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Terms of Service

The terms that govern your use of Pinyora — accounts, subscriptions, acceptable use, and other essentials in plain English.

Last updated: 8 May 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of Pinyora ("Pinyora", "we", "us", or "our"), available at https://pinyora.com and through related applications and services (the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. The Service

Pinyora is a web-based tool for learning Mandarin Chinese. The Service includes graded reading content, vocabulary management, image-to-text scanning, paste-your-own-text reading, and related features. The core story library and vocabulary tools are free. Some bring-your-own-text tools, such as paste, URL reading, scanning, and translation, are usage-limited unless you have a paid subscription ("Pro").

We may update, change, or discontinue parts of the Service at any time. We aim to give reasonable notice for material changes that affect paying users.

2. Accounts

You can read the story library and save vocabulary locally without an account. To sync across devices or subscribe to Pro, you must sign in with a Google account. By signing in, you authorize us to access basic profile information from your Google account (name, email, profile photo, unique user ID) as described in our Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for the activity that occurs on your account. Do not share your account credentials with anyone else. If you suspect unauthorized access, contact us immediately at hello@pinyora.com.

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are between 13 and the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you may use the Service only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

3. Subscriptions and billing

3.1 Pro subscription

Pinyora Tools Pro is a paid recurring subscription. Pricing, billing currency, and what's included are described on the upgrade page within the Service at the time you subscribe.

3.2 Payment processing

Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. By subscribing, you agree to Stripe's terms of service. Pinyora does not store your full payment card details — we receive only a customer ID and limited metadata from Stripe. We are not responsible for issues caused by your payment provider.

3.3 Auto-renewal

Pro subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until cancelled. You can cancel at any time from your account settings, which opens Stripe's customer portal. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period — you keep Pro access until then. Cancelled subscriptions are not pro-rated or partially refunded.

3.4 Refunds

We offer refunds at our discretion. If you believe you've been charged in error, email us at hello@pinyora.com within 14 days of the charge and we'll review. Statutory consumer rights in your jurisdiction (such as cooling-off periods under EU/UK consumer law) apply where required.

3.5 Price changes

We may change Pro pricing at any time. We will notify existing subscribers at least 14 days before a change takes effect for their account. If you do not accept the new price, you may cancel before the change applies.

4. Your content

4.1 What you submit

The Service lets you save vocabulary, paste your own Chinese texts, and scan images of text ("Your Content"). Your Content is yours. We claim no ownership over it. We store it solely to provide the Service to you.

4.2 Licence you grant us

You grant Pinyora a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, transmit, and display Your Content, only as needed to operate and improve the Service for you. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account.

4.3 Responsibility

You are solely responsible for Your Content. Do not paste, scan, or upload material that infringes someone else's copyright, contains personal information about others without their consent, or violates any law. We may remove Your Content if we receive a valid takedown notice or determine it violates these Terms.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • Reverse engineer, scrape, or decompile the Service except to the extent permitted by applicable law.
  • Use the Service to violate any law or third-party right.
  • Resell, sublicense, or redistribute the Service or its content.
  • Interfere with the operation of the Service (e.g. excessive automated requests, denial-of-service attempts, attempts to access another user's account).
  • Use automated systems to extract content from the Service in bulk.
  • Use the Service to develop a competing product.

We may suspend or terminate access if we reasonably believe you have violated these rules.

6. Third-party services

The Service uses third-party providers, including:

  • Google (sign-in, Firebase Authentication and Firestore for data storage)
  • Stripe (payment processing)
  • Netlify (hosting and serverless functions)
  • DeepSeek (AI Tutor responses)
  • ImprovMX (email forwarding for support)

By using Pinyora you also agree to these providers' terms where applicable. We are not responsible for the actions or downtime of third-party providers.

7. Intellectual property

The Service — including its software, design, brand, and curated content — is owned by Pinyora and protected by intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Service for your personal, non-commercial language learning, subject to these Terms.

The "Pinyora" name and logo are our trademarks. Do not use them without our prior written consent.

8. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that any specific result will be achieved. We do not guarantee the accuracy of dictionary lookups, machine translations, or any other content shown in the Service.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Pinyora and its affiliates will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits or revenues, even if advised of the possibility. Our total liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of: (a) the amount you paid Pinyora in the 12 months before the claim, or (b) USD 100.

Some jurisdictions do not allow these limitations, so they may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law (such as liability for fraud, gross negligence, or death/personal injury caused by negligence in jurisdictions where excluding it is prohibited).

10. Termination

You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We can suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms or if we believe it's necessary to protect the Service or other users.

On termination:

  • Your access to the Service ends.
  • Active Pro subscriptions stop renewing.
  • We will delete your account data within 30 days, except where we must retain it for legal, accounting, or fraud-prevention purposes (see our Privacy Policy).

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email or by posting a notice in the Service at least 7 days before the changes take effect. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

12. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from these Terms or your use of the Service, except where mandatory consumer protection rules in your country grant you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts.

13. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email hello@pinyora.com.