AI Companions With Memory: What Actually Sticks

You tell an AI companion your sister's name, that you hate surprises, and that Thursday is the hard day. Three days later it asks if you have siblings. That's not a companion. That's a stranger with a chatbot interface.

Memory is the feature that separates a companion you keep from one you delete. So we went through what eight platforms actually store, how much they store, and what it costs to get more. No company paid for placement. Where a claim comes from the vendor and nowhere else, we say so.

The short version

Nomi wins on automatic recall — it remembers without you doing homework. Kindroid wins on raw capacity if you're willing to curate what it knows. Secrets AI is the one built for adult romance that lets you open the memory panel and fix what's wrong. Everything below rank eight is a compromise.

Rank	App	Memory system	Best for	Price from
1	Nomi	Three recall tiers, Mind Map 2.0, Identity Core	Recall without setup	$8.33/month yearly
2	Kindroid	Three types, five systems, journals, key memories	Raw capacity, paid	$15.99/month app
3	Secrets AI	Tiered recall, memory panel, editable Lorebooks	Adult romance continuity	$9.17/month yearly
4	Character AI	1,000-message history, Pinned Memories, Lorebook	Free tools	Free; c.ai+ $9.99/month
5	Replika	Editable list, reflections on paid tiers	Warm check-ins	$5.83/month yearly
6	Paradot	Recall-first, editable entries (company claim)	Slow reflective chats	Prices vary by source
7	SillyTavern	Keyword lorebooks you write	Full control, DIY	Free software; model costs vary
8	Candy AI, OurDream AI	Mostly recent message history	Images first	$3.99 and $9.99/month yearly

How memory actually works (and why it fails)

An AI model has no memory. It has a context window — a fixed amount of text it can see at once. Everything you typed last week is gone unless the app saved it somewhere and pastes it back in.

So "memory" in these apps is really three things stacked:

• Short-term context. The current conversation. When it fills up, old messages fall off the back.
• Extracted facts. The app pulls out lines like "has a sister named Dana" and stores them in a list or bank.
• Lorebooks. Hand-written entries — world details, character backstory, relationship history — that get injected when relevant.

Most forgetting is a context window problem. SpicyChat's tiers are a clean example: 4,096 tokens on free and Get A Taste, 8,192 on True Supporter, 16,384 on I'm All In. Janitor AI's free model sits around 8K–9K tokens; Janitor+ is roughly five times that. Users on SpicyChat's lower tiers report recall fading after about 15–20 messages. That's not a bug. That's the window filling up.

Fact extraction is the fix, and it's imperfect. The app decides what's worth keeping. Names and jobs get saved. The fact that you were upset on Tuesday usually doesn't.

1. Nomi — best automatic recall

Nomi runs three recall tiers — short, medium, long term — plus Mind Map 2.0 and something called Identity Core that holds the character's stable traits. You don't configure any of it. That's the point. We rate Nomi – out of 10, and memory is why.

Price: $8.33/month on the yearly plan, or through the App Store at $15.99/month or $99.99/year. There's a limited free tier; unlimited messaging and voice need a paid plan.

The caveats are real. Nomi's own wiki admits stored memory may not be recalled when it's needed — which is exactly the failure mode that matters. The App Store listing claims human-level long-term memory that no other AI has. Nobody has verified that, and it's a marketing page. A 2026 image update that put some options behind paid Anchors upset paying users enough that it's worth knowing before you subscribe.

2. Kindroid — the capacity king, if you do the work

Kindroid splits memory into three types across five systems, and it lets you see and edit most of it. Learned Context slots are capped: relationship 800 characters, facts 1,200, threads 800. Per reply, it pulls 3, 5 or 9 long-term entries depending on whether you're on Standard, Ultra or MAX.

In a December 2025 post, the company described cascaded capacity of roughly 480,000 characters on Standard, 1.2 million on Ultra and 2.8 million on MAX. That's the biggest documented number in this category. We rate Kindroid – out of 10.

Two things to know before you pay. Long-term recall pauses during voice calls — the call still creates memories, but it isn't drawing on the deep store while you talk. And the free Lite plan ended October 1, 2026. It's $15.99/month through the app now.

3. Secrets AI — editable memory for adult chat

Secrets AI is an 18+ web platform for AI girlfriends and boyfriends, and the memory system is built for continuity in romantic roleplay rather than trivia. We rate Secrets AI 9.9 out of 10.

Free accounts get basic memory plus 20 messages a day and no media. Premium runs $19.99/month or $109.99/year (about $9.17 monthly) and gives roughly 60% more context and 4x the memories. Ultimate at $39.99 doubles context again, draws on 6x as many memories, and adds proactive messages, personas and personality editing.

The part worth your attention is the memory panel. It rates each stored detail high, medium or low importance, and you can edit or delete any of it. Lorebooks — split into Cast, World, Relationship, Facts and Chronicle — are on Premium and Ultimate, with pins and locks, and the fullest version is on Ultimate. Calls are transcribed live and the audio is deleted; only the transcript stays.

One 2026 review called Secrets' recall functional rather than deeply comprehensive. Fair. It's a memory system you steer, not one that reads your mind.

4. Character AI — better than it was, still filtered

Character AI raised per-character history from 100 messages to 1,000 in December 2025. Pinned Memories let you save 15 items per chat free, 30 for subscribers. There's a Memory Usage bar so you can see how full the tank is, plus Lorebook. Messaging is unlimited and free with ads; c.ai+ is $9.99/month. We rate Character AI – out of 10.

The problem for adults: the filter blocks adult scenes. If you want a companion you can be intimate with, this isn't it, no matter how good the free tier is.

