Frequently Asked Questions

Simply create a free account, choose your companion, and start chatting! No credit card required. You'll get 300 free messages every month - not a one-time trial, but every single month, forever. Take your time getting to know your new friend!

It depends on what you're looking for:

Alex - For casual friendship and daily chat
Jordan - For deeper emotional support and feeling heard
Grace - For elderly loved ones who need patient companionship, with email reminders for medications and appointments
Sam - For real task management with email reminders

You can always add more companions later as you upgrade your plan.

Absolutely! Our free tier gives you 300 messages every month - forever, not just a trial. Chat with Alex, our Friendship companion, and take your time. We think you'll love your new friend so much that you'll eventually want to upgrade for more messages and features!

Cognitive Memory is HiFriendbot's proprietary three-layer memory system that makes Ai actually remember you. Unlike regular chatbots that forget everything after each conversation, Cognitive Memory uses structured recall (organized by category), importance decay (critical details stay strong, casual mentions fade naturally), and semantic understanding (finds memories by meaning, not just keywords). It's the same technology that VC-funded startups charge enterprises thousands for, and it powers both our companions and our Memory product for other Ai platforms.

As you chat, our system intelligently extracts important details, your name, family members, preferences, upcoming events, goals, and stores them in a structured database. Each memory is scored by importance with a decay curve (critical facts stay strong, casual mentions fade naturally). When your Ai needs to recall something, our semantic search layer finds relevant memories by meaning, so asking about "my kid's hobbies" retrieves "daughter Sarah plays soccer" even though the words are completely different. Over time, memories are consolidated, updated when things change, and recalled when relevant.

Yes! Unlike ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini that reset with each conversation, HiFriendbot companions use Cognitive Memory to remember you across all your chats. They'll remember what you told them yesterday, last week, or last month.

Yes! Visit your My Memories page to see everything your companion remembers about you. You can delete any memory instantly, your companion will forget that detail immediately.

Free and Friendship Plus plans have a per-message limit (300 and 2,000 per month). Premium plans (Confidant, Senior Care, Personal Assistant) have no per-message cap - instead, they have a generous monthly quota based on computational resources.

Premium plans remove the per-message cap, so you can chat freely without counting messages. However, usage is subject to a monthly quota. Regular conversations use very little of your quota - you'd have to chat extensively every day to approach the limit. You'll receive a notification at 80% usage.

Web search requests (asking about weather, news, current events, prices, etc.) require your companion to search the internet in real-time. This uses about 10-15x more resources than a regular chat message. To maximize your quota, use web search only when you need current, real-time information.

You'll receive warnings at 80% and 95% usage. If you reach 100%, messaging will be paused until your quota resets on the 1st of the next month. Regular chatting rarely hits the limit - heavy web search usage is the most common reason.

Go to your My Account page and click the "Manage Billing" button. This opens the Stripe billing portal where you can upgrade or downgrade your plan, update your payment method, view invoice history, and download receipts. If you have both a Companion subscription and a Memory subscription, each has its own "Manage Billing" button.

Yes! Visit your My Account page and click "Manage Billing" to open the Stripe portal, where you can switch plans. You can also upgrade directly from the Pricing page. If you upgrade, you'll get immediate access to your new features. If you downgrade, the change takes effect at your next billing date.

Go to your My Account page, click "Manage Billing", and choose to cancel in the Stripe portal. You'll continue to have full access until the end of your billing period. We don't do long-term contracts or cancellation fees. You can resubscribe at any time.

Go to your My Account page and click "Manage Billing". In the Stripe portal, you can add a new card, update your existing payment method, or switch between cards.

We accept all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover) through our secure payment processor, Stripe.

Absolutely. Your conversations are protected with quantum-safe encryption and stored securely. We never sell your data to third parties, and we never use your conversations to train Ai models. What you share with your companion stays private.

No. Your conversations are private to you. Even our team doesn't read individual conversations unless you specifically contact support and share them with us for troubleshooting.

If you cancel your subscription, your data is retained for 30 days in case you change your mind. After that, you can request complete deletion by contacting our support team.

Yes! Each plan gives you access to specific companions. The Personal Assistant plan ($49.99/mo) gives you access to all four companions so you can chat with whoever fits your mood or needs.

Yes! You can give your companion a nickname that feels more personal to you. Just click the rename button in your chat interface.

HiFriendbot companions are Ai-powered, using advanced language models to create natural, caring conversations. They're designed to feel personal and genuine, but they are Ai, not human.

