alai Terms of Service

Last updated: November 4, 2026 · Version: 2026-11-04

These terms are an agreement between you and Aiden Guan and Allen Hsieh ("the alai team", "we", "us"), the people who make alai. alai is a note-taking app with a live handwriting tutor called Ally. It runs at tryalai.app and in our apps, with a free plan and paid plans.

We've tried to keep this short and readable. Please read it. By creating an account or using alai, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy.

Paid plans renew automatically every month or year until you cancel. You can cancel online at any time. Section 10 has the prices and explains how renewal, cancelling and refunds work.

Section 16 says that most disagreements between you and us will be settled by individual arbitration, not in court or as part of a class action, and explains how to opt out of that within 30 days.

1. alai is new

alai is a young product, and we change it often. That means:

• Things can break. Features may change, move or disappear. If that changes what a paid plan includes, section 10 says how we'll tell you.
• Keep your own copy of anything important. Your work is saved on your device and copied to your account, but sync and storage are new and can fail. Recordings you make in a note are kept only on the device you made them on. Save notes you care about as a PDF ("Export PDF" in the page menu) or download everything (from Account on the web, or Settings in the app).
• Each plan has limits, shown on the plans page: how many files you can keep, how big an import can be, how long a note's recording can be, how much storage you have (100 MB on Free; a paid plan's storage limit is shown when you reach it), and how much time you get with Ally (section 10). We may also set other limits, such as a daily limit on AI checks, so alai stays affordable and fair and can't be abused. When you reach a limit, you can't add more until you make room or move to a plan with more. Files in Recently deleted still count toward your storage until you delete them for good.
• alai is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title or non-infringement, and any warranty that alai will be accurate, available, secure, error-free, or that your work won't be lost. Some places don't allow these exclusions, so some of this may not apply to you.

2. Who can use alai

• Adults (18 or older) can make an account themselves.
• Teens (13 to 17) can make an account themselves, with a parent's or guardian's permission. That parent or guardian agrees to these terms for them and is responsible for how they use alai.
• Children under 13 can use alai only through a child profile that a parent or guardian adds from their own account at tryalai.app/parent, after reading our notice to parents and confirming with a card check. The parent or guardian agrees to these terms for the child. A child can't make an account of their own. If we learn that a child under 13 is using alai without a parent's consent, we will delete their information.
• You must live in the United States and not be barred from using the service by law (for example, by US sanctions). If you're 18 or older, you must be able to form a binding contract.
• Anyone can make an account. We may limit who can use alai, for example to people we've invited; while we do, you'll see that you're on the list until we let you in, and we may let people in, or not, at our discretion.

3. Your account

• You sign in with Apple or Google, a one-time code sent to your email, or your email and a password. Keep your password to yourself, and keep your email, Apple and Google accounts secure: anyone who can read your email or use those accounts can sign in as you.
• Give us an email address you control, and keep your age information accurate.
• You're responsible for what happens in your account. Tell us right away at support@tryalai.app if you think someone else has accessed it.
• One person per account. Don't share accounts or sign in as someone else.
• You agree that we can send you notices about your account and these terms by email or in the app, and that those count as notices in writing.

4. Your content stays yours

"Your content" means anything you put into alai: handwriting and drawings, notes, text, images, PDFs and worksheets, what you say or type to Ally, and the folders and names you give them.

• You own your content. We don't claim ownership of it.
• You give us a limited permission (a licence) to store, copy, process, display and transmit your content only to run alai for you: to save and sync it, to show it back to you, to let Ally read and respond to it, and to keep alai working and secure. This includes sending it to the service providers listed in our Privacy Policy who help us do those things (for example, Anthropic, which provides the AI that reads your handwriting).
• This permission ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies we must keep briefly for backups, security or the law, as described in the Privacy Policy.
• We don't sell your content, and we don't use it to train AI models.
• You confirm you have the right to upload what you upload. Don't upload other people's private information or material you aren't allowed to share.

5. Ally and AI output can be wrong

Ally uses AI models from other companies. AI makes mistakes.

