72% of US teens ages 13 to 17 have used an AI companion, and 52% use one at least a few times a month (Common Sense Media, Talk, Trust, and Trade-Offs 2025). The behavior is not confined to teenagers: Harvard Business Review ranked therapy and companionship as the No. 1 use of generative AI in 2025, up from outside the top spot a year earlier. Americans now log more than twice as many hours on AI companion apps as on dating apps, roughly 705 million versus 280 million hours in Q1 2026 (Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026). Category estimates range from $120 million in consumer mobile revenue in 2025 (Appfigures) to a $36.79 billion total addressable market (Grand View Research), depending on what counts as a companion. This analysis consolidates data from Common Sense Media, Sensor Tower, Grand View Research, Appfigures, Harvard Business Review, the MIT Media Lab, the Institute for Family Studies, and 11 other primary sources.
TL;DR
- 72% of US teens ages 13 to 17 have used an AI companion; 52% use one at least monthly (Common Sense Media, Talk, Trust, and Trade-Offs 2025).
- Therapy and companionship ranked the No. 1 use of generative AI in 2025, up from outside the top spot in 2024 (Harvard Business Review, 2025).
- The global AI companion market was estimated at $36.79 billion in 2025, projected to reach $317.96 billion by 2033 (Grand View Research, 2026).
- AI companion mobile apps were on track for more than $120 million in 2025 revenue, up 64% year over year (Appfigures via TechCrunch, 2025).
- US time on AI companion apps hit about 705 million hours in Q1 2026, more than double the ~280 million on dating apps (Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026).
- Character.AI drew about 223 million web visits in February 2025 and reports roughly 20 million monthly active users (Business of Apps, 2026).
- Replika surpassed 40 million registered users by 2025, up from 30 million in August 2024 (Business of Apps, 2025).
- 19% of US adults said they have chatted with an AI romantic partner; among men aged 18 to 30 it reached 31% (Wheatley Institute, BYU, February 2025).
- 9 of 10 leading AI companion apps collect data used to track their users (Surfshark, AI Companions and Privacy 2026).
- The FTC opened a Section 6(b) inquiry into AI companion chatbots at seven companies over child safety in September 2025 (FTC via CNN, 2025).
- In an OpenAI and MIT Media Lab trial of 981 people, higher daily companion-style use correlated with more loneliness and emotional dependence (MIT Media Lab, 2025).
1. Market Size and Revenue
The headline market figures disagree by two orders of magnitude, and the reason matters. Grand View Research’s multi-billion-dollar total addressable market folds in hardware, enterprise, and healthcare companion systems, while app-store trackers count only what consumers actually spend inside mobile apps. The most defensible consumer-revenue figure has AI companion apps on track to pull in more than $120 million in 2025, up 64% year over year, with revenue per download more than doubling to $1.18 (Appfigures via TechCrunch, August 2025). Treat the billion-dollar totals as ceilings, not consumer spend.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Global AI companion market, 2025 estimate | $36.79 billion | Grand View Research, 2026 |
| Global market forecast, 2033 (31.0% CAGR) | $317.96 billion | Grand View Research, 2026 |
| North America share of market, 2025 | Over 33% | Grand View Research, 2026 |
| Social interaction / companionship segment share, 2025 | 29.4% | Grand View Research, 2026 |
| Consumer mobile companion-app revenue, 2025 (on track) | Over $120 million | Appfigures via TechCrunch, 2025 |
| Alternative market estimate, 2024 to 2032 | $28.03 billion to $208.9 billion | Verified Market Research, 2025 |
Divergence note: the range from $28 billion to $37 billion for a single year shows how much “AI companion market size” depends on which products a firm chooses to count.
