can point to is the free plan's slow mode, a reduced response speed when the service is busy. c.ai+ removes slow mode. Whether that also speeds up voice isn't on file, so treat it as a maybe, not a fix you're paying for.

If a voice feels flat, try another one before you blame the app. If delays bother you, test at a quieter time of day. And if voice keeps disappointing you after a fair try, that's useful information: you may simply enjoy Character AI more as a text app with a wide cast of characters to talk to.

I stick to official pages and published reviews when I describe features like these, and I say "not on file" when I don't know. If you're curious how that works, here's how apps are checked on this site. It's why this page doesn't list menu names I can't confirm.

A few habits I'd suggest. Give your character a name and a story, but don't give it your full name, address or workplace. If you ever pay, keep in mind that Character AI gives no refunds unless the law forces it, so try voice free first.

And if you want to leave, cancel the subscription before you remove the app, because deleting an app doesn't stop a renewal.

None of this is a reason to avoid voice. It's the same common sense you'd use on any app that listens to you or talks back, and it lets you relax and enjoy the feature.

If you want a voice companion for adult conversation, the honest route is an app whose policy allows it. Candy AI allows adult content on paid plans, with voice calls listed. OurDream AI's policy allows adult content, with voice calls and voice minutes on the Deluxe Annual plan. Nomi AI allows adult content too, and adds voice calls on its paid plan.

My view: keep Character AI for what it does well, which is a huge range of characters on a generous free plan, and pick a second app for anything the policy rules out. That way you're never fighting a filter with your voice on. It also keeps each app doing the job it's best at, which I find much less stressful than asking one app to be everything.

You can drop either one whenever it stops feeling right. For the longer version of what the content policy covers, see my explainer on Character AI's stance on NSFW.