Candy AI’s pricing is deliberately hard to pin down: the public site shows a “-70%” banner and a “7-day trial” promise but no actual dollar figures until you create an account. This guide reconstructs the real cost from the company’s own pages and multiple third-party price trackers — and flags where those sources disagree.

Subscription tiers: what Premium actually costs

Candy.ai’s homepage (checked live in August 2026) confirms three billing cycles — monthly, quarterly and yearly — plus a token top-up system, but publishes no prices. Third-party trackers fill the gap, and they don’t fully agree:

• Monthly: $12.99/month per FindAIBoyfriend’s August 2026 breakdown; RoboRhythms recorded $13.99/month on July 28, 2026.
• Quarterly: $23.97 ($7.99/month) per one source; $26.97 ($8.99/month) per the other.
• Annual: here the gap is widest — $47.88/year ($3.99/month) versus $75.60/year ($6.30/month).

The likely explanation is that Candy AI runs rotating promotional discounts (that “-70%” banner), so the price you see depends on when you look. Budget for the higher figures; treat the lower ones as promo pricing that may not renew at the same rate. Payment options include Visa, MasterCard and cryptocurrency (BTC, ETH, USDC, Litecoin), per the official site.

The token system: where the real money goes

The subscription is only the entry fee. Premium includes unlimited text chat and roughly 100 tokens per month, and everything else burns tokens. Per-action costs reported consistently across trackers:

• Image generation: 2–4 tokens (~$0.20–$0.40 per image at pack rates)
• Voice calls: 3 tokens per minute (~$0.30/min)
• Video clips: 12 tokens ($1.20 each)
• Custom character creation: ~10 tokens

Token packs start at $9.99 for 100 tokens and scale to $299.99 for 3,750 tokens (about $0.08–$0.10 per token). Do the math: your included 100 tokens cover roughly 25 images or about 33 minutes of voice — for a whole month. RoboRhythms estimates medium users spend ~$34/month total and heavy users $50–80+. That is the number to compare against alternatives, not the advertised subscription price. This pay-per-action model is common across the category — see our Candy AI review and the comparison in Candy AI vs DreamGF for how the bills stack up in practice.

The free tier truth

“Candy AI free” is one of the most-searched phrases about this app, so let’s be blunt: there is no meaningful free experience. The free tier is a teaser — sources describe it as a small message allowance (one tracker says ~10–20 messages, another up to ~100; we could not verify an exact number without an account) with blurred images and no voice or video. The homepage’s “7-day trial” gives “full access,” per the site’s own copy, but it is a paid-trial funnel, not a free sandbox. If you want to genuinely test AI companions without paying, some apps in our best AI girlfriend & companion apps guide offer more generous free tiers.

Refund policy: 24 hours and 20 tokens — verified

We pulled this directly from candy.ai’s live Terms of Service rather than secondhand summaries. The rules are strict:

• 24-hour window: “You have 24 hours after your payment to request a refund. No refunds will be issued if your request is made more than 24 hours after you have paid.”
• 20-token cap: regardless of timing, a refund “will be denied if you have used more than 20 tokens.” Five images can be enough to void your refund eligibility.
• EU/UK residents: a 14-day statutory withdrawal right applies, but the refund is reduced by “a prorated amount that reflects the services consumed.”
• Chargebacks: filing one immediately cancels your subscription and revokes all remaining tokens, per the same ToS.

Practical advice: if you’re unsure after signing up, decide within the first day and don’t touch the token features until you have.

Cheaper alternatives

If ~$13/month plus token top-ups feels steep for what is ultimately metered usage, there are companions with flat pricing and no token meter — Nomi AI and Kindroid both bundle their core features into the subscription. We compare the full field, including per-feature cost math, in our best Candy AI alternatives guide. And before you pay anyone, read what happens to your chats — with this category, privacy is part of the price.