HEREafter AI Pricing Explained: What It Cost Before the Shutdown

<p>HereAfter AI is shutting down. Its homepage displays a notice that reads, "It's time for us to say goodbye. It's been an honor to help families record their memories for loved ones, but unfortunately HereAfter is shutting down."</p>

<p>The pricing page at hereafter.ai/pricing returns a 404 error. The tiers that once appeared there are documented only in an archived snapshot captured by the Internet Archive on January 12, 2026. But six Stripe checkout links for the old plans remain live in the homepage code. Whether any of them process payments is unclear.</p>

<p>HereAfter AI was founded by James Vlahos, a journalist who built a conversational AI persona of his father, called "Dadbot," before his father died. The company was profiled in The New York Times, Wired, and The Washington Post. Obitley sent a detailed request for comment to HereAfter AI on July 22, 2026, asking about refund policies for one-time payment customers, data export timelines, and whether recordings would remain accessible during the shutdown transition. The company did not respond. It marketed itself as a "virtual biographer" that guided users through recorded interviews about their life stories, then used those recordings to build a conversational AI that families could interact with.</p>

<p>Here is what the pricing looked like before the shutdown.</p>

<h2>The subscription tiers</h2>

<p>HereAfter AI offered three subscription tiers, each corresponding to the number of family members who could access the AI persona. The archived pricing page showed a toggle switch labeled "Subscription" and "Single payment." The subscription option was the default.</p>

<p>The Duo plan cost $3.99 per month and allowed two family members. The Family plan cost $5.99 per month and allowed up to five. The Unlimited plan cost $7.99 per month with no stated cap on family members. All three tiers included a 14-day free trial, and the page stated subscribers could "cancel any time, no obligation."</p>

<p>The subscription model meant a family maintaining an HereAfter AI persona for five years would pay between $239 and $479 depending on the tier. That is comparable to the cost of some cemetery memorial options, except there is no physical asset and no regulatory framework guaranteeing the service persists.</p>

<h2>The one-time payment tiers</h2>

<p>HereAfter AI also offered a single-payment option. The archived page described it with the copy: "Choose a plan and pay just once, up front."</p>

<p>The one-time Duo plan cost $99. The Family plan cost $159. The Unlimited plan cost $199. These payments were framed as permanent access. No contract language specified what "permanent" meant, how long the company committed to hosting the material, or what refund policy applied if the service was discontinued.</p>

<p>The archived terms of service, captured by the Internet Archive, state that the company's materials are provided "as is" and that HereAfter "makes no guarantees, communicated or suggested." The liability clause disclaims responsibility for "damages for loss of information or profit, or because of business interference." That clause is broad enough to cover exactly what happened: the company shut down, and customers who paid for permanent access now face an email address and no documented recovery process.</p>

<h2>What the homepage still shows</h2>

<p>The shutdown notice directs existing account holders to email [email protected] to request their recordings. The notice does not specify a timeline for fulfilling those requests, a file format for the returned recordings, or a guarantee that the requests will be honored at all.</p>

<p>Six Stripe checkout links remain embedded in the homepage JavaScript. The checkout URLs (buy.stripe.com/...) correspond to the six pricing tiers documented in the archived snapshot: three subscription plans and three one-time plans. Whether these links still process live payments, or whether they produce an error at checkout, has not been independently verified. The presence of active payment infrastructure on a page announcing a shutdown is unusual and creates a risk that new customers could pay for a service the company has stated it is discontinuing.</p>

<h2>How HereAfter compares to other griefbot pricing</h2>

<p>HereAfter AI sat at the lower end of the griefbot pricing spectrum. Project December, created by game developer Jason Rohrer, charges roughly $10 for approximately 100 messages with a simulated deceased person, according to reporting in <em>Nature</em>. You, Only Virtual charges $20 per month to build and converse with a virtual personality, which totals $240 per year and $1,200 over five years. StoryFile, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2024, charged $1 per individual question, $49 for Story Packs with 75 questions, and $499 for a premium package with access to all 1,600 questions and unlimited conversations.</p>

<p>Afterlife AI, another platform in the space, offers a free tier with 50 memories and no expiration, a Legacy tier at $14.99 per month, and an Eternal tier at $29.99 per month, according to its published pricing page. Replika, which is not specifically designed for grief but is widely used for it, offers free messaging with premium features starting at approximately $70 per year.</p>

<p>HereAfter AI's pricing was the most affordable of the dedicated griefbot platforms. That affordability is now irrelevant for new customers. For existing customers, the question is not what it cost but whether the recordings can be recovered.</p>

<h2>What the FTC Funeral Rule does not cover</h2>

<p>The Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule, codified at 16 CFR Part 453, requires funeral providers to give consumers a General Price List for funeral goods and services. The rule defines a "funeral provider" as a party that sells funeral goods and services to the public.</p>

<p>The rule does not cover AI-generated memorials, digital recreations of deceased persons, or subscription services that maintain cloud-hosted personality models. HereAfter AI was never subject to the Funeral Rule's pricing disclosure requirements, trust account mandates, or consumer protection provisions.</p>

<p>The result is that a family who prepays $199 for a traditional funeral service in most states has regulated protections. Forty-three states regulate prepaid funeral contracts in some form, requiring trust accounts, insurance policies, or bonding. A family who paid $199 for HereAfter AI's "permanent access" plan has a terms-of-service page that disclaims all liability and a shutdown notice with an email address.</p>

<h2>What to do if you are an HereAfter AI customer</h2>

<p>If you have an existing HereAfter AI account, email [email protected] immediately and request your recordings. Specify the format you want (MP3 for audio, standard image files for photographs). Save the pricing page from the Internet Archive snapshot dated January 12, 2026, as documentation of what you paid for. If you paid via credit card, contact your card issuer to dispute the charge if the service was discontinued before the access period you paid for ended.</p>

<p>If you are considering any digital afterlife service, demand answers to three questions before paying: Can I export my raw recordings in standard formats? What happens to my data if the company shuts down? Does the company place any portion of my payment in a trust account? No griefbot company currently publishes satisfactory answers to all three.</p>

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<p><em>Sources: HereAfter AI archived pricing page, Internet Archive (web.archive.org/web/20260112025054/https://www.hereafter.ai/pricing, captured January 12, 2026); HereAfter AI homepage shutdown notice and embedded Stripe checkout URLs (accessed July 2026); HereAfter AI archived terms of service and privacy policy, Internet Archive (October 2021 capture); Project December pricing per <em>Nature</em>; You, Only Virtual subscription pricing; Afterlife AI published pricing page (afterlife.ai/pricing, accessed July 2026); StoryFile Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Case 24-22398, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, May 5, 2024; Replika Pro subscription pricing; FTC Funeral Rule, 16 CFR Part 453; James Vlahos, "Dadbot" creator and HereAfter AI founder, as profiled in The New York Times, Wired, and The Washington Post.</em></p>