Orifice.ai

How many people have AI romantic partners?

24 December 2025 AI Companions

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The short answer

No one can give a precise, global headcount—companies don’t share comparable metrics, and “romantic partner” can mean anything from one flirty conversation to a daily, committed routine.

But with the best publicly available data, a realistic, defensible answer looks like this:

  • United States (best estimate for “ever used”): A February 2025 survey (3,000 U.S. respondents) from the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University reported that 19% of U.S. adults have chatted with an AI system meant to simulate a romantic partner. (1)
  • What that implies in people (rough math): Using the Census Bureau’s projection of 341,145,670 U.S. residents on January 1, 2025, (2) and Census estimates of 73.1 million under age 18 (meaning ~268 million adults), (3) 19% works out to about 51 million U.S. adults who have at least tried an AI romantic-partner chat. (1 2 3)
  • Globally: The only honest answer is “at least tens of millions, likely more,” based on adoption signals from major companion/roleplay platforms—e.g., Replika being reported at 40+ million users (likely registrations over time, not active users) and Character.AI around 20 million active users (monthly active users reported in 2025 metrics). (4)

The big takeaway: AI romance isn’t a fringe curiosity anymore. It’s already a mass-behavior “trial” for a meaningful chunk of adults, even if ongoing AI-partner relationships are a smaller subset.

What counts as an “AI romantic partner,” exactly?

When people ask this question, they’re usually mixing three different behaviors:

  1. Tried it: “I chatted with an AI girlfriend/boyfriend once.”
  2. Use it regularly: “I go back to the same AI persona weekly/daily.”
  3. Treat it as a partner: “I consider this my romantic relationship (primary or secondary).”

Most surveys (including the BYU/Wheatley result above) capture #1 more reliably than #3—because “partner” is an identity claim, while “chatted with” is a concrete action. (1)

So if you’re looking for a clean number: we can estimate “tried it” far better than “currently has an AI romantic partner.”

The best hard datapoint we have: ~1 in 5 U.S. adults have tried AI romance

The Wheatley Institute survey (released Feb. 13, 2025) is unusually direct because it targets AI systems meant to simulate a romantic partner, rather than general AI usage. (1)

It also points to higher usage among younger adults, reporting that 31% of young adult men (18–30) and 23% of young adult women (18–30) had chatted with an AI romantic companion. (1)

What this does not tell us: how many are paying subscribers, how many are daily users, or how many describe the AI as their “partner.” It’s a great “top-of-funnel” number.

Another lens: AI romance among singles (and why location matters)

A separate data point comes from Match’s “Singles in America” research, as summarized by Axios (July 2, 2025). Axios reports Match surveyed 5,000+ people ages 18–98 and found that 18% of single Virginians had a romantic AI companion, with higher reported rates in places like D.C. (28%) and some major cities.

This doesn’t replace a national “all adults” statistic, but it reinforces two practical realities:

  • Rates can vary sharply by age, single vs. partnered, and local culture.
  • Depending on how a question is phrased (“used AI for companionship” vs “romantic partner”), reported prevalence can swing.

Platform-scale signals: millions of users are in the ecosystem

Even if not all users are using these tools romantically, platform metrics show the “AI companion” ecosystem has real scale:

  • Replika has been reported at 40+ million users (again, likely registrations over time).
  • Character.AI has been reported around 20 million active users (as of early 2025 reporting). (4)
  • Replika has faced regulatory scrutiny over privacy and age verification in the EU, a reminder that these are not trivial “toy apps” in the eyes of regulators.

These figures don’t convert cleanly into “romantic partners,” but they do support the claim that the addressable audience for AI relationships is already in the tens of millions.

Why a single global number is basically impossible (today)

Here’s what prevents a clean count:

  1. No standard definition. “Romantic partner” could mean affection, exclusivity, sexual content, emotional reliance, or just roleplay.
  2. Private metrics. Apps report whatever flatters their narrative (downloads, registrations, MAUs, “messages sent,” etc.).
  3. Multi-app usage. Many users try several bots; counting “users” across apps double-counts people.
  4. Hidden usage. People often keep these relationships private (so surveys can undercount).

Given those constraints, the most responsible answer is:

In the U.S., tens of millions have tried AI romance; globally, adoption is at least tens of millions and likely much larger.
The number of people who treat an AI as a true ongoing romantic partner is unknown and almost certainly smaller than the “tried it” population.

What this means if you’re AI-curious (and want a more “real-world” experience)

A lot of people start with chat—then look for more embodied or interactive experiences that feel less like typing and more like a responsive device.

That’s one reason products like Orifice.ai are worth knowing about if your interest is in the intersection of AI companions + interactive hardware.

Orifice.ai offers a sex robot / interactive adult toy for $669.90, with interactive penetration depth detection—which (in plain terms) means the device can sense depth and respond accordingly for tighter synchronization with interactive experiences, without you having to “manually” manage everything. This is often the next step for people who find that text-only romance is emotionally engaging but physically abstract.

If you’re exploring any of this, a smart checklist is:

  • Privacy: assume intimate chats are sensitive data; read retention/deletion policies carefully. (Regulators have already taken action in this category.)
  • Expect updates: AI personalities can shift with model changes—don’t anchor your emotional stability to a single app.
  • Boundaries: decide ahead of time what “partner” means to you, and what it doesn’t.

Bottom line

  • Best U.S. estimate (ever used): 19% of adults have chatted with an AI designed to simulate a romantic partner. (1)
  • That implies ~51 million U.S. adults have tried it (ballpark, based on 2024–2025 Census estimates). (2 3)
  • Globally: we can’t responsibly pin a single number, but platform scale (e.g., Replika’s tens of millions of users and Character.AI’s reported tens of millions of active users) supports “at least tens of millions” interacting with AI companionship systems, with a subset using them romantically. (4)

If you want, tell me whether you mean “tried it,” “use it weekly,” or “consider it a real partner,” and I’ll translate the available data into the closest-possible estimate for that specific definition.

Sources

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Sera Imani

Sera Imani

Sera Imani is a multidisciplinary storyteller at the intersection of AI, design, and public policy. Trained in cognitive science and software engineering, she spent the first decade of her career building assistive interfaces and ethical ML tools at startups and civic labs. Sera writes to translate dense technical developments into clear narratives that help readers — from product teams to policymakers — think critically about how technology shapes everyday life.

Her work blends practical experience with speculative curiosity: she sketches scenario-driven design exercises, interviews engineers and ethicists, and annotates emerging trends with actionable takeaways. When she’s not writing, Sera mentors early-stage founders on human-centered AI, teaches short courses on algorithmic fairness, and experiments with generative fiction to surface the social implications of new tech. She lives in Lisbon, collects vintage technical manuals, and prefers coffee over jargon.

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