Chub AI test drive

Chub AI is a character chat platform that plugs into language models, either its own or ones you connect with your own API key. The site and character hub are free, but free chatting beyond a few dozen trial messages means bringing your own API or model; the subscription is $20 a month, paid in crypto only. This is a test drive: I read the official subscription, terms, privacy and docs pages on Oct 25, 2026, and did not pay for anything.

What it is

Chub connects to large language models and presents them as a chatbot service for user-created characters. It describes itself as “uncensored”. It was formed from CharacterHub, a character card sharing site, and Venus AI, a chat interface. The terms of service refer to it as “Chub (AKA CharHub)”.

No legal company name or country is given in the terms or privacy policy. That matters if you ever need to complain to someone, because you would not know which law applies.

Chub is a web service. Official iOS and Android apps are not confirmed on official pages; only third-party directories claim app store listings.

Free plan

An account and the character hub are free. To chat without paying, the official subscription page says you need one of these:

• Your own API key from OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Google or NovelAI
• A self-hosted Kobold or Ooba backend, free if you run it on your own hardware

New users are also sent one-time free trial credits, described on the subscription page as amounting to “a few dozen messages”.

So Chub is free in the way a kitchen is free: the room costs nothing, the food is your problem. Any costs from an outside API are set by that provider, not by Chub.

Prices

Source: official Chub subscription page, as listed on Oct 25, 2026.

The fine print on “unlimited”: it applies to a single user. Concurrent requests get a 429 error, and obvious key sharing leads to restrictions.

No pay-per-token credits are published. A cheaper tier of about $5 a month is mentioned by third-party sites and by a Trustpilot reviewer, but it is not on the current official page and appears to be discontinued.

Payment is crypto only. Chub’s stated reason is that card companies and payment processors are “the primary sources of censorship pressure”. Which cryptocurrencies or processor it accepts is not stated. Refunds are not offered unless explicitly granted. Cancelling stops the next month’s charge, and access ends at the end of the active period.

Features

From the official docs and subscription page, as checked on Oct 25, 2026:

• Multiple backends: OpenAI, Mars (Chub’s own), Anthropic, Kobold/Ooba, OpenRouter, Google Gemini and NovelAI
• Chat tools: chat trees, image generation, and import/export of chats from other services
• Character tools: character creation, lorebooks and prompting presets
• Stages: developer-built extensions that run alongside chats
• Use the API elsewhere: the Mars/Mercury inference API works as an OpenAI-style reverse proxy in third-party interfaces such as SillyTavern, Agnaistic, Risu, Tavern and Kobold Lite
• Voice and multimedia generation, included in the subscription

This is a tinkerer’s setup. If you already use SillyTavern or similar tools, the subscription doubles as an API key you can use there.

Privacy and safety

Age checks. The terms say the services are for users aged 18 and over, and under-18s may not use or register. No age-verification method is described on official pages.

Chat data. On paper, this is Chub’s strongest section. The privacy policy says private characters and chats are accessed only programmatically to provide the service, may not be viewed by staff without your written permission, and will not be shared with third parties or used to train AI models. The docs add that Mars training data does not include public or private Chub chats. For API use outside the Chub interface, inputs and outputs are not logged or stored; only metadata such as user ID, time, length, model and latency is kept. The site says it collects only data it needs, such as usernames.

Deletion. An account or chat deletion process was not found on official pages.

Content rules. Text content sexualizing minors is prohibited and leads to account termination, and sexualized or realistic images of anyone who is or appears under 18 are removed. Here is the warning: the image policy says real photos of real people are “frowned upon” and removed if illegal, and administrators delete projects containing revenge porn or harassment of real people. There is no clear, general rule against deepfakes or AI images of real, identifiable people. Because of that gap, I do not recommend Chub for image generation, and you should be aware of it before you use the platform at all.

What users complain about

There is very little to go on. Chub had a Trustpilot rating of 3.4/5 from only 3 reviews at the time of checking, far too few for a pattern. One one-star reviewer objects to the move to crypto payments and the removal of the $5/month subscription. Reddit complaints were not collected.

My take

On paper, Chub has strong written promises about chat privacy and no-training, and a flexible setup for people who like bringing their own models. The $20 plan bundles a lot if you would otherwise pay for an API.

What to watch: there is no named company or governing law, payment is crypto only with refunds rarely granted, no deletion process is published, and the rules on images of real people do not clearly ban deepfakes. That last point is why I cannot recommend it, despite the privacy wording. If you want character chat with clearer rules, the JanitorAI and SpicyChat test drives cover two platforms that publish explicit deepfake bans.