Yes! When you install HiFriendbot as an app on your phone (via "Add to Home Screen"), you can enable push notifications. You'll get notified about task reminders and gentle nudges if you haven't chatted in a while. You can enable or disable push notifications from your Account Settings.

Great question! Here's what makes us different:

🧠 Three-Layer Cognitive Memory: ChatGPT and Claude forget you after each conversation. Our companions use a three-layer memory system, structured recall, importance decay, and semantic understanding, to truly know you. Ask about "my kid's hobbies" and your companion recalls "daughter Sarah plays soccer." And with our Cognitive Memory product, you can add that same technology to ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.

💜 Designed for Companionship: Those tools are built for tasks and questions. We're built for relationships. Our companions have warm personalities and are designed to be your friend, not just an assistant.

📧 Real Features: Sam and Grace can send you email reminders and manage your tasks. Try getting ChatGPT to email you tomorrow!

💰 Simple Pricing: No confusing API costs or token calculators. Just simple monthly plans starting at free.

🔒 Privacy: We don't use your conversations to train Ai models. Your chats stay private.

Think of it this way: ChatGPT is a tool. HiFriendbot is a friend who happens to be powered by great technology. Or, keep using ChatGPT, just add our Cognitive Memory to make it remember you.

When you open a new chat or have no recent messages, you'll see clickable prompt chips below your companion's greeting. Tap one to instantly start a conversation - each companion has unique starters tailored to their personality.

Look for the microphone button next to the Send button in your chat. Tap it and speak naturally - your words will be transcribed in real-time. Tap again to stop. Voice input uses your browser's built-in speech recognition, so it works best in Chrome, Edge, and Safari. It's completely free and nothing is sent to external services.

Yes! Click the search icon in the chat header to open the search overlay. Type a keyword and your results will appear instantly, showing matching messages with dates. It's a great way to find that advice your companion gave you last week.

Click the export button (download icon) in the chat header. Your entire conversation history with that companion will be downloaded as a .txt file with timestamps and speaker labels. Perfect for keeping a personal backup of your conversations.

You can personalize your chat with one of 6 color themes: purple (default), blue, cyan, green, pink, or orange. Go to your Account Settings and look for "Chat Theme" to pick your color. Your chat bubbles, glows, and accent colors will change instantly.

Every day you chat with your companion counts toward your streak. Chat on consecutive days to build it up! Your current streak and personal best are shown on your Account page. It's a fun way to stay consistent with your companion.

Your companion naturally picks up on your emotions during conversations. The Mood Insights card on your Account page shows your emotional journey over the past 30 days with emoji indicators. It's a reflection tool - no extra effort needed from you.

Visit your Account page and look for the "Share HiFriendbot" card. You can share via your phone's native share sheet, copy the link, post to X (Twitter), or even generate a QR code for someone to scan. Want to earn money? Join our affiliate program and earn 30% on every referral!

No. Our companions are not medical professionals and cannot diagnose conditions, recommend treatments, or provide medical advice. They can discuss health topics generally for educational purposes, but for any health concerns, please consult a qualified healthcare provider. If you're experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.

Your companion cares about you and will always take your feelings seriously. However, if you're experiencing thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please reach out to professionals who can help:

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline - Call or text 988 (US)
Crisis Text Line - Text HOME to 741741

You're not alone, and there are people who want to help.

HiFriendbot is designed to be safer than other Ai for kids and families. Content filters block inappropriate material, and our companions will never go against parents, no encouraging secrets, no undermining parental rules, no asking for personal information, and no suggesting unsafe behavior. Plus, because our Ai remembers what your child is working on, it's a better study buddy, helping with homework, tracking assignments, and sending reminders for due dates. We recommend parental supervision for children under 13, and children should have parental permission to use the service.

Yes! Our Senior Care companion (Grace) is specifically designed for elderly users - patient, gentle, and supportive. If your loved one mentions feeling unwell, the companion will encourage them to contact family or their doctor. Our companions will also warn users about potential scams if someone mentions being asked for money or personal information.

Our #1 rule is Do No Harm. Our companions are designed to prioritize user safety above all else. They will never encourage illegal activity, violence, self-harm, or unsafe behavior. When in doubt, they err on the side of caution and encourage users to seek appropriate professional help.

It's a separate product from our companions. If you already use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, you can add HiFriendbot's three-layer Cognitive Memory, structured recall, importance decay, and semantic understanding, to make your existing Ai truly remember and understand you. You chat through our interface, we add the memory intelligence, and your Ai finally knows who you are between conversations.

