BabeChat
#28 on the ranking
BabeChat is a Korean story platform with an English door that opened nine days ago, and after a month with it I would call it a good story app and a poor fit for the AI girlfriend label.
Read my full BabeChat analysis →AI girlfriend sites side by side · Both tested first-hand · Data through September 2026
vs
I bought a membership on both and tested each for a month. What they offer, their measured numbers and what their users say, next to each other, with my verdict on each at the end.
The scoreboard
JOI leads on 2 of the 4 figures that decide most choices.
In short
| What they offer | ||
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | No | No |
| Entry paid plan | Coin-based | $13.99/mo |
| Adult content | Allowed on paid plans | Filtered or limited |
| Features |
|
|
| Best for | Users seeking anime-style flirty chat with minimal commitment via a pay-per-use coin model | Users seeking image generation and AI companion features at a budget-friendly price point |
| Not for | Users wanting realistic visuals, NSFW images, voice or call functionality, or personality depth | Users who need extensive community resources or detailed feature documentation before committing |
| Operator | Eleven Co., Ltd. (주식회사 일레븐), business registration 291-88-02960, as the site's footer states; a Korean startup database lists the company as BabeChat Inc. with Lee Gwan-hyung as chief executive | JOI AI (as the site's footer puts it); one third-party review names JOI-AI Limited, a UK-registered company, which the site itself does not confirm |
| Pricing notes | Coin-only model, pay per interaction. No monthly subscriptions. No free tier. No crypto payments. | 1 Month: $13.99. 3 Months: $20.99 (~$7/mo). 12 Months: $47.99 (~$4/mo). Premium adds image generation and a limited video generation allowance (5 free clips/month, extra via Neurons). |
My take
Neither has a real free tier, so you are choosing on price and features from the start. BabeChat simply does more: nsfw text chat with roleplay capabilities, anime-style character selection and character customization (visual appearance) are on its list and not on JOI's. More features is only better if you will use them. On adult content they are not the same product: BabeChat allows it on paid plans, JOI keeps a filter. Decide that first and half the comparison decides itself.
| The numbers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank on this siteOn the combined data gathered for every site | #28 | ▲#19 |
| Google US rank, “ai girlfriend”DataForSEO ranked keywords, September 2026 | – | – |
| Tranco rank, all domainsAll-traffic rank among the top million domains | #83,019 | ▲#31,348 |
| Chrome UX tierGoogle Chrome UX Report | Top 50,000 | Top 50,000 |
| Search visits a month, worldwideDataForSEO estimate | ▲188,289 | 34,016 |
| Search visits a month, US | 14 | ▲12,053 |
| Brand searches a month, USGoogle Ads data via DataForSEO | 480 | ▲33,100 |
| Domain RatingDomain Rating by Ahrefs, out of 100 | 30 | ▲64 |
| Referring domains | 262 | ▲2,966 |
| Backlinks | 3,109 | ▲62,387 |
| Domain registered | May 2024 | July 2003 |
| Public record I read | 2 videos, 7 Reddit threads, 0 articles | 10 videos, 1 Reddit threads, 6 articles |
The better value in each row is marked in green. Search visits and brand searches are DataForSEO estimates; Tranco and Chrome UX tiers are ranks, not visit counts.
My take
None of these ranks in the tracked positions for "ai girlfriend", so their places on this site come from all-traffic rank, and their visitors arrive by name, by ads or from app stores rather than from the category search. On size, BabeChat is the busier site: 188,289 search visits a month worldwide, about 6 times what JOI gets (34,016). These are estimates of visits from Google only, so a site with apps or ads can be bigger than this shows. Brand searches are the loyalty line: 33,100 people a month type JOI's name, against 480 for BabeChat. A name people type on purpose is a site they come back to; a site with lots of visits and few brand searches is living on rankings it could lose. Tranco tells a slightly different story: it counts every visit, not only search, and there JOI comes out ahead (#31,348 against #83,019). When search and all-traffic disagree, the site that wins on Tranco has an audience that does not come through Google. JOI's Domain Rating of 64 against 30 means far more sites link to it, which is what keeps rankings stable; the weaker link profile is the one more likely to move, up or down, when Google reshuffles. JOI is the older domain (2003 against 2024), which counts for something in a category where sites close without notice.
| Feature by feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Chat and roleplay | Users mixedMy test: Partly disagree | Users mixedMy test: Agree |
| Story Mode and emotion art | Users positiveMy test: Agree | – |
| Memory and lorebooks | Users mixedMy test: Agree | – |
| Images | Users mixedMy test: Agree | – |
| Voice | Users negativeMy test: Agree | Users mixedMy test: Disagree |
| Characters and creators | Users positiveMy test: Agree | – |
| Free allowance | Users negativeMy test: Disagree | – |
| Price and ProChat | Users mixedMy test: Agree | – |
| Privacy and billing | Users positiveMy test: Agree | Users mixedMy test: Disagree |
| Safety and content rules | Users mixedMy test: Partly disagree | – |
| Apps and languages | Users positiveMy test: Agree | – |
| Model switching | – | Users positiveMy test: Agree |
| Memory | – | Users mixedMy test: Partly disagree |
| Images and Dream Clips | – | Users mixedMy test: Agree |
| Characters and customisation | – | Users positiveMy test: Agree |
| Free tier | – | Users negativeMy test: Agree |
| Price and neurons | – | Users negativeMy test: Agree |
| Safety and legitimacy | – | Users mixed |
“Users” is the balance of the YouTube reviews, Reddit threads and articles read for each brand page; “my test” is whether my own month on the site agreed with them.
My take
Users are happier with BabeChat: 4 of its 11 features come out positive, against JOI's 2 of 10, with 2 features where the complaints win. Where they split, BabeChat gets the better word on privacy and billing. My own month did not always match the crowd: I disagreed with users on 3 points for BabeChat and 3 points for JOI, and each disagreement is spelled out on the brand page.
My verdict on each
BabeChat
#28 on the ranking
BabeChat is a Korean story platform with an English door that opened nine days ago, and after a month with it I would call it a good story app and a poor fit for the AI girlfriend label.
Read my full BabeChat analysis →JOI
#19 on the ranking
Joi is the loudest newcomer in the category, and after a month with it the product is better than the marketing deserves.
Read my full JOI analysis →More comparisons
Written by Hunter Gray, Founder, Owner & Writer. Every figure is from the two brand pages and refreshes monthly. BabeChat and JOI are two of the sites in my best AI girlfriend ranking, where the whole category is ordered on the same data.