AI companion apps are exploding in number and revenue in 2025. According to app intelligence firm Appfigures, 128 out of the 337 active AI companion apps hit app stores this year alone. These apps are on track to rake in over $120 million by the end of 2025, having already pulled in $82 million in H1.
AI companion apps differ from general chatbots by letting users interact with AI personas—friends, lovers, fantasy characters, and more. Popular names include Replika, Character.AI, PolyBuzz, and Chai.
Downloads soared 88% year-over-year in H1, reaching 60 million and pushing lifetime downloads to 220 million globally across Apple and Google. 
Appfigures crunches the data further: AI companion apps generated $221 million in worldwide consumer spending as of July 2025. That’s a 64% revenue jump over the same period in 2024. The market is dominated by a handful—top 10% apps produce 89% of revenue, with 33 apps exceeding $1 million in lifetime spending.
Revenue per download nearly doubled, going from $0.52 in 2024 to $1.18 in 2025 so far.
Big players are moving in. xAI’s Grok launched AI companions in July, including anime girl, a guy, and a snarky 3D fox.
ChatGPT’s GPT-5 rollout stirred backlash as users mourned losing their favorite AI companions from the older GPT-4o model. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded by bringing back GPT-4o temporarily.
Google made a move last year by hiring Character.ai’s founder Noam Shazeer. Character.ai still boasts tens of millions of active monthly users.
Most AI companion apps target people seeking AI girlfriends. Appfigures finds 17% of app names include “girlfriend,” versus 4% with “boyfriend” or “fantasy.” Other tags like “anime,” “soulmate,” and “lover” appear less often.
Appfigures notes that some AI companion apps launched since 2022 likely failed and were removed from stores. These apps were excluded from the data.
TechCrunch event reminder:
San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025
