Chub.ai Went Crypto-Only: Where Locked-Out Users Should Go
Two changes locked a lot of people out of Chub at once: payments moved to crypto only — which is a legal non-starter in several countries — and the free tier tightened to around 20 messages a day including swipes. If you've got a library of PNG character cards and nowhere to spend them, this is the migration guide.
By Ash Kepler · Jul 24, 2026 · 7 min read
Chub occupied a specific niche: a large open card library, no meaningful content restrictions, and a creator-friendly culture around lorebooks and PNG character cards. Two changes closed the door on a lot of its users at once.
Payments moved to crypto only — and for users in countries where crypto is legally restricted or practically inaccessible, that isn't an inconvenience, it's a lockout. Willingness to pay doesn't help when the rail doesn't exist. And the free tier tightened to roughly 20 messages a day, with swipes counting — which is the more universal problem, because in roleplay a single scene routinely burns that in regenerations alone.
If you're holding a library of cards and a story mid-flight, here's where to take them.
What you actually need to replace
Chub refugees are unusually specific about requirements, and it's worth naming them because they narrow the field fast: PNG character card import (you have files, and you're not retyping them), lorebooks (world info that injects on keywords — a genuine creator feature most consumer platforms lack), no content restrictions (many Chub users write horror, gore, and dark psychological material, not romance), unlimited or high message allowance, and web access on desktop rather than a phone-first app.
That combination rules out most of the mainstream companion market immediately — not because those platforms are bad, but because they're built for a different activity. What you want is the open card ecosystem.
The destination that actually fits: self-hosted
The honest answer for a Chub power user is SillyTavern — open-source, runs on your own machine, imports PNG character cards directly, and supports lorebooks properly. It is the most complete replacement for what Chub was, and it has three properties Chub never had: nobody can change the payment model, nobody can cap your messages, and nobody can delete your library.
The cost is a setup evening and your own model key. Paired with a cheap API — DeepSeek's pricing is the standard choice, running most users a few dollars a month at heavy use — you get unlimited messages, no filter beyond the model's own, and full control of memory and world info. For someone already comfortable with cards and lorebooks, this is a lateral move in complexity and a large step up in ownership. Why displaced users across this whole category keep landing here is the same reason it fits you: it's the only configuration nobody can revoke.
If you want a website, not a project
Janitor is the closest hosted equivalent: massive library, bring-your-own-model architecture, no platform-side content filter, and free to use — you pay only your API usage. Card definitions paste in directly. The friction point users hit is the proxy/API configuration step, which trips a lot of newcomers; the setup walkthrough covers the working configuration and the common failure modes.
SpicyChat is the strongest conventional free tier for browsing rather than importing: roughly 100 messages a day, no card required, uncensored from the start, and a library in the hundreds of thousands. Its free-tier limits are honest — short replies, shallow memory, peak-hour queues — and its paid tier fixes the first two. It won't ingest your card files, but it's a good landing pad while you decide.
CrushOn is the pick if what you valued most was long-form narrative rather than library breadth: the best plot memory in the price band and the best group-scene handling, with content unrestricted on the free tier too. Message-quota billing means sizing the plan to your volume — the tier breakdown does that math.
Save your cards before anything else
Whatever you choose, do this first: export every card you care about to local files. PNG character cards are self-contained — the definition is embedded in the image — so a folder of PNGs on your own drive is a complete, portable library that survives any platform decision. If you also keep lorebooks, export those as JSON.
This is the entire lesson of the Chub situation compressed into one habit. The library wasn't yours because it lived on Chub; it's yours when it lives on your disk. The complete export-and-import mechanics — what transfers between platforms, what never does, and how to rebuild a character somewhere new — are worth the ten minutes before you need them.
One honest note on the payment change
Crypto-only isn't automatically a scandal — payment processors have been withdrawing from adult-adjacent platforms for years, and crypto is sometimes the last rail standing rather than a preference. The economics of this category make processor pressure a recurring survival problem, and more platforms will face the same fork.
But from the user's side, the effect is what matters: a payment method that excludes people by jurisdiction is a platform that excludes people by jurisdiction. If that's you, the destinations above are real, and the self-hosted route means you never have to care about anyone's payment processor again.
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