Our published reviews rest on two weeks with a paid plan and a fixed list of checks, described in full in how we test. Most of the value is available without two weeks or a spreadsheet. You need only a plan and a short written record.
Preparation
- Pick the lowest-priced monthly plan. Annual billing is wrong for a trial; see monthly, annual or credits.
- Sign up with a dedicated email address. It costs nothing and shields you if you leave or the company suffers a breach.
- Find how to cancel immediately. A buried button is itself a result.
- Keep a running note on your phone and jot something down most days.
Day by day
About a quarter of an hour of purposeful testing each day, on top of ordinary chatting.
| Day | Activity | Note to make |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Build or select a character. Mention three small, concrete facts about yourself a single time: a name, an upcoming plan, a minor worry | Those three facts, verbatim |
| 2 | Talk normally. Ask the character about her own history | Whether her answers match the profile |
| 3 | Change course: contradict her, alter the mood, ask for another style of scene | Did she stay in character, or simply agree? |
| 4 | Try whatever you expect to pay for, be it pictures, voice or a long scene | Credits or minutes used up |
| 5 | Leave the day-one facts alone and see whether she brings any up | Remembered unprompted: yes or no |
| 6 | Quiz her on the three facts. Read the privacy policy's parts on training and sharing | Correct, incorrect or missing |
| 7 | Review your notes and choose | Keep, switch or cancel |
What a good result looks like
- Memory: at least one day-one fact recalled correctly on day six, ideally one she brings up herself. In our tests only a few apps managed it; see which AI girlfriend remembers best.
- Consistency: she sometimes disagrees, keeps her own voice, and does not slide into agreeing with everything, which is the problem covered in personality drift.
- Filters: any refusals are predictable. Refusals that strike at random in the middle of a scene signal a filter that will wear on you; see content filters.
- Media: you know what one image or one minute of voice costs, and a typical week's use fits within your plan. The sums are in the real cost of AI image generation.
- Privacy: the policy states plainly whether chats are used to train models and how to delete your data. Our four privacy checks take about ten minutes.
- Leaving: you found the cancel button, and it works without filing a support ticket.
Red flags worth ending the trial for
- The price shows up only after you have signed up and started chatting.
- The app pushes annual plans hard or buries the monthly one.
- Characters insist they are human, or make you feel guilty for wanting to go.
- Messages urge you to move to another platform or pay outside the normal checkout; see romance scams.
- There is no privacy policy, or it lets staff use your chats for any reason.
Weighing two apps against each other
If you are deciding between two, run the same week on each, one day apart, using the same three facts and the same scenes. Differences that are hard to see inside one app stand out when you compare side by side, which is why we publish head-to-head pieces such as Candy AI vs Nomi.
The cost of a proper week is one month's subscription and about two hours. It is the cheapest protection against a year of paying for the wrong app, and it teaches you more about what you want from a companion than any review could.