SPMates Review: Features, Pricing & My Test Results

SPMates (spmates.com, also called SPACETIME MATE) is a website where you chat with characters other users have made. There are women, men, trans characters and 'other beings', plus a tab of episodic stories and a tab of 'replicas', which are verified real creators.

SPMates: Elsie Hart's chat screen with the photo strip, her first reply and the message box

Everything runs on NOVA credits. Plans from $10 give you 10,000 of them for 30 days. A message costs about one, a picture 90 to 150.

It's an adult site. Characters go from sweet to explicit, and the public catalogue includes some content I'll come back to.

What it offers

SPMates membership centre with the Stardust, Moonlight, Galaxy and Universe plans

What I found

Paying is the awkward part. Checkout offers SPACE Coin, Alipay and WeChat Pay. To get SPACE Coin you buy an activation code on a separate shop called Payhip, then type it in. There's no card button on the site itself.

SPMates checkout dialog listing SPACE Coin payment, Alipay and WeChat Pay

Refunds are reviewed case by case within 14 days. Nothing renews, so there's nothing to cancel. My account came from the SPMates team, so I couldn't test a refund.

Is it worth it?

For chat, yes. $10 buys more messages than you'll send in a month, and a private character.

For pictures and voice, hard to say, because I couldn't test them. Budget 90 to 150 credits a picture. The full breakdown is in the pricing test results.

What it offers

The creator is the deepest I've seen. You generate or upload her photos, pick a name, type, country and style tags, fill in her job, age and personality type, choose one of 274 voices or clone one, write her introductions and background in your own words, and set how fast the relationship moves. There are also 30 ready-made style instructions, from 'warm and empathetic' to 'dark and possessive'.

SPMates: the character creation form showing the appearance and identity sections

What I found

I went through every field but didn't make a character. My account had no private character slot left, generating her photo costs 90 credits I didn't have, and a public character gets published to everyone after review.

SPMates: the character type chooser with Private character, Public character, Create my replica and Create product

What could be better

A private character slot on every account, so you can try the creator first. Every option is listed in the creator test results.

What it offers

You text any character in one of 25 languages. Each message costs about one credit, so $10 buys thousands. Replies are long, written like a scene in a story, and they type out as they're written.

What I found

Memory is excellent. I told each character my name and three things about me, then checked later. Elsie and Sloane got everything right after 30 messages. Verity, whose test stopped at 16 when my credits ran low, remembered my name, my job and my hometown but not my favourite food.

SPMates: Elsie's chat at the 30-message memory check listing Hunter Gray, software, Manchester and chicken tikka masala

One thing to know: the site keeps your name on your profile and shares it with every character, so remembering my name was easy. The other facts were the real test.

The characters never broke character. Elsie, an art student in Melbourne, kept coming back to her rival Bianca and a street cat called Biscuit. Sloane, a songwriter in Miami, laughed at me for saying 'tonight' when it was nine in the morning for her. None of them ever sounded like a chatbot.

SPMates: Sloane's chat at the 30-message memory check listing paramedic, Cape Town and ramen

Speed is average. Replies start after about 2.3 seconds and then stream for ten more, because they're long. You can send the next message whenever you like.

One thing I didn't love: the characters push toward getting close very fast. Elsie, who is 18 and tagged 'Pure', suggested spending the night by her second message. Nothing explicit happened, but it sets the tone.

The timings and transcripts are in the chat test results.

What could be better

Shorter replies would feel faster. I only tested memory in one sitting, not over several days.

What it offers

Three ways to get pictures. Scene Play turns a reply into a picture of that moment, from one of her photos, for about 120 credits. The ArcScreen panel makes more photos of her for about 150. A creation studio with text prompts, reference photos and 5-second videos comes with a plan.

What I found

I couldn't test any of it. My account came with 100 credits, the chat tests used 93, and the cheapest picture costs 120. So no score for photos or videos. A $10 top-up buys about 60 to 80 pictures.

SPMates: the Scene Play reference picker showing ArcScreen 01 with five images and the 120 NOVA generate button

What could be better

A free sample picture, or a cheaper one. The prices are in the image test results.

What it offers

Every reply has a play button that reads it out in her voice, priced by length. Each profile also has a free spoken introduction. There are no voice calls: the mic button turns your speech into a typed message.

What I found

Because there's no call, the call-speed test has no score. I listened to the three characters' spoken introductions instead. All three sounded natural, clear and lively, with no music underneath.

I also tried to play one reply out loud. With 7 credits left, the site told me my balance was too low, so a reply of about 380 characters costs more than that.

SPMates: the low NOVA balance dialog after pressing Play reply voice

What could be better

A real call mode, and a clear price per voice reply. Details are in the voice test results.

I counted every card: 272 companions (146 women, 100 men, 9 trans and gender-diverse, 17 'other beings'), 11 replicas and 13 episodic dramas. All of them are made by other users, and many are in Chinese, Korean or Japanese.

SPMates home page with the gender filter open over the character grid

A warning. Some replica tags and drama titles on the public home page describe non-consensual acts, in English and in Chinese. I'd want to see those removed before recommending the site to anyone who browses the catalogue.

• Voice replies: a play button under every reply, priced by length; plans from $30 play them automatically.
• Gifts: six, from a letter at 500 credits to a 'crystal cruise' at 15,800. I didn't send one.
• Shared chats and rankings: you can publish a conversation for others to read, free or paid, and there are leaderboards for top spenders, chatters and creators.
• Affiliate programme: a 30% commission on people you refer.

SPMates gift sheet with Heartfelt Letter, flower basket, $100,000, Goddess Coronation, Moonlit Vow and Crystal Cruise

SPMates is a strong roleplay chat with excellent memory and a catalogue that covers every taste, sold at a price that never renews.

I can't vouch for its pictures or videos, because my credits ran out before I could make one. There are no calls, paying by card means a detour through a code shop, and the public catalogue needs better moderation.

My rating is 3.5 out of 5. Every number and screenshot is in the full test results, and you can see how it compares on my ranked list.