It’s another negative headline for the free version of CHAI, and this time, users are facing extreme rate limits that render the app unusable.

Despite barely having full conversations, a “Message Removed” pop-up greets users with an unreasonable wait time. You can find screenshots of the problem from various posts under the r/Chai_Unofficial subreddit.

The CHAI app is now asking users to purchase the Ultra subscription for unlimited messages, and the wait time for messages to reset is anywhere between 1 and 24 hours. Waiting for an entire day doesn’t make any sense, fuelling frustration online. Additionally, there’s no official acknowledgement of the issue at the time of writing.

People are wondering whether servers are actually this expensive to run and maintain, since free users barely get anything.

I’ve checked for the issue myself on the CHAI app, and the situation is even worse than I imagined. After sending one simple message (Hi), the app directly said that my usage is limited. To continue chatting, I was asked to subscribe to the premium subscription. The app is aggressively pushing the Ultra subscription; I spotted a “Get Ultra” button at the top right as well.

While it’s presently unclear whether my app usage restrictions are for regional limitations or the general push to subscriptions, CHAI remains unusable either way.

Additionally, some users aren’t even getting a time limit. Instead, the app straight-up asks them to subscribe to premium, saying “You’ve reached your token limit.”

Some users recommended switching over to other platforms such as Character AI or Emochi. However, it’s worth noting that both have issues of their own.

While I was unable to find a surefire workaround, you can try logging out of your current account and using a secondary account until the limits on your primary account are reset.

What makes the situation even more frustrating for CHAI users is that the app recently rolled out Personas for everyone. Unfortunately, these unreasonable rate limits are making it impossible to enjoy that feature.

Disclaimer: The Featured image was generated with AI.

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