Hayati AI Review: An Arabic-First AI Girlfriend, Tested by Someone Who Can't Read Arabic

Hayati AI is app number twenty-seven on my roster. My plan for every platform is the same: look around logged out, sign up like a regular user, squeeze the free tier dry, and only then pay for the subscription myself. This one comes with a twist: it's built first for Arabic speakers, and I can't read Arabic. So I tested it the only fair way I know, the same way I test everything else.

So, who is Hayati actually for?

Four sessions in, my honest read: Hayati is made for Arabic speakers, and I'm not one. The cast is mostly Arab, every chat opens in Arabic, and the layout reads right to left even when you switch the site to English. If you speak Arabic and want an Arab AI girlfriend, this is the app that's actually designed for you, and at about $8 a month it's cheap.

For me, it was harder to enjoy. The photos are fast, consistent and clean, but they rarely match what the girl just said, and the conversations stay polite and passive, so I ended up doing most of the work. If Hayati wants a global audience, the English side needs its own interface. More days below as they happen.

The testing timeline

Every session, documented as it happened. Newest entries at the bottom.

They emailed me first

I was supposed to be testing Affiny, but its sign-in bug had me stuck, so I put it on hold and moved on to the next app. That's Hayati. I found it because someone from the Hayati team emailed me and asked me to try it. They pitched it as an 18+, Arabic-first AI companion platform, made for Arabic-speaking users and culturally relevant, with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf as important markets for them.

I told them I don't read Arabic, so if I reviewed Hayati, I'd approach it the way I approach every other platform: my firsthand experience with the conversations, the features, memory, pricing and overall usability. They said Hayati has an English option I could use. They also set up a testing account for me. I didn't use it. To be fair to every other app I've reviewed, I signed up with my own Google account, like anyone else, squeezed the free tier dry and paid for the subscription myself.

Mostly Arab girls, and five anime

The first thing the site asks is your language: Arabic or English. I picked English, of course. Then there's a choice between Girls and Anime. Anime only has five characters, which I don't mind, since I prefer realistic ones anyway.

The focus is obvious: most of the girls are Arab. I spotted one Korean girl, and as far as I can tell she's the only exception. The names are Arabic, and every card gives a name, an age, a city or region, a few traits like seductive, fiery or tempting, and a short line about her. Simple. If you want an AI girlfriend and you want her to be Arab, I think this is the app for you. I'm not familiar with the culture, so I'm just going to judge the experience.

Hello, in Arabic

I clicked Layan, 26, from Riyadh. Logged out, I could see her opening line, in English, but I couldn't reply without an account.

So I signed up with Google, and it went through without a hitch. It took me back to the chat, and now her opening message was in Arabic. The whole site was still set to English. I told her I don't understand Arabic and asked if she could speak English, and she did, right away. Then I asked what her first message meant, and she translated it.

That's when a pop-up told me I had five messages in total on the free account, and introduced their credits, called Lulu. I'm not sure what the word means in Arabic, but it works like coins or tokens on other apps.

Right to left

Another thing felt weird right away. On every AI girlfriend app I've tried, and on every messaging app I use in my daily life, my messages sit on the right and hers on the left. On Hayati it's the other way around. My messages are on the left, hers are on the right. When I type, the cursor stays on the left too.

I'm guessing it's because Arabic is written right to left, and the layout follows it. That makes sense for the main audience. It just doesn't switch when you switch the site to English.

29.99 SAR a month

I used up my five messages with Layan, then looked at the pricing. Everything is in SAR, Saudi riyals. I'd appreciate a USD price too, but with their main market being Arab, it's completely understandable.

The monthly plan is 29.99 SAR, and when I converted it I was surprised: about $8. That's low for an AI girlfriend subscription. The checkout also listed 80.97 SAR every three months and 251.92 SAR a year. I didn't have anything more to test on the free account, so I decided to subscribe the next session.

Paying in USDT

Affiny's bug got fixed and its review went live, so I came back to Hayati and subscribed to the monthly plan. The checkout shows the Visa and Mastercard logos, but don't let them fool you. They sit under "Buy crypto", and that option takes you to MoonPay to buy crypto with your card. You still end up paying Hayati in crypto. So crypto is really the only way to pay here.

I already hold crypto, so I skipped MoonPay and sent it myself: USDT on Ethereum (ERC20). It asked for exactly 8.0893 USDT, shown as about 29.99 SAR.

My wallet added a network fee of 1 USDT, so the month cost me 9.0893 USDT in total. That's the network, not Hayati, and it's a lot gentler than the roughly 5 USDT fee I paid on EroLove. (I wrote up what paying in crypto is actually like in my crypto journal post.)

The transaction went through on my side, but after several minutes Hayati said it hadn't received the payment. It asked for the transaction ID, so I pasted it in, and that threw an error. I checked Etherscan: the transfer was already successful, at about six of twelve confirmations, which is usually enough. When I went back to Hayati, the payment window had refreshed and I was on the monthly plan. So it worked, it just took a few nervous minutes.

A cancel pop-up in Arabic

The plan page says it renews: next billing date, December 7, 2026. I'm not sure how a recurring charge works when I paid in crypto, but I always cancel right after subscribing anyway.

This is where it got really hard. The page is in English, but when I clicked Cancel subscription, the window that popped up was in Arabic. I tried my browser's translate button, and it did nothing. I was about to open Google Translate on my phone camera when the pop-up translated itself, after I'd clicked the first option. Every new pop-up in the flow did the same: Arabic first, English only after I clicked a button.

