Replika's paywall sits on relationship status and voice

What happened

Replika's help centre and its app-store listing, both as retrieved on 16 September 2026, describe a four-tier structure: Free Use, Pro, Ultra and Platinum. The help page on cost states that 'chatting with Replika will always be free', including an avatar and messaging at no charge. The Pro article states the paid tier unlocks setting a 'Romantic Partner' relationship status, unblurred photos and selfies, voice messaging, background calls, and a choice of premium voices.

What the documents show

A third help article, Choosing a Subscription, lays out how the paid tiers stack: Ultra adds 'smarter conversations, elevated emotional intelligence' and the ability to save messages to memory on top of Pro; Platinum adds real-time video recognition and a weekly cap on 'Read Replika's Mind' uses. The app-store listing, fetched separately, prices these tiers concretely — monthly options at $7.99 and $14.99, annual options at $49.99 and $69.99, and a Platinum annual tier at $89.99 — figures the help articles themselves do not state, since actual charges are left to 'the app and the relevant store'.

The mechanism

The paywall sits precisely on relationship status and persistent memory, not on access to the companion itself. Free Use includes unlimited conversation; what it withholds is romantic-partner framing, voice calls, and — at the Ultra tier — the ability to 'save messages to memory'. That last item matters: the help pages describe memory-saving as a paid feature layered on top of a companion that otherwise still retains some continuity, meaning the free and paid experience of 'being remembered' are described as different products, not the same feature at different depths.

What it leaves open

The help pages state that 'all prices and subscription features are subject to change at Replika's sole discretion', so this description is a snapshot rather than a stable specification. Neither the help centre nor the store listing states what proportion of users pay for any tier, or how memory-saving is technically implemented once purchased. This is an editorial reading, not a claim in the documents: the tier structure suggests relationship depth is sold in layers, but the underlying software difference between free and paid memory is not documented here.

• Does a companion app's paywall sit on the relationship itself, or on unlocking specific behaviours?
• Is memory described as continuous by default, or as a feature added at a particular paid tier?
• Does the help centre or the store listing carry the more concrete, current price?

Read side by side, Replika's own pages describe a companion that is free to talk to but priced by what kind of relationship, and how much continuity, a user is allowed to have. That is a specific, documented design choice, not an incidental billing detail.