2. Downloads and the App Ecosystem
The category is crowded but top-heavy. There are 337 revenue-generating companion apps worldwide, yet the top 10% of apps capture 89% of all revenue (TechCrunch, August 2025). New entrants keep arriving, with 128 launched in 2025 alone, but only a handful ever reach scale. That is a long tail of hopefuls behind a few winners.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Lifetime companion-app downloads (as of July 2025) | 220 million | Appfigures via TechCrunch, 2025 |
| Active revenue-generating companion apps | 337 | Appfigures via TechCrunch, 2025 |
| New companion apps launched in 2025 | 128 | Appfigures via TechCrunch, 2025 |
| Share of revenue from the top 10% of apps | 89% | Appfigures via TechCrunch, 2025 |
| PolyBuzz downloads (Google Play) | 50 million-plus | Google Play, 2026 |
| Companion apps in a16z top-50 web ranking | Character.AI, Janitor AI, PolyBuzz, CrushOn, SpicyChat | a16z, March 2026 |
| Companion apps in a16z top-50 mobile ranking | Character.AI, PolyBuzz | a16z, March 2026 |
Outlier note: xAI’s July 2025 launch of Grok companions lifted iOS downloads 40% the next day but raised revenue only 9% to $337,000, suggesting novelty drives installs more than spending (TechCrunch, July 2025).
3. Platform Scale: Users by App
User counts across companion apps are noisy because vendors mix registered accounts, monthly actives, and web visitors without labeling which is which. Character.AI is the clear traffic leader, drawing about 223 million web visits in February 2025 against roughly 20 million monthly active users (Business of Apps, 2026). Replika’s 40 million-plus figure counts registered accounts, not active users, which sit closer to 2 million. Read every number below with that distinction in mind. For context on general-purpose assistants, see our AI chatbot statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Character.AI monthly active users, early 2025 | ~20 million | Business of Apps, 2026 |
| Character.AI web visits, February 2025 | 223 million | Business of Apps, 2026 |
| Replika registered users, 2025 (from 30M in Aug 2024) | 40 million-plus | Business of Apps, 2025 |
| Replika monthly active users | ~2 million | Business of Apps, 2025 |
| Snapchat My AI users / messages | 150 million-plus / 10 billion-plus | Snap Newsroom, 2023 |
| Xiaoice users worldwide (75% male) | 660 million | Euronews / Xiaoice, 2021 |
| Companion-app audience aged 18 to 24 | Over 65% | Statista, 2024 |
Data-age flags: Snap’s My AI messaging figures are its 2023 disclosure (US daily actives later grew 55% year over year, per CEO Evan Spiegel in April 2025); the Xiaoice 660 million figure is the most recent widely cited number and dates to 2021, unverified; the Statista age share reflects 2023 to 2024 data.
4. Engagement, Voice, and the Dating-App Crossover
Companion apps win on time, not just installs. US users spent about 705 million hours on AI companion apps in Q1 2026, versus roughly 280 million hours on dating and social-discovery apps, a reversal of the narrower gap a year earlier (Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026). Character.AI users average close to two hours a day on the platform, a stickiness most social apps never reach. Voice is increasingly the interface: Character.AI and Replika both shipped real-time voice calls in 2024 and 2025, moving companionship from typing to talking. For the broader shift, see our voice assistant statistics and how it compares to online dating trends.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Character.AI average time per user per day | ~2 hours | Business of Apps, 2026 |
| US AI companion app hours, Q1 2025 | ~580 million | Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026 |
| US AI companion app hours, Q3 2025 | ~715 million | Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026 |
| US AI companion app hours, Q1 2026 | ~705 million | Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026 |
| US dating app hours, Q1 2026 | ~280 million | Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026 |
| Companion-to-dating time ratio, Q1 2026 | More than 2 to 1 | Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026 |
Context note: total generative AI app time is projected to more than double year over year, to 36 billion hours in H1 2026 from 17.2 billion in H1 2025, so companion growth rides a larger wave (Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026).
