Comparison August 2026 18+ only
Chub AI Alternative: Chub AI Pricing, Is Chub AI Safe, and What to Use Instead
We build a competing product, so read this knowing that. Every price and clause below was read on 30 August 2026 from Chub's own subscription page, terms of service and developer documentation, because the review sites ranking for this term mostly copy each other and none of them mention the thing that stops most American buyers at the checkout. Try our companion demo on the way past, no account needed.
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The short answer
Chub AI is a huge public library of user made character cards with a chat interface bolted on, and it costs $20 a month, payable in cryptocurrency only. That last part is the whole story for most people reading this page. Chub does not accept credit cards, by choice, and says so on its own subscription page. Everything else follows from the same design: you bring your own model API key, you configure it, and when a chat returns an error it is usually your provider failing rather than Chub. If that sounds like a hobby you enjoy, Chub is excellent and nothing else has its catalog. If you wanted to enter a card number once and talk to one companion who remembers you, you want a hosted product instead, and that is what we build.
Adults only (18+). Last updated August 2026.
What it costs
Chub AI pricing, read from its own page
Chub keeps its pricing behind a JavaScript app shell, which is why most articles about it either skip the number or quote an old one. Rendered and read on 30 August 2026, there is exactly one paid tier.
The only paid tier
$20/mo
No annual discount, no cheaper entry plan, no higher tier. Chub's developer documentation prices the same thing as a Mars subscription at "$20 a month with unlimited messaging".
What the $20 covers
- Unlimited access to their in house models, listed as including Soji 1.6T 60K
- Unlimited access to voice
- Unlimited access to multimedia generation
- Early access to new models, and access to future ones
- An OpenAI compatible endpoint you can point other apps at
What it does not cover
- Third party models. An OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key is billed by them, not by Chub
- Concurrency. Two requests at once on one account returns a 429
- Card payment of any kind (see below)
One genuine gap: Chub names a second in house API, Mercury, in its documentation on using the service with third party interfaces, but publishes no price for it on any page we could reach. We are not going to guess at a number, so treat $20 as the figure Chub actually commits to in public. New accounts also receive what Chub describes as "one-time free trial credits amounting to a few dozen messages", which is a taster rather than a usable free tier.
The part nobody mentions
Chub AI takes cryptocurrency only
There is no card field at Chub's checkout. This is deliberate and Chub explains it on the subscription page itself, in a section headed "Why Crypto-Only?":
"The primary sources of censorship pressure for most websites are credit card companies and payment processors. By not using them, we are able to stay free of that pressure permanently."
As a piece of reasoning it is coherent, and it is the reason Chub can be as permissive as it is. Card networks really do impose content rules on adult platforms, and a business that never touches them never has to negotiate with them. Chub is being straight with you about the trade it made.
The cost of that trade lands on the customer. To spend $20 with Chub, a US buyer has to open an exchange account, pass identity checks, buy the coin, move it to a wallet, pay a network fee and send it, and repeat some of that every renewal. There is no chargeback if something goes wrong, no card issuer to dispute with, and the amount you paid can drift with the exchange rate between buying and spending. Plenty of people will do all that happily. Plenty of others hit that page, realize what is being asked, and go looking for the phrase that brought you here.
If that is you, the fix is not complicated: pick a service that bills the ordinary way. Ours charges a card monthly or yearly and you can cancel it from your account page. You can see what our plans cost before you sign up for anything.
How Chub actually works
You are the one assembling the product
This is the second thing to understand, and it explains most of the complaints. Chub is a front end and a library. The intelligence comes from a model you connect to it. Its own documentation lists the options:
| Backend | Who bills you | What you have to do |
|---|---|---|
| Mars (Chub's own) | Chub, $20/mo in crypto | Nothing. This is the one path with no keys and no servers to set up. |
| OpenAI | OpenAI, per token | Create an account, add billing, generate a key, paste it in, watch usage. |
| Anthropic | Anthropic, per token | Same again, with its own console and its own key. |
| Google (Gemini) | Google, per token | Key from AI Studio. Rates vary by model. |
| OpenRouter | OpenRouter, per token | One key across many models, but you pick the model and absorb the price differences. |
| Kobold or Ooba | Nobody, or a GPU host | Run the model yourself. Chub's docs note this is free only if it is your own hardware. |
Look at the search suggestions around this product and you can see the consequence. People search for Chub AI being down, Chub AI giving an empty response from the API, Chub AI API errors, the best free model for Chub, the best preset, the best settings. Those are not really questions about Chub. They are questions about the backend somebody wired into it, and about a free proxy that stopped working this week.
