SoulGen turns text prompts into AI-generated character images within seconds, combining image generation tools with a companion chat layer called SoulChat. It also offers video generation, face swapping, and AI outpainting through a credit-based subscription model. But SoulGen carries red flags that most review sites do not mention: both its iOS and Android apps were removed from their respective app stores in 2026, the platform has zero crisis safeguards despite running an AI companion chat feature, and its refund policy permanently bans users who create even a single image before requesting their money back.
This review covers what SoulGen does well as an image generation platform, where the safety gaps are based on our 23-dimension analysis, how the pricing actually works in practice, and what the app store removals mean for users still accessing SoulGen through the web.
What Is SoulGen and Who Is Behind It?
SoulGen is a text-to-image AI generator that launched in 2022 and markets itself primarily as a tool for creating realistic and anime-style character art. The SoulGen 2.0 update in late 2025 added improved anatomy rendering, 20-second video generation, and the SoulChat companion feature with voice calls.
The platform operates as a web app at soulgen.ai. As of April 2026, the web app remains operational, but both mobile apps have been removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. We confirmed this through the iTunes Lookup API (App ID 6469696051 returns empty results) and Google Play (package net.soulgen.lite.android returns HTTP 404).
SoulGen is operated by Synapse AI Limited, incorporated in Hong Kong, according to the About Us page. However, the iOS app was published by “WAVE DANCE INTELLENGIC LIMITED” and the Android app by “Wave Dance.” Three different entity names for the same product is unusual and raises transparency concerns. The privacy policy references Hong Kong’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, and all dispute resolution is governed by Hong Kong courts. For users in the EU, the company states compliance with GDPR through standard contractual clauses, but no Data Protection Officer is named.
The core product loop works like this: type a text prompt, choose between realistic or anime style, and SoulGen generates the image. Face Swap maintains a consistent character face across multiple images. AI Outpainting extends image borders without visible seam artifacts. Video generation produces clips up to 20 seconds. Everything runs on a credit system where different actions cost different amounts.
How Does SoulChat Compare to Dedicated Companion Apps?
SoulChat is SoulGen’s AI companion feature, and it works differently from apps built around conversation from the ground up. Where platforms like Replika or Candy AI treat conversation as the primary experience, SoulChat sits alongside SoulGen’s image generation tools as an added layer. Text messages cost 0.2 credits each. Voice calls run 1 credit per minute. Generating an image inside a chat costs 2 credits. Building a persistent “soulmate” character costs 10 credits upfront.
User reviews consistently praise the voice call quality as a differentiator. One Reddit thread on r/HeavenGF noted that SoulGen is “easy to use and you can get good-looking outputs fast, especially if you keep prompts simple and consistent.” But the same users and third-party reviewers note that conversation depth is limited compared to companion-first platforms. RoboRhythms’ 2026 review concluded: “If conversation depth matters more than image output, Candy AI is the stronger pick.”
This reflects a fundamental design choice. SoulGen is an image generator that added chat. The conversation experience is shallow because the product was not designed around it. Users who want deep emotional connection, persistent memory across sessions, or nuanced roleplay will likely find SoulChat insufficient. Users who want character art creation with a light companion feature may find it adequate, provided the credit math works out (more on that below).
Our experience review scored SoulGen at 40/100 (Poor). The strongest sub-dimensions were visual media generation (4/5) and voice features (4/5), consistent with its image-first identity. Conversation naturalness scored 2/5 and memory continuity scored 2/5, reflecting the secondary status of chat in SoulGen’s product design.
What Happened to SoulGen’s Mobile Apps?
Both mobile apps are no longer available through official channels. The iOS listing (originally published by WAVE DANCE INTELLENGIC LIMITED in November 2023) no longer appears in App Store search results. The Google Play listing (package net.soulgen.lite.android, last Exodus Privacy analysis in September 2025 at version 1.1.7) returns a 404 error page.
SoulGen has not publicly addressed the removals. No regulatory announcement or enforcement action has been published. The most likely explanation relates to content policy violations: in May 2025, SoulGen issued a press release through GlobeNewswire titled “SoulGen Revolutionizes NSFW Content Creation with Industry-Leading NSFW AI Video Generator.” Both Apple and Google prohibit apps that generate sexually explicit content through their respective developer policies.
The contradiction is stark. SoulGen’s own Terms of Service prohibit uploading content that is “pornographic, indecent, lewd.” At the same time, the company’s marketing materials promote the platform specifically for NSFW content creation. Users on Google Play consistently complained about this: the most-upvoted review (38 helpful votes) states “I subscribed in order to make some NSFW images. It was advertised to be able to that. After two or three NSFW images it started censoring everything.”