5. Teens and AI Companions
This is the category’s most scrutinized cohort, and the data is genuinely mixed rather than uniformly alarming. 72% of US teens have tried an AI companion and 52% use one regularly, yet 80% still spend more time with real friends and two-thirds find AI conversation less satisfying than human contact (Common Sense Media, 2025). The concern sits in the tails: a third have taken a serious conversation to an AI over a person, and a third report discomfort with something a companion said or did.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US teens who have used an AI companion | 72% | Common Sense Media, 2025 |
| Regular users (a few times a month or more) | 52% | Common Sense Media, 2025 |
| Daily users | 13% | Common Sense Media, 2025 |
| Used companions for social interaction, roleplay, or emotional support | ~33% | Common Sense Media, 2025 |
| Find AI conversation as satisfying or more than with real friends | ~33% | Common Sense Media, 2025 |
| Felt uncomfortable with something a companion said or did | 34% | Common Sense Media, 2025 |
Outlier note: the same survey shows most teens remain ambivalent rather than dependent, still preferring human contact for the conversations that matter most.
6. Romance, Loneliness, and Voice-Mode Effects
Adult use is quieter but real, and it now tops the usage charts. Harvard Business Review ranked therapy and companionship as the No. 1 generative AI use case of 2025, ahead of organizing your life and finding purpose (Harvard Business Review, 2025). Romantic use is measurable too: a Wheatley Institute survey found 19% of US adults have chatted with an AI built to act like a romantic partner, rising to 31% of men aged 18 to 30. The clinical picture is cautious rather than catastrophic, but the voice findings are worth flagging. Readers exploring synthetic voices should understand text-to-speech statistics and how consent-based voice cloning software differs from impersonation.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Rank of therapy / companionship among gen AI uses, 2025 | No. 1 | Harvard Business Review, 2025 |
| Ranks of “organize my life” and “find purpose”, 2025 | No. 2 and No. 3 | Harvard Business Review, 2025 |
| US adults who have chatted with an AI romantic partner | 19% | Wheatley Institute, BYU, Feb 2025 |
| Men aged 18 to 30 who have (women 18 to 30: 23%) | 31% | Wheatley Institute, BYU, 2025 |
| Coupled young adults regularly using a romantic AI | ~15% (1 in 7) | Wheatley Institute, BYU, 2025 |
| Young adults who believe AI could replace real romance | 25% | Institute for Family Studies / YouGov, 2025 |
| OpenAI / MIT Media Lab randomized trial participants / messages | 981 / 300,000-plus | MIT Media Lab, 2025 |
Voice note: in the MIT Media Lab and OpenAI trial, higher daily use across all modes correlated with more loneliness and dependence, and participants who used a voice mode of a gender not their own reported significantly higher loneliness and emotional dependence (MIT Media Lab, 2025).
7. Safety, Privacy, and Regulation
Regulatory and privacy scrutiny arrived fast in 2025 and 2026. 9 of 10 leading AI companion apps collect data used to track their users, and Character.AI alone gathers 18 of 35 possible data types (Surfshark, AI Companions and Privacy 2026). Government action followed: the FTC issued Section 6(b) orders to seven companies over child safety, and Character.AI moved to bar minors from open-ended chat. The direction of travel is clearly toward age-gating and disclosure.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Leading companion apps collecting tracking data | 9 of 10 | Surfshark, 2026 |
| Data types collected by Character.AI (most of any studied) | 18 of 35 | Surfshark, 2026 |
| Apps collecting data for analytics | 10 of 10 | Surfshark, 2026 |
| Apps collecting data for personalization | 8 of 10 | Surfshark, 2026 |
| Companies issued FTC Section 6(b) orders, Sept 2025 | 7 | FTC via CNN, 2025 |
| Character.AI ends open-ended chat for under-18 users | Effective late Nov 2025 | Fortune, October 2025 |
Follow-up note: in January 2026, Google and Character.AI agreed to settle lawsuits alleging chatbot links to teen suicides, an early signal of legal exposure across the category (Fortune, 2026).