None of that is a criticism of the design. It is a genuinely open architecture and the people who like it, like it a lot. It is just worth being honest that the $20 you might be comparing against a $12.99 companion subscription is not the same purchase. One buys a finished product, the other buys the engine for a machine you assemble and maintain.
Before you subscribe
Three clauses in Chub's terms worth knowing
Quoted from the terms of service as published on 30 August 2026, marked "Last updated May 15th, 2026". None of this is hidden. It is just not the kind of thing anyone reads before clicking through.
1. Retroactive changes
"All changes made to these terms are retroactive and apply to any and all users, content and communications, overriding any previously agreed upon terms."
The same paragraph reserves the right to change the terms "at anytime and without notice". In practice the agreement you accepted is whatever the current version says, applied backwards to things you posted under an older one.
2. A perpetual license on your work
"a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable worldwide license (with sublicense and assignment rights)"
That is what uploading grants Chub. Set a character public and every other user gets a perpetual, irrevocable license too. Deleting it later ends the grant going forward but not for copies already sublicensed. If you write cards you care about, keep your own originals.
3. A stated moderation line
Chub draws an explicit distinction between "moderating how someone talks to a machine", which it restrains "as minimally as possible", and "moderating how someone talks to someone", which gets "a heavier hand". Sexualized content involving anyone under 18 is banned outright, including drawn and generated depictions, and the terms say the site "cannot host illegal content".
To be fair to Chub on the safety question specifically: it sets a real 18 and over age floor, it names the minor protection rules in plain language rather than legal fog, and it is unusually candid about its own incentives. A platform that tells you it avoids card processors so it can stay permissive is being more honest with you than most of this category manages.
Head to head
Best Chub AI alternatives, compared honestly
Pricing and policies as of August 2026. They change, so check before you subscribe. Where Chub beats us, this table says so, and on several rows it clearly does.
| Platform | Price (US, 2026) | Pay by card? | Setup required | Memory | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chub AI | $20/mo flat, or your own API spend. No annual plan. | No. Cryptocurrency only, by policy. | High unless you take Mars. Keys, models, presets and prompts are yours to manage. | Depends entirely on the model and context window you configured. | The largest character card library anywhere, and total freedom over the stack. |
| Aroused | Free tier: 25 messages a month. Paid $9.99 to $34.99/mo billed yearly ($12.99 to $49.99 monthly). | Yes. Ordinary card billing, cancel from your account. | None. Pick a vibe, design the companion, start talking in the browser. | Persistent long term memory, included on every paid plan, not gated to the top tier. | One companion you designed yourself who remembers your life. |
| Character.AI | Free tier; c.ai+ $9.99/mo or $94.99/yr. | Yes. | None. | Story Memory and Facts, but per chat rather than automatic across chats. | The biggest curated library with zero setup, if a strict filter is acceptable. |
| Nomi.ai | Free tier with limits. Standard $15.99/mo or $99.99/yr. | Yes. | None. | The category's strongest. Recalls details from 1,000+ messages back. | The longest memory available, and several companions at once. |
| SpicyChat | Free tier; paid tiers by card. | Yes. | None. Hosted models, no keys. | Moderate, and tied to the tier you are on. | The closest hosted substitute if what you liked about Chub was the card format. |
Being fair about it
Where Chub genuinely wins
A comparison page written by a competitor is worth nothing if it cannot say what the other product does better. Chub does several things better, and one of them we will never match on purpose.
The catalog is unmatched
Hundreds of thousands of community made character cards, searchable, taggable and exportable. No hosted companion product has anything comparable, including ours, because we ask you to design one companion rather than browse other people's.
Unlimited really is unlimited
At $20 there is no message allowance to watch. Chub defines it as "unlimited for a single user, similar to Netflix", with a 429 on concurrent requests and restrictions for obvious account sharing. Our plans meter messages, which is a real advantage to them if you chat heavily.
No lock in to one model
You can switch between OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter and local models whenever you like, and point third party interfaces such as SillyTavern at Chub's own OpenAI compatible endpoint. When a better model ships you can use it that day. Hosted products, ours included, move when we move.
It is honest about being uncensored
Chub's documentation states that it does not restrict "in any meaningful capacity" the characters posted or the interactions you have with them. We are a tasteful adults only product and deliberately not that. If unrestricted content is your actual requirement, we are the wrong recommendation and you should stay put.