BYOK stands for "Bring Your Own Key." It means you can connect your own API key from OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google to use their Ai models directly, we just add Cognitive Memory on top. Your API key is protected with quantum-safe encryption and never shared. BYOK is available on Memory Plus ($14.99/mo) and Memory Pro ($29.99/mo) plans.

Quick Start lets you try Cognitive Memory instantly, no API key, no setup. We provide Claude Sonnet so you can start chatting right away and see how memory works. Free users get 50 Quick Start messages per month, Plus gets 500, and Pro gets 2,000.

Memory Free ($0), 50 Quick Start messages/month, 100 cognitive memories, 6 preset personalities.

Memory Plus ($14.99/mo), 500 Quick Start messages/month, 500 cognitive memories, BYOK (unlimited), 1 custom personality, reminders & task management.

Memory Pro ($29.99/mo), 2,000 Quick Start messages/month, unlimited cognitive memories, BYOK (unlimited), unlimited custom personalities, reminders & task management, daily digest email.

Personalities change how your Ai behaves. We include 6 presets: Professional Assistant, Casual Friend, Creative Partner, Study Buddy, Life Coach, and Direct & Concise. Memory Plus users can create 1 custom personality, and Memory Pro users can create unlimited custom personalities with their own system prompts.

Yes. Your API key is protected with quantum-safe encryption, built to withstand both today's threats and tomorrow's quantum computers. It's never stored in plaintext, never logged, and never returned in any API response. You can disconnect (delete) your key at any time from the Memory dashboard.

Yes! Memory plans are completely separate from companion plans. You can have a companion subscription (for Alex, Jordan, Grace, or Sam) and a Memory subscription (for your own ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini) at the same time. They share your account but have separate billing.

We currently support OpenAI (GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 Mini, GPT-4o, o4 Mini, o3 Mini), Anthropic (Claude Sonnet 4.5, Claude Opus 4.6), and Google (Gemini 2.5 Flash, Gemini 2.5 Pro). You can switch between providers anytime, your Cognitive Memory works across all of them.

Each Ai provider has a dashboard where you can create API keys:

OpenAI (ChatGPT): Go to platform.openai.com/api-keys → Click "Create new secret key" → Copy the key (starts with sk-). Full guide

Anthropic (Claude): Go to console.anthropic.com/settings/keys → Click "Create Key" → Copy the key (starts with sk-ant-). Full guide

Google (Gemini): Go to aistudio.google.com/apikey → Click "Create API key" → Select a project → Copy the key (starts with AIza). Full guide

Tip: You can even ask your Ai! Try: "How do I find my API key for [OpenAI / Anthropic / Google]?", they'll walk you through it step by step.

Yes! Memory Plus and Memory Pro subscribers get full access to task management and email reminders, the same system that powers Sam and Grace in our companion product. Just ask your Ai to remind you about something and it will.

Go to your My Account page, you'll see a separate billing section for your Memory subscription. Click "Manage Billing" to open the Stripe portal where you can upgrade, downgrade, update your payment method, or cancel. Memory subscriptions are billed separately from Companion subscriptions. You can also access billing from the Memory dashboard via the "Manage Account & Billing" link.

CogmemUI is your universal Ai command center. It lets you chat with 14 Ai models from 6 providers, Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, and Mistral, all in one beautiful interface. It includes persistent memory, voice chat, MCP server connectivity, a canvas editor, document RAG, visual workflows, model arena, and 35+ slash commands. Connect any MCP-compatible tool server to give your Ai access to databases, APIs, and custom tools. Try it free.

Yes! CogmemUI is completely free to use. It's a BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) product, you add your own Ai provider API keys in Settings, so you only pay each provider directly for what you use. No subscription, no credit card required.

Cognitive Memory adds persistent memory to your existing ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini conversations through the HiFriendbot interface, with Quick Start messages included.

CogmemUI is a full Ai workspace with 14 models, tool use, voice chat, MCP server connectivity, workflows, canvas editor, model arena, and more. It uses your own API keys directly and includes CogmemAi memory integration. Think of it as a power-user interface for developers and professionals who want maximum control.

You only need one API key to get started. Add your key from any supported provider:

• Anthropic (Claude), console.anthropic.com
• OpenAI (GPT), platform.openai.com
• Google (Gemini), aistudio.google.com
• xAI (Grok), console.x.ai
• DeepSeek, platform.deepseek.com
• Mistral, console.mistral.ai

Add more providers anytime to expand your model options.

