The 9 Best AI Dungeon Alternatives (November 2026)

Short answer: for ready-to-play stories in any genre, try Questner. For D&D rules, maps and a party, try Friends & Fables. For quick sessions on your phone with friends, try Old Greg's Tavern. For writing rather than playing, try NovelAI. The full comparison is below.

AI Dungeon created this category in 2019: you type what you want to do, and an AI continues the story. Today there are better options for most play styles. The right one depends on what you want: a structured adventure, tabletop rules, a character to talk to, or a writing tool.

We compared nine of them on price, free tier, memory and play style.

Disclosure: we make Questner, so we're not neutral. That's why every entry below, ours included, says where the others do better.

Why people leave AI Dungeon

• Memory. How much of the story the AI remembers depends on your plan. Older events drop out, and keeping the story consistent means maintaining Memory Bank and Story Cards yourself.
• Pricing. Paid plans go up to $99.99 a month and are sold in credits and memory sizes that are hard to translate into hours of play.
• Drift. Long improvised stories tend to repeat themselves, contradict earlier events or never reach an ending.

Quick comparison

Prices checked 11 November 2026. They change often, so check each site before you subscribe. Sources are listed at the end.

The 9 alternatives

1. Questner: playable stories in any genre

Best for: players who want to start a story right away, in almost any genre, and have their choices change it.

Questner is a library of ready-made text adventures, most of them made by the community. You type what you want to do and an AI Game Master responds. Genres go well beyond fantasy: life sims like London Life: Realism, cultivation stories like Azure Heavens, horror like The Long Rot and history like SPQR. If you'd rather build your own, Custom Adventure sets up a world, character and quest for you, and you can publish it for others to play.

• Memory: a story timeline that the narrator reads every turn and that you can edit, plus cards that fix common problems (forgetting, rushing, NPCs who know too much).
• AI models: choose between Gemini, GPT and Claude models, each with its own message cost.
• Price: 40 free messages, then a 7-day free trial. After that $9.99 a month for 2,000 messages, or $99.99 a year for 24,000.
• Platforms: browser on desktop and mobile. No app store app yet.

Where others are better: Friends & Fables and AI Realm have real 5e rules, maps and dice. Old Greg's Tavern and Friends & Fables are built for group play, while Questner is mainly solo. And there's no native mobile app.

2. Friends & Fables: tabletop-style D&D with friends

Best for: D&D players who want rules, dice, maps and a party.

Its AI Game Master, Franz, runs 5e-inspired campaigns with character sheets, dice, maps, tokens and lore pages it reads during play. Parties go up to six players, and friends play free; only the host pays.

• Price: free with up to 25 turns a day. Paid plans are $19.95, $29.95 and $39.95 a month, with unlimited standard turns.

Where others are better: it's built around fantasy and rules. If you want horror, a life sim or a story without mechanics, Questner fits better. It's also the most expensive option here.

3. Old Greg's Tavern: quick fantasy sessions on your phone

Best for: casual, drop-in sessions with friends on mobile.

Old Greg's Tavern runs on iOS and Android. You make a character, pick a world (or a community-made one) and play in rounds: the party acts, rolls checks and the AI DM responds. Up to six players can share a campaign from one invite link, and friends join free.

• Price: a free starter adventure, then rounds. An Adventurer pack is $4.99 (50 rounds), Hero is $14.99 a month (200 rounds) and Legend is $24.99 a month (450 rounds). Bought rounds don't expire.

Where others are better: costs add up for long solo campaigns, since every round is paid. It's fantasy-first. If you want a free Old Greg's Tavern alternative for solo play, AI Realm has the most generous free tier; for stories outside fantasy, try Questner.

4. AI Realm: solo 5e play with built-in art

Best for: solo D&D-style play with pictures, on a free tier.

AI Realm is a chat-first Game Master built on 5e SRD rules: races, classes, spells, dice and turn-based combat with a map that tracks HP. It generates character portraits and scene art, even for free users.

• Price: free messages that refill roughly every four hours. Paid plans are $4.99 (300 messages), $9.99 (750) and $14.99 a month (unlimited).

Where others are better: long-term memory depends on campaign notes that you keep tidy yourself. It's fantasy only.

5. Everweave: cinematic D&D stories on mobile

Best for: fantasy stories with D&D flavour, played on a phone, without rules homework.

Everweave's AI Dungeon Master tracks HP, inventory and conditions for you and decides when you need a skill check. Players praise its memory in long campaigns.

• Price: about 60 free messages a month. Paid plans are $5.99 (300 messages) and $17.99 a month (1,000), with extra packs from $2.99.

Where others are better: messages run out fast, which is the most common complaint. There's no unlimited plan.

6. Isekai Zero: anime and isekai roleplay

Best for: anime-style characters and isekai stories on mobile.

Isekai Zero is an AI roleplay app for iOS, Android and the web, with an AI "Dungeon Mind" that runs story-driven sessions. Instead of a subscription, you pay for what you use.

• Price: some AI models are free, plus daily free credits. Paid credits cost about $1 per 100, and the price per message depends on the model.

Where others are better: pay-per-use is cheap for light players but harder to budget for heavy ones. Its stories lean towards anime and character chat; for history, life sims or horror, Questner has a wider range.

7. NovelAI: writing, not playing

Best for: writers who want control over prose.

NovelAI is a co-writer. Its Lorebook keeps characters and places consistent, and you control the style closely.

• Price: 50 free generations. Then $10, $15 or $25 a month, all with unlimited text.

Where others are better: its Text Adventure mode lets you type actions, but there's no Game Master setting scenes or giving consequences, so it's closer to co-writing than playing.

8. Character.AI: talking to characters

Best for: conversations with one specific character.

Character.AI has a huge library of characters and free chat with ads. c.ai+ removes ads and speeds up replies.

• Price: free with ads, or $9.99 a month for c.ai+.
• News: Character.AI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 12 October 2026. It says the service keeps running during the sale, but may be wound down if no buyer continues it.

Where others are better: a chat is one relationship, not a world. Stories rarely build stakes or reach an ending. Given the bankruptcy, it's also worth exporting anything you want to keep.

9. ChatGPT: build it yourself

Best for: players who enjoy writing prompts and want full control.

You can turn ChatGPT into a text adventure by writing a setup, rules and a character.

• Price: free tier, or $20 a month for Plus.

Where others are better: you're the game designer as well as the player. You write the rules, stop the AI from playing your character and fix it when it drifts. And it tends to agree with you, so victories feel free.

Which one should you choose?

• You want to start playing now, in any genre: Questner. Try In Character for fantasy or London Life: Realism for a gritty life sim.
• You want D&D rules, dice and maps with friends: Friends & Fables.
• You want quick sessions on your phone with friends: Old Greg's Tavern.
• You want solo 5e play for free: AI Realm.
• You want cinematic fantasy on mobile: Everweave.
• You love anime and isekai characters: Isekai Zero, or Questner's Isekai Adventure.
• You want to write, not play: NovelAI.
• You want to talk to one character: Character.AI.
• You want to build everything yourself: ChatGPT.