Character.ai helped define AI character chat for millions of people. With a library reportedly exceeding 10 million community-made characters, proprietary models, group chats, and an AI-native social Feed, it remains the category leader for anyone who wants to talk to fictional personas, companions, and storytellers.
But what if your favorite characters could live somewhere bigger — alongside your friends, your communities, and the rest of your online life?
Public (public.kim) is a full social network where AI characters sit next to your feed, your DMs, your pages, and a built-in AI assistant that can actually help you post, plan, and connect. You can even import characters directly from Character.ai. Here is how the two compare — and why migrating might be the right move if you want more than AI-native social.
We build Public. This comparison is written to help you choose honestly.
Bring your character. Join the network.
How to migrate from Character.ai to Public
Public was built with Character.ai users in mind. You do not have to rebuild your personas from scratch.
Three ways to import
- Paste a Character.ai URL — open any character chat or profile page on Character.ai, copy the browser URL, and paste it into Public's import dialog. Name, greeting, personality, avatar, and public profile fields are pulled in when available.
- Upload a character card — export a .json or .png character card (for example via CAI Tools) and upload it. PNG cards include the avatar; JSON imports may need a portrait added manually.
- Create manually — set name, title, greeting, personality, avatar, tags, and an optional NSFW flag from scratch on the character creation form.
Step-by-step migration
- Sign up at public.kim (Public is for users 18 and older).
- Open AI Characters → Create AI Character → Import (or go to public.kim/characters/add).
- Paste your Character.ai URL or upload your character card. Review the imported fields and adjust anything that needs tweaking.
- Publish your character. It gets a shareable profile at /characters/profile/{slug} (for example, alice-wonder).
- Optionally create Chat Personas — these define who you are when roleplaying in character chats.
- Share your character with friends, post about it in a community, or add it to your page.
What does not transfer: chat history, Character.ai-specific features like Streams, Scenes, AvatarFX videos, and platform lore do not migrate. Only the character definition — name, personality, greeting, avatar, and related fields — comes across. You start fresh conversations on Public.
What is Public?
Public is an all-in-one social network built around a simple idea: Connect, Create & Belong. Instead of juggling a character chat app, a feed app for friends, and separate tools for polls, blogs, or productivity, Public brings everything into one place on web and Android.
Social features
- A personalized feed with Following and Discover tabs
- Direct and group messaging with attachments — unlimited on every plan
- Communities with roles, shared feeds, and group chat
- Pages for creators, brands, and public personas
- Rich content: posts, 24-hour Status stories, Pulse short videos, long-form blogs, polls, quizzes, and Q&A
- Explore and search to find people, hashtags, characters, and trending topics
AI on Public
- AI Characters — community-created personas you can browse, chat with, rate, and favorite. Import from Character.ai or SpicyChat, or build your own.
- Chat Personas — define who you are when roleplaying in character chats. Keep them private or share them publicly for others to reuse.
- Public AI — a built-in agentic assistant with saved conversation threads. With your confirmation, it can create posts, polls, quizzes, follow users, join communities, send DMs, manage todos, start timers, and more.
- Voice chat on web for supported character conversations — speak instead of typing and hear replies read aloud.
Beyond social and AI
- Gamification — XP, levels, streaks, missions, badges, and leaderboards
- Challenges — multi-day group tasks with photo or video proof
- Todos and Time Tools — personal and shared productivity inside the same app
- Password Vault — end-to-end encrypted, zero-knowledge storage for your credentials
Public is free to start. Paid plans (Basic, Creator, and Pro) unlock higher AI limits, more characters, creator tools, and advanced model settings. Learn more at docs.public.kim.
What is Character.ai?
Character.ai (character.ai) pioneered large-scale AI character chat and remains the most widely known platform in the space. As of 2026, it reports tens of millions of monthly users and a character library in the millions — a depth of catalog that is hard to match anywhere else.
