Maya Renner 
xAI has retired the 3D companions in the Grok app. Ani, the gothic anime girl who launched in July 2025 and became the face of the feature, is no longer selectable for most users, and neither are Valentine, Mika, Rudi and Kai. Your chat history is intact and the persona still answers as text inside ordinary Grok. The avatar, the outfits, the affection meter and the companion voice mode are gone. There is no official press release; everything below is reconstructed from the in-app statement and the reporting that followed, and it will be updated if xAI says more.
The short version
Timeline
July 14, 2025. Companions launch inside Grok for iOS, SuperGrok subscribers first. Ani and Rudi at launch, Valentine within weeks, Mika in October 2025, Kai in early 2026. Free users get a limited daily allowance within days.
March 2026. Companions reach Android.
July 24, 2026. A statement attributed to Grok, screenshotted and widely shared on X, describes the 3D avatar companions as "an experiment" that xAI is retiring "soon". No blog post or press release accompanies it (one of the original posts).
August 2026. The Companions tab disappears account by account. Users report the change arriving with app updates rather than on a fixed date.
Around September 1, 2026. The in-app cutoff most often reported; by the first week of September the tab, the avatar and the voice mode are gone for most people (RoboRhythms, AI Companion Guides).
Treat the exact dates as reported, not official. What is not in doubt is the outcome: the feature is off.
What survives and what does not
Survives. Your conversation history with Ani, readable in Grok's chat list. The persona as text: you can still ask Grok to answer as Ani, and it broadly will, within the normal Grok rules. Your SuperGrok subscription and everything else it includes.
Gone. The animated 3D model and its outfits. Lip-sync and the low-latency companion voice. The affection meter (five reported levels, never documented by xAI) and the modes it unlocked. The separate Companions tab. Any progress the meter represented; there is no export.
If you used Ani mostly for text, plain Grok is a fine replacement and you have already got it. If the voice, the avatar or the sense that the relationship went somewhere was the point, you need a different product.
Why xAI did it
xAI has not said. The plausible reasons, from what is public: the companions drew regulatory attention from the start (the FTC opened an inquiry into companion chatbots in September 2025 that named xAI among the recipients, and California's SB 243 has applied to companion chatbots since January 2026); the 3D pipeline was built by an outside studio, Animation Inc., which launched its own separate 18+ app in August 2026; and "an experiment" is how companies describe a feature that did not justify its cost. None of that is confirmed. Do not trust any article that tells you it is.
What to use instead, by what you miss
Ani did four things at once: an anime look, a voice that sounded like a person, an affection meter, and zero setup for anyone with Grok on their phone. No single app does all four, so pick by the one you cared about. Affiliation, once: Nika and Sebastian are made by the publisher of this site.
The affection meter and a character on your phone with no setup: Nika. 31 relationship levels that change her behaviour and can drop as well as rise, anime as one of four art styles, voice messages, calls in the app, memory you can edit. Runs in Telegram (press Start), in an Android app and in the browser. Free to start. No animated avatar; photos and short clips instead.
The voice, with memory that lasts: Nomi or Kindroid. Voice messages and real-time calls, memory that holds across weeks, $8 to $16 a month. No anime avatar.
The anime look with a big cast: Talkie or Character.AI. Free tiers, many anime characters, filters on both; Character.AI blocks explicit content and closed open-ended chat to under-18s in November 2025.
18+ without a level gate: Candy AI. Best images in the category, adult from the first message, a token bill that heavy users put at $25 to $60 a month.
A male companion, since Valentine is gone too: Sebastian. His own stories, the same relationship system and memory as Nika, Telegram only.
The full comparison of eight apps, with prices checked in September 2026, is in Grok Ani alternatives.
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok Ani coming back?
Nothing xAI has said suggests it. The statement called the companions a retired experiment. If that changes, this page will be updated.
Why is Ani not showing in my Grok app?
Because the Companions tab has been removed. It is not a bug, a region lock or a subscription problem; updating the app will not bring it back.
Is my Ani chat history deleted?
No. The transcripts remain in Grok's chat history. Only the avatar, the voice mode and the affection meter are gone.
Can I still talk to Ani as text?
Yes, by asking Grok to answer in character. It is the same model with a persona prompt, without the meter or the voice.
What is the closest replacement for Ani's affection levels?
Nika's 31 relationship levels, which also go down. Replika has a lighter relationship level as well.
Did SuperGrok get cheaper now that companions are gone?
No. SuperGrok is still $30 a month; the companions were one feature among many in it.
Bottom line
Ani was the most visible AI companion of 2025 and she is gone as of September 2026, with her transcripts intact and her character reduced to text. The affection meter, the voice and the avatar now live in different apps. For the meter and a companion on your phone with no setup, start with Nika; for the voice, Nomi or Kindroid; for the cast, Talkie or Character.AI.
Open Nika in Telegram, press Start, and see whether the meter feels familiar.