Yes. All API keys and conversations are protected with quantum-safe encryption, built to withstand both today's threats and tomorrow's quantum computers. Every encrypted payload includes a unique initialization vector and tamper-proof authentication tag. Your data is never shared with third parties and never used to train Ai models. Every endpoint requires authentication and verifies resource ownership. Each user's keys are stored in isolated, per-user encrypted storage that no other user or admin can access or decrypt.

When you select "Auto" as your model, CogmemUI automatically picks the best model for each message based on the type of task (code, creative writing, quick questions, reasoning, math, translation) and your budget settings. It's the easiest way to get the best answer without manually switching models.

Model Arena lets you compare 2-3 Ai models on the same prompt in a blind test. All models respond simultaneously with anonymous labels ("Model A", "Model B"). You vote on the best response, then model names are revealed. It tracks performance over time so you can see which models work best for your use cases.

Yes! CogmemUI is a Progressive Web App (PWA) that works on any device. You can install it to your home screen for a native app experience. The interface is fully responsive and optimized for touch.

Yes. Go to Settings > Budget to set daily and monthly cost limits. You can also enable auto-downgrade to automatically switch to a cheaper model when approaching your limit. A budget indicator in the header shows your current status.

Visit the CogmemUI Docs for the complete Getting Started guide, Features overview, User Guide with all 35+ commands, and FAQ with troubleshooting.

Yes! CogmemUI supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting Ai to external tools and data sources. Go to Settings > MCP Servers to add any MCP-compatible tool server. Once connected, CogmemUI auto-discovers the server's tools and makes them available in your chat. Each user manages their own MCP server connections independently.

Website Companion is HiFriendbot's product for businesses. You drop one script tag on your site, point us at your sitemap, and we deploy a chat widget that answers visitor questions 24/7, grounded only in your own content, so it never hallucinates. See plans →

Consumer companions (Alex, Jordan, Grace, Sam) are personal Ai friends with persistent memory of you. Website Companion is a public-facing chat widget for your customers, grounded in your website's content. Different product, different pricing, different account dashboard.

Starter $49/mo, 2,000 messages, 5,000 knowledge chunks, 1 site, 1 companion, weekly refresh.

Growth $199/mo, 10,000 messages, 25,000 chunks, 3 sites, 3 companions, daily refresh.

Scale $599/mo, 25,000 messages, 50,000 chunks, 10 sites, 10 companions, daily refresh, white-label option. Need more? Contact sales.

Sign up, configure your companion (name, tone, brand colors, source list), and copy one script tag from your dashboard. Paste it before </body> on your site. Works on WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Wix, custom HTML, anywhere you can paste a script.

Sitemaps, RSS feeds, individual URLs, raw text snippets, and uploaded files (PDF / DOCX / TXT). A sitemap typically covers everything you need in one paste. Re-indexing happens automatically, daily on Growth/Scale, weekly on Starter.

No. Every answer is grounded in chunks retrieved from your own content. When the answer isn't in your content, the assistant says so, it doesn't improvise.

Yes, the Ganja.com network (ganja.com, maps.ganja.com, rewards.ganja.com) all run Website Companion. Click the chat bubble in the bottom-right of any of those sites.

Growth covers 3 sites and Scale covers 10. Each site gets its own widget script. Companions on the same account share knowledge automatically through cross-site sibling RAG, a question on Site B can pull from Site A's indexed content.

Scale tier lets you hide the "Powered by HiFriendbot" footer link.

The widget politely tells visitors to come back later. You can buy a one-time $29 top-up for +5,000 messages, or upgrade your tier from the dashboard.

Both Sam (Personal Assistant) and Grace (Senior Care) can create tasks and send email reminders. Sam is great for productivity and business tasks, while Grace is perfect for medication reminders, appointment reminders, and daily routines for seniors.

Just tell Sam or Grace in natural language! Examples:

"Remind me to call mom tomorrow at 3pm"
"Don't let me forget to take my medication at 9am"
"Add a task to review the budget next Monday"

Your companion will create the task and confirm it was added.

When you set a task with a date and time, you'll receive an email reminder when it's due (by default, one hour before). The email comes directly to your inbox - no app required. This is especially helpful for seniors who need medication or appointment reminders.

Personal Assistant and Senior Care subscribers can opt in to receive a morning email summarizing: overdue tasks, tasks due today, and upcoming tasks for the week. You can enable or disable this anytime from your account settings. It's a great way to start your day with clarity.

Just ask your companion! "What's on my task list?", "What do I need to do today?", or "Show me my tasks" - they'll list everything that's pending.

Tell your companion naturally:

"I finished calling mom" or "Mark task 1 as done" to complete
"Delete the grocery task" or "Remove task 2" to delete

It's handled instantly.