What Happened: US Google searches for Character AI fell 68% from their July 2023 peak to September 2026, the newest month Google has published. Searches across 15 AI companion apps rose 87% over the same period, so Character AI’s share dropped from 89% to 15%. The app still runs while its bankruptcy sale plays out, and bids are due November 24.
Is Character AI dying? Going by what people in the US type into Google, it has been shrinking for three years.
Searches for “character ai” and “c.ai” peaked at 7.93 million in July 2023 and reached 2.54 million in September 2026.
The rest of the category grew while Character AI shrank. PolyBuzz and Janitor AI each draw more monthly searches than Character AI now, and Candy AI more than tripled its own searches since October 2024.
The share figure is the one I watch, because it only moves when searches shift from one app to another. A news story can lift searches for every app at once and leave the shares where they were.
Below are the key numbers, the apps that gained, what the court calendar means for your account, and the full dataset with every month as a CSV file you can check yourself.
Is Character AI Dying in 2026?
Character AI is shrinking fast but still large: its US searches fell 68% from the July 2023 peak, yet its 2.54 million searches in September 2026 still beat every rival except PolyBuzz and Janitor AI.
The decline came in steps. Searches sat between 5.7 million and 7.1 million a month through 2024, dropped below 5 million for good in September 2025, and reached 3.1 million by April 2026.
| Month | US searches a month (character ai + c.ai) | Share of 15-app total |
|---|---|---|
| July 2023 (peak) | 7.93 million | 89% |
| October 2024 | 6.00 million | 65% |
| September 2025 | 4.91 million | 38% |
| September 2026 | 2.54 million | 15% |
I stop short of calling it dead for one reason. At 2.54 million searches a month, Character AI still draws about two and a half times SpicyChat’s 1 million.
How this was measured: The figures are monthly US Google searches from Google Ads data, read through DataForSEO on November 10, 2026, using the latest figure Google reports for each month. Character AI counts “character ai” plus “c.ai”, and every other app counts its main name only. Searches measure interest, not how many people use an app.
Google revises its first estimate for a month, sometimes by a lot. Its first report put Character AI’s October 2024 searches at 7.62 million, and later releases cut that to 6.0 million, so every number here uses the revised figure.
How Many People Still Use Character AI?
Character AI has roughly 12 million active users, according to the court documents Reuters cited when the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2026.
That count comes from the company’s own filing. Reuters reported that Character AI “has not been profitable, despite having roughly 12 million active users,” and that it loses about $8 million to $9 million a month.
Search interest and usage are different measures, and the gap matters. Someone who opens the app from a home-screen icon never types its name into Google, so falling searches can overstate how fast usage drops.
Why Are People Leaving Character AI?
The likeliest reason is Character AI’s own product and policy decisions, above all the end of open-ended chat for under-18 users in November 2025 and the age checks adults met afterward.
Character AI ended open-ended chat for minors in November 2025, after a daily limit that shrank to zero. Adults then met stricter age checks, and some were locked out of chat until they proved their age.
The search series reacted with a lag. Searches held near 4.8 million a month through January 2026, two months after the under-18 change, then fell to 3.1 million by April, and the data cannot say which decision did the most damage.
My read is that the product changes cost Character AI more than the lawsuits did, because the changes reached every account directly.
Character AI’s money problems covers revenue and valuation in more detail.
What Are People Using Instead of Character AI?
PolyBuzz and Janitor AI are the biggest gainers: in September 2026 they drew 6.12 million and 4.09 million US searches, 61% of the 15-app total, against Character AI’s 15%.
| App | US searches, Oct 2024 | US searches, Sep 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| PolyBuzz | 10 (450,000 under its old name) | 6,120,000 | New name since late 2024 |
| Janitor AI | 1,830,000 | 4,090,000 | +124% |
| Character AI | 6,000,000 | 2,541,000 | -58% |
| Talkie | 450,000 | 1,000,000 | +122% |
| SpicyChat | 450,000 | 1,000,000 | +122% |
| CrushOn AI | 246,000 | 450,000 | +83% |
| Emochi | 1,300 | 450,000 | About 346 times |
| Zeta AI | 320 | 450,000 | Over 1,400 times |
| Candy AI | 110,000 | 368,000 | +235% |
| Clank World | 0 | 110,000 | New |
| Kindroid | 33,100 | 90,500 | +173% |
| Nomi AI | 14,800 | 33,100 | +124% |
| SillyTavern | 9,900 | 33,100 | +234% |
| Replika | 33,100 | 14,800 | -55% |
| Swerve AI | 10 | 14,800 | New |
Every app in the table grew except Character AI and Replika, which fell from 33,100 searches to 14,800. Perchance AI and Chai are left out of the totals because their names also cover image tools and a drink, though both sit in the CSV file.
