How We Audit AI Companion Apps (And How We Keep the Lights On)
We built The Companion Lab because 95% of "Best AI Girlfriend" articles on the internet are written by people who have never logged into the apps, never checked what prints on a credit card statement, and have no idea which AI model is actually generating their photos.
1. Production JavaScript Bundle Dissection (217 Files Audited)
Before writing a single word about an app, we capture and analyze its production frontend JavaScript bundles. That is how we uncovered that Ourdream AI’s "Vivid 3.0" and "Fluidity" modes route to Tongyi Z-Image-Turbo (ZImageMoody) and WAI-Illustrious-SDXL, that Secrets AI calls ByteDance Seedream 5.0 Pro and Alibaba Wan 2.5, and that Kindroid’s iOS app charges a 16% Apple IAP Tax over its web Stripe checkout.
2. Live Credit Card Billing & Cancellation Audits
We subscribe with real payment methods to verify the exact Billing Descriptor (`DREAM STUDIO`, `S LABS INC.`, `EVERAI`, `KINDROID.AI`), test whether "1,000 monthly coins" lasts 30 days or 7 days, and document the exact steps required to cancel auto-renewal.
3. Live OpenRouter API & EQ-Bench Slop Scoring
To evaluate conversation quality objectively, we run identical multi-turn emotional prompts (jealousy subtext, 40-message peanut allergy recall, and 2 AM vulnerability) across commercial apps and raw OpenRouter endpoints (`deepseek/deepseek-v3.2`, `deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash`, `sao10k/l3.3-euryale-70b`, `nousresearch/hermes-4-405b`), measuring both token efficiency and EQ-Bench Slop Score.
4. Reader-First Affiliate Disclosure
When you click an outbound link to try a platform (such as Ourdream AI, Kindroid, Candy AI, Secrets AI, or Nomi AI), we may earn a referral commission at zero extra cost to you—and in cases like Kindroid’s Web checkout, our link routes you to the direct web billing portal that saves you 14%–16% every month compared to the iOS App Store. Commissions never buy a higher score or hide a token trap.