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Backyard AI

backyard.ai

From $12/mo Free plan WebWindowsmacOSiOSAndroid
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Spec score 9.5 #1 of 46 in AI Roleplay Chatbots

What it is

Backyard AI offers AI-powered characters for fictional text and voice chats, including text adventures, interactive stories, and roleplaying. Its Community Hub lets users explore thousands of characters, which can be customized with lorebooks, an author's note, grammars, and model parameters. Group chats can include up to four characters, and voice calls are listed as a feature. The Free plan costs nothing and includes 300 messages per week, one model, and 16k maximum memory. The free desktop app runs local models offline; the listed download is for macOS Intel. Local models can also be accessed from a mobile browser or iOS app through opt-in tethering. Cloud subscriptions provide hosted models, with choices and limits varying by tier. Standard costs $12 a month and includes unlimited messages with Standard models; Pro costs $35 a month and includes Standard and Pro models with a 100,000-token maximum context. Backyard AI supports GGUF models, but not FP16, GPTQ, or AWQ files. Its listed platforms are Android, iOS, macOS, and web.

Spec sheet

What it does
Backyard AI provides AI-powered character chats for text adventures, interactive stories and roleplaying.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Security
The plans page says Backyard AI uses industry-standard encryption to protect data.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Support
The plans page directs users with questions to contact the company by email.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
API and integrations
TechZella found no verified public developer API and no documented third-party integrations.Read 21 Oct 2026 · techzella.com
Archive-format licence
The public BYAF specification and tooling repository is MIT licensed, while the Backyard product itself is proprietary under its terms.Read 21 Oct 2026 · github.com
Author's Note
Author's Note lets users add scene, atmosphere and story-direction instructions that influence responses.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Character Hub
Users can create bespoke characters or download and customize community-created characters.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Character tools
Characters can be customized with lorebooks, an author's note, grammars, and model parameters.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Characters
Users can explore thousands of characters through the Community Hub.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Cloud models
Backyard Cloud subscriptions provide access to hosted AI models, with plan limits and model selection varying by tier.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Cloud privacy claim
The Backyard Cloud announcement says chats are encrypted at rest and are not logged or shared.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Company founding and headquarters
A business-record directory reports Ahoy Labs, Inc. was filed on March 21, 2022 and is based at 268 Bush Street in San Francisco, California.Read 21 Oct 2026 · bizprofile.net
Company legal name
The service terms identify Ahoy Labs, Inc. as the company.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Company size and status
Crunchbase lists Backyard AI as an active private seed-stage company with 1–10 employees and San Francisco headquarters.Read 21 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com
Desktop app status
The desktop app page describes local model use and says its data stays on the device and the app works offline.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Desktop downloads
The deprecated download page still offers Intel macOS (288.8 MB), Apple Silicon macOS (282.3 MB) and Windows (865.1 MB) builds.Read 21 Oct 2026 · desktop.backyard.ai
Documentation depth
The documentation covers character prompts, response formatting, lorebooks, author notes, grammars, model parameters and advanced tips.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Documentation gap: imports
The imports and exports documentation page currently says detailed documentation is still forthcoming.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Documentation gap: voices
The voice documentation page currently says detailed text-to-speech documentation is still forthcoming.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Dynamic voices
The product includes dynamic character voices and audio features.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Extensibility format
Ahoy Labs publishes the Backyard Archive Format specification and a TypeScript package named byaf for creating and parsing character archives.Read 21 Oct 2026 · github.com
Funding
Dealroom lists a May 2022 $2.5 million seed round from Pace Capital.Read 21 Oct 2026 · app.dealroom.co
Grammars
Grammar definitions can constrain a character's response structure and style.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Group chats
Parties support chatting with up to four AI characters simultaneously.Read 21 Oct 2026 · play.google.com
Limit: desktop retirement
AI Partner Guides reports that the offline desktop app and phone tethering were deprecated, leaving the current service centered on cloud web and mobile use.Read 21 Oct 2026 · aipartnerguides.com
Limit: hardware and setup
CompanionVerdict says local use needs capable hardware, takes configuration effort and produces quality that depends heavily on the user's GPU.Read 21 Oct 2026 · companionverdict.com
Limit: mobile app bugs
Chrome-Stats reviews report API failures, login problems, slow loading, broken formatting and difficulty finding created characters.Read 21 Oct 2026 · chrome-stats.com
Limit: tethering reliability
An Apple reviewer reported repeated tethering failures and timeouts with both Windows and Mac hosts.Read 21 Oct 2026 · apps.apple.com
Local desktop inference
The desktop application was designed to run downloaded language models locally and offline, but its current download page marks it deprecated and unsupported.Read 21 Oct 2026 · desktop.backyard.ai
Lorebooks
Lorebooks inject keyword-triggered background information into recent chat context; entries are capped at 384 combined tokens.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Mobile access
The documentation says users can access local models from a mobile browser or iOS app through opt-in tethering.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Model controls
Advanced controls include Min-P, Top-P, Top-K, temperature, repetition penalty, custom context length and prompt templates.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Model limits
The desktop model guide says Backyard AI supports GGUF models and does not support FP16, GPTQ, or AWQ files.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
No-filter positioning
The homepage advertises fictional text and voice chats without generation filters.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Notable news: Backyard Cloud
Backyard AI announced Backyard Cloud on March 27, 2024, introducing Standard and Pro subscriptions for larger hosted models and contexts.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Paid availability
The live subscriptions page says new paid subscriptions and upgrades are currently unavailable.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Praise: local tethering
An Apple reviewer said tethering made it easy to use a privately run home-PC model from the phone.Read 21 Oct 2026 · apps.apple.com
Praise: roleplay quality
An Apple reviewer praised the clean interface, broad character hub, fast streaming responses and usefulness for roleplay, writing and general chat.Read 21 Oct 2026 · apps.apple.com
Praise: uncensored responses
Chrome-Stats summarizes praise for unfiltered responses, conversation memory and easy character creation.Read 21 Oct 2026 · chrome-stats.com
Privacy policy
The privacy policy says the company does not process sensitive personal information and may process data to provide, improve, and administer its services.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Privacy policy scope
Ahoy Labs says it collects account, billing, device, usage and log information and may share information during business transfers or with affiliates.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Rating on Apple App Store
3.4 out of 5 from 37 ratingsRead 21 Oct 2026 · apps.apple.com
Rating on Chrome-Stats
3.13 out of 5 from 72 ratingsRead 21 Oct 2026 · chrome-stats.com
Rating on Google Play
3.4 out of 5 from 93 reviewsRead 21 Oct 2026 · play.google.com
Security claim
Backyard AI says it uses industry-standard encryption to protect data.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Service status
The status page reports 100% API uptime and 99.99% website uptime over the displayed 60-day period.Read 21 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Voice
The plans page lists voice calls as a feature for talking to characters.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Who it is for
The documentation describes Backyard AI as a platform for text adventures, interactive stories, and immersive roleplaying experiences.Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai

