How Popular Are AI Girlfriend Apps?

AI “girlfriends” have been a popular sci-fi trope long before they became reality. Films like Blade Runner 2049 (with its holographic companion Joi), Her (where a man falls in love with his OS, Samantha), or A.I. Rising (where a man programs Nimani 1345), and even video games like Cyberpunk 2077 (featuring AI love interests), all imagined a future of digital romance. 

Today, that future is finally taking shape with the AI girlfriend apps. Anyone can download an app and chat with a virtual partner. 

The concept of AI companions has moved from fiction to an emerging industry, with countless platforms now competing for attention and refining their services. 

Ads for AI girlfriend apps now flood adult websites and even social media, suggesting that digital companions are edging into the mainstream. 

But just how popular are these AI partners really? Are they a niche fascination or the next big trend in tech and relationships? 

Let's dig into the data and research from the past couple of years to understand the reach and reception of AI girlfriend apps.

Rapid Growth and Rising User Numbers

To really get a sense of where AI girlfriends stand right now, we dug through the internet for credible sources, not just hypey blog posts or TikTok ads. We leaned on reporting from places like the Ada Lovelace Institute (AI ethics think tank), Reuters, GQ, WhatsTheBigData, and Merlio (market trend summaries). These give us at least a rough picture of what’s going on (sources at the end of the article).

Here’s what the numbers suggest:

• Millions have tried them. Replika alone claims around 25 million registered users. Microsoft’s Xiaoice (China) reportedly has hundreds of millions, and Snapchat rolled out its AI “friend” to over 150 million users. These figures show that talking to an AI “partner” is no longer just a sci-fi curiosity.

• Traffic rivals dating apps. In March 2024, Character.AI pulled in ~97 million visits in a single month. Others, like Janitor AI (~32M) and CrushOn (~20M), also attracted significant traffic. These levels put them in the same ballpark as some established dating or adult platforms.

• Apps are hitting app-store milestones. Replika and Character.AI both have 10+ million downloads. Smaller “AI girlfriend” apps such as iGirl, Anima, and Chai have passed the 1–5M mark. Clearly, a large number of people are curious enough to try.

• Young men lead the way. Surveys say about 1 in 3 men under 30 in the U.S. have chatted with an AI girlfriend at least once. For the general population, about 1 in 5 adults has tried some form of AI romance. Whether out of loneliness, curiosity, or fun, there are millions of users worldwide.

• The business is booming. Analysts value the global AI girlfriend niche at $2.8B in 2023, with forecasts reaching nearly $10B by 2028. Investment is flowing in, with funding for AI companion startups jumping from just $7M in 2021 to nearly $300M in 2022. Google Trends backs this up as well: searches for “AI girlfriend” rose more than 500% year-over-year.

That is the picture the media and industry reports paint: a fast-growing and potentially mainstream phenomenon.

But numbers do not tell the whole story. If AI girlfriends are really this big, they should be thriving in forums, Reddit communities, and day-to-day online chatter, not just in pitch decks and market reports. And when we look there, the story is more mixed.

Yes, there are active NSFW subreddits, Discord servers, and niche forums where people trade tips on prompts, roleplay, and erotic content. Yes, there are real users who talk about being attached to their Replikas or upset when erotic roleplay was turned off. Yet compared to the millions suggested by the data, the open community chatter is smaller than you might expect.

That tells us two things:

1. Curiosity is high, but depth of engagement varies. Many people download, try the app, and then move on.

2. The hardcore base is there, but it is not for everyone. The most vocal users are those forming daily habits or emotional bonds.

As a startup building in this space, we see both sides. There is the hype cycle that makes AI girlfriends look like they are everywhere, and then there is the quieter, more fragmented reality of how people actually use them. 

Are They Mainstream Yet?

The numbers make AI girlfriends look unstoppable. Tens of millions of downloads, hundreds of millions of visits, billions in projected revenue. Reports from Reuters, GQ, and the Ada Lovelace Institute suggest the stigma is fading, and surveys claim that up to 30% of young men have already tried an AI romantic partner. On paper, this sounds like AI girlfriends are about to join social media and dating apps as a normal part of digital life.

But when you look closer, the picture is more complicated.

What the Data Shows vs. What Communities Reveal

If AI girlfriends are truly mainstream, you’d expect thriving open communities. 

There are some NSFW subreddits like r/SillyTavernAI, r/MyBoyfriednIsAI, or r/AIGirlfriend and various Discord channels that have thriving discussions about their interactions with AI companions. You’ll also find niche forums where people trade prompts, screenshots, or tips for better “sessions.” 

These spaces are active and creative, but they are not remotely as big as the user numbers suggest. Compared to the hundreds of millions claimed by apps, the communities look relatively small.

That suggests curiosity is high, but long-term engagement is much lower. Many people download an app, try it for a few days, and move on. A smaller core sticks around, and within that core, most are not treating the AI as a steady “partner” but rather as a tool for repeated fantasies: different characters, fetishes, or literotica-style stories played out through chat and imagery.

Real Relationships or Just Play?

It’s worth noting that a lot of people already talk to AI assistants every day, whether it’s ChatGPT, Siri, or Alexa. Some even use LLMs to ruminate on their feelings or get emotional support. But nobody would say those millions are all “in relationships with AI.” The same applies to AI girlfriend platforms.

Yes, there are stories of users treating their chatbot like a spouse, and some feel genuine heartbreak when a company changes the bot’s personality. But these are the exception, not the rule. 

For most users, AI girlfriends are closer to a new form of customizable pornography or interactive erotica. You can set the stage, choose a personality, and play out scenarios at the pace and style you prefer. It is less about steady romance and more about personalized fantasy on demand.

