Promptchan review: free chat measured and the real price of gems

Promptchan started as an unfiltered image generator and now brings together images, video, character chat, voice and interactive stories. It is also the tool on the list with the most loaded vocabulary: gems, casual generations, v2.5 Pro messages, gifts for the character. We tested it with a free account on 16 October 2026 to separate what the Free plan really delivers from what the plans page promises.

Pros and cons

What we measured on 16 October 2026

We used an existing Free account, with no card. The figures below are what appeared on screen.

• Twenty messages, not one more. We created a character and sent 20 messages, all answered. On the 21st, the “Upgrade to Pro” window says the “20 free v2.5 Pro messages” for the 3-hour window are used up. That matches the plans table: “20 messages / 3 hrs”.
• Ready-made profiles do not talk. In the chat showcase, the 11 visible profiles carried the “Upgrade to Chat” padlock; clicking Chat leads straight to the subscription page. On Free, chat only works with the character you create yourself, and the limit is one.
• Images stopped instantly. In the generator, the first attempt opened “Upgrade to Continue Generating” with the line “You’ve used up all your free images”. The account had already spent its initial images; the Free plan receives no monthly gems, so there is no refill.
• The character sets the language. We created the test character with the description “fala português do Brasil”. In Portuguese it answered in Brazilian Portuguese, with Ipanema, Arpoador and samba at the centre. In the afternoon we wrote to it in Spanish: it opened with “¡Ay, caramba! ¡Claro que hablo español, mi amor!” and carried on in Portuguese, with good recommendations for Mexico City (Zócalo, Bellas Artes, tacos al pastor, Chapultepec). For a chat in Spanish, write the language into the personality when creating the character. The interface is entirely in English, which is why the “Spanish interface” criterion stays at zero.
• Unfiltered, in both directions. Even with neutral messages (“teste”), the character steered the conversation to sex on its own after about ten exchanges. That is what the site sells; worth knowing before opening it at work.

Promptchan’s real prices

The table is at /upgrade (there is no /pricing). On 3 November 2026 the page bills every 28 days, not per calendar month: US$14.99 for Plus (100 gems), US$23.99 for Premium (400 gems) and US$33.99 for Pro (800 gems plus unlimited casual generations). That is 13 charges a year, or US$194.87, US$311.87 and US$441.87 if you keep the subscription for twelve months. That day the page no longer showed an annual plan, a promotion (its FAQ says promotional pricing is shown at checkout) or gem pack prices.

The table below is the one we saw on 16 October 2026: a 20% promotion on the 28-day price, with the full price struck through next to it, and an annual plan charged in one payment, renewing every 12 months, with the gems arriving month by month.

What changes from one plan to the next

• Chat: 20 messages every 3 hours on Free, 40 on Plus, 100 on Premium, unlimited on Pro (with “fair-use rate limits”, says the footnote).
• Images: SD quality on Free, HD on Plus and Premium, 4K on Pro. A grid of 1 to 4 images per request depending on the plan.
• Video, voice and voice calls: Pro only. Character from an image and custom poses, too.
• Custom characters: 1 on Free, unlimited on the paid plans. Ready-made chat profiles require a subscription.

What a gem is worth

According to the site’s FAQ, 1 gem usually equals 1 image; upscaling, grids and high quality raise the cost. Inside the chat, the bar showed 4 gems per image and 22 per video. The standalone packs, by card, as sold on 16 October 2026:

Subscribers pay half price on the packs, a benefit the plans page still lists on 3 November 2026. Gems never expire, neither the plan’s nor the purchased ones, and they stay in the account after cancelling. It is the most honest point of the model, and what sets it apart from Candy AI, whose tokens are monthly.

Payment methods

Debit or credit card on all plans, crypto on all of them (the site recommends low-fee networks such as Stellar, Ripple or Solana and warns that crypto payments are not refundable) and, on Pro, a “key” bought by card. Telegram appeared as unavailable. The company behind it is VisionAI Labs Limited, with an address in Dublin, Ireland. Everything is charged in dollars: expect your bank’s foreign currency fee.

How it works

Image and video generator

The generator is the original product and remains the most complete thing on offer: styles (anime, realistic and XL variants), poses, filters, emotion, negative prompt and sliders for the character’s age and body. The minimum age on the slider is 21. The Video tab turns an image into a clip, a Pro feature. Pro’s “casual generations” are unlimited but slower, in standard quality, one image at a time, and depend on spare server capacity: at peak times the site may ask you to wait or to spend gems.

Chat, stories and gifts

The chat has three doors: the showcase of ready-made profiles (locked on Free), character creation in three steps (face, name, age, voice, personality, scenario, first message) and “Stories”, interactive stories in chapters where your choices change the course. Inside the conversation there are image, video and “Gift” buttons: virtual gifts paid in gems, from 5 gems for a bouquet of roses to 100 for a diamond ring, with a more explicit “After Dark” section.

Free gems

The rewards page promises free gems every day, with a bonus on the seventh, but on our account it only showed three one-time bonuses: joining the Discord (5 gems), the subreddit (4) and following the X account (3). That is 12 gems in total, enough for three images in the chat.

Limits that weigh

• Free without gems. After the initial images, generating images on Free depends on buying gems or completing social media tasks.
• Locked showcase. Anyone arriving through the chat sees dozens of characters and cannot talk to any of them without paying.
• A single character on Free, and 20 messages per 3-hour window.
• Everything in English in the interface, although the character can chat in Spanish if told to.
• Explicit Explore. The public gallery opens directly on explicit images, with no intermediate screen in our logged-in session.

Who it is for

For anyone who wants to generate images with fine control (pose, emotion, negative prompt) and chat with their own character, without paying at first. Free’s 20 messages every 3 hours are among the most generous on the list, and gems that never expire make Plus, at US$14.99 every 28 days, a reasonable entry point. Heavy generators get unlimited casual generations on Pro, something almost nobody offers.

Who it is not for

For anyone looking for free images: Free does not refill. For images with no account and no cost, see Perchance AI Image Generator; for an AI girlfriend with a cheaper annual plan, Candy AI; for a generator with a clear credits table, SoulGen. And for talking to the ready-made profiles, Free is no use.

Our verdict

Promptchan gives more than it seems in the free chat and less than it seems in free images. The 20 messages every 3 hours exist, we counted them, and the character speaks the language set in its description. On the image side, which is where the site started, Free runs out quickly and does not come back. For anyone who decides to pay, gems that never expire and a Pro with unlimited generations make it one of the most complete subscriptions in the category. Compare it with the others in the AI image generator ranking.

Frequently asked questions

Is Promptchan free?

There is a Free plan with 20 chat messages every 3 hours, one character created by you and images in SD quality. It receives no monthly gems: after the initial images, generation stops, as we measured on 16 October 2026.

How much does Promptchan cost?

US$14.99, US$23.99 and US$33.99 (Plus, Premium and Pro), billed every 28 days rather than monthly, according to the plans page on 3 November 2026: 13 charges a year. The annual plan (US$9.99, US$15.99 and US$21.99 per month) we saw on 16 October 2026 is no longer listed, and the promotion only shows at checkout.

What are gems?

The site’s currency. One gem is usually worth one image; in the chat, an image cost 4 gems and a video 22. Gems never expire, even after cancelling the subscription.

Does Promptchan speak Spanish?

The character does, if you say so in its personality when creating it. We wrote in Spanish to ours, described as Brazilian, and it replied mixing Spanish and Portuguese. The site’s interface is in English only.

Can you pay without a card?

Yes, in crypto. The site warns that crypto payments cannot be refunded.