updated november 14, 2026

is character.ai shutting down?

not yet. character.ai filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on october 12, 2026, and the app is still running while the company looks for a buyer. a sale is expected in late november or early december. if no workable offer comes in, the company says the platform will be wound down.

what happened

  • on october 12, 2026, character technologies, the company behind character.ai, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in delaware. it pointed to legal, regulatory and operational costs.
  • disney agreed to pay $20 million for a non-exclusive license to character.ai's technology. that's the starting bid in a court-supervised sale, and other buyers can bid more.
  • the app and subscriptions keep working during the sale.
  • in late 2025, character.ai had already stopped open-ended chat for users under 18.

what to do now

  1. save your chats. request your data in character.ai's account settings (look for export data). character.ai says it can take 3 to 4 weeks, so do it now.
  2. save your characters. for characters you made, open each one, choose edit, and copy the name, greeting, description and definition somewhere safe.
  3. bring them somewhere new. on fanchat you can bring your characters over by pasting those details or uploading a character card, and keep chatting with them for free.

questions

is character.ai shutting down?

not yet. character.ai filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on october 12, 2026 and is still running while it looks for a buyer. a sale is expected in late november or early december 2026. if no workable offer comes in, the company says the platform will be wound down.

what happens to my character.ai chats?

nobody knows yet. if you want to keep them, request your data in character.ai's account settings (look for export data) now. character.ai says the export can take 3 to 4 weeks.

can i keep my characters?

yes, by bringing them somewhere else. on fanchat you can paste a character's greeting and personality, or upload a character card, and keep chatting with them.

looking for somewhere new? read fanchat as a character.ai alternative, or start with popular characters and anime characters.

sources

fanchat isn't affiliated with character.ai.