Pinyora is free for U.S. K-12 schools and public libraries

Pinyora Pro is free, forever, for U.S. public K-12 schools and public library systems — and free for every student, teacher, and patron who signs in with a verified school or library email. No credit card required. No paid plan to forget about.

What's included

Every account on the education tier gets the full Pro feature set:

Unlimited paste-your-own-text reading — drop in any Chinese article, song, or passage
Unlimited image scanning — including Pinyora's advanced OCR (powered by Google Cloud Vision) that reads handwriting, calligraphy, and stylised fonts
Unlimited URL reader — paste a Chinese website URL and Pinyora pulls a clean reading view
Unlimited translations — every sentence on demand
The full graded story library — Newbie to Native, professional pinyin and tone colouring throughout
Cross-device sync — students can read at school and continue at home
Vocabulary management — every word saved with its sentence context, automatic spaced-repetition reviews

Who qualifies

The education tier is for institutions and people directly affiliated with them:

Public K-12 schools — elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States
Charter schools and private non-profit K-12 schools with a verifiable institutional domain
Public library systems — branch libraries and the patrons they serve
ELL / dual-immersion / heritage Mandarin programs at qualifying institutions
Teachers, librarians, paraprofessionals, and administrators at qualifying institutions
Students enrolled at qualifying institutions

The tier is for U.S.-based institutions only. We're working on equivalent programs for other countries — email us if your school or library is outside the U.S. and we'll let you know when those open up.

How to claim it — instant

The fastest path: sign in with your school or library email.

Pinyora automatically recognises emails ending in:

*.k12.<state>.us — e.g., teacher@montgomery.k12.al.us, student@district.k12.ca.us
*.lib.<state>.us — e.g., librarian@kcls.lib.wa.us

If your email matches one of these patterns, your account is upgraded to the education tier within seconds of signing in. You'll see a confirmation banner and your Pro features will unlock immediately.

How to claim it — by application

Many U.S. schools and library systems use custom .org or .edu domains that don't fit the patterns above. If your institutional email isn't auto-recognised, you can apply by email.

Send an email from your institutional address to hello@pinyora.com with:

Your name and role (e.g., "5th grade teacher", "branch librarian", "high school student")
Your institution's full name and city/state
A link to your institution's official website (so we can verify it's a qualifying K-12 school or public library)

We review and respond within 1 business day. Once approved, your account is upgraded just like the auto-approval path.

District- and system-wide rollouts

Are you setting up Pinyora for an entire school district, library system, or department? Email hello@pinyora.com with the subject line "District rollout" — we'll work with you on:

Bulk approval for all staff and student emails on your domain
A short usage guide for teachers and librarians
Per-classroom analytics for instructors who want to track student progress
FERPA, COPPA, and state privacy compliance documentation

Frequently asked questions

Do students under 13 qualify?

Pinyora's standard Terms of Service set a minimum age of 13. For students under 13 in classroom settings, the school must have parental consent and a teacher account that supervises usage. Email us before signing up under-13 students so we can set this up correctly.

Does the free education tier ever expire?

No. As long as you maintain a valid school or library email, your education-tier access is permanent. If you leave the institution, you can keep using Pinyora on the free plan or subscribe to Pro at the standard rate.

What about COPPA, FERPA, and state privacy laws?

We comply with COPPA (children's online privacy), FERPA (educational records), and major state privacy laws (CCPA, NY-Shield, COPPA-equivalents in other states). For district-wide rollouts we provide a Data Processing Addendum (DPA) on request. Email hello@pinyora.com for our compliance documentation pack.

Are there any usage limits?

No. Education-tier accounts get the same unlimited usage as paid Pro subscribers. The only exception is bulk automated scraping or API-style use, which violates the Terms of Service regardless of tier.

Can I use Pinyora to grade my students or assess their work?

Yes. The Vocabulary tab and the per-user analytics show what each student has read and saved. Teachers can review this data during class. We don't currently offer a dedicated teacher dashboard, but it's on our roadmap — let us know if it would help.

What if our school's email domain changes?

Email us with the new domain and a verification link, and we'll update the auto-approval patterns to include it.

Is there a paid upgrade path beyond the free education tier?

Not yet — the education tier already includes everything Pro offers. If we ever add new premium features, we'll announce them and decide on a case-by-case basis whether they're included in the education tier.

Why we offer this

Mandarin education in U.S. K-12 schools is growing fast — but most language-learning tools are aimed at adult independent learners with disposable income. Schools and public libraries serving young learners and underserved communities deserve the same quality of tools, without the per-seat licensing that puts most edtech out of reach.

Pinyora is solo-built and bootstrapped. The cost of giving away Pro access to schools and libraries is small relative to the impact on students learning a language that opens enormous doors.

If you'd like to support this work, the simplest thing is to tell another teacher or librarian about us. Word of mouth is how we grow.

Get started

Most users get instant access:

Open pinyora.com and sign in with your school or library email
Pinyora auto-detects the domain
Pro features unlock immediately — confirmed by a banner on the home page

Don't have a .k12.*.us or .lib.*.us email but you do work at or attend a qualifying institution? Email us at hello@pinyora.com with the details above and we'll have you set up by the next business day.

Questions? hello@pinyora.com — usually a same-day reply.