• Ally may misread your handwriting, mark a correct step wrong, miss a mistake, draw a wrong diagram, or explain something incorrectly. Check anything important against your course materials.
• alai is a study aid, not a substitute for your instructors, textbooks, or your own judgment. It isn't professional, medical, mental health, legal or financial advice.
• Ally isn't a counsellor or an emergency service. If you or someone else is in danger, call 911. If you're thinking about hurting yourself, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).
• Academic integrity is your responsibility. Follow your course's and your school's rules about AI tools and collaboration. Don't use alai on exams, quizzes or assignments where AI help isn't allowed. We are not responsible for academic consequences of how you use alai.
• What Ally says to you is generated for you. You may use it for your own studying.

6. Acceptable use

Don't:

• break the law, or use alai to harass, threaten or harm anyone;
• upload content that is illegal, sexual content involving minors, or someone else's private data without permission;
• upload content that infringes someone else's copyright or other rights;
• try to get into accounts or data that aren't yours, or probe, scan or attack our systems;
• get around your plan's limits, the invite list, sign-in, payment, or other protections;
• scrape, copy or resell alai, or use it to build a competing product or to train AI models;
• use automated scripts or bots against alai, beyond normal use of the app;
• try to make Ally produce harmful content, or misuse the AI providers behind it (their usage policies apply to what you send through alai);
• reverse engineer alai, except where the law allows it.

We may remove content or suspend accounts that break these rules.

7. Copyright complaints

If you believe something in alai infringes your copyright, email support@tryalai.app with: your contact details; the work you say is infringed; where the material is in alai; a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn't authorised; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you own the copyright or may act for its owner; and your physical or electronic signature. We'll remove material when we should, and close the accounts of people who infringe repeatedly. If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you can send us a counter-notice with the details the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act asks for.

8. Feedback

We'd love your feedback. If you send us ideas, bug reports or suggestions, you let us use them freely, without paying you or owing you anything. This doesn't give us rights to your content (section 4), only to the feedback itself. A bug report can include a picture of your screen if you add one; the Privacy Policy says who sees it.

If we show you a feature before it's released (for example, in a test version of one of our apps), please don't share screenshots or details of it publicly without asking us first.

9. Getting a copy of your data, and deleting it

• Copies: you can export a notes page or worksheet as a PDF from inside the app, and download a copy of everything with "Download everything" (in Account on the web, or Settings in the app). If that doesn't work for you, email support@tryalai.app and we'll send it within 30 days.
• Deleting: you can erase what alai keeps on a device with "Erase everything on this device" ("on this iPad" in the iPad app), and delete your account and everything we hold on our servers with "Delete my account" (in Account on the web, or Settings → Account in the app). Deleting your account also deletes the child profiles that only you look after. If that doesn't work for you, email support@tryalai.app from your account's email address and we'll confirm when it's done, within 30 days.
• Files you delete go to Recently deleted, where you can bring them back for 30 days or delete them for good. After 30 days, they're deleted.
• Copies you keep yourself, such as a download or a backup to your own cloud storage, are yours: deleting your account doesn't delete them.
• The Privacy Policy explains what we keep, for how long, and what our service providers keep.

10. Paid plans

You can use alai on the free plan, or buy a paid plan for more. The plans page shows what each plan includes before you buy (Usage, on the web; Your plan, at the top of Settings in the app). Prices are in US dollars:

• Free: $0.
• Essential: $2.99 a month, or $19.99 a year.
• Pro: $14.99 a month, or $119.99 a year, for the first learner, plus $9.99 a month, or $79.99 a year, for each additional learner, up to 8 learners. It includes the AI note tools and 10 hours of Ally for each learner it pays for every month.

