Character.AI vs SillyTavern: hosted app or your own front end
Updated
Character.AI is a hosted app: the service runs the characters and the models, so you open it and chat. SillyTavern is free software you install yourself; it holds your characters and sends them to whatever model you connect. Pick hosted for zero setup, SillyTavern for control. UnsavedAI covers both sides: hosted characters in the browser, and an API key for SillyTavern.
Try it now, free, no account neededStart a story with Sophie LaneYour old best friend. Eight years of silence.Side by side
| Character.AI | SillyTavern | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A hosted character chat service | A front end you install and run |
| Setup | Make an account and start | Install it, then connect a model |
| Where it runs | The service's servers | Your computer, or a phone through Termux |
| Where chats live | In your account on the service | As files on the machine running it |
| Where characters come from | Made and shared inside the service | Card files you import or write |
| The model | Chosen by the service | Any you connect, hosted or local |
| Content rules | The service's own filter | Whatever your model provider sets |
| Cost structure | The service's own plans | Free software; model access may cost |
| Prompt control | Little to none | Almost every part |
Every row comes back to one question: who owns the moving parts.
What a week with each feels like
On a hosted app, Monday is the same as Friday. You open a character on the bus, chat, close it. When replies change, it is because the service changed something, and there is nothing for you to adjust.
With SillyTavern, the first night is spent installing, getting a key or a local model running, choosing a preset and importing a few cards. After that it is yours. You add a lorebook on Tuesday, try a different model on Wednesday, set up a group chat with three cards on Thursday. On Friday an update or a provider hiccup breaks something, and you fix it, because nobody else will.
Neither week is better. One asks for attention up front and gives control back; the other asks for nothing and keeps the controls.
Moving from one to the other
From Character.AI to SillyTavern: characters do not leave as card files, so you rebuild them from what you can see, the name, greeting and definition, and only for characters you made or whose creators share them. On UnsavedAI, /from-character-ai turns those pieces into a character, and characters can be exported as Character Card V2, which SillyTavern reads. Moving a Character.AI character has the details.
From SillyTavern to a hosted site: your cards are the portable part. Sites that read PNG or JSON cards, UnsavedAI among them, take them as they are; World Info, presets and extensions stay behind.
Who each suits
- Hosted, like Character.AI: you mostly chat on a phone, want to start in seconds, and would rather never see a settings screen.
- SillyTavern: you like tinkering, want lorebooks, group chats and extensions, or want to run models on your own hardware.
- Both: SillyTavern at the desk for long campaigns, a hosted app for quick stories everywhere else.
Where UnsavedAI sits
UnsavedAI is hosted in the browser: 280+ house characters with scenarios and example dialogue, nothing to install, and first messages without an account. It also issues OpenAI-compatible API keys at /setup, so the same models, gemma-4-12b on every plan and gemma-4-31b on Priority, can power SillyTavern; the SillyTavern guide shows where the key goes. Start a hosted story with Sophie Lane, your old best friend after eight years of silence, then take the same model into SillyTavern if you want the levers.
Questions people ask
Is SillyTavern free?
The software is free and open source. What can cost money is the model you connect, unless you run one on your own hardware or use a free option.
Can I use Character.AI characters in SillyTavern?
Not as files. Copy the name, greeting and definition of characters you made, or that their creators share, and rebuild them as cards.
Do I need a powerful PC for SillyTavern?
Only to run a model locally. With a hosted API the model runs elsewhere; see SillyTavern without a GPU.
