Bottom Line: Chai Ultra costs $29.99 a month on the US App Store, more than double Premium’s $13.99. It earns that only if you chat on Chai every day and have outgrown Premium’s memory or want the Ultra model without pieces. If memory is what you are paying for, Nectar AI sells more of it for less, with 16K tokens on its $19.99 Pro plan.
Chai Ultra used to be the simple fix for Chai’s message limits. October 2026 made the decision harder, because free accounts now spend a piece on every message and Chai has started testing Ruby and Diamond plans beside Premium and Ultra.
An earlier version of this review quoted Ultra at $13.99, which is Premium’s price. On 12 October the US App Store listing showed Ultra at $29.99 a month or $19.99 a week, and Premium at $13.99 a month or $134.99 a year.
This review weighs what that $29.99 buys against Premium, the free allowance and the companion apps priced near it. Over Premium, Ultra buys the Ultra model and more memory, and the memory gain is smaller than the price suggests.
What Chai Ultra Unlocks Over the Free Tier
Chai Ultra gives subscribers unlimited messages, the Ultra model without pieces and about 8K tokens of chat memory, by subscriber reports. The newer Max and Eternal models still cost pieces on top, so Ultra does not unlock everything.
Free accounts now pay as they go. Every message costs at least one piece, and the daily check-in pays 70 pieces under the change Chai’s founder announced on 6 October, with 5 more for each rewarded ad.
That is roughly 70 messages a day before you pay, fewer if you regenerate replies, since rerolls cost a piece too. The full rules, including a check-in that vanishes above 100 pieces, are in how the Chai message limit works now.
Ultra removes that meter. When Chai announced pieces on 8 September, a user asked whether Ultra subscribers would pay too, and the founder answered, “Without subscription. Subscriptions are still unlimited messages.”
The catch is the newer models. A CHAI Team email that a user shared on r/ChaiApp says some advanced models, image and video generation, and extra memory can use pieces even for subscribers. Ultra subscribers name Max and Eternal as the models they pay pieces for.
Here is how the three tiers compare on what Chai and its subscribers have put on record:
| Feature | Free | Premium | Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|
| US App Store price (12 October 2026) | $0 | $13.99 a month or $134.99 a year | $29.99 a month or $19.99 a week |
| Messages | At least 1 piece each, with a 70-piece daily check-in and 5 per rewarded ad | Unlimited, per the founder | Unlimited, per the founder |
| Max and Eternal models | Cost pieces | Cost pieces, subscribers report | Cost pieces, subscribers report |
| Chat memory | Not published | About 4K tokens, subscribers report | About 8K tokens, subscribers report |
| Chai Web at chai-ai.com | Separate free account | Not included | Not included |
Memory is the row that separates the paid tiers. Ultra’s reported 8K is double Premium’s. In the October feedback thread a Premium user says 4K runs out after 15 to 20 messages, and a user asking for more Ultra memory says 8K “lasts maybe 40-50 messages at most.”
Chai Ultra Pricing and What You Pay For
Chai Ultra costs $29.99 a month or $19.99 a week on the US App Store, $16 a month more than Premium. Both plans include unlimited messages, so that $16 buys the Ultra model and about double the memory.
Weekly billing is the expensive way in. Two weeks at $19.99 already cost $39.98, so the weekly plan only makes sense for a single week of Ultra.
The US listing shows no annual Ultra plan. Premium’s $134.99 a year works out to about $11.25 a month, against $13.99 when billed monthly.
Plans bill and cancel through your App Store or Google Play account. The same CHAI Team email said an existing Google Play subscription carries on as long as it renews without a break. That matters because some accounts now see Ruby and Diamond plans in place of Premium and Ultra.
What the $29.99 does and does not buy:
- Unlimited messages. Premium carries the same promise for $13.99, so this alone is no reason to pick Ultra.
- More memory. Subscribers put Ultra at about 8K tokens of chat memory, double Premium’s reported 4K.
- The Ultra model. Ultra is also the name of a Chai model, ranked below the newer Max and Eternal, and free users spend pieces to use it. An Ultra subscriber says the plan covers it without pieces and now unlocks the Premium model too.
- Not the newest models. Max and Eternal still bill pieces on Ultra, and piece packs run from $2.79 for 200 to $13.99 for 1,000.