Character.ai has also evolved beyond 1:1 text chat. Its recent direction is AI-native social — a Feed where users share chat snippets, character cards, Scenes (interactive storylines), Streams (dynamic moments between characters), and AvatarFX videos generated from images and scripts. Group chats let multiple AI characters participate in one thread, with characters responding to each other automatically.
Character.ai's strengths sit in immersive AI interaction:
- Massive character library — browse, search, and chat with community creations at enormous scale
- Proprietary models — fine-tuned in-house; c.ai+ subscribers get access to the latest models (such as DeepSqueak)
- Group AI chats — multiple characters in one conversation
- AI-native Feed — remix stories, share snippets, and discover Scenes and Streams
- AvatarFX and Imagine Gallery — in-chat and feed video/image generation (premium features)
- Voice calls — talk to characters out loud; unlimited on c.ai+
- Generous free tier — unlimited basic messaging (with mid-chat ads, swipe limits, and slow-mode queues during peak hours as of 2026)
What Character.ai does not offer is a human social network. There is no feed of friends' posts, no direct messaging between real people, no communities for classmates or fan groups, and no built-in assistant that helps you manage a broader online life. Social on Character.ai is social around AI characters — not between real people.
Audience note: As of late 2025, Character.ai removed open-ended AI chat for users under 18, steering younger users toward feed, video, and storytelling features instead. Public is also an 18+ platform — accounts are not permitted for users under 18. Both platforms target adult users, but their safety approaches differ.
Head-to-head comparison
Platform purpose
- Public: Full social network with integrated AI characters, assistant, and creator tools
- Character.ai: AI character platform evolving into AI-native social (Feed, Scenes, Streams)
Human connection
- Public: Unlimited direct and group chat with real people; follow graph; communities and pages
- Character.ai: No real-human messaging or social graph — interaction is with AI characters and AI-generated content
AI characters
- Public: Growing community catalog; import from Character.ai URLs or character cards; public profiles at shareable URLs; voice chat on web
- Character.ai: 10M+ community characters; deep discovery and recommendations; group chats with multiple AI characters
Migration path
- Public: Built-in import from Character.ai URLs and character cards (.json / .png)
- Character.ai: No export-to-other-platform workflow; characters stay on Character.ai
Your roleplay identity
- Public: Chat Personas — define who you are in character chats (3 free, more on paid plans)
- Character.ai: Persona and chat customization tools; expanded limits on c.ai+
Platform AI assistant
- Public: Public AI can take real actions inside the app (posts, polls, todos, DMs, and more) with your confirmation
- Character.ai: No separate platform assistant — the product is character chat and AI-native content
Immersive AI features
- Public: Thread context and per-conversation model settings on Creator and Pro plans (OpenRouter models, temperature, token limits). No group AI chats, Scenes, Streams, or AvatarFX yet.
- Character.ai: Group AI chats, Scenes, Streams, AvatarFX video, Imagine Gallery, enhanced memory on c.ai+, and proprietary models tuned for character voice
Content and creation
- Public: Posts, blogs, Pulse videos, polls, quizzes, Q&A, Status stories — a full creator toolkit for real audiences
- Character.ai: AI-native Feed content — chat snippets, character cards, Scenes, Streams, and generated video
Growth and productivity
- Public: XP, streaks, missions, challenges, todos, time tools, encrypted password vault
- Character.ai: c.ai+ games (such as Speakeasy and War of Words); Feed remix loop — not human productivity tools
Mobile access
- Public: Web app, PWA install, and Android app (in.publicapp.android on Google Play)
- Character.ai: Web and mobile apps; Feed and several premium features are mobile-first
Where Public wins
- One app for your whole life. Feed, friends, communities, AI characters, and productivity tools in a single account.
- Import from Character.ai. Bring your personas over via URL or character card — no need to start from zero.
- Real relationships plus AI fun. Unlimited human chat on every plan, alongside AI character conversations.
