Does Character.ai allow NSFW content? Here's what you need to know

While you can use Character.ai for legitimate help with things like mental health or exploring philosophy, the site’s biggest attraction is naturally the ability to role-play — whether with fictional characters or simulated versions of real people. If you’re willing to push boundaries, you might be wondering if Character.ai allows NSFW (Not Safe for Work) content.

Does Character.ai allow NSFW content?

No. At the moment NSFW content is totally off-limits, and Character Technologies states that pornography will never be allowed. Trying to submit that sort of material can be a quick ticket to getting banned, assuming it even makes it past filters.

Swearing could be allowed sometime in the future, but only as an option. Indeed the site’s AI is almost prudish in some ways — if you try to create a villain chatbot, they’re still be going to be relatively polite, even if they should be losing their temper and threatening to crush everyone you love. That quirk should be remedied at some point.

Can you bypass Character.ai NSFW filters?

There are ways. We won’t explore them in-depth, but people have come up with a few tactics. One is using paratheses to talk to a chatbot as if they’re a human role-playing someone else, while also explaining what you want using careful wording and suggestions. You can also ask bots to use alternative words for banned terms, and insert symbols and numbers into those words when you’re using them yourself.

There are even so-called “jailbreak” prompts that can trick Character.ai into letting down its guard. In a sense these are combinations of the first two tactics, except that you’re directly asking a bot to censor and substitute words about a particular topic because Character.ai normally filters them.

Bear in mind that even when you stumble across phrases that work, they may not work 100% of the time. Chatbots can sometimes react differently to the same prompt, and of course Character Technologies is always trying to improve its implementation of generative AI, which could mean intentionally or accidentally defeating NSFW hacks.

What are some Character.ai alternatives that allow NSFW content?

Not too surprisingly given the history of the internet, there are competitors out there who are more than willing to serve up NSFW material to make money. Below, we’ve got a quick summary for some of them.

• Botify AI: Like Character.ai, Botify AI lets you both create your own characters and talk to stock ones, including celebrities like Elon Musk. It’s rated 17-plus however, and has a “text2avatar” feature meant to give more control over a bot’s looks, mood, voice, and personal history. There’s even a “Flirting” character category. Expect to pay a subscription or one-time “lifetime” fee to fully unlock the app.
• CrushOnAI: Whereas Botify only hints at NSFW possibilities, CrushOnAI openly promises uncensored, NSFW chat. Some bots are very much fetish-oriented. Despite this, you still have the option of filtering out NSFW bots when you want something more innocent. Either way you’ll have to pay a monthly or annual subscription fee if you want to send more than 50 messages a month, and/or avoid waiting during peak usage hours.
• Anima AI: We’re actually a little worried about Anima, since you’re encouraged to create a “boyfriend” or “girlfriend,” and the company even claims that it’s an “AI companion that cares.” That’s an unhealthy way of viewing the service, given that it’s nowhere near sentient, never mind replacing a human being. If you’re willing to look past that marketing it might be fun to mess around with, since you can dress up a bot like a doll and even send it gifts. Like Botify, there are both subscription and lifetime purchases.
• Candy.ai: This one is a direct rival to Anima, and might be even more concerning, since it promises you can have a “heartfelt and passionate relationship.” It doesn’t take long though to realize though that Candy.ai is really about NSFW material, since most its sample bots are very sexualized and unrealistic. You can choose between (visually) realistic and anime-style characters. You can try it for free, but there’s a Premium button for a reason.