I tested Joi for 5 days to find out if it's worth paying for. I used both the free and paid versions, bought upgrades, and tested all the core features.
My first impression was mixed.
The premium chat and character creation are genuinely good — better than most competitors. But many extra features feel overpriced, especially once you realize the subscription is only part of the total cost.
Joi AI is best for people who want AI roleplay and character customization.
If that's your focus, you'll likely enjoy it. Just know that many features require Neurons on top of your subscription, so costs can add up fast.
I went through the main features that matter most to paying users:
What you get with the free-tier
What you get on a paid plan
Custom girlfriend creation
AI image generation
AI video generation
Private gallery purchases
Live video calls
Pricing, billing, and cancellation
BTW: If you want the full, uncensored, in-depth review of Joi (including images, videos & live call), you can read my complete breakdown there.
The best parts of this app only show up after upgrading.
Premium chat was the highlight. Conversations became more engaging, coherent, and fun after switching to the better AI model. The roleplay felt natural and responsive — a massive step up from the free tier.
Character creation was another strong point.
You get solid control over appearance, personality, and relationship style, and the app handled custom details well. It's one of the better customization systems in this space.
I also appreciated that you can browse characters and test the interface before paying.
Checkout was smooth, and cancellation was easy. A welcome change from most apps in this category.
Other few smaller wins: video generation was reasonably fast, and the app maintains some content boundaries in chat, which some users will appreciate.
Joi's biggest problem is that many paid features feel overpriced for what you actually get.
Free chat was poor. Responses felt robotic and often missed what I was saying entirely. It felt like a basic demo, not something you'd use regularly.
Pricing is more complicated than it looks. A subscription gets you access, but not unlimited use.
Chatting alone stays affordable, but image generation, video tools, extra characters, and live calls can get expensive quickly.
Image and video quality was inconsistent. Results were often too polished and artificial-looking, and important prompt details were frequently ignored. Videos were fast but lacked realism, with awkward movement.
Live video calls were the biggest letdown. They were expensive, laggy, and unconvincing. Poor lip-sync, jittery performance, and not worth the price per session.
If you're interested, here's the recording from my voice call.
Private gallery pricing also felt poor value. Paying per image, or a large flat fee to unlock one character's gallery, didn't sit right with me.
Billing discretion could be better. Charges appear as "Joi.com" which may concern privacy-conscious users.
Joi works best for users who care most about chat quality and character customization rather than high-volume media generation.
Good fit if you:
Want strong AI roleplay
Enjoy building a custom AI girlfriend
Plan to mainly chat rather than buy lots of add-ons
Want a simple cancellation process
Not a good fit if you:
Expect a quality free-tier experience
Plan to generate lots of images or videos
Need long-term affordable use
Want discreet billing
Expect convincing live AI video calls
Joi uses a two-layer model: a subscription for access, plus Neurons for ongoing feature use.
Plan | Cost |
|---|---|
Monthly | $17.77 |
3-Month | $26.66 total |
Yearly | $60.95 total |
What's included with a subscription: better chat models, custom character creation, memory improvements, and monthly image/video credits.
Neuron costs for premium features:
Romantic chat messages: 2 Neurons
Image generation: 50 Neurons
Video generation: 100 Neurons
Live calls: 2,000 Neurons per 5 minutes
A nice touch: You start with a small Neuron balance, with bonuses available through daily logins and Discord.
Joi delivers where it counts most: premium chat and character customization. When it focuses on roleplay and personalization, it works well.
The problem is that most extra features are too expensive and not polished enough to justify their price.
So Joi AI isn't quite hitting the mark for you. Maybe it's the 115-character chat cap, the constant Neuron upsells, or the NSFW experience that just doesn't deliver.
Whatever the reason, you're not stuck. There are better options depending on what you're actually looking for, and here's a breakdown of the three that stand out to me.
If roleplay and NSFW are the whole point for you, Ourdream AI is where you should be looking.
Joi AI's explicit side is genuinely broken, random bold messages with no context, roleplay that gets rejected without warning, and that brutal 115-character limit that kills any chance of real immersion. Ourdream strips all of that out.
There's no message length cap, a lust level slider that escalates conversations intentionally rather than randomly, and roleplay scenarios that actually hold character from beginning to end. The pricing gap is hard to ignore too.
Joi charges roughly $20 in Neurons every time you want an extra companion. Ourdream includes unlimited chat on its Premium plan at $9.99/month annually, with characters you can regenerate until you're genuinely happy with the result.
If hearing your companion's voice matters to you, Joi AI isn't even in the conversation. It has zero voice capability, not bad voice, literally nothing. Lovescape fills that gap with voice that shifts tone naturally as conversations get flirty, and it doesn't sound robotic about it.
Beyond voice, the image quality is crisp and consistent, a real contrast to Joi's hit-or-miss generation where faces come out distorted and eyes don't quite align. Video output is smooth with natural movement too.
And at $12.99/month for Premium versus Joi's $17.77/month, you're getting more for less.
If chat quality and discretion are your priorities, Secrets AI is the cleanest upgrade from Joi AI. Start with the billing, Joi AI shows "joi.com" on your credit card statement. Secrets AI bills as "Sun Clinical Laboratories," which is about as discreet as it gets.
But the bigger win is the chat itself. Companions actually remember what you talked about, stay consistent when you test them, and handle emotional conversations with responses that feel grounded and genuine rather than surface-level warm.
There's also real voice here, with natural tonal shifts when things get flirty, something Joi simply can't offer. Premium starts at $13.33/month annually, which makes it one of the more affordable upgrades on this list.