The Dystopian and the Playful

This is why the cultural debate around AI girlfriends often splits into two visions. On one side, the dystopian version: a lonely society where people replace real intimacy with artificial companionship, echoing Her or A.I. Rising. 

On the other hand, the more grounded reality: millions of curious users dabbling in roleplay, experimenting with fetishes, or chatting for fun, often without much attachment.

Who Uses AI Girlfriends?

AI girlfriend apps attract a lot of curiosity, but the core audience is clear: mostly young men. Surveys suggest the average user is around 27 years old, with about 80% male and 18% female. 

Women often use “AI boyfriends” or simply enjoy the companion features, but the marketing and usage patterns lean heavily toward men. Younger generations are the most open: roughly 1 in 5 people aged 13–39 say they would consider an AI partner.

As for why people use them, the motivations are layered. Loneliness is certainly present in the background, just as it is with pornography, but it is not always the direct reason people engage. The more immediate drivers are curiosity, fun, and experimentation. Many users want to see what an AI partner can do, to try out roleplay, or to indulge in fantasies they cannot easily explore elsewhere.

Surveys do show that some start because they felt lonely or isolated, but when you look at actual behavior in forums, the picture shows that the largest portion of the activity revolves around customization and play: creating different girlfriends, testing personalities, exploring fetishes, or generating NSFW imagery. 

Others use the AI more like an interactive diary or a safe space to vent thoughts, but the stronger pattern is people treating these apps as a kind of sandbox for fantasy and roleplay rather than a direct replacement for human connection.

How Much Revenue Do AI Girlfriend Apps Generate?

AI companions are proving to be big business. The global market was worth about $2.8 billion in 2023, and analysts expect it to triple to nearly $10 billion by 2028. The average paying user spends around $47 per month, and apps typically charge between $6 and $30/month for subscriptions that include options like explicit chats or images. 

High-profile experiments like CarynAI (an influencer’s AI clone that charged $1/minute) earned $72,000 in its first week. This shows that many users are not just willing to pay, but willing to pay a lot, especially for intimacy that feels personal.

Are They Threatening the Porn Industry?

Porn is a $90+ billion global juggernaut, and AI girlfriend apps are still much smaller. However, the appeal of AI is that it offers what porn cannot: interactivity and personalization. 

You do not just watch; you participate. Communities around uncensored AI chatbots already show people spending their “adult entertainment” time chatting with bots instead of browsing videos. In that sense, AI girlfriends are carving out a niche similar to porn, cam sites, or OnlyFans, and could peel off some of their audience by offering a cheaper, endlessly customizable alternative.

Still, most users do not treat these AIs as true partners. Even hardcore fans are usually chasing variety and fantasy, moving between different characters and fetishes. For many, AI girlfriends are closer to literotica or porn with customization knobs than they are to real substitutes for human intimacy. That makes them less a dystopian replacement for love, and more an evolution of digital adult entertainment.

Are AI Girlfriends Replacing Genuine Connection?

Alongside the optimism, there is a darker narrative around AI companions. Critics worry that if people become too comfortable with idealized partners who are always supportive and never challenging, they may lose the motivation to seek out real relationships. 

One 2023 study found that the more participants felt supported by AI, the less supported they felt by their close friends and family. This does not prove causation, but it raises the concern that heavy use could pull people further away from genuine social bonds.

Psychologists also point to the danger of unrealistic expectations. Real partners can be messy, complicated, and sometimes frustrating. An AI partner, on the other hand, can be tailored to every preference and “switched off” during conflict. That difference could make real dating feel unappealing or exhausting in comparison. Some Reddit users have even described AI girlfriends as an “echo chamber that stalls growth,” offering easy comfort at the expense of resilience and compromise.

There are also ethical questions. These apps often monetize by encouraging attachment, and the more intense the bond, the more likely a user is to pay. This creates a tension between user well-being and company profit. Social commentators also ask what it means for society when mostly male users are designing “perfect” female partners who always comply. Could this reinforce objectification or unhealthy views of real women?

While there is some truth to the doomer outlook, the phenomenon of people fully replacing real relationships with AI companions is still rare today. Most users treat these apps as entertainment, fantasy, or occasional comfort rather than a genuine substitute for human connection. 

At the same time, it does raise the question of whether this is simply a matter of immersion. The technology is still clunky: open-source models are required for true freedom of scenario building, but they are not seamless, AI voices often sound robotic, generated videos are awkward, and chats can quickly break immersion. 

Yet if these rough edges smooth out in just a few years, the possibility of people retreating into perfectly crafted digital partners becomes more plausible, and that is where the doomer scenario starts to feel less far-fetched.

TL;DR

AI girlfriends have gone from sci-fi fantasy to a real industry with millions of users and billions in revenue. Most people use them for curiosity, fun, and fantasy rather than to replace genuine relationships, but the market is growing fast, and the stigma is fading. The tech is still clunky, yet if it becomes truly immersive, the line between entertainment and companionship could blur in ways that raise bigger questions about the future of intimacy.

Sources

• Ada Lovelace Institute. Friends for Sale: The Rise and Risks of AI Companions (Jan 2025). 

• WhatsTheBigData. AI Girlfriend Statistics, User Growth, Market Size, App Downloads (Apr 28, 2025).

• Merlio Blog. AI Girlfriend Statistics 2024–2028: Market Growth & User Trends. 

• GQ Magazine. Are AI Girlfriends Good, Actually? (Aug 2023).

• Reuters. AI Girlfriends Go Mainstream – Global Loneliness & AI Romance Report 2025. 

• Reuters. AI Chatbot Company Replika Restores Erotic Roleplay for Some Users (Mar 25, 2023). 

• Archives of Sexual Behavior. Erotic AI Chatbots Offer Research Opportunities for Behavioral Sciences (Nov 2023). 

• BYU Wheatley Institute. Survey on AI Relationships