Character AI in 2025: A Practical Guide and Comparison With ChatGPT, Gemini, & More

Generative AI has evolved quickly in recent years, with applications expanding far beyond text generation. Among the newer platforms gaining traction is Character AI—a tool that lets users interact with AI-generated personas in a conversational format.

During an interview I had last year with tech founder and entrepreneur Draven McConville, he said something that stayed with me:

“Generative AI has come a long way since the first version of ChatGPT, but the real impact is yet to come.”

That statement sparked a curiosity—what does "real impact" look like in practice? Is it productivity? Creativity? Connection? Tools like Character AI attempt to answer that, offering a different kind of interaction: one that mimics personality, emotion, and nuance.

In this guide, I’ll break down how Character AI works, what it offers, where its limitations lie, and how it compares to other platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Janitor AI, and Inworld. Whether you're exploring AI tools for creative projects, educational support, or just experimentation, this overview will help you evaluate if Character AI fits your needs.

What is Character AI?

Character AI is a web-based platform that allows users to interact with AI-generated personas—ranging from fictional characters to public figures like athletes, authors, and historical icons. Each character is built with a distinct personality and tone, resulting in conversations that simulate a specific role or voice.

Unlike general-purpose chatbots such as ChatGPT or Gemini, Character AI is structured around persona-based dialogues. This design enables users to engage in scenarios like roleplaying, storytelling, Q&As, or casual chats—often tailored to the personality of the chosen character.

The platform launched in beta in September 2022 and officially expanded in 2023. Currently, in 2025, it has grown to over 20 million monthly active users and recorded more than 134.81 million visits in May 2025, reflecting a growing interest in niche, conversational AI tools.

How Does Character AI Work?

Character AI is built on large neural language models—similar to those behind ChatGPT or Gemini—which use deep learning techniques to generate human-like text. These models are trained on vast datasets to identify patterns in language and produce contextually relevant responses.

Here’s a simplified breakdown of how it functions:

• Data Training: The underlying model is trained on large-scale text data to understand grammar, tone, and conversational flow.

• Predictive Generation: Using this knowledge, the model predicts likely word sequences based on a user’s input, similar to how autocomplete or translation tools operate.

• Persona Simulation: When users engage with a character, the system generates responses designed to match that character’s persona. For example, a character modeled after Abraham Lincoln would aim to reflect a historical tone and vocabulary.

While the experience can feel like a dialogue with a specific figure, it’s ultimately a simulation—one shaped by algorithms, data, and user interaction. The goal is not perfect accuracy, but rather to create responses that align with the personality framework assigned to each character.

How to Use Character AI: Getting Started

If you're new to Character AI, here’s a straightforward guide to help you set up your account and begin exploring the platform’s features.

Creating an Account

1. Visit the Website: Go to https://character.ai using your preferred browser.

2. Choose a Sign-up Option:

   • Email: Provide your email and create a password
   • Google or Apple Login: Sign in using an existing account
     

3. Verify Your Email: Click the verification link sent to your inbox.

4. Set a Username and Birth Date: Enter the required details to complete the setup.

5. Access Granted: Once registered, you can begin exploring the platform’s characters and tools.

Navigating the Interface

1. Homepage Overview: You'll see a feed of trending or suggested characters. You can use the search bar to look for specific characters or explore by category.

2. Character Profiles: Each AI character has a short bio outlining their personality or intended role.

3. Start a Conversation: Click on any profile to initiate a chat.

4. Using the Chat Window: Type a question or message. The AI responds based on its training data and the dialogue history within that session.

5. Additional Tools: In the top-right corner of the chat window, you'll find tools that enhance how you interact with characters. These include:

   • New Chat: Start a fresh conversation from scratch.
   • Voice: Speak to characters and hear them respond.
   • History: Revisit previous chats at any time.
   • Customize: Adjust a character’s traits, voice, or backstory.
   • Pinned: Quickly access favorite characters or conversations.
   • Persona & Style: See and shape how a character behaves or communicates—whether formal, playful, emotional, or anything in between.
     

These tools make it easier to personalize your experience and create more natural, memorable interactions over time.

Key Features of Character AI: What You Can Do on the Platform

While Character AI is often framed as a conversational tool, it also offers several features designed to support creativity, learning, and interactive exploration.

Here’s a look at some of the platform’s core functions:

1. Use Cases for Learning and Creativity

   Beyond casual conversations, Character AI can be used for a variety of learning and practice scenarios. For example, some users simulate language learning exchanges, mock interviews, or creative writing prompts with characters tailored to those themes.

