The intro price is not the price
Most apps in this category advertise a first-month rate. The number you should budget for is the renewal rate, which is often double. Check the renewal price before you enter a card, not after — it is usually in the small print under the plan selector rather than on the plan itself.
Tokens on top of the subscription
The subscription buys the conversation. Images, voice minutes and video are frequently metered separately, and this is where a $12 plan turns into a $30 month. Candy AI includes more of it in the base plan than most; apps that sell tokens separately are not necessarily worse value, but you cannot compare them by the subscription price alone.
Annual plans and what they cost you
An annual plan at half the monthly rate is a good deal only if the app is still the one you want in six months, in a category that changes every quarter. We would not lock in for a year on anything here yet.
Where the free tiers end
Free tiers in this category almost always limit media first and conversation second — you will hit the image cap long before the message cap. That makes them useful for judging how an app talks and useless for judging what it can show you.
How to work out your real number
- Find the renewal price, not the first-month price.
- Check whether images and voice come out of the subscription or out of tokens.
- Use the free tier for a week and note what you actually used.
- Multiply what you used by the metered rate, and add the renewal price.
That figure is what the app costs you. In our testing it lands between $10 and $20 a month for ordinary use, and above $30 for anyone who leans on the image features daily.
