folk

What is folk and how does it work?

folk is an AI assistant that lives in your messaging apps rather than in its own app. You sign up with your phone number at folk.com, then text it like any other contact on iMessage or Telegram, with WhatsApp switching on country by country.

The maker, Nozomio Labs, says every user gets a private cloud computer that can browse the web, run code and connect to other apps, plus a memory that builds up over every conversation. The difference from a chatbot is that folk texts you first: a check-in before the gym, a nudge during a study sprint, a morning briefing or a price alert. The website is only there to manage your plan, connected apps and what folk remembers.

How much does folk cost in the UK?

folk is free to use, and the paid Pro plan costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Prices are shown in US dollars, so a UK card is charged the sterling equivalent on the day.

The free plan includes unlimited chatting under a fair-use limit, every feature, up to three things running in the background at once (watchers, routines, a morning brief) and 10 minutes of phone calls a week. Pro removes the background limit, adds 120 call minutes a month and switches to what folk calls a smarter engine that thinks longer and remembers more. The maker says regional pricing drops Pro to about $5 a month in many countries, set automatically from your phone number, and that student prices can be lower too; your price shows at checkout. A $100-a-month Max plan is listed in the site footer but not described on the pricing page.

Is folk worth paying for?

For most people the free plan is enough to find out. The only hard limit is three background jobs at a time, and one-off reminders never count towards it.

Pro makes sense once you rely on several daily check-ins, a morning briefing and price watchers at the same time, or want regular phone calls with it. The yearly plan starts with a 7-day free trial; a card is needed upfront and folk texts you the day before it ends.

Is folk safe to use with your email and bank?

folk asks for a lot of access, so it is worth reading what it promises. The maker says it never trains models on your conversations and never sells them, and that your bank link through Plaid is read-only, so folk can see balances and transactions but cannot move money. UK banks are supported.

An independent review by eesel noted that folk asks for approval before sending email, offers read-only Google access, and does not list SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification. The same review notes that its liability is capped at what you paid in the previous 12 months, which is nothing on the free plan. It is a sensible fit for personal admin; it is a weaker fit for work email that holds client data.

folk vs Howie and Lindy: which is better?

folk is built for personal life: habits, fitness, studying, money and reminders, with most of its users aged 18 to 24 according to the maker. Howie is an AI scheduling assistant that books meetings over email and text, and Lindy is aimed at teams that want AI agents working across company tools.

• folk: free plan with every feature, Pro at $9.99 a month, runs in iMessage, Telegram and WhatsApp
• Howie: aimed at people whose calendar is full of meetings booked by email
• Lindy: aimed at businesses automating work across many apps

If you want an accountability partner in your texts, folk is the closer match. If your problem is work scheduling or team workflows, the other two are built for it.

How do you get folk cheaper?

The cheapest route is the free plan, which has no time limit. If you upgrade, the yearly plan at $99.99 costs about $8.33 a month against $9.99 paid monthly.

Regional and student pricing can lower the price further where folk offers it, and it is applied automatically at checkout. You can also bring your own API keys for Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenRouter; that usage is billed by your provider and does not count against folk's allowance.