Plans and prices

Desktop App Free 100% free forever Local models · runs offline · macOS Intel download listed Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Free Free 300 messages per week · 1 included model · 16k max memory Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Free Free 300 messages/week · 1 included model · 16,384-token context · group chats · voice calls · lorebooks · advanced samplers Read 21 Oct 2026 · techzella.com
Standard $12 a month $12 / month Unlimited messages with every Standard model · 16,384 token max context Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Standard $12 a month monthly Unlimited Standard-model messages · 16,384-token context Read 21 Oct 2026 · techzella.com
Pro $35 a month $35 / month Unlimited messages · Standard and Pro models · 100,000 token max context Read 3 Oct 2026 · backyard.ai
Pro $35 a month monthly Unlimited Standard and Pro-model messages · context up to 100,000 tokens Read 21 Oct 2026 · techzella.com

Every Backyard AI plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Community Hub offers thousands of characters
  • Group chats support up to four characters
  • Free desktop app runs local models offline
  • Standard costs $12 a month

Limits

  • Free plan allows 300 messages per week
  • Desktop download listed for macOS Intel
  • Does not support FP16, GPTQ, or AWQ files
  • No free trial

Who it suits

Backyard AI suits people interested in fictional text adventures, interactive stories, and roleplaying with AI characters. It also offers local offline model use, with a stated limitation on supported model file formats.

Verdict

Backyard AI offers both hosted-model subscriptions and offline local model use, alongside character customization and voice chats. Check the weekly Free limit and supported file formats before choosing.

Where Specifiction places it

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