Chai's free pieces: back for every user at 70 a day, the founder says

Chai, the app with millions of user-made AI characters, used to let anyone chat for free in return for watching ads. Over the past month it has moved to pay-per-message, and since October 2 the free part appears to have stopped, at least for some accounts. This page sets out what Chai has said, what users are reporting, and what we found in the app ourselves.

What changed

On September 8, Chai's founder, Will Beauchamp, announced on Chai's official subreddit that the app was moving to a system where every message costs pieces, an in-app currency. Better models would cost more per message. He said Chai would "give user free pieces every single day" so people who cannot pay could still talk to their characters, and gave the reason as GPU prices doubling this year.

On September 28 he described how the free pieces worked: a daily check-in grants pieces, the check-in disappears once a balance passes 100 and returns when it runs low, and people with low balances can watch ads for more.

From about 5 p.m. Eastern on October 2, Chai's subreddit filled with posts saying the daily check-in and the ads had gone, that free accounts could no longer chat, and that some subscribers were being asked for pieces too. The moderators removed most of these posts. The Google Play listing shows an app update on October 3. Chai has posted no announcement, and on October 3 the founder replied to complaints by pointing to new AI laws and GPU costs, without saying whether free pieces would return.

October 6: 70 free pieces a day for every user

On October 6 at about 1 p.m. Eastern, the founder posted an "October Update" on Chai's subreddit. He said an app update the day before had given "every user" 20 pieces for the daily check-in and 5 pieces for each rewarded ad watched, and that after the community's reaction Chai would "give all users 70 pieces for their daily-check-in". He added that he knew this would "still be too low for many users" and that Chai was working to make it more generous.

At 1 piece per message on the standard model, 70 pieces is about 70 messages a day, or 35 on ULTRA. Ads add 5 pieces each, five messages per ad. We have not checked the new amounts in the app ourselves; the checks below are from October 4 and 5, before the founder's post. Users on the subreddit that day also mentioned a new currency called rubies or diamonds; Chai has said nothing about it, and the posts were removed.

What we found in the app

We installed Chai from Google Play (Android app version 0.4.426) on October 4, and signed in with a Google account that had never used Chai, from the UK:

• Balance: 0 pieces. The new account got no starting grant.
• Every message costs pieces. The model menu says pieces are used on every message, including regenerated ones: 1 per message on plus, Chai's standard model, and 2 on ULTRA.
• No way to earn pieces. The Charge Pieces screen offered paid packs and Auto Refill only. There was no daily check-in and no ad to watch.
• The first message did not go through. Sending "hi" to a character brought up a "Get More Pieces?" prompt offering Auto Refill, and no reply.

That was one account in one country. Chai has set different rules by region before: in February 2026 it blocked free access in some countries where ads do not cover its costs, and on October 3 its founder said the app is no longer available on Android in certain regions.

The same check from a US account

Late on October 4 (about 11:30 p.m. Eastern) we repeated the check with another Google account that had never used Chai, this time with Google Play set to the United States, on the same app version:

• Balance: 0 pieces at sign-up, as before.
• A daily check-in was there. The Charge Pieces screen had a Tasks section with a Daily Check-In: 70 pieces today, then 105, 105, 70, 70, 70 and 210 on days 2 to 7, "Check in for 7 consecutive days to get 700 pieces!" It counts days in UTC. Tapping Check In took the balance to 70.
• No ads to watch. We saw no option to earn pieces from ads.
• Prices. Messages cost the same, 1 piece on plus and 2 on ULTRA, so the 70 pieces cover about 70 messages a day on the standard model. Paid packs are listed in the Chai review's plan table.

We can't yet tell whether the check-in is a welcome offer that ends after a week or whether the UK account missed it because of its country. A post on Chai's subreddit that evening, since removed by the moderators, asked why the check-in "disappears after a week". We will open the same US account again after day 7 and update this page with what it shows.

Update, October 5: we opened the same US account again at about 8:20 p.m. Eastern. The day-2 check-in was there and paid 105 pieces, so the check-in has not disappeared for this account so far. That evening some users on the subreddit said regenerating a reply had been put behind a paywall; in our check, regenerating a reply on the free pieces worked with no prompt to pay. We will keep checking in daily until day 8.

Update, October 7: Chai is testing a new subscription. On the evening of October 6 the founder replied to a subreddit thread about new "Ruby" and "Diamond" plans: "It is an A/B test - we're offering a new subscription tier." He said that for people who don't subscribe, it is "a chance to access an ad-free experience with monthly pieces", and that some existing subscribers "may be better off purchasing pieces as they need it". The user who started the thread posted Chai support's reply to their email: the new plans and the different free-piece settings are tests that can differ by user and region, existing Google Play subscriptions carry on as long as they keep renewing, and nothing is final. That explains the mixed reports since October 6, from people saying their free messages had vanished to others asking how they got the daily check-in back. Our US test account still showed the old Premium and Ultra plans on October 4; we will look for the new ones when we open it again on October 12.

