Inworld vs Convai for game NPCs
Short answer: if you use Unity 6 or Unreal Engine 5 and want a talking NPC in your scene this weekend, try Convai. It has official engine plugins and a free plan, but the free plan allows only 1 monthly active end user, so it is for testing. If you use Godot, a web engine, or you only need great voices, try Inworld. It is no longer an all in one NPC builder: its old Character Studio has been retired, and it now sells voice and language model APIs with a free On-Demand plan that includes a commercial license. Every plan, limit and term below comes from Inworld's and Convai's own pricing pages, docs and terms, checked October 29, 2026. Where we could not confirm something, we say so.
Side by side
| Convai | Inworld | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An NPC platform: build a character in the browser, then drop it into your engine with Convai's plugin. | Voice and AI APIs: text to speech, speech to text, a Realtime speech to speech API and 100+ language models. You build the NPC logic. |
| Free plan | Free, "to test out the platform": 100 interactions a month (50 with flagship LLMs), 60 minutes of cloud rendered Avatar Studio and Convai Sim, 1 character session at a time. | On-Demand, $0 pay as you go, "evaluation and prototyping": up to 70 minutes of TTS or 400 minutes of STT free, then billed per use. |
| Players on the free plan | 1 monthly active end user | No player cap listed. Limits are 5 concurrent TTS requests and 10 concurrent Realtime sessions. |
| Unity | Official Convai Unity SDK, Unity 6000.0.80f1 or later. Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Meta Quest and WebGL. | Unverified. A Unity AI Runtime SDK is named on Inworld's deprecation page, but its docs need a login. You can call the APIs over HTTP. |
| Unreal | Official plugin (4.0.0-beta.27), Unreal Engine 5.0 to 5.8, Blueprint first, builds for Win64 or Android. | Unverified, same as Unity. An Unreal Agent Runtime SDK is named, but its docs need a login. |
| Godot and web | No Godot plugin. Web SDK for React or TypeScript, plus a PlayCanvas plugin. | No Godot plugin. REST and WebSocket from any engine, WebRTC for the browser, TTS SDKs for Python and Node.js. |
| Voices | 500+ voice options and 60+ languages in the character tool. High quality third party voices such as ElevenLabs are not included on Free. | Realtime TTS-2 and TTS-2 Flash, 200+ languages, voice cloning and voice design on the free plan, 100 custom voices. |
| Memory | Long term memory from Indie Dev up, not on Free | Long term memory in the Realtime API, using storage you provide |
| Cheapest paid plan | Indie Dev: $29/mo, or $22/mo billed yearly. 3,000 interactions, 75 monthly active end users. | Creator: $25/mo with $25 of credits a month. TTS-2 Flash drops to $10 per million characters. |
| Commercial terms | You own the AI generated content. On self serve plans Convai may store and use it to improve its services. No commercial license line on the pricing page. | "Commercial license" is listed on every plan, including the free one. Terms assign outputs to you, but say to delete them if the agreement ends. |
| Setup for a beginner | Easier: install the plugin, paste an API key, add a character to your scene. | Harder: get an API key, write a small server, then call it from your game. |
Prices are in USD and exclude tax. "Players on the free plan" means what each company states as a limit, not a test result.
The tools
Convai
Conversational AI NPCs with official plugins for Unity 6, Unreal Engine 5 and the web, plus a no-code character builder in the browser.
Pricing: Freemium, from $29/mo. Beginner rating: 5/5. Ready made NPC plugins for Unity and Unreal, but the Free plan allows only 1 monthly active end user, so it is for testing, not shipping.
The quickest way to a talking, lip synced NPC in Unity or Unreal. Free is for testing only, since it allows 1 monthly active end user.
Inworld AI
Voice and AI platform for talking characters: text to speech, speech to text, a realtime voice API and access to many LLMs. Its old Character Studio has been retired.
Pricing: Freemium, from $25/mo. Beginner rating: 4/5. Developer focused. The free On-Demand plan includes up to 70 minutes of TTS and a commercial license, but you build the character logic and a small server yourself with its APIs.
Fast voices and language models through one API, with a commercial license on the free plan. No ready made NPC builder anymore, so expect to write code.
Free plans in detail
Convai Free
Convai's pricing page lists Free at $0 with 100 interactions a month, of which 50 can use its flagship LLMs. It includes the character creation tools, server based character animation, vision through its APIs and 60 minutes of cloud rendered Avatar Studio and Convai Sim. It does not include a knowledge bank, long term memory, character versioning or high quality third party voices like ElevenLabs. The big limit is 1 monthly active end user, so nobody but you can talk to your NPC.