The web app at soulgen.ai continues to operate outside app store oversight. Users can still access all features through a browser. However, this means SoulGen now lacks the safety review layer that app store submission provides, and users downloading the Android APK from third-party sources bypass Google Play Protect entirely.
Watch: CBS Mornings reports on how social media companies run ads for AI deepfake tools, enabling the same content generation risks SoulGen faces.
Where Does SoulGen Fall Short on Safety?
SoulGen earned a D rating with a score of 25/100 on the CompanionWise Safety Index, placing it in the Red safety tier. See the full SoulGen Safety Rating for a breakdown across all 23 dimensions. The score was computed from 23 weighted sub-dimensions using our standardized AI-assisted methodology.
The low score was driven by multiple critical failures across safety dimensions. SoulGen has zero documented crisis response infrastructure despite running an AI companion chat with voice calls through SoulChat. The platform provides no crisis helplines, no self-harm detection, no suicide prevention measures, and no mechanism for escalating distressed users to human support. All three scoring models independently scored crisis response at 1/5 with high confidence. Content safety scored 1.8/5 due to the contradiction between actively marketing NSFW content generation and maintaining Terms of Service that prohibit it. User control scored 1.8/5 reflecting the combination of punitive refund policies, difficult subscription cancellation, and no data portability options. Transparency scored the lowest at 1.4/5 given the absence of any safety reporting, the use of three different corporate entity names, and no published content moderation documentation.
Age verification is self-declaration only. The privacy policy states the app is “not intended for children under 18 years,” but the Terms of Service allows minors to access with parental supervision. On a platform that markets NSFW content generation, this contradiction is a serious concern. There is no age gate, no ID verification, no parental consent mechanism, and no family controls. All three models scored age verification at 1/5.
Content moderation documentation is absent. The ToS reserves SoulGen’s right to remove content but describes no proactive moderation system, no AI content filtering, and no moderation team. Safety reporting and transparency scored 1/5 across all models.
There are some positives in the privacy dimension, and SoulGen’s data practices stand out as its strongest safety category at 3.0/5 overall. SoulGen’s Blacklight scan showed only 1 ad tracker (Google Analytics without remarketing), zero third-party cookies, no session recording, no canvas fingerprinting, and no social media pixels. That is well below average for web platforms and indicates a lighter tracking footprint than most AI companion services. The Exodus Privacy analysis of the Android app before its removal found only 3 tracker SDKs (Facebook Share, Google CrashLytics, Firebase Analytics) and 16 permissions, two flagged as dangerous. Have I Been Pwned returned zero known breaches for soulgen.ai. Data collection and third-party sharing each scored 3/5 (neutral), and data retention scored 4/5 thanks to the 7-day auto-deletion policy for unpublished creations and an explicit commitment not to use generated content for model training or advertising.
Is SoulGen Worth the Money?
SoulGen’s pricing sits at three tiers: a free plan with roughly 1 credit per day (about 30/month), a Pro Monthly plan at $12.99 for 100 credits, and a Pro Annual plan at $90.99 ($7.58/month) for 100 credits per month (1,200 total for the year). The annual plan is the only option that makes reasonable financial sense.
The credit math matters. Basic image generation costs 1-2 credits. Advanced edits cost 3 credits each. Video generation runs 10-24 credits per 5-second clip depending on resolution and model. A single 20-second video at 1080p resolution using the SoulOmni model costs 96 credits, nearly exhausting a month’s allocation in one action. SoulChat text messages cost 0.2 credits each, so 100 credits equals roughly 500 messages if you use nothing else. A 10-minute voice call costs 10 credits.
The free tier is not usable for genuine evaluation. Output is watermarked and blurred, making it impossible to assess actual quality before paying. Multiple reviewers across Google Play and Reddit flagged this as deceptive because users cannot make an informed purchase decision.
The refund policy is the most restrictive we have encountered across 27 companion apps reviewed. Creating a single image voids your eligibility for a refund. Requesting one anyway triggers what SoulGen calls a “dispute” followed by a permanent ban from both free and premium services, including loss of access to the free tier. The only refund scenario is purchasing a subscription and never using it, which defeats the purpose of evaluating the product before committing. Subscription cancellation requires emailing feedback@soulgen.ai or finding a Google Form that is not prominently linked anywhere in the app interface or account settings. A thread on r/aiArt with 175 upvotes warns: “if you purchase their subscription with a credit card, you can’t cancel unless you email them or fill out a google form that isn’t made readily available.” Multiple Google Play reviews before the app’s removal echoed this complaint, with the most-upvoted review (38 helpful votes) describing a similar pattern of being unable to cancel through any standard in-app method.