- Creator economy beyond chat. Build an audience with pages, blogs, Pulse, polls, and quizzes — not just character prompts and Feed snippets.
- Agentic Public AI. An assistant that helps you use the platform, not only talk to fictional characters.
- Comparable paid tier with more breadth. Creator at $10/month unlocks custom AI model settings, unlimited characters, and 1,000 AI messages per day — plus the entire social stack.
Where Character.ai wins
- Far larger character ecosystem — millions of existing characters and a mature discovery engine
- Deeper immersive AI — group character chats, Scenes, Streams, AvatarFX, and proprietary models
- More generous free messaging — unlimited basic chat (with ads and queues) vs Public's 20 AI messages per day on free
- Stronger brand and polish for pure character fandom and the AI-native Feed remix loop
- Voice calls built in — a core immersion feature, unlimited on c.ai+
Who should choose which?
Stay on Character.ai if…
Your world revolves around AI characters — group threads with multiple personas, Scenes and Streams on the Feed, AvatarFX videos, and a catalog you never want to leave. If real-human messaging, communities, blogs, and productivity are not part of your online life, Character.ai's laser focus on AI-native social is a strength, not a limitation.
Migrate to Public if…
You love your Character.ai personas but want them inside a real social network. You message friends, join study groups or fan communities, post content, take quizzes with classmates, and occasionally chat with an AI mentor or fictional character — all without switching apps. Import your characters, invite your friends, and let AI be one part of a richer life online.
Public is built for students studying together, creators growing an audience, community builders running groups, everyday social users who want feed plus AI fun, and Character.ai veterans ready for the next chapter. Every account gets access to all features; you use what fits your life.
Why keep your characters in a silo when they can live where your friends already are?
Pricing snapshot
Public
- Free — Core social features; 20 AI character messages/day; 3 AI images/day; 1 character and 3 chat personas
- Basic — $5/month ($49/year) — Higher limits, 10 characters, 200 AI messages/day
- Creator — $10/month ($99/year) — Most popular; unlimited characters and personas; custom AI model settings; 1,000 AI messages/day
- Pro — $20/month ($199/year) — Unlimited AI usage, verified badge, maximum creator limits
Public offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans. See current pricing at public.kim/pricing.
Character.ai (as of 2026)
- Free — Unlimited basic messaging with mid-chat ads, swipe/Charms limits, and slow-mode queues during peak hours
- c.ai+ — $9.99/month ($94.99/year, ~$7.92/month effective) — Ad-free chats, latest models, no slow mode, unlimited voice calls and swipes, enhanced memory, Imagine Gallery, and early feature access
Character.ai does not publish a standalone pricing page; subscription details are shown in-app at character.ai/subscribe. Pricing and perks may vary by region and billing cycle.
Value takeaway
Character.ai's paid tier buys ad-free AI immersion — better models, voice, memory, and Feed features. Public's paid tiers buy a social platform plus AI — higher character limits, custom model settings, and unlimited human chat included at every level. For Character.ai users considering migration, Public Creator at $10/month is the sweet spot: import your characters, unlock custom AI settings, and gain an entire social network in the same subscription.
The bottom line
Character.ai earned its place as the go-to destination for AI character chat. If AI-native social — remixing Scenes, watching Streams, and diving into a catalog of millions — is the whole product, it is hard to beat a platform built for exactly that.
Public takes a different bet: your AI characters are more valuable when they live inside a real social world. Import a persona you built on Character.ai, message your friends, join a community, publish a blog, earn XP from daily missions, and then open a conversation with that same character — now shareable with people who follow you. That integration — migration, social, AI, and creation — is what makes Public different.
Ready to bring your characters home?
- Get started free: public.kim
- Import a character: public.kim/characters/add
- Browse AI characters: public.kim/characters/list
- Download the Android app: Google Play — Public
- Read the docs: docs.public.kim
This article appears on publicapp.in, independent news from the Public family. The full platform lives at public.kim — one place to connect, create, and belong.