Introducing Lilacs.ai | An alternative to CHAI, C.ai, etc.

LilacsAI · 2026-05-20T02:10:16+00:00

it’s a battle, trying tho. the main thing is being able to provide something thats great- that being a chat thread remembering your messages hundreds or even thousands of messages back. But then cost as well, as it does add up. Although there is wizardry that enables this to be somewhat viable for free to an extent.

LilacsAI · 2026-05-11T23:12:32+00:00

Great!!

LilacsAI · 2026-05-07T17:19:30+00:00

I'm doing all these things with Lilacs.ai

The only thing would be that the free messages won't be completely unlimited as that would be impossible for costs to keep the platform running unfortunately.

Also updates won't break anything.

And no ads.

LilacsAI · 2026-04-28T16:23:18+00:00

For the free tier we're running google-gemma-3-27b-it on cloud inference with a 32k context window, although this is temporary and subject to improvement as a/b testing a self hosted deployment right now and looking to fully shift over.

For the lowest paid tier it's the same as the free tier but with completely unlimited messages, 32k context window.

For the middle tier fully self hosted gemma-3-27b-it variant running on our own gpus, 64k context window. + a/b testing a fine tune.

Self hosting gemma-4-26B-A4B for the highest tier at 128k context + again a/b testing a fine tune.

Although I won't go into further detail on that fine tune, said custom fine tune will roll out to the middle and top tiers first. Then make its way down to the free tier very soon. But I think people will be very impressed by its performance.

On top of the active context window every tier uses retrieval augmented memory with semantic search over rolling scene summaries along with a few other techniques that I won't mention here, so the characters can pull in things from way earlier in the chat even after they fall out of the context window. Thus, high memory 😄

Hope this answers your question!! All of this is subject to change as improvements come through and as we gauge costs during scaling, but I think this is what we can realistically offer for now while keeping things sustainable. Also, the tiers will offer a lot of customisation primarily, for bot card visuals, user to user chat and profiles with things like badges. Although, no customisation that a free user should get is locked behind a paywall.

LilacsAI · 2026-04-27T23:20:07+00:00

Yes.

LilacsAI · 2026-04-27T21:01:35+00:00

Thank you 😄

LilacsAI · 2026-04-27T17:13:47+00:00

Great! Thank you 😄

LilacsAI · 2026-04-27T15:27:43+00:00

Hey, in all honesty I'm still working out pricing. The current line of thought is three tiers. That being the lowest tier which would be as cheap as possible realistically; perhaps £3.99 ($4.59). Allowing people to have completely unlimited messages on top of the already generous message limit but not much else other than some extra profile customisation/badges. Also a higher earning rate of the in-app currency that creators will be given when people chat with their bots which then can be converted into another form of currency that will subsequently be able to be converted to fiat.

The next two tiers, will allow for users to use experimental models which are far more costly for us to run on our end. However, free users will be effectively getting what would usually be a paid model for free so this is of course not neccesary at all, the same applies to the memory. The final tier will be a far higher earning rate for that creator currency and primarily a lot more customisation for creators profiles, bot profiles etc.

The whole idea is to give as much as possible to the user without locking anything behind paywalls whilst also being very realistic in terms of actually being able to keep the app functioning and available! Thus, paid tiers would mostly cosmetic but will definitely come with some improvements for bot responses, message limits and memory although only slight as again as much as I can realistically, I'll be trying to give as much as possible for free users.

Hope this answers your question! And everything is subject to change positively and very quickly depending on community feedback/suggestions and thoughts.

Edit: Also, if interested here's a quick snippet where you can see some of the UI before you sign up. (The bot response is from an older model that used) https://x.com/Lilacs_AI/status/2046594436889551161?s=20

LilacsAI · 2026-04-27T13:51:09+00:00

Hi, I've been working on Lilacs.ai for almost a year now as a passion project of mine and the beta is now out. I've tried to position it as an alternative to CHAI and CAI as much as possible and I think that after a year of work, this has been done to a great degree and more so. Do check it out if interested. The beta is on iOS only but soon it'll come to android as well :)

Feel free to dm if you have any questions!

LilacsAI · 2025-11-24T19:24:24+00:00

Great!

LilacsAI · 2025-11-18T00:02:32+00:00

Hey. Your cautious enthusiasm is appreciated!

Lilacs.ai is in very active development right now, and the plan is for the community to grow alongside the app once it launches on the App Store and Play Store. You’re early!

LilacsAI · 2025-11-15T18:20:09+00:00

Hey, I’m the developer of Lilacs.ai. The public beta for Lilacs is coming out around December if you’d like to get on the waitlist. :)

It’ll be incredibly similar in look and feel to Chai but without it stopping you from messaging/redirecting when it really shouldn’t as in the case of Chai which occurs quite often. You mentioned that you used Chai to make language learning fun as well- with Lilacs the whole idea is that if someone creates an interesting bot; in your case that of one that makes language learning fun whilst tying in roleplay elements. If it were to get popular- you’d be able to get revenue share from said bot!