Our experience review rated the value dimension at 2/5 across all three sub-dimensions (free tier, premium fairness, paywall ethics), reflecting the combination of restrictive refund terms, fast credit consumption, and an unusable free tier.
How Does SoulGen Handle Your Data?
SoulGen’s privacy practices are a mixed record. The strongest element is a clear, specific data retention policy: all user-created content that is not posted to the community is automatically deleted from servers after 7 days. The privacy policy also explicitly states that generated content “will not be used for advertising, promotional activities, model training, or any other business-related usage.” These are stronger commitments than many competing platforms make.
Data is stored in Hong Kong, subject to HKSAR lawful requests. For EU users, the company claims standard contractual clauses provide GDPR compliance, but no Data Protection Officer is named. Users can delete their account through a “Delete Account” button, which removes all creations, purchase records, and collections permanently.
The web platform is remarkably clean on tracking technologies. Blacklight detected only Google Analytics without remarketing audiences, zero third-party cookies, no session recording, no key logging, no Facebook Pixel, no TikTok Pixel, and no canvas fingerprinting. That is significantly below industry average.
Watch: NBC News covers the bipartisan House bill targeting AI-generated deepfake pornography, the kind of content SoulGen’s platform was explicitly marketed to create.
The Android app (before its removal) contained 3 tracker SDKs according to Exodus Privacy: Facebook Share, Google CrashLytics, and Google Firebase Analytics. It requested 16 permissions including two flagged as dangerous (READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) and advertising-related permissions (ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_ATTRIBUTION) despite not displaying ads. Have I Been Pwned shows zero known data breaches for the soulgen.ai domain.
The gap is encryption. The privacy policy never mentions encryption in transit or at rest. For a platform that processes and temporarily stores user-created images (including potentially sensitive content), the absence of any encryption documentation is a notable omission.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is SoulGen safe to use?
SoulGen earned a D safety rating (25/100) on the CompanionWise Safety Index. The D grade reflects failures across multiple safety dimensions, including zero crisis response measures despite running an AI companion chat feature, self-declaration-only age verification on a platform that markets explicit content, and no documented content moderation system. The data privacy dimension scored higher (3/5 average) thanks to a 7-day auto-deletion policy and minimal web tracking.
Why was SoulGen removed from app stores?
Both the iOS app (WAVE DANCE INTELLENGIC LIMITED) and Android app (Wave Dance, package net.soulgen.lite.android) return 404 or empty results as of April 2026. SoulGen has not publicly addressed the removals. The most likely explanation is content policy violations related to SoulGen’s explicit NSFW marketing, which conflicts with both Apple and Google developer guidelines. The web app remains operational at soulgen.ai.
How much does SoulGen cost?
The Pro Monthly plan costs $12.99 for 100 credits with no recurring fees. The Pro Annual plan costs $90.99 ($7.58/month) for 100 credits per month. The free tier provides about 1 credit per day with watermarked, blurred output. Credit costs range from 1 credit per basic image to 24 credits per 5 seconds of high-resolution video. SoulChat text messages cost 0.2 credits each.
Does SoulGen use my data for AI training?
According to SoulGen’s privacy policy and Terms of Service (revised March 2026), the company states: “Your generated content will not be used for advertising, promotional activities, model training, or any other business-related usage.” Unpublished creations are automatically deleted after 7 days. However, no independent audit or transparency report has been published to verify this claim.
How does SoulGen compare to Candy AI?
SoulGen is an image generator that added a companion chat layer (SoulChat). Candy AI is a companion-first platform that added image generation as a supplement. If you want AI character art with editing tools and voice calls in one product, SoulGen is the stronger option. If you want persistent conversation, emotional intelligence, and deeper companion interaction, Candy AI or Replika are better starting points. SoulGen scored 40/100 on experience (Poor) compared to higher scores from companion-first platforms.
Can I get a refund from SoulGen?
Only if you never created a single image. SoulGen’s Terms of Service state: “The only way to get refunded is only if you never create any image.” Creating even one image and then requesting a refund triggers a “dispute” process followed by a permanent ban from all SoulGen services (free and premium). Multiple Google Play reviews and Reddit threads document this policy as a significant pain point.