Summary: AI Companion Apps by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US teens who have used an AI companion | 72% | Common Sense Media, 2025 |
| Snapchat My AI messages sent | 10 billion-plus | Snap Newsroom, 2023 |
| Global AI companion market, 2025 | $36.79 billion | Grand View Research, 2026 |
| Global market forecast, 2033 | $317.96 billion | Grand View Research, 2026 |
| Alternative market estimate, 2032 | $208.9 billion | Verified Market Research, 2025 |
| Consumer mobile companion-app revenue, 2025 | Over $120 million | Appfigures via TechCrunch, 2025 |
| Character.AI web visits, February 2025 | 223 million | Business of Apps, 2026 |
| Replika registered users, 2025 | 40 million-plus | Business of Apps, 2025 |
| US AI companion app hours, Q1 2026 | ~705 million | Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026 |
| Rank of therapy / companionship among gen AI uses, 2025 | No. 1 | Harvard Business Review, 2025 |
| US adults who have chatted with an AI romantic partner | 19% | Wheatley Institute, BYU, 2025 |
| Men aged 18 to 30 who have chatted with a romantic AI | 31% | Wheatley Institute, BYU, 2025 |
| Coupled young adults regularly using a romantic AI | 1 in 7 | Wheatley Institute, BYU, 2025 |
| Young adults who believe AI could replace romance | 25% | Institute for Family Studies / YouGov, 2025 |
| Leading companion apps collecting tracking data | 9 of 10 | Surfshark, 2026 |
| Companies issued FTC Section 6(b) orders | 7 | FTC via CNN, 2025 |
| OpenAI / MIT Media Lab trial participants | 981 | MIT Media Lab, 2025 |
| Xiaoice users worldwide (2021, unverified) | 660 million | Euronews / Xiaoice, 2021 |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered by aggregating figures directly from primary reports, company disclosures, survey publications, government notices, and named app-intelligence trackers, prioritizing 2025 and 2026 releases and tracing trade-press coverage back to its original source; the Common Sense Media findings draw on a nationally representative survey of 1,060 US teens ages 13 to 17 fielded in April and May 2025.
- Common Sense Media, Talk, Trust, and Trade-Offs: How and Why Teens Use AI Companions (2025) - report, TechCrunch coverage
- Sensor Tower, State of AI 2026 - report
- Grand View Research, AI Companion Market Report (2026) - report
- Appfigures, via TechCrunch, AI companion apps on track to pull in $120M in 2025 (2025) - article
- Harvard Business Review, How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025 - article
- a16z, The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps, 6th Edition (March 2026) - report
- MIT Media Lab and OpenAI, longitudinal study on chatbot use and wellbeing (2025) - summary
- Institute for Family Studies / YouGov, AI and Relationships survey (2025) - analysis
- Wheatley Institute, Brigham Young University, AI romantic companions survey (February 2025) - analysis
- Surfshark Research, AI Companions and Privacy (2026) - study
- US Federal Trade Commission, Section 6(b) inquiry into AI companion chatbots (September 2025) - CNN report
- Fortune, Character.AI bans teen open-ended chat (October 2025) - article
- Business of Apps, Character.AI revenue and usage statistics (2026) - data
- TechCrunch, Grok AI companions drove downloads (July 2025) - article
- Snap Newsroom, Early Insights on My AI (2023) - post
- Google Play, PolyBuzz app listing (2026) - download reference
- Verified Market Research, AI Companion Market (2025) - market-size divergence reference
- Statista, AI companion apps usage by age (2024) - demographic reference
- Euronews, Meet Xiaoice (2021) - historical user figure, flagged as most recent available
Data watch: Common Sense Media typically publishes annual teen-AI research, so a 2026 successor to Talk, Trust, and Trade-Offs is expected; Sensor Tower refreshes its State of AI report through the year; a16z updates its Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps roughly every six months, with a next edition likely in H2 2026; Grand View Research revises its AI companion market sizing annually; and the FTC’s Section 6(b) findings, once released, will supersede the current inquiry-stage reporting.
Last updated: July 9, 2026. We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.