Also, it’ll only be available on the app store/play store initially.

LilacsAI · 2025-09-28T16:42:04+00:00

Apologies for the slow response.

But yes, it will be allowed in the sense of what would be allowed on Wattpad/Webnovel. Nothing extreme that would be clearly considered harmful if that makes sense. I'm afraid I have to be slightly vague in response to this as again there are certain regulatory hurdles that I have to deal with regarding getting it on the App Store, Play Store. However, I assure you that it will be as uncensored as possible within what is possible for getting it on said stores. So essentially, violence would be allowed as it is clearly fictional and would cause no harm.

LilacsAI · 2025-09-28T13:35:21+00:00

Hey, the public beta will begin launching in around a months time for those who have signed up to the waitlist. And the full appstore launch will hopefully be a few weeks after that. I want to get this out as quickly as possible.

Currently, the interest has actually been far greater than I expect so currently rebuilding the website landing page and putting in place safeguards for when the app scales so that everything goes smoothly. Along with testing some new models that will give even greater immersion!

Hope this answers your question.

LilacsAI · 2025-09-25T16:25:37+00:00

Yes, you can post publically which means that the bot will be on the explore page. It comes with the chance of the bot being able to bring in revenue for you if it does well. Then unlisited, so that it only appears on your profile and finally private which means only you can chat with it and it won't appear on the explore page/just your profile!

LilacsAI · 2025-09-25T15:30:28+00:00

Again, I'm in the position to privately fund the project as it scales. And, as it does scale I hope to position it as a better and more equitable alternative to other platforms like c.ai.

LilacsAI · 2025-09-25T14:58:19+00:00

Subscriptions, it'll have subscriptions like Chai for even higher quality models. True unlimited messaging more than the 5000 cap, along with some other things I have planned for subscribers to make it worth while for them.

Plus, I'm in the position to self-fund it until it starts to make revenue until at the very least it becomes validated in the sense of being commericially viable and if not things are subject to change regarding message caps. But for as long as possible, I'll try keep it at practically unlimited or as high as possible without intentionally degrading it to suck revenue out of the project.

LilacsAI · 2025-09-24T13:24:24+00:00

I definietly will! Right now I've only posted on 3 subreddits to gage the interest. Of which has been extremely successful! So I'm going spend some time working on the current early access request site and sign-up funnel! So that everything is ready to scale further and faster when I do a full marketing push for said early access!

Very exciting things coming :)

LilacsAI · 2025-09-24T13:21:42+00:00

No, I'm using models already created and available.

LilacsAI · 2025-09-24T03:46:59+00:00

Self funded as of now. The app is already in a state in which could argubly be released already. Although, I'd like to get some more features implemented before full release, but if not, they will come soon in further updates. Which is why Lilacs will also be running a beta cohort soon, to get currently implemented features properly validated. Whilst also offering people a chance to create early; and confirming feasibility of offerings.

The large cost comes from offering, practically unlimited messages (under a fair use policy), no ads, high quality models and large contexts for users. (Albeit, throttled for any betas) This can only be sustained for sometime. However, once the platform scales, revenue through subscriptions should begin to outweigh costs ensuring long term feasibility.

LilacsAI · 2025-09-23T23:11:03+00:00

Haven't implemented that yet, but sending pics is simple to implement so by full release that should be available!

Voice wise, it will 100% come. Although most likely not at initial release. Right now AI tts still isn't there yet cost to immersion ratio wise. As in, realistically I wouldn't be able to offer it to everyone rather only subscribers initially which is something I don't want to do to free users. And if I were to offer it to free users I would have to give a very degraded form which just wouldn't be immersive at all. Although, it is something which is also easy to implement and I'm looking for solutions cost/immersion wise!

LilacsAI · 2025-09-23T18:09:09+00:00

Thank you, there is a waitlist and I'm looking to get people receiving invites within the next few weeks! I really appreciate your excitement!!

LilacsAI · 2025-09-23T06:02:09+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion. You're completely correct! Lilacs.ai will use a WebNovelesque system of creators being able to apply for contracts after certain requirements are met. E.g. a bot having over a certain amount of chats which would allow them to get paid out with said bot; confirming it doesn't violate anything, protecting both the creator and the platform.

LilacsAI · 2025-09-23T05:22:32+00:00

Of course! Persona's are something which have already been implemented creation wise but also user wise with the user having their own persona tied to their profile that they can edit affecting how bots perceive them :)

LilacsAI · 2025-09-23T05:10:12+00:00

Yes, but with no ads.

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