Affiliate disclosure

How this site makes money

Reading Character costs nothing. There is no paywall, no subscription, and no registration. The site is funded through two channels: affiliate arrangements with app publishers and platforms mentioned in coverage, and display advertising.

An affiliate link carries a tracking parameter that identifies the referral as ours. If you follow one, install an app, and in some cases subscribe to it, the publisher or its affiliate network pays a commission. Two payment models are standard: a fixed amount for a qualifying signup, and a share of revenue generated over time by referred users. Both may apply, depending on the arrangement.

The commission is paid by the publisher out of its own marketing budget. The price you pay is the same as it would be arriving directly. A subscription that lists at $9.99 per month costs $9.99 per month whether you reached it through this site or typed the address yourself, and no promotional terms are withheld from readers who ignore our links.

Subscriptions bought for testing are the largest of those costs, which is what makes the pricing detail on Character AI Plus first-hand, and the same accounts are used to check Character AI voice, the create form behind Character AI bots, and the sign-in routes on Character AI login. Revenue covers hosting, the paid accounts and subscriptions bought for testing, and the time spent re-checking pages when a platform changes its rules.

What the money does not buy

Commercial arrangements have no influence on coverage. That is a specific commitment rather than a reassurance, and it means the following in practice.

• Coverage is not for sale. No publisher can pay to be covered, to be covered favourably, or to be described in particular terms.
• Placement is not for sale. Where apps appear in a comparison, their order follows the criteria stated on the page, not the commission rate attached to them.
• Criticism is not removed for money. Facts that reflect badly on an app stay published whether or not there is a commercial relationship with it, including the settlements and open regulatory actions set out on is Character AI safe. The 1.8 star Google Play rating and the advertising complaints documented on the homepage are the obvious example.
• Apps we earn nothing from still get covered when they matter to readers, and apps we do earn from still get reported accurately when something about them is bad.

The separation between commercial arrangements and editorial judgement, and the process that enforces it, is described in the editorial policy.

Recognising an affiliate link

Affiliate links usually appear as an app name or a direct reference to a store listing. Two signs identify one.

• The link passes through an intermediate tracking domain before arriving at the app store or publisher page. This is ordinary attribution infrastructure rather than a redirect chain designed to hide anything.
• A cookie is set at the moment of the click, typically lasting between 30 and 90 days depending on the network. It records the referral, not your identity. Cookie details are listed in the privacy policy.

Nothing obliges you to use these links. Searching for an app by name in the App Store or Google Play reaches the same listing on the same terms. Coverage is written to be useful whether or not a link is followed.

Advertising

Display advertising may appear alongside coverage. Advertisers have no access to editorial content before it is published and no influence over what it says. Advertising is kept visually distinct from editorial text, and paid placements are never presented as recommendations.

Regulatory basis

This disclosure exists to meet the standards that apply to affiliate publishing in the markets this site reaches. The relevant instruments are the Federal Trade Commission's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 CFR Part 255), which require material connections to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously; the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC), which treats undisclosed paid promotion as a misleading practice; and the New Zealand Fair Trading Act 1986, which prohibits misleading representations in trade.

If any page appears to fall short of that standard, tell us. Reports about disclosure go to [email protected] for commercial questions and [email protected] for anything affecting the accuracy of a page. General background on the site is on the about page, and other ways to reach the team are listed on the contact page.