The soulmate sketch trend and filter: what people are actually getting
A face appears, the video ends, and someone asks the comments to find this person. Here is what sits behind the trend, from filters to paid portraits.
By the Soulmate Studio teamPublished 7 min read
The soulmate sketch trend is a video format more than a product: someone reveals a pencil-style face, says it is their soulmate, and invites the comments to react. The soulmate sketch filter is one of the tools behind those videos, and it is usually either a photo effect that redraws a picture in pencil lines or a generator that makes a new face. Neither knows anything about you. Behind many free-looking posts there is also a paid step, an app subscription or a one-off purchase, which is where most people’s surprise comes from. This article walks through what can be seen and dated, and what you actually get from each kind.
Where the trend comes from
We cannot tell you who posted the first soulmate sketch video, and we are wary of any page that claims to. What we can do is date the coverage.
The 2020 wave: psychic drawings on Etsy and TikTok
In June 2020, The Verge published a piece by reporter Makena Kelly titled “I paid an Etsy psychic to draw my soulmate.” She described a TikTok wave of people commissioning soulmate portraits from Etsy sellers: “For around $30, your name, and your birthdate, the psychic will sketch a portrait of your soulmate in 24 hours.” She called the 24-hour reveal “a common TikTok trope,” and described the videos: users stand in front of their portraits, read out the seller’s description, and ask their followers “to help them find the mysterious person depicted in the sketches.”
That is the shape the trend still has. A reveal, a reaction, and a call to the audience. The Verge also noted that some portraits “look like real sketches, while others look like photos grabbed from Google Image search and edited to look like drawings.” More on what these drawings look like, and what the word psychic can and cannot mean here, in our article on the psychic soulmate drawing.
Filters and apps since then
Search the same idea in 2026 and the results have moved toward tools. When we pulled Google’s US results for “soulmate sketch filter” on September 29, 2026, the top organic results were a TikTok page titled “Soul Mate Drawing Filter,” a CapCut page titled “Soulmate Sketch Filter,” a Snapchat Lens called “My Soulmate,” a NightCafe gallery page and a Pippit template page. For “soulmate sketch free,” one TikTok result that day was titled “How to See Your Soulmate Sketch on Astra for Free,” which points at an app, not a filter.
So the trend now runs on three kinds of engine, and they are easy to confuse because the videos look alike.
Filters, generators and “psychic” drawings
Filters: your photo, redrawn
A filter works on an image you already have. Pippit’s template page, for example, says its Soulmate Sketch Effect Filter “takes your photos and elegantly enhances them with delicate pencil-line artistry and soft shading.” That is a style effect. Point it at a photo of your cousin and you get your cousin in pencil. It can make a charming video, and it has nothing to do with a soulmate beyond the name.
Snapchat’s “My Soulmate” Lens page, read the same day, did not describe what the lens shows at all; its tags were about Valentine’s Day. With lenses and filters, the only way to know what one does is to try it.
Generators: a new face from a few settings
A generator makes a face that did not exist before. CapCut’s page says its filter can “instantly generate artistic sketches that envision your ideal soulmate, using advanced image filters and personalization features.” That is a generator with a romantic label: you choose some settings, and it produces a face. Try again and you may get another one. Nothing in that process knows who you are, beyond the options you picked.
Soulmate drawing apps sit in this family too, usually with an astrology layer on top. On Google Play, one app titled “Starla - Soulmate Drawing AI” had a developer reply on its listing, posted in August 2025, saying its sketch “uses advanced AI.” We think that should be said up front, so here is the same statement about ours, once: portraits are created with AI image tools in our pencil-sketch style, and readings are composed with AI writing tools. Our method has been reviewed and approved by an independent practicing psychic we commissioned. Our article on soulmate drawing apps goes through Nebula, Starla and Astra plan by plan.
“Psychic” drawings: a seller’s claim
The third kind is the one the 2020 wave was about: a seller who says a psychic makes the drawing. Some sell on marketplaces, some through their own sites. On September 29, 2026 we saw prices from $19 to $39.99 for these, one of them from a persona the seller’s own footer described as fictional. The portrait you receive is a drawing. The claim about who or what is behind it is the part you cannot check.