Compare that with apps priced near it. Nectar AI’s Pro plan costs $19.99 a month for 16K tokens of memory and 9,000 messages a month, and its $34.99 Ultimate plan adds unlimited messages, 64K of memory and long-term memory.
Candy AI’s Premium plan costs $13.99 a month for unlimited text chat. Character AI’s c.ai+ costs $9.99 a month, and its free tier already has unlimited messaging. Ultra costs about three times as much as c.ai+ and $10 a month more than Nectar’s Pro plan.
Chai can hold that price because it has the users. Chai Research says on its company site that its consumer business reached $100M in annual recurring revenue in July 2026.
Where Chai Ultra Falls Short
Chai Ultra’s two biggest gaps are memory, at about 8K tokens by subscriber reports, and the newer Max and Eternal models, which still cost pieces on top of the subscription.
These are the gaps that remain on Ultra, most of them raised by paying subscribers in r/ChaiApp’s October threads:
- Memory runs out fast. A user asking for more Ultra memory says 8K tokens “lasts maybe 40-50 messages at most” in a deep roleplay. An Ultra subscriber says chat memory feels worse than it did before the recent updates.
- The best models cost extra. Max and Eternal bill pieces even on Ultra, so heavy users of those models pay for the plan and the pieces.
- Old chats can disappear. Users report chats being deleted after 30 days without a message, and paying subscribers are among those asking Chai for a way to keep them.
- No cross-chat persistence. Every bot is siloed, so a second character cannot reference a trip you described to the first. Ultra does nothing to change that.
- Chai Web is a separate product. Chai’s FAQ describes chai-ai.com as a separate platform that shares no data with the app, sold through its own Pro plan at $9.99 a week or $159.99 a year.
- The plan lineup is in flux. Some accounts now see Ruby and Diamond plans in place of Premium and Ultra, and the founder calls them an A/B test, so a lapsed Ultra plan may not be offered again.
The memory gap matters most for long roleplay. Apps built around memory, like Nomi AI or Nectar AI’s Ultimate plan with 64K tokens, hold far more of a conversation than Ultra’s reported 8K.
Who Should Buy Chai Ultra and Who Should Skip It
Chai Ultra makes sense for daily Chai users who need more memory than Premium gives, and anyone who mainly wants unlimited messages or long memory should pick Premium or a memory-first app.
Chai Ultra is for you if:
- You chat on Chai every day and already pay for Premium, but its memory runs out mid-scene.
- You stay on Chai’s standard models and rarely need Max or Eternal.
- You prefer the Ultra model’s replies and want them without spending pieces.
- You live on mobile and do not need your chats on the web.
Chai Ultra is not for you if:
- You mainly want unlimited messages, which Premium already covers for $13.99.
- You want your AI companion to remember you across weeks or months.
- You plan to use Max or Eternal heavily, since those still cost pieces.
- You want desktop access, since Chai Web is a separate product with its own plan.
- You are just dabbling and mostly use the app a few times a week.
If you fall into the second group, my honest recommendation is to skip Ultra. For $10 a month less, Nectar AI‘s Pro plan gives you 16K tokens of memory in a browser, and its free tier allows 15 messages a day to test it first.
The specific use case Nectar AI handles better than Chai is building one companion you have a real relationship with, rather than treating the app like a bot buffet.
For a broader view of the market, my full rundown of the best AI companion app options lines up each major app by use case so you can see where Chai fits in.
Verdict
Chai Ultra is worth $29.99 a month only for heavy daily Chai users who need about twice Premium’s memory or want the Ultra model without pieces. For everyone else, Premium at $13.99 a month is the better buy.
Ultra fixes the free tier’s biggest friction point, the piece meter, but Premium fixes it too for less than half the price. What Ultra adds on top is the Ultra model and more memory, and 8K is still small next to apps built around memory.
I would only use the weekly plan for a one-week trial, since two weeks at $19.99 already cost more than a month at $29.99. If Chai moves your account to Ruby or Diamond, check what those plans include before paying, because the founder still calls them a test.
If memory is the reason you are reading this, Nectar AI is where I would put the money instead.
If the filter is your real reason for leaving, the roundup of Chai alternatives without the content filter covers apps that allow more creative freedom.
If you landed here because you are deciding between Chai Ultra and something else, skim the character AI alternatives roundup. Several apps there cost less than Ultra and remember more.
