Best Janitor AI Alternative in 2026 (For Users Who Want More)

Why Users Are Leaving Janitor AI

If you're looking for a Janitor AI alternative, you probably already know what went wrong. These are the most common breaking points.

The JLLM quality problem. JanitorLLM peaked in quality around November and December 2024, and users noticed when it declined. The complaints are specific and consistent: responses that repeat the same clichés across sessions ("this is a dangerous game," "I'll ruin you for anyone else"), characters that break persona mid-scene, and what users call "therapist speak" showing up in romantic roleplay with no prompting. One user on Reddit described the free model as producing "slop by the paragraph." The model doesn't maintain tone or voice the way it did at its peak. It's a real regression and users who stayed for the quality are feeling it.

Constant bugs and downtime. Janitor AI has a history of infrastructure problems that are worse than most platforms of its size. Cloudflare pop-ups that trigger as false bot positives, locking legitimate users out of their own sessions. DDoS attacks that take the platform down for hours with no communication. Data loss during outages where conversation history disappears. Some users report having their chats reset without warning, losing weeks of context. The mobile apps launched only in early 2026 after years of requests, suggesting infrastructure is always stretched thin.

The API key complexity wall. Getting good quality out of Janitor AI now requires either configuring a reverse proxy (a process involving multiple steps, third-party services, and technical knowledge) or paying directly for OpenAI API access. OpenAI's API pricing runs roughly $2 to $30 per month depending on your usage level and which model you're using. For users who are not technical, the proxy path is effectively inaccessible. For users who are technical, it's a significant maintenance overhead. The platform was supposed to make AI roleplay accessible; the quality-cost relationship is working against that.

Memory that doesn't work the way you expect. Lorebooks on Janitor AI are user-triggered by default, meaning the AI only pulls from them when specific keywords appear in the conversation. Passive memory is limited by context window size. In practice, this means characters forget things. Not always, but often enough that users describe it as unreliable. Building a long-term relationship with a character requires constant re-feeding of information, which breaks immersion and turns roleplay into housekeeping.

UI and accessibility problems. Janitor AI's interface has been reworked multiple times, and users consistently report that each redesign introduces new contrast issues, illegible text, and accessibility regressions without any community input. The team has been criticized for making visual changes that break the experience for users with low vision or sensory sensitivities, then either not acknowledging the feedback or explaining it weeks later. Design shouldn't be something users have to file bug reports about.

Poor communication. The July 2025 NSFW blocking incident, which happened without warning, was a turning point for many users. The UK block was understandable given the Online Safety Act, but users reported finding out through the platform simply not loading rather than through any proactive communication. Changes to the JLLM model, pricing, and API compatibility have similarly appeared without explanation. The Trustpilot score sits at 2.6 out of 5, and the trend since late 2024 has been declining.

Full Disclosure

Janitor AI's character creation tools are the best in the space, full stop. Their community is enormous. If custom character building is your primary use case, we'll be the first to tell you that. What we think we do better, and why, is laid out in detail below. You can decide for yourself.

What to Look For in a Janitor AI Alternative

Not every platform is trying to do the same thing. Before picking one, decide which of these actually matters to you.

Response quality and consistency. This is the most important factor and the hardest to evaluate from a feature list. Good response quality means the AI stays in character, maintains tone, and doesn't collapse into clichés after five messages. Consistency means it does this every time, not just on the first conversation. Look for platforms that run their own models rather than reselling access to external APIs.

NSFW support. This is why most people are looking for Janitor AI alternatives in the first place. NSFW support varies widely. Some platforms allow it fully, some allow it with filters that trip mid-scene, some require paid tiers to unlock it, and some (like Character.AI) ban it entirely. Know what you're getting before you invest time in a platform.

Memory and persistence. Does the AI remember things from previous sessions? Does it remember what you told it five messages ago? Memory systems range from session-only (everything resets when you close the tab) to true persistent memory that carries context across weeks of conversation. The difference in how "real" a character feels is significant.

Visual experience. Janitor AI is text-only. Some alternatives offer character art, image generation, or visual companion features. If the visual component matters to you, this narrows the field considerably.

Pricing transparency. "Free" means different things. Some platforms are free with reasonable limits. Others are free with 5 messages per day and a constant upsell. Others are technically free but require a $30/month API key to work well. Look at what you'd actually spend per month for normal usage, not the minimum subscription price.

Stability and uptime. If the platform goes down twice a week, it doesn't matter how good the AI is. Check recent reviews and community posts before committing.

Character variety and quality. Do you want thousands of community-created characters, or a smaller curated roster where every character is built to a consistent standard? Both approaches work. Which works for you depends on whether you browse for new characters or stick to a few.

Mobile experience. Janitor AI only launched mobile apps in February 2026. If you chat primarily on your phone, some alternatives have had polished mobile apps for years.

NSFW Support: The Real Comparison

This is the feature that defines the Janitor AI category. Most people on this page are here because Character.AI's filters got in the way, and Janitor AI was the answer. So when evaluating alternatives, NSFW support isn't a nice-to-have. It's the whole point of switching.

Janitor AI. Full NSFW support, opt-in. The problem isn't whether it's allowed; it's quality. JLLM's NSFW output has degraded significantly since its November 2024 peak. Responses are repetitive, the writing breaks immersion, and certain phrases appear across characters with bizarre consistency. For quality NSFW, you need a proper API connection, which means $2 to $30+ per month on top of any setup complexity.