These kinds of interactions can be helpful for sparking ideas or building confidence, though they’re not a replacement for professional instruction or tutoring platforms. Tools like ChatGPT or Replika also support similar use cases, but with less emphasis on persona-driven dialogue.

2. Creating Custom Characters

Users can design their own AI characters by customizing settings like name, personality description, greeting message, and privacy preferences. This allows for more tailored interactions, especially for roleplay or niche simulations.

While the character creation process is intuitive, it may require some trial and error to produce consistent or coherent behavior. Other platforms, such as Janitor AI or Inworld AI, offer similar customization options with varying degrees of flexibility.

3. Chatting With Multiple Characters

   One distinctive feature of Character AI is the ability to chat with several AI personas at once—whether historical figures, fictional characters, or thematic bots. This setup can create more dynamic conversations but may also result in unpredictable or inconsistent interactions depending on the characters involved.

   General-purpose tools like ChatGPT currently don’t support simultaneous multi-character conversations within a single chat thread.

4. Creating a Group Chat

   Character AI’s mobile app supports group chats, where users can interact with multiple bots and other humans in the same space. You can observe AI characters responding to each other, or bring friends into the chat for a hybrid experience.

   To create a group chat:

• Open the mobile app (iOS or Android)
• Tap the plus (+) icon

• Select "Group Chat" → "Create Group Chat"
• Add public/unlisted AI characters and invite human participants

Note: Group chats are currently available only on the mobile app.

5. Exploring Specialized Bots

   Character AI offers a wide range of themed bots, from fictional characters to personas based on public figures or specific domains like religion, politics, or language learning. You can browse by category and jump into conversations aligned with your interests. This range of characters makes the platform appealing to users looking for variety or novelty.

   That said, the open-ended nature of these bots can also lead to inconsistent quality, depending on how each one is designed.

Using Commands to Structure Conversations

Character AI supports simple formatting prompts, similar to Markdown. It allows users to adjust how text appears within a conversation. These commands help guide the tone or structure of a message but don’t change the AI’s behavior in a technical sense (e.g., like running scripts or hard rules).

Common uses include emphasizing words, mimicking editing conventions, or adding stylistic touches to dialogue.

Here are a few examples:

1. Bold Text
   To bold text for emphasis, wrap the word or phrase in double asterisks:
   **example** →example

2. Italics
   To italicize text, use single asterisks:
   *example* → *example
   * This can add nuance or suggest tone.

3. Strikethrough
   To suggest edits or corrections, wrap the text in tildes:
   ~example~ →example

4. Highlight
   To call attention to a specific term or phrase, place single backticks around it:
   `example`

While these formatting cues can enhance how text appears in chats, they may not always influence the AI's response directly. Their primary function is to help you shape the flow and style of your conversation.

Building Custom Characters: A Walkthrough

Character AI allows users to create personalized AI characters with distinct personas. The process is relatively simple and designed for non-technical users.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Click "Create" on the homepage and select "Character."

On the character setup page, you can customize the following fields:

• Character Name: Choose a display name for your character.
• Tagline: Add a short phrase to summarize the character.
• Description: Define your character’s background or role.
• Greeting Message: Enter the message users will see at the start of each chat.

2. Voice Options: Use the dropdown to assign a default voice to your character (if available). If you want a custom voice, you can upload an audio file directly.

3. Allow Dynamic Greetings: Toggle this option to let your character generate a new, personality-based greeting each time a chat starts. This adds variety and makes conversations feel more natural and engaging.

4. Tags: Add relevant keywords that describe your character’s personality, interests, or role (e.g., “wizard,” “friendly,” “detective”). These tags improve discoverability and help users quickly understand your character’s theme.

5. Advanced Settings ("More Options"): This section allows you to add a backstory, personality details, and behavioral guidelines that influence how the character interacts in conversation.

6. Visibility: Decide whether your character should be public, unlisted, or private.

7. Finalize: Click "Create Character" to complete the setup.

Keep in mind: while these customizations shape the character’s behavior, actual responses may vary depending on the model's interpretation of your inputs and user interactions.

Advanced Tools for Character Creation

Character AI includes several tools that go beyond basic setup, allowing users to refine, personalize, and experiment with their AI characters. These features are designed to offer flexibility depending on how much control or complexity a user wants.

Creation Modes

• Quick Mode:
  This option provides a fast setup process. Users enter a character name, avatar, tagline, description, greeting, and voice—all within a few steps. Visibility settings can be toggled at the end. It’s useful for creating lightweight or test characters.
  
• Advanced Mode:
  This mode offers more customization. Users can define detailed behaviors, tweak language styles, and generate or upload images. While more powerful, it often requires creative input and experimentation to achieve consistent results

Personas

The User Personas feature allows you to define aspects of your own personality, preferences, or communication style. This information can influence how AI characters respond to you, subtly shaping the tone of conversations over time.

