Self-hosted, self-owned AI companion (VTuber-style virtual character) with realtime voice chat, game play, and Live2D/VRM avatars for Web, macOS and Windows.
50.5K5.1KTypeScriptMITUpdated 8 hours ago
2 alternatives
Best open-source alternatives to Character.ai (2026)
Looking for a free, open-source alternative to Character.ai? These 2 projects can replace it. Each one passed our quality screening and is explained in plain words, so you can compare stars, license and maintenance at a glance.
Quick comparison
| Project | Stars | License | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|
| moeru-ai/airi | ★ 50.5K | MIT | 8 hours ago |
| SillyTavern/SillyTavern | ★ 34.7K | AGPL-3.0 | 18 days ago |
A locally installed, power-user front end for chatting with many LLM APIs, image generators and TTS voice models.
34.7K6.5KJavaScriptAGPL-3.0Updated 18 days ago
FAQ
- Is there a free, open-source alternative to Character.ai?
- Yes. The most popular open-source alternatives to Character.ai on Repolode are airi, SillyTavern.
- Which Character.ai alternative should I choose?
- airi has the most GitHub stars and is released under MIT. Compare the license and last commit of each option in the table above before choosing.