Most AI toys for children are sold twice: once at the till, and again every month afterwards. Ted is not. You pay once, and what Ted does — the conversations, the stories, the 60+ languages, the parent app — is included.

Why do so many AI toys need a subscription?

An AI companion has genuine running costs: speech recognition, a language model, servers to run them on. Most brands cover those costs with a recurring fee, billed monthly or annually, and some place core features behind it — extra voices, new story packs, sometimes the parental controls themselves. Before buying any AI toy, it is worth asking a blunt question: what stops working the day you stop paying?

There is a second, subtler effect. When a company earns money for every month a child keeps using a toy, it has a commercial reason to maximise the time that child spends with it. We would rather not have that incentive in the room at all. A one-time price means we are paid for making a good teddy bear, not for keeping your child talking to it.

What is included with Ted

• Unlimited conversation. Ted answers questions and invents a new story each time. There is no monthly quota.
• More than 60 languages, switchable at any time from the parent app.
• The Ted&Co parent app for iOS and Android, including every parental control.

There is no premium tier and no story pack to buy separately.

Five things to check on any AI toy

1. Is there a recurring fee? Look for it on the pricing page, not in the checkout.
2. What stops working without it? Some toys keep talking but lose the parental controls.
3. Is there a camera? Ted has none — a microphone and a speaker, nothing else.
4. What happens to the recordings? Look for explicit GDPR and COPPA compliance, not a generic privacy policy.
5. Which certifications does it hold? Independent testing beats a marketing claim. Ted is certified CE, RED, EN71, GDPR and COPPA.

We wrote about this in more detail in what an AI companion toy really costs and in our guide to choosing an AI teddy bear.

How Ted is set up

Everything goes through the Ted&Co parent app: you connect the Wi-Fi, choose between push-to-talk and automatic listening, pick the language, and adjust the parental controls whenever you like. Ted is designed for children aged 3 and over. Our safety and privacy page explains how conversations are handled.

Questions parents ask

Does Ted require a subscription?

No. Ted is a one-time purchase, and the features are included in that price.

Are there hidden fees?

No. There is no premium plan, no per-story charge and no paid voice pack.

Does Ted need Wi-Fi?

Yes. Ted uses a Wi-Fi connection to understand your child and answer.

What comes in the box?

A 24 cm teddy bear, the electronic module with its built-in battery, a USB-C charging cable and the packaging box.

Meet Ted — the AI teddy bear you pay for once.