• Your plan renews automatically at the end of each month or year, whichever you chose, until you cancel. At each renewal, we charge the plan's price at the time, plus any tax, to the payment method you gave us. There's no minimum term.
• Time with Ally. On Pro, each learner has 10 hours of Ally every calendar month (counted in UTC), by the minute: a minute counts when Ally reads or answers something for them in it. Unused time doesn't carry over. If more learners use a Pro plan than it pays for, they share its hours (10 for each learner it pays for), and no one learner gets more than 10. When a learner's time runs out, Ally pauses for them until the next month starts. Free and Essential include 30 minutes of Ally for each learner, once, to try it.
• The launch offer. While it runs, if your first paid plan is a monthly one, its first month is half price. After that first month, it renews at the full monthly price above until you cancel. It's once per account, and it doesn't apply to yearly plans.
• Cancelling. You can cancel online at any time with Manage plan, next to your plan on the Usage page or at the top of Settings in the app. It opens Stripe's page for your plan, where cancelling takes a couple of taps. Or email support@tryalai.app and we'll cancel it for you. Your plan stays on until the end of the month or year you've already paid for; then it stops, and your account moves to the free plan. We don't refund or credit the unused part of a month or year, except where the law requires it.
• When a plan ends, nothing you made is deleted. If your work is over the free plan's storage, your files open for reading only: you can still open and download them, but you can't write in them or add more until you make room. If you have more than the free plan's 10 files, you keep them all, but you can't make new ones until you're under it.
• Changing plans. You can switch plans, or change how many learners Pro covers, with Manage plan. Stripe's page shows what the change costs, and when you'll pay it, before you confirm.
• Reminders and changes. Before a yearly plan renews, we'll email you a reminder with the price and how to cancel. If we change your plan's price, or make a significant change to what it includes, we'll email you before the change applies to you, in time to cancel first.
• If a payment fails, we'll try it again a few times, and your plan stays on meanwhile. You'll see "Payment failed" next to your plan; update your card with Manage plan. If the payment still can't be collected, the plan ends and your account moves to the free plan.
• Who can buy. Only an adult (18 or older) can buy a plan, from their own account. A plan for a child's profile is bought by the parent or guardian who looks after it, and covers the children they look after. Use only a payment method you're allowed to use.
• Plans we give for free. We sometimes give a plan at no cost, for example Pro to people who joined before paid plans began. We can end a plan we gave; we'll tell you before it ends, and your account then moves to the plan you pay for, if you have one, or to the free plan. You're never charged unless you buy a plan.
• Payment is handled by Stripe. You enter your card on Stripe's page, and we never see or store your card number. Stripe's own terms and privacy policy apply to what you give it.
• Plans are bought on the web, at tryalai.app (the alai app links there), not through the App Store. Apple isn't a party to your purchase and isn't responsible for it. For help with a plan, write to us.
• Taxes. Prices don't include taxes. Sales tax may be added where it applies.
• Deleting your account cancels your plan straight away, so nothing renews and you won't be charged again. The rest of the month or year you paid for isn't refunded, except where the law requires it.

11. If alai shuts down

We may shut alai down at any time. If we do, we'll give you at least 30 days' notice by email (unless we have to stop sooner for legal or security reasons), a way to download your work before we delete it, and a refund of what you paid for any part of a plan we won't provide. After that window, we will delete your data as described in the Privacy Policy.

12. Ending your use

• You can stop using alai and delete your account whenever you like.
• We can suspend or close your account if you break these terms, if we must for legal or security reasons, or if we shut alai down. Where we reasonably can, we'll tell you why and give you a chance to export your work first. If we close a paid account for any reason other than you breaking these terms, we'll refund what you paid for the part of your plan you won't get.
• Sections 4 (the parts about deletion), 5, 8, 10 (for anything either of us still owes) and 13 to 18 keep applying after your account closes.

13. Limits on our liability

alai is built by a small team. To the fullest extent the law allows:

• we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost work, lost grades, or lost profits, however caused, even if we were told they were possible;
• we are not responsible for services we don't control, such as your device, your internet connection, the App Store, or the AI, speech, sign-in and hosting providers alai relies on;
• our total liability to you for anything relating to alai is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or US $50.

