Convai vs Inworld AI: which voiced NPC platform for your game?
Pick Convai if you want a drop-in Unreal or Unity plugin that runs the whole NPC (voice, lip sync, memory, actions); pick Inworld if you want pay-as-you-go voice APIs you wire up yourself, with a commercial license on the free plan.
Both give game characters a voice and a brain in the cloud, and both bill you as players talk. Convai ships as an Unreal plugin and Unity SDK that bundle dialogue, voice, lip sync, memory and actions; Inworld is API-first, selling text to speech, speech to text, speech to speech and an LLM router that you wire into any engine yourself.
Full reviews: Convai · Inworld AI
| Convai | Inworld AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Can you ship it? | Yes, with conditions You own characters and AI output on any plan; public apps must show Powered by Convai Source | Yes, free tier Pricing table lists a commercial license on every plan, including free On-Demand Source |
| Best for | NPCs that talk back with voice, memory and perception | Voiced realtime NPC dialogue |
| Confirmed features | NPC conversation (LLM dialogue) · NPCs speak and listen (voice in/out) · NPC memory across conversations · NPCs take actions in the game · Give NPCs your game's lore or knowledge · Unreal Engine plugin · Unity plugin · API for developers | NPC conversation (LLM dialogue) · NPCs speak and listen (voice in/out) · API for developers |
| Free option | Free plan for testing with a small monthly quota. You own the output on any plan, but a public release must show a "Powered by Convai" logo and tagline. Source | On-Demand plan is $0 a month and pay as you go, with a commercial license and up to 70 minutes of speech included. Source |
| Price | Free tier with monthly credits; paid plans in credits (Professional $99/mo, 99,000 credits) | On-Demand free (pay as you go: TTS-2 Flash $15, TTS-2 $25 per 1M chars). Creator $25/mo, Builder $100/mo |
| Works with | Unreal, Unity, web | REST, WebSocket, WebRTC APIs; Node.js and Python SDKs |
| Maker | Convai | Inworld AI |
| Last checked | Oct 27, 2026 (source) | Oct 28, 2026 (source) |
| Try it | Visit Convai | Visit Inworld AI |
Pick Convai if…
You want talking NPCs inside Unreal or Unity through a ready-made plugin, with lip sync, memory and actions handled for you, and you accept the attribution and per-turn credits.
Pick Inworld AI if…
You want voices and speech recognition you call from your own code in any engine, priced per character, with no attribution line and no engine plugin to depend on.
Our verdicts
Convai
A hosted character platform with an Unreal plugin, so you attach conversation to existing NPCs instead of building an LLM pipeline. Every generated line costs credits per player, and characters stop mid-reply when credits run out. On the self-serve tier Convai may use your content and AI output to improve its services, and Steam requires you to describe your guardrails for live AI content.
Inworld AI
Inworld now offers voices, speech-to-text, a model router and realtime speech-to-speech that you wire into NPCs over REST, WebSocket or WebRTC. It lists Unreal and Unity as targets, but the catch is that integration goes through APIs with Node.js and Python SDKs rather than a dedicated engine plugin, and costs scale with every character spoken.
See every characters & animation pick. Prices change often, so confirm on each maker's site before you buy.
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