The 5 best Inworld AI alternatives I found for 2025

If you’ve spent any time building AI characters, you’ve probably heard of Inworld AI. It’s a pretty incredible platform for making non-player characters (NPCs) feel less like robots and more like real, dynamic beings in a game world. But with Inworld turning its attention more toward big enterprise clients and ending personal accounts, a lot of us are left wondering what’s next.

Maybe you’re in the same boat. You might need a platform with a more flexible API, a pricing model that doesn’t give you a headache, or maybe you’re thinking about using your AI skills for something beyond gaming, like tackling customer support.

That’s what sent me down this rabbit hole of finding the best Inworld AI alternatives. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the top 5 options I found. We’ll get into their strengths, weaknesses, and who they’re really for, so you can find the right fit for your next project.

Understanding Inworld AI

Inworld AI is a toolkit designed to create AI-driven characters, mostly for video games and metaverse stuff. It lets developers move past clunky, pre-written dialogue trees and build NPCs that have their own personalities, memories, and reasons for doing things.

Its main selling point is how well it hooks into game engines like Unreal and Unity, allowing characters to actually be aware of their surroundings. You can feed it a character’s entire backstory, their emotional quirks, and how they fit into the world’s lore, and the AI will spin up conversations that feel surprisingly natural.

But that sharp focus can be a bit of a problem, too. Inworld is built for game developers, which means it’s not really set up for other business needs like customer service bots or internal help desks. On top of that, its usage-based pricing can be a wild card for budgeting, and the recent move away from personal accounts has left a lot of indie devs and hobbyists looking for a new home.

How I picked the best Inworld AI alternatives

To make this list actually useful, I didn’t just look for direct clones of Inworld. I sized up each alternative based on what a developer might actually care about when looking for a change:

• What’s it for? Is it meant for gaming, or does it do something different but related, like business automation or creating interactive stories?

• How much can you tinker with it? How much control do you get over the AI’s personality, what it can do, and what it knows?

• Does it play well with others? How easy is it to connect to game engines, business software (like help desks), or your own custom apps?

• Is it easy to use? Can you just sign up and start building, or do you have to sit through a sales demo and a lengthy setup process?

• What’s the pricing like? Is it clear, predictable, and does it make sense as you grow?

The top 5 Inworld AI alternatives at a glance

Alternative	Best For	Unfiltered / NSFW	Key Feature	Pricing Model
eesel AI	Customer Support & Business Automation	Total Control	One-click help desk integration	Subscription
Convai	Interactive Game NPCs	No (Professional)	Character actions in-game	Freemium / Pro Plans
Charisma.ai	Interactive Storytelling & Training	No (Professional)	Emotional engine & story branching	Freemium / Pro Plans
rct AI	Metaverse & Web3 Gaming	No (Professional)	AI for on-chain assets	Custom
OpenAI / Anthropic APIs	Complete DIY Control	Total Control	Access to frontier models (GPT-4, Claude 3)	Pay-as-you-go

The 5 best Inworld AI alternatives for developers in 2025

Alright, let’s get into the details. Here’s a closer look at the platforms that give Inworld a run for its money, each with its own unique spin.

1. eesel AI

While Inworld is all about creating characters for virtual worlds, eesel AI is built to create AI agents for the real world of business. If you’re a developer who wants to use conversational AI to fix tangible problems, like automating customer support or answering internal team questions, this is the one to look at.

Instead of plugins for game engines, eesel AI has one-click connections for help desks like Zendesk and Intercom, chat tools like Slack, and knowledge bases like Confluence. It pulls together all your scattered company knowledge, from old support tickets to internal guides, and uses it to power its AI.

eesel AI stands out among Inworld AI alternatives by integrating with business tools to centralize knowledge for support automation.::

What really makes it stand out is that you can just sign up and get going. You can build a working AI agent in a few minutes, not a few months. Its simulation mode is a huge plus, letting you test your AI on thousands of your past customer conversations without any risk. That way, you know exactly how it’ll behave before you let it talk to a single customer. You get fine-grained control to decide what the AI handles and what gets passed to a human, which allows for a much safer, gradual rollout.

• Pros:

  • You can go live in minutes on a platform that’s actually self-serve.

  • The simulation mode is great for testing and deploying without any stress.

  • Connects to the business tools you’re probably already using.

  • Clear, predictable pricing without weird per-resolution fees.

• Cons:

  • It’s not made for creating game characters or 3D avatars.

  • It focuses on text-based business chat, not voice or animation.

• Pricing: eesel AI’s pricing is refreshingly simple. The Team plan is $299/month ($239/month if billed annually) for 1,000 AI interactions. The Business plan is $799/month ($639/month if billed annually) for up to 3,000 interactions and adds important features like training on your past tickets. For bigger needs, there’s a Custom plan. Best of all, there are no hidden fees, which makes budgeting a whole lot easier.

2. Convai

Convai is probably the most direct competitor to Inworld. It’s laser-focused on making game characters smarter and more interactive. Its big differentiator is connecting dialogue to actual in-game actions. This means an NPC can not only talk about a quest but can then open a door, grab an item, or lead you somewhere based on the conversation.

It has a straightforward interface for designing a character’s backstory and knowledge, much like Inworld, and it offers plugins for both Unreal Engine and Unity. For developers who want a dedicated character engine that really leans into gameplay, Convai is a solid pick.

• Pros:

  • Great at linking conversations to things that happen in the game.

  • Easy-to-use plugins for the big game engines.

  • Has a generous free tier for hobbyists and indie devs.

• Cons:

  • It’s a newer platform, so its features and community are still growing.

  • Like Inworld, it’s really just for gaming and not much else.

