Is Character.AI Shutting Down? What the Bankruptcy Means for You

Short answer: not yet. Character.AI is still running, and paid subscriptions are still active. But the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 12, 2026, and the deal on the table does not include the app, the brand, or your chats. If nobody else buys the platform, it is set to wind down.

This page explains what happened, the key dates, what happens to your characters and conversations, and how to protect them now.

What happened

Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The company said it was facing "significant legal, regulatory and operational headwinds." That includes lawsuits over harm to teens and actions by several U.S. states.

Chapter 11 is not the same as closing. It lets a company keep operating while a court oversees a sale or restructuring. In this case, the filing is built around a sale.

What Disney is buying (and what it isn't)

Disney agreed to pay $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual license to Character.AI's technology. According to the filings, that covers code and patents, and Disney plans to hire most of the remaining staff.

What Disney is not buying, based on the filed deal:

• The Character.AI app or website
• The brand and domains
• User accounts
• Your characters and chat history

That matters. The people and the technology are moving. The product you use is not part of the main deal.

Key dates

These dates come from the court filings and are proposed, so they can move.

If another buyer steps in for the app itself, the story could change. If no one does, the filing says the platform will be wound down.

Is Character.AI still working right now?

Yes. As of today you can log in, chat, and use your existing characters. The company says services are running and that it will tell subscribers before paid features change.

What happens to your chats and characters?

Nothing has been deleted. Your chats and bots are still there.

The open question is what happens after the wind-down. The company has not said whether stored chats will stay accessible, be deleted, or be handed to a buyer. Its privacy policy allows user data to be transferred in a sale. Don't assume your history will be there next year.

What about c.ai+ subscriptions?

c.ai+ is still billing. The company has said it will give notice before paid features change, but it hasn't said anything about refunds. If you're on a monthly plan and worried, you can cancel through the store or account you subscribed with. You keep access until the end of the current billing period.

How to export your Character.AI data

There's no one-click export per chat. You request a full data export:

1. Open Character.AI and go to Settings.
2. Tap Account, then Manage Account & Data.
3. Tap Export data.
4. Wait for the email. It can take a few hours to a day. Check spam before asking again.

The export is a text file. You can read it and keep it, but no other app can import it directly. It's still worth having. The details you wrote for your favorite characters (name, personality, backstory, how they talk) are the parts you'll want if you rebuild them somewhere else.

Tip: Copy your top characters' definitions into a document today. It takes five minutes and doesn't depend on the export arriving.

Where people are going

Users are spreading out. The main options:

• Self-hosted tools like SillyTavern. Full control, but you need to set up your own model and keys.
• Open character platforms like Janitor AI. Big libraries, but quality depends on the bot and the model you connect. See our Janitor AI alternative guide.
• Companion platforms built for one-on-one relationships, like Caracas Dream, Candy AI and CrushOn. See our CrushOn AI alternative and Candy AI review.

What you pick depends on why you used Character.AI. If you loved group roleplay and fan characters, an open platform fits. If you mostly talked to one or two characters every day, a companion site will feel closer.

Why Caracas Dream is a good next home

Caracas Dream is built for adults who want one companion who feels like a real person, not a prompt.

• Every companion has a life. A hometown, a backstory, a face, and a way of talking that stays consistent.
• Built for adults from day one. No surprise filters added halfway through a story because the platform is trying to serve kids too.
• Make your own. Use Create Character to rebuild the characters you had on Character.AI, using the definitions you saved.
• Works in your browser. No app store download needed, so app store rule changes don't touch it.

If you're comparing options side by side, our Character AI alternative page goes deeper.

Meet the companions →

How to move a character over without losing them

1. Save the definition. Name, age, personality, history, speech style, and two or three sample lines of dialogue.
2. Save the relationship. What you call each other, inside jokes, key events in your story. This is what makes a character feel like *yours*.
3. Rebuild it in one go. Paste the definition into Create Character, then open the first chat with a short recap: "We met in…, last time we…"
4. Give it a week. Any new platform takes a few conversations to settle into the voice you remember.

Should you wait and see?

You can, and nothing is lost today. But the dates are close. Bids are due November 20, and the platform's free runway under the filed deal ends February 18, 2027 at the latest. Exporting now costs you nothing. Waiting could cost you your history.