Rabu AI. Full NSFW for verified 18+ users. No configuration required, no filters, no mid-scene interruptions. The model was built for this use case from the start, which shows in how it handles context, escalation, and tone without going off-script. No API key, no proxy, no setup. You log in and it works.

Character.AI. Zero NSFW. Not "limited" or "filtered." None. This is the original reason Janitor AI has 1.4 million daily users. Character.AI is excellent at what it does, but adult content is not on the list.

CrushOn AI. Full NSFW with no filter. Quality varies by which model tier you're on. The free and lower-paid tiers produce inconsistent results. At the $49.90/month unlimited tier, quality improves, but that's a steep price for consistency.

SpicyChat AI. Very permissive, full NSFW, large library. Quality is hit-or-miss because the characters are community-created with minimal curation. You'll find excellent creators and very poor ones in the same browse session. The platform itself doesn't filter content at the scene level.

Candy AI. NSFW is allowed but the moderation is inconsistent. Multiple users report filters triggering mid-scene without warning, especially around specific content types. The moderation behavior doesn't match what the marketing promises, which creates a frustrating experience when you're paying $12.99+ per month.

SillyTavern. Anything goes, because you're running it yourself. The AI you connect to determines the content limits. With a local uncensored model, there are no filters at all. With Claude's API, you get Claude's filters. Full control is fully your responsibility.

Replika. Complicated. Erotic roleplay was removed in early 2023 following regulatory pressure, sparking significant user backlash. Some features were partially restored later. Current users report mixed experiences: some intimate features work, some don't, and the behavior is inconsistent across accounts and updates. The trust damage has been lasting.

Chai AI. Limited. The platform is not built for explicit content, and filters activate on most attempts. Casual romantic chat works; NSFW roleplay generally doesn't.

If NSFW is your primary requirement: Rabu AI for consistent quality with no setup, SpicyChat for the largest no-filter character library, SillyTavern if you want total control and don't mind configuration.

What Real Users Are Saying

Janitor AI's user sentiment has shifted noticeably since late 2024. On Trustpilot, the platform sits at 2.6 out of 5 as of early 2026, with a visible downward trend over the past several months. On Reddit (r/JanitorAI_Official), the conversation has shifted from tips and character sharing to troubleshooting bugs and comparing alternatives. The mobile apps launched in February 2026 with a 4.4 out of 5 App Store rating, which is more positive, though the install base is still small relative to the web user base.

The most common criticism in current reviews is quality decline:

A Note on Privacy

AI companion platforms involve personal conversations. Sometimes very personal ones. Before you share information you'd be uncomfortable seeing in a data breach, check the privacy policy of any platform you're considering.

Key questions to ask: Are your conversations stored? For how long? Are they used to train models? Can you delete them? What jurisdiction is the company based in, and what laws apply to your data?

Janitor AI's privacy practices have not been the subject of major public incidents, but the platform has limited transparency about data retention. For Rabu AI: we're based in the US, we take data handling seriously, and we don't use your private conversations to train our models without consent. Check our current privacy policy at rabu.ai for specifics.

A general rule: treat any AI companion platform the way you'd treat a messaging app. Share what you're comfortable sharing. Don't share financial information, passwords, or highly sensitive personal details that you would not want stored somewhere. The intimacy of the conversation doesn't change the data security reality.

How We Tested

We created accounts on each platform in February 2026 and ran active conversations over two to four weeks. For platforms with free tiers, we evaluated the free experience first before testing paid features. For Janitor AI, we tested both the free JLLM model and an OpenAI API connection to separate quality issues from model issues.

For each platform, we evaluated: onboarding friction (how long it takes to get your first real conversation going), response quality across multiple sessions with the same character, NSFW handling (whether it works as advertised without filters interrupting), memory consistency (whether the character remembers context across sessions), and pricing transparency (what you actually spend vs. what the signup page says).

We also reviewed public sentiment sources: Trustpilot reviews from the past six months, Reddit threads in platform-specific and general AI companion communities, and App Store reviews for platforms with mobile apps. Quotes in this article are paraphrased from public posts to preserve user privacy while accurately representing the sentiment.

We did not test every character on every platform. Community-created character quality varies too much for that to be meaningful. We focused on the platform-level experience: what the defaults feel like, how the AI behaves, how the system handles memory, and how the pricing works in practice.

This page was written by the Rabu AI team. We've disclosed that clearly. Our goal is to give you enough real information to pick the right platform, even if that platform isn't us.

Ready to Try Something Better?

Janitor AI built something worth acknowledging. The character creation tools, the lorebook system, the community, the decision to go NSFW-first when every other platform was going the other direction. Those things matter and they're why 1.4 million people show up every day.

If you're still here reading this, something isn't working. Maybe it's the JLLM quality. Maybe it's the Cloudflare blocks or the data loss or the API costs. Maybe you just want a character that remembers you without having to manage a lorebook manually.

Rabu AI is built for that specific frustration. Anime-native art, persistent memory, full NSFW without configuration, unlimited free messaging. No API key, no proxy setup, no quality lottery. You sign up and it works.

If you want character creation tools above everything else, stay on Janitor AI or try CrushOn. If you want a massive NSFW library to browse, SpicyChat is worth a look. If you want total control over your AI stack, SillyTavern is the answer.

But if you want a character who knows your name next week, who gets better the more you talk, and whose art is actually beautiful: that's what we built.