The honest split
Which one you should pick
Stay with Chub AI if
- Browsing and collecting character cards is most of the fun for you
- You want unrestricted content and are clear eyed about it
- You already hold crypto and paying that way is no obstacle
- You enjoy choosing models, writing presets and tuning prompts
- You chat enough that a flat unlimited rate beats an allowance
Try us instead if
- You want to pay with a card and be done with it
- You would rather talk to one companion than manage a library
- You want memory that carries across months without you configuring it
- An API key is a chore, not a hobby
- You want something tasteful rather than unrestricted
If the second column sounds more like you, the demo above needs no account and no card. It is also worth reading how our companion memory actually works, since that is the feature the whole product rests on, and if you arrived here from the card ecosystem, our guide to AI character cards and where to use them covers the format and the hosted options in more detail.
Questions people actually ask
Chub AI FAQ
How much does Chub AI cost?
Read from Chub's own subscription page on 30 August 2026, there is one paid tier at $20 a month. It covers unlimited access to their in house models, voice and multimedia generation, plus early access to new models. Chub's documentation prices the same thing as a Mars subscription at "$20 a month with unlimited messaging". There is no annual discount and no cheaper entry tier.
Does Chub AI accept credit cards?
No. Chub takes cryptocurrency only, and says so openly on its subscription page. Its stated reason is that "the primary sources of censorship pressure for most websites are credit card companies and payment processors. By not using them, we are able to stay free of that pressure permanently." For most US buyers this is the real blocker, because it means buying and holding crypto before you can subscribe at all.
Is Chub AI safe?
It is honest about what it is, which counts for something. Its terms set an 18 and over age floor, ban sexualized content involving minors including drawn and generated depictions, and describe active moderation. The trade offs are real though. The terms, last updated 15 May 2026, state that changes are "retroactive and apply to any and all users", and uploading anything grants Chub a perpetual, irrevocable license over it.
What is Chub AI?
Chub AI, also known as CharHub, is a large public library of user made character cards with a chat interface attached. Its own documentation describes it as a platform for interacting with characters through large language models, and states plainly that "Chub is uncensored". You supply the model, either by connecting your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or OpenRouter key, or by subscribing to Chub's in house models.
Do you need an API key for Chub AI?
Usually yes. Chub is a front end, not a bundled service, and its documentation lists OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter and locally hosted Kobold or Ooba backends as the ways to power a chat. The $20 Mars subscription is the one option that removes key management, and Chub markets it on exactly that basis: no managing keys, no setting up servers.
Why is Chub AI down or giving API errors?
Most Chub errors are not Chub. Because it routes your chat through whichever backend you configured, an empty response or an error usually comes from that provider: an expired key, a spent balance, a rate limit, or a public proxy that has stopped working. Chub also returns a 429 for concurrent requests on one account, which it documents as part of its single user definition of unlimited.
Who owns the characters you make on Chub AI?
You keep ownership, but you grant a very broad license. Chub's terms take a "non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable worldwide license (with sublicense and assignment rights)" over what you upload. If you set a character public, every other user also gets a perpetual, irrevocable license to reuse and make derivative works of it. Deleting it later does not undo either grant for copies already sublicensed.
Is Chub AI free?
Browsing the character library is free, and Chub sends new users "one-time free trial credits amounting to a few dozen messages". After that you either pay a model provider directly for API usage or pay Chub $20 a month. The free route in practice means running a local model on your own hardware or hunting for a working public proxy, which is where most of the reliability complaints come from.
Can I use my Chub character cards somewhere else?
Yes. Character cards are a portable format, and Chub lets you export them. Chub's own Mars and Mercury APIs are documented as OpenAI compatible reverse proxies that work with SillyTavern, Agnaistic, Risu and Kobold Lite, so cards and backend can move together. Hosted companion products generally do not import cards, because the companion is built in their own designer instead. There is more on the format in our guide to AI character cards.
What is the best Chub AI alternative?
It depends on which part of Chub you are leaving. If the blocker is crypto only billing or key management, a hosted product with card billing like Aroused solves it, from $9.99 a month billed yearly with memory included. If you want the biggest curated character library with no setup, Character.AI and its alternatives are the place to look, though it is heavily filtered. For hosted products in the same card driven style, see SpicyChat and Janitor AI, or our roundup of the best roleplay AI apps. If you want the library and the freedom together, stay on Chub, because nothing else matches its catalog.
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