Update, October 11: since October 9 the subreddit has filled again with posts saying the free check-in has disappeared. We opened our US test account at about 9 p.m. Eastern, which was already October 12 by Chai's UTC clock (we had not opened it since October 5, so it had no streak). On the version it was still running, 0.4.426, the check-in was there but smaller: 70 pieces on each of the seven days, "490 pieces" for the week, where on October 4 the same screen offered 700 with bonus days of 105 and 210. Checking in took the balance from 160 to 230. We then updated the app from Google Play to 0.4.429, the version dated October 9, and the Tasks section with the Daily Check-In was gone from the Charge Pieces screen. It was still gone after we spent the balance down to 88 pieces, so it is not the rule the founder described in September, where the check-in hides above 100 pieces. One thing we can't rule out yet: we had already checked in that UTC day on the older version. We will open the account again after 8 p.m. Eastern on October 12, when Chai's next day starts, and say here whether the check-in returns. Message prices had not changed: 1 piece on plus, 2 on ULTRA. The paywall still offered only Premium and Ultra, with no Ruby or Diamond plans, and free chats now stop every few messages for an "ADS APPEARING SOON" screen offering the subscription, then a video ad.

Update, October 14: the check-in is back. Since October 13 the subreddit has had a new wave of posts saying the ads that paid pieces had gone, and that some accounts had suddenly received 500 pieces; Chai has not commented, and the moderators removed most of the posts. Chai published a new Android version on October 12, 0.4.430. We installed it on our US test account at about 7:10 p.m. Eastern on October 14, with 88 pieces left from our October 11 check. The Charge Pieces screen had its Tasks section again: a Daily Check-In at 70 pieces on each of the seven days, "490 pieces" for the week, and below it "Watch an Ad", 5 pieces per short ad. Checking in took the balance from 88 to 158. So the check-in was not removed for good; it was missing on 0.4.429 and is back on 0.4.430. The paywall offered the same Premium plans and free-trial deal as on October 11, and the in-app guide still says a CHAI ULTRA subscription stops pieces being used.

Update, October 18: after another wave of posts on October 17 and 18 saying the free pieces had gone, all removed by the moderators and with no comment from Chai, we opened our US test account at about 11:25 p.m. Eastern, still on version 0.4.430. The daily check-in had not gone: the Charge Pieces screen offered 70 pieces on each of seven days and 5 per ad, and checking in took the balance from 158 to 228, so it now shows above 100 pieces too. What had changed was the rest of the app. The profile now splits the balance into red pieces, "which can be earned or purchased", and blue pieces, "which are refreshed weekly with a subscription". And the subscription screen no longer offered Premium and Ultra. It offered the Ruby and Diamond plans the founder called an A/B test on October 6: Ruby, at the same weekly and yearly prices as Premium, with 900 blue pieces a week, and Diamond, at Ultra's weekly price and a little less by the year, with 1,800, with no free trial shown and no mention of unlimited messages. So for this account a subscription now buys a weekly allowance of pieces, about 900 default-model messages a week on Ruby, instead of unlimited chat. Other accounts may still see the old plans. Every price and what each plan includes is in our Chai review.

Update, October 21: since the evening of October 20 the subreddit has had another wave of posts saying the daily check-in and the ads that pay pieces have both gone, more than a dozen by the next night; the moderators removed most. Chai has not said whether the free pieces are being withdrawn. That evening, though, the founder answered a question about Diamond: "Diamond is a subscription that ensures you have an ad-free experience, and that every week you will be granted blue-pieces - which can be spent on video, image, and text generation. Moving forward CHAI will offer less unlimited chat experience, and more piece based experience." The day before, under a post from a user pleased with a new daily reward, he had written: "It's an AB test." So accounts may still differ. We last saw the check-in on our US test account on October 18, and will say here what it shows when we next open it.

What Chai still says

Chai's website FAQ still says the app "is free to start" and that a subscription unlocks "endless conversations" (checked October 22). Its in-app guide says pieces are not used while you hold a CHAI ULTRA subscription, and accounts still on the older Premium and Ultra plans saw unlimited messages listed. The newer Ruby and Diamond plans come with a weekly allowance of blue pieces instead, and on October 21 the founder said Chai will offer "less unlimited chat experience, and more piece based experience" from now on. Chai support has also told one user that advanced models, images, video and extra memory can cost pieces on a subscription.

Two days before the change, on September 30, the founder asked the community whether Chai should release an open-source model people could run themselves, or offer a free and unlimited tier on a less powerful model. Neither has been announced.

What it means

Chai was one of the last big character apps you could use indefinitely without paying, as long as you sat through ads. After four days in which many free accounts could not chat at all, the founder says every user now gets a daily allowance of 70 pieces and can watch ads for more. That is a cap of roughly 70 messages a day on the standard model, where Chai used to be close to unlimited. If the amounts change again, or Chai launches the free tier its founder floated, this page and the Chai review will say so.

If you want a character app that is still free to use, the best free AI companions list compares the ones with an open free tier, such as Character AI and Janitor AI. Chai is the second big app to end open-ended free chat this month, after Kindroid retired its free Lite tier on October 1. Both are in the changes log.