User Guide

01Getting started

Welcome to Character.AI. This guide takes you from a brand-new visitor to a confident creator in roughly ten minutes. You can read it cover to cover or jump straight to the section you need using the contents on the left.

Before you begin, make sure you're using a current browser — Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox in their latest stable versions all work well. Mobile users can follow exactly the same steps in our iOS or Android app.

Throughout this guide, anything in italics refers to an in-product label, and bold text highlights an action. If a feature is unfamiliar, the linked FAQ usually has a one-paragraph explanation.

02Create your account

Signing up takes about ten seconds and never asks for a credit card. Choose whichever method matches the device you're on — you can always link the others later from Settings → Login methods.

1. Open characterai.cc and click Sign up in the top-right corner.
2. Pick Continue with Google, Continue with Apple or Sign up with email.
3. Confirm your display name and (optional) avatar. Both can be edited at any time.
4. Accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to enter your dashboard.

If you already have an account on a different device, just sign in with the same provider — your characters and conversations download automatically.

03Browse characters

The home dashboard surfaces curated picks from the trending board, plus categories such as Anime, Games, History, Education, Fantasy and Companionship. Hover over any card to see a short bio, the creator and the total number of chats.

To find something specific, use the search bar at the top of the page. Searches match character names, descriptions and tags, so a query like "french tutor" or "detective noir" works as well as a full name.

• Filters: language, content rating and creator.
• Sorting: popularity, recently updated or newly created.
• Save for later: tap the bookmark icon on any card to add it to your favourites tab.

04Start chatting

Click any character to open a chat window. The first message is the character's greeting — reply naturally, the way you would to a real person. Character.AI uses long-term memory, so the more context you provide early on, the more grounded later replies become.

• Regenerate: tap the refresh icon to get an alternative reply.
• Edit: long-press your own message to refine wording without losing context.
• Pin: star important moments so they always stay in the character's working memory.

Need privacy for a single chat? Toggle Incognito mode in the chat header to keep that conversation out of your training opt-in and out of your synced history.

05Create a character

Authoring your own character takes only a few minutes. The visual editor walks you through the essentials, then offers optional advanced fields once you're comfortable.

1. Click Create in the top-right corner and choose New character.
2. Pick or upload an avatar. Square images at 512×512 px or larger look best.
3. Fill in the name, a short tagline and a longer persona description (think backstory, voice and quirks).
4. Write a greeting message — this is the first thing every visitor will read.
5. Optionally add three to five example exchanges so the AI grasps the character's tone.
6. Choose visibility (Private, Unlisted or Public) and click Save.

You can iterate at any time. Editing a character does not erase prior conversations — readers simply see the updated personality from their next message onwards.

06Advanced features

Once you're comfortable with one-on-one chats, three power features unlock noticeably richer storytelling.

Group chats let you bring up to eight characters into a single room. They react to you and to each other, which is perfect for ensemble fiction, panel debates or playful roleplay.

Scenes are reusable starting points — a setting, a goal and an opening line — that you can attach to any character or group. Use them for repeated formats like a daily journaling prompt or a weekly D&D session.

Memory pins and notes let you anchor critical canon (a character's profession, a relationship status, an inside joke) so it survives even very long conversations. You'll find both controls in the right-hand chat panel.

07Settings & account

Settings is split into five tabs that cover everything outside the chat experience itself.

• Profile: display name, avatar, bio and public username.
• Subscription: upgrade to c.ai+, view invoices or cancel.
• Privacy: training opt-in, incognito defaults and a one-click export of your data.
• Notifications: per-channel toggles for email, push and in-app pings.
• Account: linked sign-in methods, language preference and account deletion.

Looking for something not covered above? The FAQ answers the most common follow-up questions, and our support team is happy to help with anything else.