What happened to PolyBuzz, in plain facts

Here is what the official pages show today, and what may explain the surprise:

• Free text chat is still there, and the FAQ still pitches it as "free, unlimited, and private"; no daily cap is published
• The free plan runs on the Standard model and shows ads
• Voice on the free plan is limited to two free voice plays
• Image generation needs coins once the one free image to start is used
• Stronger memory models, no ads and priority chat sit in the Premium tier

None of that is a disaster in my book. The core promise, free chat with community characters, survives. What costs money is everything around it: memory, voice and images are where PolyBuzz asks you to pay. If you came for the chat alone, you lose nothing. If you loved the extras, the tiers are where they live.

What is not on file matters just as much. There is no dated change log here, so I can't tell you in which month anything moved or what the old limits were. I'd be wary of anyone who quotes exact dates without a source.

If all this has you thinking about leaving a character app for good, clear your history before you go. My walkthrough for clearing out Character AI chats gives the kind of steps worth repeating on any app you quit.

The table right after this section lines PolyBuzz up against five other companion apps, which shows its 2026 standing at a glance.

The App Store side does explain one common confusion: prices look different depending on where you buy. Monthly and weekly plans come through the store, while the yearly plans are sold on the web checkout. Here is how the ladder reads:

• Poly Standard: $4.99 a week, $9.90 a month, or $99 a year on the web
• Poly Premium: $19.90 a month, or $199 a year on the web
• Poly Ultimate: $29.90 a month, or $299 a year on the web
• Coins for images, bought on top of any plan

The weekly plan is the one I'd steer you away from. At $4.99 a week it works out to about $21.62 a month, more than twice the $9.90 monthly price for the same Standard tier. It looks cheap at checkout and isn't.

If you only want a short look at the paid side, one month of Standard teaches you the same thing for less.

Other reviewers report that memory drifts in long scenes, with one example where a scene that began at a train station jumped to a hotel without any bridge. They also describe memory growing with the tier, and Ultimate is listed as unlimited plus Permanent Memory. Taken together, that tells me long stories are where the free plan shows its limits.

For casual chat I think that trade is fair; for long roleplay it grates. For every plan, the content level and billing in one place, see my PolyBuzz review with prices and a verdict.

Here is how I'd sort them, using only what each app's official pages list:

• For a free start with memory: Nomi AI's free plan never expires, allows 50 messages daily without ads, and Standard costs $15.99 a month
• For free text chat without a published cap: SpicyChat's Default model lets free users chat in text without limit, though ads and waiting lines can appear
• For group chat and video: OurDream AI lists both, with Standard Monthly at $19.99
• For adult content on paid plans: Candy AI from €13.99 a month, and GirlfriendGPT from $15

My personal pick for someone leaving PolyBuzz is Nomi AI, if memory is what you miss. It is reported to have proactive long-term memory, with a "Mind Map" generated after around 500 messages. The 50-message daily cap is the catch, and free messages are limited to 400 characters each.

I like that the limit is stated up front, though: you know on day one exactly what the free plan gives you.

If what bothered you was the soft content level, the sums change. SpicyChat and OurDream AI allow adult content under their policies. Candy AI and GirlfriendGPT allow it on paid plans only, so the free version can't preview the very thing you'd be buying. Weigh that before handing over a card.

And if PolyBuzz still suits you apart from the ads? At $9.90, Poly Standard Monthly is the low-cost test of whether paying fixes your complaint. I'd give it one month before deciding it didn't. Whichever app you pick, start free and only pay once you know which limit you are paying to lift.

For the full ranking with prices, free starts and content levels, see my list of apps like PolyBuzz worth switching to. The box right below sums up OurDream AI, one of the stronger picks if you want more than text chat.

Where I'd be more careful is money. Under PolyBuzz's terms, a plan renews by itself if you haven't cancelled by the final day of the period, and a completed purchase gives no right to a refund unless there is due reason. That is strict. So the day you subscribe, write the renewal date down where you'll notice it.

Where you cancel follows where you bought. On iOS it runs through the Settings app, your Apple ID and Subscriptions. On Android it runs through the Google Play Store app and its Subscriptions menu. Either way, the cancel lives with the store that took your money, not inside a chat.

What would make me walk away from PolyBuzz? Two things. First, a cap on free text chat, because that is its whole appeal. Second, a need for memory you can rely on, because the free Standard model is where the reported drift shows up.

Neither is a reason to panic today. They are reasons to keep your expectations honest, and to check the official pages again before you renew.

On the bright side, a named company, three platforms and written billing rules count for something. It is not a guarantee, but it is a better sign than an app with no company name at all. No launch year is on file to judge its track record, so I can't vouch for its history, but nothing here points to trouble.

My practical advice: stay on the free plan unless one specific limit bothers you, then buy the smallest tier that fixes it, monthly. If you need steps for cancelling, refunds or data on other apps too, my help guides for companion apps collect them in one place.

That gap matters because it is where rumours grow. When an app adds tiers, some people read it as the end, and a rumour that the app is dying travels faster than a price list. I'd put any story about PolyBuzz through one simple question: does it name a date and a source?

If not, it is a guess, however confident it sounds. The same test works for good news: a claim that the free plan got bigger deserves a date and a source too.

This site only states what official pages, store listings and published reviews show, and it says plainly when something is unknown. For the way apps get weighed and scored here, the method behind every review explains it step by step.

Try another version first. PolyBuzz runs on web, iOS and Android, so if the phone app fails, the web version quickly tells you whether the problem is the app or your device. Next, look at the store listing: if it is still there, the app still exists. Then update the app, since an old version can misbehave after changes on the company's side.

Paying subscribers should first check where the subscription lives. It sits with Apple, Google or the web checkout, depending on where you bought it, and it keeps renewing whether or not the app loads for you. That is the one thing I would not leave to chance.

And if the app stays broken for days? Then it's time to weigh alternatives, not the first evening it acts up. Patience costs nothing here.

If your chats used to feel freer and now stop short, that fits a soft policy doing its job, whatever it did before.

Please don't go hunting for tricks to get past it. Evading an app's rules breaks its terms and puts the account at risk, along with any plan you paid for, and PolyBuzz's refund terms leave little room. My guide on the PolyBuzz chat filter and what its settings allow covers the honest options.

If you want adult content, the cleaner route is an app whose policy allows it. SpicyChat and OurDream AI allow it under their policies, while Candy AI and GirlfriendGPT keep it for paying members. That beats arguing with a filter every evening.

One point in PolyBuzz's favour: the soft level is a stated policy, not a surprise, so you can decide before paying whether it suits you.

My guess is that the gap between free and paid keeps growing through extras rather than cuts to basic chat, but that's my reading, not a fact on file. If that pattern holds, free users keep their chat and paying members simply get more models to choose from.

If you came over from Character AI hoping PolyBuzz would be looser, set your expectations with care. My page on Character AI and NSFW covers that side, and the same logic holds here: a soft policy is deliberate, not a bug waiting for a fix.

For everyone else, the answer to what happened to PolyBuzz is reassuring. It is still listed on three platforms, text chat is still free, and the extras cost more than some people expected. The questions below pick up what's left.