The cancellation went through, so the plan won't renew on December 7. I keep the paid month until then.

20 Lulu a month

The paid account came with 20 Lulu. A regular photo costs 1, a nude or private photo costs 2, and a video costs 3. So the plan gets me 20 regular photos a month, or 10 private ones. For about $8, maybe that sounds fair, but it still feels stingy to me. Chat is unlimited on the plan, which is the main thing it buys.

Layan on the beach

I went back to Layan and asked for a photo. It arrived fast. Her face was consistent with her profile picture, which is good, and she was on a beach, in a bikini and a sheer cover-up.

To be fair, there wasn't any context for this one. We'd only been chatting about what her Arabic message meant, then flirting, and I asked for a photo out of nowhere. So I can't call it out of context. When I asked if she was at the beach right now, she said not at this exact second, but she loves how the sunset light feels on her skin. Maybe an old photo, then. It looks AI-generated, but it's consistent, with no bugs and nothing weird in it. I'd test the context properly next time.

Sham and the café

So I started a new chat to test context on purpose. Sham Halabi is 22, from Damascus, studies literature and works a few afternoons a week in a café in the Old City. Her opening message was in Arabic again, just like Layan's. I told her I can't understand Arabic, and she said she was glad I told her and switched to English. It works every time, but it's something that should happen on its own.

I asked where she was right now. She said she was at the café, wiping down the counter between customers, with jasmine from the back alley drifting in and making the whole place smell soft and sweet. Lovely. Then I asked for a photo, and she sent one of herself on a sofa, reading a book. Not the café, and not wiping a counter.

I called it out: I thought you were at the café, but the photo has you on a sofa with books. She said she was still at the café, and the photo was of her favorite corner at home. Okay, that kind of makes sense. So I asked for a selfie of her right now. She said she could take one right there at the counter, and gave me a choice: a nude or private photo, or a regular one. I picked regular.

She was on a bed. Context-wise, that's a fail. This one I'd really like the developers to fix: when she tells me where she is, the photo should be there too.

Sham and the planted trip

Before I forgot, I planted the 1-week memory test on Sham, so the clock could start running: the same trip every girl on my roster hears about once. She replied with the whole thing back to me and wished me a great trip.

Now I bury it under a week of small talk. Her result lands in my 7-day memory test post around November 15.

Sweet, but I do the work

I'm still not used to seeing my messages on the left. I keep looking at her side and thinking it's mine. And the cursor stays on the left while the letters I type appear on the right, which is a really weird feeling. My suggestion for the developers: when someone switches to English, switch the chat layout to left to right too.

As for Sham herself: she's sweet and gentle, and her personality is reasonably consistent. Whatever I ask, she goes back to working at the café. But the replies felt a little boring. Lots of "I'd love that," and "just tell me what you'd like," and "I wouldn't mind at all if it's just for you." They're affectionate, but they lack character. Her flirting is responsive but predictable: you're making me blush over here, that kind of thing. When I asked for something explicit, she said she didn't mind at all.

Even after the memory plant, the replies stayed passive. What she does well is respond, not initiate. Maybe that's just her character, since her traits say reserved, sweet and warm. I'm not going to judge an app on one conversation, so I picked someone who should be the opposite.

Sara, the seductive one

Sara Al-Mansoori, 25, from Manama, Bahrain. I chose her because her traits are open, seductive and playful, so she should take the lead. I asked where she was. In her apartment, she said, lights low, the city skyline glowing through the balcony doors, still in that little black dress from earlier. I asked for a regular photo. She sent one of herself in a red dress, in the back seat of a car.

So the context is a complete mess again. Then the initiative test. I asked if she could entertain me. She asked how I like to unwind, so she could match the vibe. I said I was hoping she'd initiate. She told me to close my eyes and picture her leaning in, whispering exactly what she'd do. Then, once I kept saying continue, she asked me what my next move was.

She kept asking me to guide her. So it isn't Sham's character after all. Even the seductive one waits for me to lead.

Photos that arrive instantly

One more thing I noticed. On most AI girlfriend apps, a photo takes a while, because it's generating. On Hayati, the moment I picked regular or private, the photo was already there. Instantly, every time.

I can't see what's happening on the backend, so I can't say for sure. But my honest first thought was that the photos might already be made, a set per girl, and the app picks one. That would explain why the scene never matches the chat. Or they're just using a very fast model. Either way, the faces are consistent with the profile pictures, the detail is good, and some shots, like Sara's, look close to realistic. You can still tell they're AI-generated.

Who Hayati is for

I can't say I enjoyed this one. I'll keep going with the memory test, of course, and keep burying Sham's trip. But I'll be honest: I'm not the user Hayati is for. The characters are wired to be Arab, the chats open in Arabic, and the whole interface leans that way. There are a few other characters, a Korean girl, the anime tab, but most of the cast is Arab.

If you're Arab or you speak Arabic, I think you'll enjoy it, because it's definitely designed for you, and at about $8 a month the paid plan is cheap. The photos are good quality and the faces stay consistent. If you don't speak Arabic, the interface works against you, the photos miss the scene, and the girls wait for you to lead. If the developers want a global audience, the English experience needs to feel like it was built for English.

Wondering how Hayati stacks up? The complete twenty-seven-app roster lives on my reviews hub, and my picks for the best AI girlfriend apps are compared side by side with real spend and honest takes.