ChatGPT Video Call vs Prelulu: Can You FaceTime ChatGPT?

ChatGPT's voice with video lets ChatGPT see through your phone's camera and answer you by voice, on eligible paid plans in the iPhone and Android apps, using Advanced voice. If you want to video call an AI that has a face and looks back at you, Prelulu is free to start, in your web browser and on iPhone and Android. On a ChatGPT video call, the video is your own camera pointed at a plant, a worksheet or a dishwasher, and ChatGPT talks you through it. On a Prelulu video call, you see a character answer you live, face to face, in their own voice. Here is what OpenAI publishes about its video feature as of October 28, 2026, and how the two compare.

What is ChatGPT voice with video?

Voice with video is a ChatGPT feature that lets you turn on your camera during a voice conversation, so ChatGPT can see what you see and answer out loud. OpenAI's feature page is titled “Voice with real-time video in ChatGPT” and invites you to “Talk to ChatGPT about what you’re seeing”. It describes a real-time “show and tell” in which “ChatGPT can see what you see and help instantly”, and a back-and-forth conversation where you can “Interrupt, ask follow-ups, or switch directions mid-thought”.

To start, the page says to open ChatGPT, tap the voice icon in the bottom right, select a voice, turn on your camera, then review the conversation. OpenAI's Help Center article ChatGPT Voice explains which mode that is. ChatGPT Voice has three options, Live, Advanced and Standard, and “Live does not support video or screen sharing.” Video lives in Advanced, “the previous real-time Voice experience”: “To share live video, select the camera button during a Voice conversation. Select it again to stop sharing.”

Can you video call ChatGPT like FaceTime?

Partly. You can talk with ChatGPT live while it sees through your camera, and OpenAI's own page compares it to a video call, but there is no face looking back at you. The page's “Like a video call” section says “Conversations flow with tone, context, and real-time feedback”. Every example it gives is your camera pointed at something: “Do the colors in this outfit go together?”, “Is this plant safe for cats?”, a child's math worksheet, the tool to adjust a bike seat, the blinking lights on a dishwasher. Its demo shows ChatGPT helping someone estimate the protein in their breakfast.

So the closest you can get to FaceTiming ChatGPT is to open the ChatGPT app on your phone on an eligible plan, start a voice conversation in Advanced and tap the camera button. OpenAI's pages describe this only inside the ChatGPT iOS and Android apps, not through Apple's FaceTime. If what you are after is the FaceTime feeling of watching someone answer you, AI FaceTime: how to FaceTime an AI character covers that.

Does ChatGPT have a face on a video call?

Not on voice with video. As of October 28, 2026, OpenAI's feature page and Help Center describe ChatGPT answering by voice and show no face or avatar for it, and we found no OpenAI announcement of one. People have asked. On the OpenAI Developer Community, a user opened Video call with ChatGPT like FaceTime on August 16, 2026, asking for “a video-call interface where the user and ChatGPT can see each other during the conversation”. OpenAI Support replied on September 7, 2026 that eligible mobile Advanced Voice users can already share their camera or screen, and added: “We'll share the broader video-presence request with the team. No timeline to share yet!”

Similar requests followed, among them Bringing visual avatars to ChatGPT Voice (September 27, 2026) and Feature Request: Native FaceTime Style Video Chat for ChatGPT Personas (October 8, 2026). OpenAI did give an agent a look in September: dots. TechCrunch called it “a bubbly, cartoonish persona” on September 29, 2026, adding that “The dots look like… well, dots.” OpenAI's dots announcement says you can “hop on a voice call when you need to talk something out”. That is a voice call, not a video call, and among individual plans ChatGPT's pricing page lists dots on Pro.

Is ChatGPT video free?

No. Voice with video is not on ChatGPT's Free plan. On October 28, 2026, OpenAI's pricing page marked “Voice with video” as No for Free and Yes for Go, Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise. The feature page's own line reads “Available in ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu on mobile”, so OpenAI's two pages differ on Go. The pricing page lists Go at $8 a month, Plus at $20 a month and Pro from $100 a month. Voice without video is on every plan, Free included.

Video also has its own cap. The Help Center says: “If you reach a video or screen-sharing limit, you may still be able to continue the Voice conversation without starting a new video or screen-sharing input.” The hours it lists per plan are allowances for Live voice, which does not support video, so they are not video minutes.

How is Prelulu different from ChatGPT video?

Prelulu is free to start, and its video call turns the camera around: you see a character answer you, face to face. Pick a character, say hello in chat, then tap Call and choose Video on characters that offer it. They look at you and answer live in their own voice, with emotion in their face as they speak. You can speak or type, and cut in mid-sentence to take the conversation somewhere new. It works in your web browser at prelulu.ai and in the iPhone and Android apps.

The characters are original AI characters made for companionship, romance and roleplay, each with a personality, a voice, a face and a story; pick from a ready-made cast or create your own. Chat remembers what matters to you, every call picks up where your last call left off, and Pinned memory is read by both chat and calls. Sharing your camera is optional and only on when you turn it on, on calls that support it; with it on, the character can see you and respond to what you show, and with it off you still see and hear them. Can an AI see me on a video call? explains camera sharing, and the realtime AI avatar page shows what you see on a call.

Which is right for you: ChatGPT or Prelulu?

• Choose ChatGPT voice with videoWhen you want help with something in front of you: whether an outfit works, how to turn on a rental's stovetop, the story behind a building you just walked past. You point your phone, ChatGPT looks, and it talks you through it.
• Choose PreluluWhen the conversation is the point. You want to see someone answer you, hear their voice and come back to a character who remembers what you told them. Start with Dante Marchetti, the ruthless heir who married you three months ago, or browse until a face and a voice catch you.

Plenty of people will use both: ChatGPT for the blinking dishwasher, Prelulu for the evening. AI video chat walks through a Prelulu call step by step, and AI characters you can video call compares more apps from their own pages.

What to check before you video call an AI

1. Whose video is it? Your camera shown to an assistant, or a character's face shown to you. Both get called video.
2. Does it answer you live? On a live call you speak, it answers and you can interrupt. A generated clip arrives after you ask, and you cannot reply inside it.
3. Where does it work? ChatGPT's video is in its iOS and Android apps. Check whether you also want to call from a browser.
4. Is your camera optional? On Prelulu you can video call with your camera off the whole time.
5. What does it cost? Check the plan, any separate video limit, and what a minute of calling uses.

Where do these facts come from?

• OpenAI: Voice with real-time video in ChatGPT, ChatGPT pricing, the Help Center article ChatGPT Voice (marked “Updated: 3 hours ago” when read) and Introducing dots, all read October 28, 2026.
• OpenAI Developer Community: Video call with ChatGPT like FaceTime (opened August 16, 2026, OpenAI Support reply September 7, 2026), Bringing visual avatars to ChatGPT Voice (September 27, 2026), Feature Request: Native FaceTime Style Video Chat for ChatGPT Personas (October 8, 2026) and Feature request-custom animated avatars for Chatgpt voice mode (October 16, 2026).
• TechCrunch: OpenAI launches dots, its bubbly agentic avatar (September 29, 2026).
• Prelulu: how the product works today, AI video chat and plans and pricing.

All pages were read on October 28, 2026. OpenAI updates ChatGPT often, so check its own pages for the latest.