CHAI app users report token limit blocking chats without warning [U: Founder's comment]

Update 19/02/26 – 05:47 pm (IST): Adding more context to the situation, a Reddit user has now pointed out that CHAI’s own Terms of Service (and Play Store description) still explicitly states: “Unlimited free messages: With no limits on chat duration or frequency, users can engage in endless conversations without restrictions.” This directly contradicts what thousands of users are currently experiencing with the token cap.

When the post gained traction — crossing 350 upvotes — CHAI founder Will responded with: “We should probably update that 😅” This is notable because it marks the first indirect acknowledgment from the company that the unlimited free messaging policy has effectively changed, even though no formal announcement has been made.

Users in the thread were not pleased with the casual tone of the response, with several calling it “unprofessional” given the scale of disruption. The founder’s earlier comments attributed the issue to server problems, but this latest response suggests the token limits are a deliberate policy shift rather than a temporary glitch.

Original article published on February 18, 2026, follows:

CHAI app users are complaining about a token limit that suddenly blocks messages and freezes conversations. Multiple posts on Reddit show people hitting a message cap with no warning. The app refuses to generate new replies for hours, and the restrictions affect both free and paying users.

Posts describe confusion around what a ‘token’ means, and why the limit triggers so fast. If a user gets long responses or attempts to use the roleplay option, it exhausts the quota in just a few minutes. In some cases, the counter does not reset even after waiting a whole day. The error message does not specify a time either, further confusing people about when the rate limit ends. Some people have been waiting for an entire week.

It’s evident that the token rules were never clearly explained inside the app. Some people are hoping it’s a bug, since older versions allowed much longer sessions.

We couldn’t find any public statement from CHAI regarding this. One user on Reddit reported that the app is slow to work and that there are some issues with generation. This could be related to the ongoing rate limits. The founder has responded to this post, claiming that it’s a server issue and that the team is actively working on fixing it. However, this isn’t exactly an admission of the rate limits.

When users of the CHAI tried to contact support regarding this problem, the response to the email merely highlighted regional restrictions. To simplify things, CHAI must put out a post explaining the daily limit, how tokens are calculated, and whether the cap has changed recently. The lack of clarity is frustrating to many people.

We were unable to find any workarounds for the problem. A small number of users claim that the limit resets automatically in a few hours. Creating new accounts or reinstalling the app does not really fix the problem. Using shorter messages and lower lengths to responses may slow down token usage, but does not remove the restrictions.

These problems with the token cap come right after many people began complaining about region lock issues, which we’ve covered extensively here. While having a token system in place to manage compute costs is very common, we do hope for more transparency from CHAI in the future, regarding the calculations.

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