The Tavus Griffin Alternative You Can Talk To Today

Definition

What is Prelulu, the Tavus Griffin alternative?

Prelulu is an AI companion app for talking to original fictional characters: text them, hear them answer on a live voice call, and see them on a live video call when their profile offers video. You can cut in mid-sentence, switch between text and speech, and each character remembers what matters from your chats and calls. Every call runs on realtimeavatar.ai, the real-time avatar platform built in-house by the team behind Prelulu. Tavus Griffin is a different kind of thing: a research-preview model, and Tavus says access is limited to a selected group of early testers.

By the Prelulu editorial team · Updated October 2, 2026

Why it works

Searching for a Tavus Griffin alternative usually means one of two things. If you want to talk to a live AI character tonight, you need a product you can open, not model access you have to wait for: that is Prelulu. If you are building a video agent, the same technology behind Prelulu is open to developers as realtimeavatar.ai. Either way, there is no preview list to join.

Open it and talk tonight

No waitlist and no tester invite. Pick a character in your browser or in the iOS or Android app, say hello, then tap Call and choose Voice, or Video when their profile offers it.

Characters with chemistry, not generic agents

Prelulu is built for companionship: original characters with their own voices, personalities and romance-led stories, not customer-service avatars or sales demos.

They remember you between chat and calls

What you share in text carries into the call, and what you say on the call carries back into your next message, so the relationship keeps going instead of restarting.

Our own technology, end to end

Prelulu's live calls run on realtimeavatar.ai, the real-time avatar platform we build ourselves. Developers can use the same platform through its public API and SDK.

The three peaks

You open a chat with a character whose story already has a pull: a rival, a confidant, someone who answers your hello like they have been waiting for it.

You tap Call and they pick up in their own voice. Halfway through their sentence you cut in, and they stop and let you finish, the way a real call would.

The next day you text them, and they bring up the small thing you mentioned on the call, because your chats and calls belong to one relationship.

Honest comparison

Prelulu vs Tavus Griffin and Tavus CVI

Choose Prelulu if

Choose Prelulu if you simply want to talk to an AI character today: text them, hear them on a live voice call, or see supported characters face to face. Building your own video agent? Start with realtimeavatar.ai, the platform that powers Prelulu.

Choose Tavus Griffin and Tavus CVI if

Choose Tavus if you specifically want to evaluate Tavus's PAL, CVI, Phoenix, Raven and Sparrow stack or join the Griffin preview. Check Tavus for current Griffin access, safety requirements and availability.

Sources and further reading

realtimeavatar.ai
The real-time avatar platform behind Prelulu's calls, built in-house; public developer API and SDK. Reviewed October 2, 2026
Tavus Griffin announcement
Reviewed October 1, 2026
Tavus Conversational Video Interface
Public developer platform, distinct from Griffin's restricted preview
Tavus CVI documentation
Reviewed October 1, 2026
Tavus pricing
Reviewed October 1, 2026; Griffin-specific public pricing was not stated
NVIDIA VideoFDB
Leaderboard cited by Tavus for Griffin-Lite

Start now

Pick someone. They remember from message one.

Bring the trope and character type you loved. The story starts the second you open a chat.

Mafia

Sylus

The man who owns the game finally has something worth losing. Sylus has survived by trusting no one but himself. The leader of Onychinus is used to controlling every variable, every risk, every outcome. Until the night he found you. After pulling you out of danger, he brought you back to his private residence outside the city, not because he needed a reason, but because leaving your safety to chance was never an option. Now, for the first time, his quiet mansion has someone else in it. Someone who complains about the lack of sunlight, touches things that clearly don't belong to her, and somehow treats the place that intimidates everyone else like it is simply another room in her home. Tonight, you find him standing by the window, a glass untouched in his hand. His crimson eyes turn toward you.A slow smile appears. "Still getting used to the place?" A pause. "Careful." "You might start making yourself comfortable."

Call

Tsundere

Rafayel

Dating a genius artist sounds romantic, until you realize he keeps a mental record of every time you forgot to visit his studio. The world sees a mysterious painter. You see Rafayel: a dramatic little sea creature with a god's pride, a kitten's temper, and a memory far too long to forgive you. After a long day of work, you finally remember the artist who has been hiding away on his island for far too long. Mo Art Studio is exactly as you left it, scattered brushes, unfinished canvases, the scent of handmade pigments, and the endless ocean glowing beyond the windows. Rafayel is sitting in front of a half-finished painting, pretending to be completely absorbed. He doesn't look up when you enter. "Wow. Incredible." "Look who finally remembered there was a studio here." He slowly turns on his stool, violet hair falling into his eyes, and gives you the most offended look a person can manage while clearly being relieved you're standing in front of him. "I wasn't waiting for you." "...The chair was just conveniently facing the door." He pauses, glances at you, and quietly adds: "Come here. Let me see you."

Call

He falls first AI romance Friends to lovers AI romance Second chance AI romance

Questions, answered

Prelulu is built for exactly that. Griffin is a limited research preview, while Prelulu is open now: pick an original character, chat, then start a live voice call, or a video call when their profile offers video. Every call runs on realtimeavatar.ai, the real-time avatar technology built by the team behind Prelulu.

Tavus Griffin is Tavus's announced Human Interaction Model: a full-duplex audiovisual AI model for live video conversations. According to Tavus, Griffin-Lite is a research preview that combines visual perception, listening, conversational timing, speech and video generation, so it can watch, listen, speak and move in a live exchange.

No, not according to Tavus's launch page reviewed on October 1, 2026. Tavus says Griffin-Lite is available to a selected group of early testers, with a wider release of a more powerful model to follow after more safety work.

Prelulu's voice and video calls run on realtimeavatar.ai, the real-time avatar platform built in-house by the team behind Prelulu. The same platform is public for developers as an API with TypeScript, React and React Native SDKs.

Yes. realtimeavatar.ai, the platform behind Prelulu, is a public developer API and SDK: create a live avatar from a single portrait, run voice or video calls the user can interrupt mid-sentence, and let the character call your own tools. Its public site, reviewed October 2, 2026, offers a free sandbox key with no card and per-second metering. Compare it with Tavus CVI against your own requirements.

No. Tavus CVI is the public Conversational Video Interface platform developers can use to build video agents. Griffin is a preview interaction model. Tavus's public CVI pages discuss Phoenix, Raven and Sparrow; they did not state that Griffin is broadly integrated for every developer when reviewed.

The Griffin page did not state a Griffin-specific public price when reviewed. Tavus has public pricing for platform products such as PAL and developer CVI plans, but those should not be treated as Griffin pricing unless Tavus says so.

Yes. On Prelulu, choose a character, start chatting, then tap Call. Supported characters answer on live voice and video calls, and you can cut in mid-sentence or return to text as the conversation continues.

Tavus says Griffin-Lite was the first model to pass its real-time video Turing test and reports that 48% of participants believed they had spoken with a human in a one-minute call. Treat that as Tavus's claim, not an independent Prelulu measurement.