What people end up paying for
Free is where most videos start, and it is often not where the buyer ends up. Here is what the paid step looked like on the pages we read in September 2026.
| What you tried | What it costs |
|---|---|
| A photo filter or lens | Free inside its app, as far as the pages showed |
| A generator or template page | Pages advertise free use; we did not test limits |
| A soulmate drawing app | Paid plans. Starla’s App Store listing: weekly $3.99, monthly $9.99, yearly $59.99. Astra’s terms: a 3-day free trial, then a subscription |
| A subscription astrology app | Hint: $1.00 for a 7-day trial, then $29.99 every 28 days |
| A quiz site selling a portrait | $1 to $39.99 at checkout in the flows we walked on September 29, 2026, some of it monthly |
The pattern is the same across the paid ones. The video is free to watch, the first step is free to start, and a price appears after the quiz or after the trial. None of that is wrong. It just means the free portrait in the video and the portrait you are offered are often different products. Our guide to the free soulmate sketch compares the free options in more detail, and the Hint soulmate sketch guide covers the best-known subscription.
Why the videos travel so well
The format does three things social video rewards. It has a reveal, so people watch to the end. It has a reaction, which is the real content. And it ends with a question to the audience, which fills the comments.
The last part is worth a gentle word of caution. A face from a filter or a generator is invented, and invented faces sometimes look like real people by chance. A resemblance is a coincidence, not a clue, and nobody in a comment thread is going to find the person in the picture because there is no such person. Enjoy the portrait; leave the stranger who looks a bit like it in peace.
Example portraitWhat a reveal video does not show you
A thirty-second video is edited for the reveal, so a few things are almost always left out. They are worth filling in yourself before you try the tool behind it.
- What it cost. A video rarely shows the checkout. If the portrait came from an app or a quiz site, somebody paid, or started a trial, and the trial may still be running.
- What they typed in. A filter needs a photo; a generator needs settings; a quiz needs answers. The same tool with different inputs gives a different face, so matching someone else’s result is unlikely.
- How many tries it took. With a generator, the face in the video may be the fifth attempt. That is fine, and it tells you the face is a pick, not a finding.
- Which app it really was. Several apps share names, such as the Starla and Astra apps listed under different developers in the two stores. Check the developer before you download, and read the renewal wording before you start a trial.
- What happens to your photo or answers. A filter works on an image of a face, and a quiz collects answers and usually an email. The app’s privacy page says what it keeps and for how long.
None of this spoils the fun. It just means the video shows the ending, and you get to decide on the rest with the facts in front of you.
If you want a portrait made from you, not a filter
A filter starts from a photo. A generator starts from a few settings. Ours starts from you: seven quick questions about what draws you to someone, where you feel at home, who you would like drawn and your birthday, and it returns one portrait in a single pencil-sketch style with a short written reading beside it.
The difference from a filter is the starting point, not magic. The person in the portrait is imagined, not predicted, and not a real person, so it is for entertainment and reflection. If you want the step-by-step, how it works has it, and there are example portraits in the gallery.
It costs $19, paid once, no subscription, and arrives by email, usually within minutes and always within 24 hours.
When you are ready, you can start your sketch. It takes about a minute, and the price is the one on the page.
Common questions
Where can I find the soulmate filter?
There is no single soulmate filter. On September 29, 2026, Google's results pointed to several: a TikTok page of soulmate drawing filters, CapCut and Pippit template pages, and a Snapchat Lens called My Soulmate. Each works inside its own app, so open that app's effects or lens search and type soulmate.
Is there a soulmate sketch app?
Yes, several, and most charge. Astrology apps such as Starla, Astra and Nebula offer a soulmate drawing inside paid plans or as a purchase, as their own pages showed in September 2026. Check the developer's name, the price after any trial and the renewal wording before you download or subscribe.
What is the soulmate sketch trend?
It is short videos where someone reveals a drawn face said to be their soulmate, then reacts or asks viewers if they know the person. The drawings come from filters, apps or paid sellers. Coverage goes back at least to June 2020, when The Verge wrote about Etsy psychic drawings spreading on TikTok.
Does a soulmate filter know anything about you?
Not beyond what you give it. A photo filter redraws the picture you point it at, and a generator makes a face from a few settings or a prompt. Neither reads your personality or your future. If you want a portrait shaped by your own answers, you need a service that asks questions first.