Convai is also changing how it bills. Its credits docs say usage is now measured in credits, at 1,000 credits per US dollar. Each turn is charged for what it uses (speech recognition, the language model, the voice, animation, memory and a 6 credit platform fee), and an open session is charged for its whole length, even when nobody is speaking. Convai's own example is 19 credits a turn with an ElevenLabs voice and 8 credits with Convai's managed voice. The docs also say unused credits expire at renewal, Convai does not support overages, and the character stops mid word when credits run out. The pricing page still lists interactions, and neither page says how many credits the Free plan gets, so we could not verify that.
Inworld On-Demand
Inworld's pricing page lists On-Demand at $0, pay as you go, with up to 70 minutes of TTS included. Its billing docs add up to 400 minutes of speech to text free. On-Demand also includes 100 custom voices, voice cloning and voice design, 2 professional voice clones (a payment method must be on file first), speech to speech, 100+ language models and a commercial license. After the free allowance, Realtime TTS-2 costs $25 per million characters, TTS-2 Flash $15 per million, speech to text $0.15 an hour, and language models start at $0.07 per million input tokens. Inworld's estimate uses about 1,000 characters per minute of audio. Some premium language models need a credit card on file even on the free plan.
Engine plugins and setup
Convai: plugins first
- Unity: the Convai Unity SDK (v4.6.0) needs Unity 6000.0.80f1 or later, with no supported setup on older versions. Install it from Package Manager with Add package by name,
com.convai.convai-sdk-for-unity, or from the Asset Store, then paste your API key. It works with the Built-in pipeline, URP and HDRP. - Unreal: the Convai Unreal Engine plugin is version 4.0.0-beta.27, so still a beta. It supports Unreal Engine 5.0 to 5.8, is set up mostly in Blueprints with no C++, and builds for Win64 or Android.
- Web: the Convai Web SDK for React or plain TypeScript, Convai Embody for a talking 3D body, and a PlayCanvas plugin.
- Godot: none in Convai's docs.
Before you send a build to anyone, read Convai's Ship a secure build page. The Unity SDK's Auth Token mode fetches a short lived credential so the player build does not carry your account API key.
Inworld: APIs first
Inworld's Character Studio deprecation page says the legacy Character Studio has been retired and points to a Unity AI Runtime SDK, an Unreal Agent Runtime SDK and a Node.js template. When we checked on October 29, 2026, the Unity, Unreal and Node.js doc pages it links to sent us to an Inworld login instead of loading, Inworld's public docs index did not list them, and its Node.js runtime templates repo on GitHub is archived. So we treat Inworld's engine SDKs as unverified.
What is clearly live: Inworld's Games and Media page says every model is a standard HTTP API over REST or WebSocket, with WebRTC for in browser realtime, and that you can wire voiced characters into Unreal, Unity or a custom engine. The public docs cover TTS SDKs for Python and Node.js and a Realtime API that handles listening, the reply and the voice in one session. That means a beginner has to write some code: a small server holds your API key, your game sends it the player's line, and it returns text and audio. Inworld's security docs say anything you ship can be inspected, including game builds, so never put the key in the game. The DIY loop is shown step by step in How to make AI NPCs that talk in your game.
Voices
Convai's character tool lists 500+ voice options and 60+ languages. On Free you cannot use high quality third party voices like ElevenLabs. Indie Dev allows 500 interactions a month with them. Voices are part of each Convai turn, so you get speech and lip sync in your engine without wiring anything else.
Voice is Inworld's main product. Its pricing page lists 200+ languages, voice cloning and voice design on every plan, and its billing docs say On-Demand includes up to 70 minutes of TTS free. Audio comes back as MP3, WAV, PCM, Opus and other formats, so you can also make NPC lines ahead of time and drop the files into any engine. Inworld TTS has its own page on StarterLoot: Inworld TTS. For more voice options, see Best free AI tools for game voice acting.
Commercial terms
- Convai: its terms (last updated September 1, 2025) say you own your character content and the AI generated content at all times. On Creator tier services, which is what the pricing page calls its self serve plans, you grant Convai a royalty free license to store and use that content to improve its services. The terms also ban making extra accounts to get more free credits. The pricing page does not have a commercial license line, but in practice Free's 1 monthly active end user stops you shipping on it anyway.
- Inworld: its pricing page lists a commercial license on every plan, including On-Demand. Its terms (effective June 11, 2025) assign the outputs to you, require you to be 18 or older, and say that when the agreement ends you must delete the outputs. We could not find anything that explains how that applies to voice lines already shipped inside a game. If you plan to bake Inworld audio into a game you sell, ask Inworld first.