Grouped by share, the 15-app total splits like this, with figures rounded to the nearest point:
| Month | Character AI | PolyBuzz | Janitor AI | 12 other apps | Total searches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2023 | 89% | 0% | 9% | 2% | 9.0 million |
| October 2024 | 65% | 0% | 20% | 15% | 9.2 million |
| September 2025 | 38% | 26% | 21% | 16% | 13.1 million |
| September 2026 | 15% | 37% | 24% | 24% | 16.8 million |
PolyBuzz did not start from zero. Until its developer, Cloud Whale, announced the PolyBuzz name on January 25, 2025, the app was called Poly.AI, and searches for “poly ai” were already 450,000 a month in October 2024.
That old name is shared with PolyAI, an unrelated voice-AI company, so those searches stay out of the totals. Counting them would move Character AI’s September share from 15.2% to 14.8%.
PolyBuzz peaked at 7.48 million monthly searches between June and August 2026. Its iPhone app has since vanished from the App Store, after this data ends, so the next readings will show whether that dent sticks.
Janitor AI is the steadier winner. It more than doubled, from 1.83 million to 4.09 million searches, and it has drawn at least 2.74 million every month since November 2024. How Janitor AI compares covers the differences that matter to anyone leaving Character AI.
Zeta and Emochi grew fastest from almost nothing between October 2024 and September 2026: Zeta from 320 searches to 450,000, Emochi from 1,300 to 450,000.
In Appfigures data reported by DigitalToday, which covers 214 romance and adult AI companion apps, Emochi was the most installed in the first half of 2026, with 7.9 million downloads. Zeta ranked first in first-half revenue in the same data, at about $33.0 million.
Zeta’s climb surprised me more than PolyBuzz’s, because PolyBuzz already had a following under its old name. Zeta’s iPhone app has since left the App Store too, so its next readings may dip.
Is Character AI Shutting Down After the Bankruptcy?
Character AI is not shutting down yet. The app and paid plans keep running during its Chapter 11 case, and the company says the platform will be wound down only if no buyer bids to keep it going.
Character AI filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware on October 12, 2026, and its own update says the platform keeps running while the sale goes ahead.
The post also warns that without a bid to keep it going, “the platform will be wound down.”
Disney is the first bidder, at $20 million, for what Reuters described as “a nonexclusive perpetual license to Character.AI’s intellectual property.”
A license leaves the rest of the company for sale, and on November 5 the company filed a form purchase agreement for every asset outside Disney’s deal.
| Date (2026) | What happens | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| November 18, 4:00 p.m. ET | Deadline to object to the sale | Creditors and regulators file their objections |
| November 24, noon ET | Bids are due | A rival has to beat Disney’s $20 million |
| December 1, 10:00 a.m. ET | Auction, held only if a rival bid qualifies | A buyer for the app could appear here |
| December 3 and 4 | Sale hearing | The judge approves or rejects the sale |
Those dates come from the bidding order the court signed on November 4, as listed in Character AI’s sale notice. The full bankruptcy timeline covers the filing in more depth.
The mood among regulars is grim. One r/CharacterAI post from November 7 is titled “Please, don’t let Character.AI disappear”, and I understand the worry, since years of chats and custom characters sit on one company’s servers.
How Do You Save Your Character AI Chats Before the Sale?
Saving your Character AI chats takes one export request in your settings. Character AI says an export can take 3 to 4 weeks to process, so a request made now could land after the December 1 auction.
If I had years of chats there, I would request the export today, before the bid deadline. These are the two paths:
Website: Profile > Profile Settings > Account > Manage Account & Data > Export Data
Mobile app: Profile > Settings > Legal & Privacy > Export Data- Make the request on the website or in the app, and wait for the confirmation that an email is on its way.
- Watch your inbox, spam folder included, for the email with the download link.
- Download the file within 7 days of that email, the window Character AI’s help article gives before the link expires.
- Copy the name, greeting and definition of any character you made into a document, so you can rebuild it elsewhere.
The export arrives as a JSON data file, a format built for software rather than people. The full export guide shows how to turn it into pages you can read.
What Happens to Character AI After the December Auction?
Character AI’s future after December 1 depends on whether a buyer bids for the app itself. With one, the service can keep running, and without one, the company has said it will wind the platform down.
A rival bid has to clear Disney’s $20 million plus a break-up fee and a minimum raise, under the bidding order signed November 4.
Without a qualifying rival bid by November 24, the order lets the company cancel the auction and take Disney’s deal to the December 3 and 4 hearing.
The next search figures will show how people reacted to the filing. Google has not published October or November yet, and November, the first full month after the filing, is the number I care about most.
Two outcomes are on the table:
- A buyer that wants the app wins, and Character AI keeps running under new owners.
- No buyer for the app appears, and the company winds the platform down on a date it would have to announce.
Quick Takeaways
- Character AI’s US searches fell 68% from their July 2023 peak, to 2.54 million in September 2026.
- Searches across 15 companion apps rose 87%, so Character AI’s share fell from 89% to 15%.
- PolyBuzz (6.12 million) and Janitor AI (4.09 million) now each draw more searches than Character AI.
- The app still runs, bids are due November 24, and the auction is set for December 1.
- Request your chat export now, because Character AI says it can take 3 to 4 weeks to process.