• Pricing: This one’s a bit tricky. Convai’s official pricing page is currently broken, so getting concrete numbers is tough. From what I can gather, it’s a fremium model. There’s a free tier to get you started, but professionals will need a paid plan that seems to be usage-based. The lack of public pricing means you’ll probably have to get on a call with their sales team, which can slow things down.

3. Charisma.ai

Charisma.ai has carved out a cool niche for itself in interactive storytelling and virtual training. While you can use it for game NPCs, it really shines when you’re creating emotionally intelligent characters who can guide a complex, branching story. It has an "Emotion Engine" that keeps track of the conversation’s emotional vibe, helping characters react in a more believable way.

This makes it a fantastic choice for story-heavy games, virtual escape rooms, or even corporate training where a subtle conversation is more important than open-world action. If your project is more about deep, choice-driven dialogue, Charisma.ai is worth a look.

• Pros:

  • Strong tools for building out branching narratives.

  • The emotion-aware AI leads to more believable character interactions.

  • Useful for both entertainment and professional training.

• Cons:

  • The interface can take a little more time to get used to.

  • It’s less focused on an NPC’s awareness of their physical space compared to Inworld or Convai.

• Pricing: Charisma.ai offers two main options. The Pro plan is pay-as-you-go, meant for smaller projects, at $5 per 50,000 credits (they figure that’s about 200 minutes of experience). For bigger projects, you need the Enterprise plan. This involves a one-time development fee based on your needs, plus a set monthly fee. You have to contact them for a quote, so it’s not as simple for larger-scale work.

4. rct AI

rct AI is aimed at the intersection of AI, the metaverse, and Web3 gaming. The goal is to create AI-powered digital beings that can live on a blockchain. This is a very specific tool for developers building decentralized apps or games where AI behavior can actually be recorded on-chain.

It’s a forward-thinking platform that combines AI with things like NFTs to create unique, persistent characters. If your project is in the Web3 space and you need an AI that can interact with smart contracts, rct AI offers something that the others on this list don’t.

• Pros:

  • Built specifically for Web3 and metaverse development.

  • Blends AI with blockchain tech for interesting gameplay possibilities.

  • Focused on creating AI entities that can evolve over time.

• Cons:

  • Very niche; it’s not for traditional game development.

  • The tech is cutting-edge, which can mean a steeper learning curve.

• Pricing: You won’t find a pricing page on rct AI’s website. They’re focused on partnerships and enterprise clients, so pricing is completely custom. This is pretty common for highly specialized tech, but it’s not great for developers who just want to experiment without scheduling a sales call.

5. OpenAI / Anthropic APIs

For developers who want complete control and don’t mind getting their hands dirty, going straight to the source is the ultimate move. Using the APIs from big players like OpenAI (think GPT models) or Anthropic (Claude models) gives you all the power.

This approach is more work, no doubt. You’ll have to build the whole system for managing character memory, personality, and integrations yourself. But the trade-off is total freedom. You can build a character for any purpose imaginable, a game NPC, a website chatbot, a brand mascot, you name it, without being locked into a specific platform’s way of doing things. It’s the perfect choice if you’re an experienced dev who wants to build something truly custom.

• Pros:

  • You get access to the most powerful AI models on the market.

  • Total freedom to build any kind of AI character for any application.

  • Pay-as-you-go pricing can be very cheap for projects with inconsistent traffic.

• Cons:

  • You need to be comfortable with a good amount of coding.

  • You have to build everything from scratch, including the UI and memory systems.

• Pricing: Both platforms charge you based on "tokens," which are basically pieces of words.

  • OpenAI API: Prices vary depending on the model you use. A powerful model like GPT-4 Turbo costs more per token than a smaller, faster one.

  • Anthropic API: Claude’s API pricing is also tiered. The top-of-the-line Opus model costs more than the speedy Sonnet model, which in turn costs more than the lightweight Haiku model. This pricing is great for fluctuating workloads but can get unpredictable if your usage suddenly spikes.

Tips for choosing an Inworld AI alternative

Switching platforms is a big deal. Here are a few thoughts to help you pick the right one.

• Figure out what you’re actually building. Is it for a game, a story, or a business? Answering that one question will immediately cut your list of options in half. A platform built for game NPCs just won’t have the right tools for customer support.

• Think about the developer experience. How important is it for you to get up and running fast? A platform like eesel AI is designed for you to sign up and build something in minutes. Others might require demos and hand-holding.

• Try before you buy. Almost every platform has a free tier or a trial. Use it. Build a small proof-of-concept to see how the AI feels, how the tools work, and if it can do what you need before you sink a lot of time or money into it.

• Look beyond the sticker price. A pay-as-you-go API might seem cheap, but those costs can sneak up on you with high usage. A subscription might look pricey, but it’s predictable. Think about the total cost, including your own time.

This video explores how AI-powered characters are changing RPGs, featuring Inworld AI and its alternatives.

What’s the best Inworld AI alternative for you?

The world of conversational AI has grown way beyond just gaming. Inworld AI is still a solid choice for game NPCs, but the best alternative for you really depends on what you’re trying to build.

If you’re making the next big interactive game, platforms like Convai and Charisma.ai give you fantastic, specialized tools. If you’re building for Web3, rct AI is exploring a fascinating new frontier. And for the ultimate tinkerer, using the OpenAI or Anthropic APIs directly gives you a blank canvas.

But if you’re looking to take your AI skills and apply them to the huge world of business automation, you’re better off with a tool built for the job. It’ll help you get results faster and more reliably.

Ready to see how conversational AI can change the game for customer support? Sign up for eesel AI and build your first AI agent in minutes.