- Steam: Valve's Content Survey page says content made by AI while the game is running is Live-Generated, and you must describe the guardrails you put on it. If the AI service has ongoing costs, Valve says you must handle access for players and collect any payment with a Steam supported method. See Can I sell a game made with AI art?.
Paid plans
- Convai: Indie Dev $29/mo ($22/mo billed yearly), 3,000 interactions and 75 monthly active end users, with long term memory and a 5 MB knowledge bank. Professional $99/mo ($69/mo billed yearly), 10,000 interactions, 3 sessions at a time and 250 users. Scale is $499/mo and Business $1,199/mo.
- Inworld: Creator $25/mo, Builder $100/mo, Developer $300/mo, Growth $1,500/mo. Each paid plan gives credits equal to its price every month, unused credits roll over for up to 3 months, and higher plans get lower rates and more concurrency.
Which should you pick?
- Unity 6 or Unreal 5, first talking NPC, little coding: Convai Free. Upgrade to Indie Dev before anyone else plays.
- Unity 2022 or older: not Convai's current SDK, which needs Unity 6. Use Inworld's APIs or the DIY route.
- Godot or a browser game: Inworld's APIs, or the DIY setup in our AI NPC guide.
- You only need recorded voice lines, not live chat: Inworld TTS, or the free and open source voices in our voice acting guide.
- You want a story first, writer led NPC: neither. Look at Charisma.ai, covered in the AI NPC guide.
- You want to sell the game: neither free plan is enough. Budget for Convai Indie Dev or Inworld usage, and a server either way.
Sources, checked October 29, 2026: Convai pricing, Convai credits, Convai billing cycle, Convai Unity requirements, Convai Unity platforms, Convai Unreal versions, Convai web plugins, Convai terms, Inworld pricing, Inworld billing, Inworld Character Studio deprecation, Inworld Games and Media, Inworld security and Inworld terms and Steam Content Survey.
Related
Read How to make AI NPCs that talk in your game for the full setup, including a free DIY version, or Best free AI tools for game voice acting. Browse every voice and dialogue tool and game design and writing tool.
FAQ
Is Inworld or Convai better for a beginner?
Convai, if you use Unity 6 or Unreal Engine 5. It has official engine plugins that handle the microphone, the reply, the voice and lip sync, plus a character builder in the browser. Inworld is now a set of voice and language model APIs, so you write the NPC logic and a small server yourself. Inworld is the better pick if you use Godot or a web engine, or only need voiced lines.
Are Inworld and Convai free?
Both have a free plan for testing. Convai Free gives 100 interactions a month, 1 character session at a time and 1 monthly active end user. Inworld's On-Demand plan is $0 to start and includes up to 70 minutes of text to speech or 400 minutes of speech to text, then you pay as you go. Both checked October 29, 2026.
Can I ship a game to players on the free plan?
Not on Convai: its Free plan allows 1 monthly active end user, which is you. Indie Dev ($29 a month) allows 75. Inworld's On-Demand plan includes a commercial license, but every line after the free allowance is billed, and you need your own server so your API key never goes into the game build.
Does Inworld still have Unity and Unreal plugins?
We could not verify it. Inworld's Character Studio deprecation page points to a Unity AI Runtime SDK and an Unreal Agent Runtime SDK, but those doc pages sent us to an Inworld login when we checked on October 29, 2026, and Inworld's public docs index does not list them. Its Games and Media page says its APIs work over REST, WebSocket and WebRTC, so you can call them from Unity, Unreal or any engine yourself.
Which one works with Godot?
Neither lists an official Godot plugin. With Inworld you can call its HTTP APIs from Godot's HTTPRequest node through your own server. Convai's docs cover Unity, Unreal Engine, web (React, TypeScript and PlayCanvas) and a modding framework, but not Godot.
Who owns what my AI NPC says?
Convai's terms (last updated September 1, 2025) say you own your character content and the AI generated content, but on its self serve Creator plans you give Convai a license to store and use that content to improve its services. Inworld's terms (effective June 11, 2025) assign the outputs to you, but also say that when the agreement ends you must delete the outputs. We are not lawyers. If you plan to bake voice lines into a game you sell, read the terms or ask the company first.
How much do Inworld and Convai cost after the free plan?
Convai Indie Dev is $29 a month ($22 a month billed yearly) for 3,000 interactions and 75 monthly active end users, and Professional is $99 a month. Inworld Creator is $25 a month and comes with $25 of credits. On Inworld's free On-Demand plan, Realtime TTS-2 costs $25 per million characters and TTS-2 Flash $15 per million. Prices checked October 29, 2026.