This is more of a user-profile layer than a direct character modifier—but it adds an extra dimension of personalization

Training and Refinement

Character behavior is influenced not just by setup fields but also by the cumulative interactions and feedback it receives. Over time, conversations, refinements, and edits can shape how the AI responds. While this doesn't constitute true training in a machine learning sense, it does offer a form of iterative fine-tuning.

Tips for Creating More Compelling Characters

1. Define Distinct Traits

• Avoid generic labels like “funny” or “nice.” Instead, combine traits that create contrast or depth—for example, a character who’s confident but self-doubting, or logical but impatient.

• Draw inspiration from fictional archetypes or real people to develop tone, vocabulary, and consistency in responses.

2. Build a Backstory

• Include defining life experiences or beliefs that shape your character’s motivations.
• Consider relationship dynamics: how does the character interact with others—are they confrontational, loyal, isolated? These layers can help guide more natural dialogue.

Additional Resource: For more detailed guidance, the in-app Character Book offers templates, examples, and tips for refining your character creation process.

Update: Character AI Is Getting More Visual and Interactive

As of mid-2025, Character AI is expanding beyond traditional text chat into more immersive formats—introducing features like animated avatars, pre-built story scenes, and creator-focused tools for video and content sharing.

These updates point to a broader shift: Character AI is slowly evolving into a multimedia storytelling platform, not just a chatbot playground.

Some of these features are rolling out gradually and may be limited to mobile users or paid subscribers.

For a full breakdown of the new updates, visit the official announcement: Character AI Unveils New Ways to Create

Limitations of Character AI

While Character AI offers an engaging and highly personalized chat experience, it’s not without its limitations—many of which remain core technical challenges as of mid-2025.

Here are some of the most commonly noted issues:

• Short-Term Memory: AI characters often forget earlier parts of a conversation, making longer chats feel disjointed or repetitive.

• Limited Impact of Definitions: Although creators can input up to 32,000 characters for personality/backstory, only the first 3,200 meaningfully influence the AI’s behavior.

• Strict Content Filters: While moderation ensures safety, recent filter updates have made some responses feel less creative or overly cautious.

• Emotional Realism: The AI still lacks genuine empathy and nuance, which can make interactions feel mechanical—especially in sensitive contexts.

• Safety for Younger Users: With no robust parental controls or activity reports, the platform may not be ideal for unsupervised children.

• No API or Local Use: There’s currently no option to run Character AI locally or integrate it with external tools.

• Limited Transparency: Users and creators don’t have access to data on memory, token usage, or performance, making optimization difficult.

• Repetitive Interactions: Some users report that chats have become formulaic over time, reducing novelty and depth.

Despite continued improvements, these limitations—particularly around memory, emotional nuance, and creative freedom—remain barriers to a truly immersive experience.

How Character AI Compares to Other Platforms

Compared to platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Janitor AI, and Inworld, Character AI emphasizes character-focused customization and personality-driven interactions. Recent additions, such as dynamic greetings, tags, and AvatarFX, give users deeper control over how characters appear and behave.

While ChatGPT and Gemini now support voice interaction, Character AI goes further by offering avatar upload, animated video generation, and persistent persona tools, making it a more expressive option for storytelling and creative exploration.

At the same time, Inworld is tailored for developers, with granular control via behavior trees and memory modeling, while Janitor AI appeals to users seeking open-ended customization with fewer content restrictions. Character AI sits between these extremes: richer than generic assistants, but more accessible than developer-heavy tools.

Character Creation: Platform Comparison (2025)

Here is a 2025 feature comparison table for Character AI, ChatGPT, Gemini, Janitor AI, and Inworld:

Wrapping Up

Character AI provides a unique entry point into persona-based AI conversations—allowing users to experiment with everything from fictional roleplay to historical simulations. Whether you're exploring creative writing ideas, learning new perspectives, or simply curious about how conversational AI handles different characters, the platform offers a flexible space to engage.

Still, it’s important to keep expectations in check. Like most AI tools, Character AI is evolving. Users may encounter inconsistencies, factual inaccuracies, or limitations in memory and interactivity. These aren’t flaws unique to the platform but rather reflect the current state of generative AI as a whole.

As Draven McConville further put it during our conversation, “The real value of AI won’t just come from what it can do, but from how thoughtfully we choose to use it.”

If you're approaching Character AI with curiosity and a clear goal—whether for exploration, entertainment, or learning—it can be a useful and thought-provoking tool among others in the expanding AI landscape.