Backyard AI

What is Backyard AI?

Backyard AI is unfiltered character chat: you pick or build a character and talk to it in text or voice, alone or in a group. It is run by Ahoy Labs, Inc. of California and was previously known as Faraday.dev. The authoring tools are unusually deep for this category, exposing lorebooks, author's notes, response grammars and raw model parameters rather than hiding them behind a personality slider.

At a glance

Product identity

What Backyard AI claims, and what we found

Each row is a claim the vendor makes on a public page, beside what the same vendor's other pages say. Where two of their documents disagree we record both rather than choosing one. All checked 9 Aug 2026.

Pricing

Standard is 12 US dollars a month for unlimited messages on 7 models with a 16,384 token context. Pro is 35 and raises that to 12 models and up to 100,000 tokens of context, plus a premium support channel. The free tier is not a trial: it gives 300 messages a week on the same 7 models and the same context size as Standard, so the paid upgrade is mainly about volume rather than capability.

Yes, and it is one of the better ones in this directory. 300 messages a week, 7 models, the full 16,384 token context, plus group chats, voice calls and lorebooks. No card is required. Because the context size matches the paid Standard tier, the free plan is a fair test of what the product actually does rather than a demo of a cut-down version.

Refunds: The terms do not publish a refund window. Subscriptions are described as recurring until cancelled.

Platforms

Web, iOS and Android. A Windows and macOS desktop app exists and its own download page states that it is deprecated and no longer supported, with a last update about a year ago.

• Web
• iOS
• Android

Feature matrix

Absence of evidence is not recorded as absence of a feature. Anything that needs an account to confirm is marked not tested rather than "no".

Privacy and data

Less clearly than the product's reputation suggests. The privacy policy gives no retention period for any category of data, says nothing about whether user content trains models, and offers deletion by emailing support rather than through a setting. Separately, the terms take an unrestricted, perpetual, irrevocable and sublicensable licence to host, store, publish, sell and resell what users submit. ClickTug records training as not documented rather than inferring it from that licence, but the licence is broad enough that anyone treating this as private should read it.

Privacy disclosure

What the vendor lets you know before paying

This measures disclosure, not quality. A good product can document nothing, and that is worth knowing separately from whether it is any good.

Content policy and safety

Backyard AI documents its output filtering asno documented output filter, and its age policy as self-declared at signup.

Backyard AI does not offer clothing removal from photographs of real people. ClickTug does not list tools that do. Its stated position on the likeness of real people is that documented consent is required.

What the vendor prohibits

• Material that exploits people under 18 in a sexual or violent manner
• Soliciting personal information from anyone under 18
• Impersonation of any kind using the voice features, including synthetic voice likenesses
• Submitting voice recordings of third parties, including public figures, without their express consent
• Content that harasses, threatens, ridicules or abuses anyone

The terms take an unrestricted, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable and sublicensable licence to host, store, publish, sell and resell what users submit. That is a broad grant for a product whose appeal is private roleplay.

Vendor acceptable use policy · Vendor minor safety policy · ClickTug content policy

ClickTug verdict

Good roleplay tooling, and a reputation it no longer earns. Backyard, formerly Faraday.dev, is known as the local app that kept your characters on your own machine. Its own download page now says that desktop app is deprecated and unsupported, and the live product is a cloud service. Judged as one it is strong: deep authoring controls, terms that address minors and impersonation, and a free tier carrying the paid context window. Judged on privacy, the policy states no retention period, no training position, and takes a perpetual sublicensable licence over what you write.

Hands on

Backyard AI: what has changed

Compiled from the vendor's own pages and dated announcements. Where a change is visible but undated, the period is given rather than a guessed date.

1. 2023Launched as Faraday.dev, a desktop application running language models locally on the user's own hardware
2. By 2025Rebranded to Backyard AI, with web, iOS and Android clients added alongside the desktop build
3. 2025Desktop app marked deprecated and no longer supported on its own download page, last updated about a year before this checksource
4. Aug 2026Current product is a cloud service on web, iOS and Android. Installers for the deprecated desktop build remain downloadablesource

How Backyard AI compares

Every figure on the right is computed across the 37 tools ClickTug currently tracks, at the moment this page was built. They are facts about this catalogue rather than about the market, and they move as it grows.

At $12 a month, Backyard AI is cheaper than 6 of the 17 tools here that publish a starting price.

Quick answers about Backyard AI

Generated from the same records as the tables above, so an answer here cannot contradict a figure there. Questions only appear when the answer says something specific to this product.

Is Backyard AI free?

There is a free tier. 300 messages a week, 7 models, 16,384 token context, group chats, voice calls and lorebooks. No card required.

How much does Backyard AI cost?

Paid plans start at $12 a month. Every tier and what it includes is listed in the pricing section above, taken from the vendor's own page.

Does Backyard AI require a credit card to start?

No card is required to reach the free layer. One is needed for any paid plan.

Does Backyard AI offer refunds?

The terms do not publish a refund window. Subscriptions are described as recurring until cancelled.

Does Backyard AI have an app?

Yes, on iOS and Android.

Can Backyard AI run locally?

No. It is a hosted service, so everything you write reaches the vendor's servers.

Can I delete my Backyard AI account?

Deletion is by request to the vendor rather than a setting you can use yourself.

Is Backyard AI actually uncensored?

ClickTug records no documented output filter, which is a different claim from having no rules: its terms still prohibit a specific list of conduct, set out above.

What company owns Backyard AI, and where?

Ahoy Labs, Inc., California, United States. Publishing an identifiable counterparty is worth noting: several tools in this directory name no company at all.