"Beta Character AI" refers to the early public version of the Character AI chat service, which opened in September 2022 at the address beta.Character AI. That address now sends visitors to Character AI through a permanent redirect, so there is no separate beta product to sign up for in October 2026. The company's own posts show the beta period running from the September 2022 launch through its mobile app release on May 23, 2023.
Key takeaways
- The company called its September 2022 launch the first public beta. By December 5, 2022 it reported about 1 billion words generated per day and more than 350 thousand user-made Characters.
- A Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz was announced on March 23, 2023. The amount, USD 150 million at a USD 1 billion valuation, comes from news coverage, not the company post.
- The paid Character AI+ plan was announced on May 11, 2023, with the company saying free unlimited messaging would continue.
- iOS and Android apps arrived on May 23, 2023 and the company did not call them beta.
- The exact date the beta label ended was not found in a primary source.
What the beta was
In a post dated December 5, 2022, titled "Introducing Character," co-founder Noam Shazeer wrote that the company had spent its first 13 months building the infrastructure to train and serve its first large language models. The product launched in September 2022 as a public beta where anyone could create and talk with conversational agents called Characters. Two months in, the company said the beta generated 1 billion words a day and that the community had made more than 350 thousand Characters. The post gave no total user count.
A beta in software means a version released before the company treats it as finished. Beta users take on rough edges, such as queues during busy hours, in return for early access. Character AI's own wording during this period fits that description: the March 2023 post introduced a new model, C1.2, as an early preview on a subset of Characters while accuracy and personality were still being worked on.
Timeline from the company's posts
| Date | Event | Figures the company gave |
|---|---|---|
| September 2022 | Public beta opens | None in the launch period posts reviewed |
| December 5, 2022 | "Introducing Character" post | 1 billion words per day, more than 350 thousand Characters |
| March 23, 2023 | Series A led by a16z, C1.2 preview | More than 2 billion messages in five months, more than 1 million Characters, average active user over two hours a day |
| May 11, 2023 | Character AI+ subscription announced | No price stated in the post |
| May 23, 2023 | Mobile apps for iOS and Android | "Millions" of user-made Characters, no download count |
A caution on the numbers: they are the company's own and were not audited. News coverage of the funding round, from SiliconANGLE, reported a higher Character count than the company's post did, so only the company's figure is used here.
Money and the first paid plan
The Series A round announced on March 23, 2023 included seed investors Nat Friedman, Elad Gil, SV Angel, and A Capital, according to the company's post, and a16z partner Sarah Wang joined the board. The company post did not state the size of the round. SiliconANGLE reported USD 150 million at a USD 1 billion valuation on the same day.
The Character AI+ announcement of May 11, 2023 described an opt-in plan that skips waiting rooms, generates messages faster, and adds a member badge, a private community channel, and early access to features. It said the company would keep offering free and unlimited messaging to all users. The post stated no price, and a later pricing history is outside what this article covers.
From beta address to main site
The May 23, 2023 app announcement said the apps offer the same experience as the website, with free unlimited messaging and no ads. In that post the feedback forum links still pointed to beta.Character AI, which shows the beta domain stayed in use after the app launched. A server check on October 23, 2026 found that beta.Character AI answers with a permanent redirect (HTTP 308) to Character AI. The company's current about page does not mention a beta. Third-party articles give a September 2024 end date for the beta site, but no company statement confirming it was found.
Many websites still publish "beta Character AI" guides written around the old address. Anyone who finds one should read the address bar: the service's blog and site are at blog.Character AI and Character AI, and a beta page that asks for payment or a download outside the usual app stores does not match anything in the company posts reviewed.
What changed after the beta years
The product that began as a free, experimental chat site later drew regulatory attention and lawsuits, and its operator announced a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process on October 12, 2026. Those developments are covered in the articles linked below and are not part of the beta story.
FAQ
Is there still a separate Beta Character AI to use?
No separate beta exists in the sources reviewed. The beta address redirects to the main site, and the company describes one service.
Was Character AI free during the beta?
The company said in its posts that messaging was free and unlimited, and that Character AI+ was an optional add-on from May 2023.
Who made Character AI?
The December 2022 post was signed by Noam Shazeer and names Daniel de Freitas as his co-founder. The post lists backgrounds at Google Brain and Meta AI among the founding team.
Is Character AI available in Canada?
The posts reviewed describe a global web service and app launch without country limits, but Canadian availability and age rules were not verified in this article.
Related reading
- How Character AI works today
- What monitoring Character AI does
- Character AI and Google
- Another AI character chat app
More in AI Tools and Industry.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Introducing Character, Character AI blog, December 5, 2022
- Series A and the C1.2 model announcement, Character AI blog, March 23, 2023
- Introducing Character AI+, Character AI blog, May 11, 2023
- Character AI Launches Mobile App for iOS and Android, Character AI blog, May 23, 2023
- Character AI personalized chatbot service raises USD 150M at USD 1B valuation, SiliconANGLE, March 23, 2023