5. Replika — warm, and the one people complain about

Replika gives you an editable fact list, and reflections on paid tiers (per user reports). The yearly App Store plan works out to about $5.83/month. We rate Replika – out of 10.

Forgetting is its loudest complaint. In a review analysis, about 16% of 1-star ratings blamed recall, and plenty of r/replika users pin the personality wipe on the Replika 2.0 migration. It's still the friendliest app here for a quiet daily check-in. It's just not the one to trust with a long story arc.

6. Paradot — recall-first, on the company's word

Paradot is designed around memory first, with editable entries, and the company says so itself. That's a vendor claim, not a test result. Its encryption is not described as end to end, and prices vary depending on where you look. We rate Paradot – out of 10. Good for slow, reflective conversations; not the place for a fast, flirty one.

7. SillyTavern — total control, zero automation

SillyTavern is a free front end, not an app with a personality. Memory comes from World Info lorebooks that trigger on keywords. You set the scan depth and token budget yourself. Run it with a local model and the data stays on your device — the only setup here that can say that.

But nothing is automatic. An entry you didn't write does not exist. We rate SillyTavern – out of 10. If you enjoy tuning, it's the most powerful option on this list. If you don't, it's a second job.

8. Candy AI and OurDream AI — images first

Candy.ai gets ranked low here for one reason: testers say storylines reset within two to three days. Premium Plus includes 20 memory slots and user personas, and annual plans start around $3.99/month with 100 tokens. Resetting or deleting a chat clears that chat's memory. We rate Candy.ai 9.8 out of 10.

OurDream AI runs about $9.99/month yearly with unlimited messages and 1,000 dreamcoins a month. It leans on recent message history, so long arcs fade. We rate OurDream AI 9.7 out of 10. Both are fine for pictures. Neither is where you build a six-month relationship.

Side by side

App	Short term	Persistent	Editable?	Scales with price?
Nomi	Current conversation	Medium and long-term layers, Mind Map	Backstory+; Identity Core hidden	Not documented by tier
Kindroid	Recent chat	Cascaded layer, key memories, journals	Yes, extensively	Yes, 480K to 2.8M characters
Secrets AI	Tier-based context	Memory bank plus Lorebooks	Yes, panel and Lorebooks	Yes, Premium 4x, Ultimate 6x
Character AI	Recent context	1,000 messages, pins, Lorebook	Pins and Lorebook	15 pins free, 30 paid
Replika	Recent context	Fact list	Yes	Saved messages on higher tiers (reported)
SpicyChat	4K to 16K tokens	Memory Manager, Semantic Memory 2.0	Via Memory Manager	Yes, by tier
PolyBuzz	About 30 messages free (reported)	"Permanent memory" on Ultimate (reported)	Not documented	Yes

What the vendors claim vs. what you get

Feelin published a 40-turn test where Character AI reset near turn 21 and held only 21% of planted details by turn 40. The same test put Janitor AI's drop-off near turn 22, SillyTavern at 75% and Feelin at 78%. Feelin ranks itself first and published no raw data. Treat the whole thing as marketing, including the numbers that flatter competitors.

Nomi's "human-level memory" claim is unverified. No app on this list documents unlimited recall. Not one. If a landing page says "never forgets," it means "stores more than the last app you tried."

The five-minute memory test

Don't trust the demo. Do this instead, before you pay:

1. On day one, tell the companion your name, one date that matters (a birthday, an anniversary), and one strong preference — something like "I can't do phone calls on Mondays."
2. Chat normally for a few days. Don't repeat yourself.
3. Come back and ask an open question: "How did my week go?" Not "what's my name." Open questions show whether it can connect stored facts, not just recite them.
4. Contradict yourself on purpose. Say you love something you said you hated. See if it catches you or rolls over.
5. Say something emotional — you had a rough day — and check the tone on the next visit. Does it follow up, or start fresh?
6. Open the memory screen. If there isn't one, that tells you everything. If there is, read what it stored about you.

Most apps pass steps 1 and 2 and fail step 3. Names are easy to extract. Plans and feelings get summarized or dropped.

How to make any of them remember more

• Pin what matters. Character AI gives you 15 pins free. Use them for the things you'd be annoyed to repeat.
• Fill the key memory slots. Kindroid's Learned Context caps are small — 800 characters for relationship, 1,200 for facts, 800 for threads. Write tight.
• Write the Lorebook. On Secrets AI, use Cast, World, Relationship, Facts and Chronicle. On SillyTavern, nothing exists until you type it.
• Restate once, then pin. If it forgets something twice, don't keep repeating it in chat. Put it where the app reads from.
• Keep chats focused. One long chat about everything fills the window faster than three chats about specific things.

Privacy: where your memories live

Your stored memories sit on a company's servers. Kindroid encrypts data in transit and at rest, but not end to end, and the company recommends exporting your data every 30 days. Secrets AI deletes call audio after transcription and keeps the text; Time Travel, which deletes messages, also removes memories made from them. Cancel Secrets and your memories stay on the free tier — you have to delete them yourself. Replika has been fined under GDPR in Italy.

Only SillyTavern with a local model keeps everything on your device. That's the whole privacy argument for it.

Whatever you use: no passwords, no account numbers, no home address, no other people's private details. The companion doesn't need them, and the company storing them does.

Bottom line

Start with Nomi if you want recall that works without setup. Go to Kindroid if you'll manage what it knows and want the biggest numbers. Go to Secrets AI if you want adult romance with a memory panel you can actually edit — create your AI girlfriend there and start writing the lorebook on day one.

Judge price, privacy and tone too, not just memory. Run the five-minute test before you subscribe to anything. And treat "never forgets" as what it is: a line on a sales page.

One more thing. Good recall deepens attachment fast. Set limits you're comfortable with, keep it adults-only, and don't use any of this in place of professional help.