These limits apply to every kind of claim (contract, negligence or otherwise) and are part of the bargain that lets us keep alai's prices low and offer a free plan. Some places don't allow these limits, so they may not fully apply to you. Nothing here limits liability for fraud, for gross negligence or wilful misconduct, or any other liability that can't legally be limited.

14. Indemnity

If you break these terms or the law while using alai, or upload content you had no right to, and someone makes a claim against us because of it, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of dealing with that claim, including reasonable lawyers' fees.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as alai changes. If a change is significant, we'll tell you by email or in the app at least 14 days before it takes effect (sooner if the law or a security issue requires it), and ask you to agree again in the app. If you don't agree, stop using alai and delete your account. A change to section 16 never applies to a dispute we already knew about.

16. Settling disagreements: arbitration and no class actions

Please read this section carefully. It affects your rights.

• Talk to us first. Before starting any claim, email support@tryalai.app with your name, your account email, what happened and what you want. We'll try to sort it out with you for 60 days. Any deadline to bring the claim is paused during those 60 days.
• Arbitration. If we can't sort it out, you and we agree that any dispute about alai or these terms will be settled by binding individual arbitration run by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, instead of in court. An arbitrator, not a judge or jury, decides it, and the arbitrator can award you the same individual relief a court could. The hearing can be by video or phone, or in the county where you live. If you start the claim, we'll pay any AAA filing, administration and arbitrator fees beyond what you'd pay to file in court, unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous.
• Exceptions. Either of us may bring an individual claim in small claims court instead, and either of us may go to court to stop someone infringing or misusing intellectual property.
• No class actions. You and we may bring claims only on our own behalf, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective or representative action. The arbitrator can't combine more than one person's claims. If this bar is found unenforceable for a particular claim or form of relief (such as public injunctive relief), that claim or relief will be decided in court, after the rest is arbitrated, and the rest of this section still applies.
• Many claims at once. If 25 or more similar claims are filed by or with the help of the same lawyers, they'll be filed and decided in batches of up to 25, with fees for each batch charged as for one case.
• Opting out. You can opt out of this section within 30 days of first agreeing to these terms, by emailing support@tryalai.app from your account's email with "arbitration opt-out" in the subject. Opting out doesn't change anything else in these terms.
• No jury. Where a dispute goes to court for any reason, you and we both give up the right to a jury trial, to the extent the law allows.

17. Governing law and courts

These terms are governed by the US Federal Arbitration Act and, otherwise, the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Anything that goes to court under these terms will be handled in the state or federal courts located in Alameda County, California, and you and we agree to those courts' jurisdiction. To the extent the law allows, a claim must be brought within one year after it arose.

18. Using alai from the App Store

If you got the alai app from Apple's App Store, these points also apply:

• These terms are between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app and its content.
• You may use the app on Apple devices you own or control, as Apple's Usage Rules in the App Store terms allow.
• Apple has no duty to provide maintenance or support for the app. Write to us instead.
• If the app fails to meet a warranty that applies to it, you may tell Apple, and Apple will refund the price you paid for it, if any. Beyond that, and as far as the law allows, Apple has no other warranty duty for the app, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses from the app failing to meet a warranty are our responsibility, not Apple's.
• Paid plans aren't sold through the App Store (section 10), so Apple isn't involved in them and its refund process doesn't cover them.
• We, not Apple, are responsible for handling any claims about the app, including product liability claims, claims that it fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, consumer protection or privacy claims, and claims that it infringes someone's intellectual property, including investigating, defending, settling and discharging them.
• You confirm you aren't in a country under a US government embargo or designated as supporting terrorism, and aren't on a US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Send any questions, complaints or claims about the app to us, using the contact details in section 20.
• You must also follow the terms of any third-party service you use with the app, such as your network.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and, once you accept them, may enforce them against you.

19. Everything else

• These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about alai.
• If part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
• If we don't enforce a term right away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.
• You can't transfer your rights under these terms. We can transfer ours to a company that takes over or runs alai, including one we form, and we'll tell you if that happens.
• Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by things beyond reasonable control.

20. Contact

Aiden Guan and Allen Hsieh · support@tryalai.app