Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and StoryAloft LLC, a limited liability company organized in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States (“StoryAloft,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). They govern your use of our website, waitlist, and storybook application, including all stories, illustrations, and narration we generate (together, the “Services”). By using the Services, creating an account, or purchasing a subscription or credit package, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

1. Who may use the Services

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to create an account or purchase a subscription. The Services are intended to be set up and managed by a parent or guardian for use with their child. You are responsible for all activity under your account and for keeping your login credentials secure. You agree to notify us promptly of any unauthorized use of your account.

2. Electronic communications

By using the Services, you consent to receive these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and all other agreements, notices, disclosures, receipts, billing statements, and communications from us in electronic form, including by email to the address associated with your account or by posting within the Services. You agree that electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. You may withdraw this consent by closing your account, but doing so may mean you can no longer use the Services.

3. The Services

StoryAloft creates personalized, illustrated bedtime stories in which a child is the hero. The stories can be narrated aloud (including, optionally, in a synthesized version of a parent’s own recorded voice) and include early-reading features. We may add, change, suspend, or remove features at any time. We do not guarantee that the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we do not guarantee any specific educational, developmental, or behavioral outcome.

4. Free story

Your first story is free. We will not charge you unless and until you choose to start a paid subscription or purchase a credit package. Free access may be limited in scope and may change at any time.

5. Subscriptions, story credits, and billing

Paid access is sold as a monthly or annual subscription at the price and terms shown at checkout. Each plan includes a set number of new-story credits each month (the amount shown for your plan at checkout). One credit is used each time you create a new story.

Your included credits are granted at the start of each month (including on annual plans) and do not roll over; any unused monthly credits expire at the end of that month. You may also purchase one-time packages of additional story credits. Story credits have no cash value, are not transferable, and can be used only while your account is active.

All prices are stated and charged in U.S. dollars. Payments are processed by our third-party payment provider, Stripe. By subscribing or buying a credit package, you authorize us and Stripe to charge your designated payment method for all fees you incur, including, for subscriptions, on a recurring basis at the then-current price, plus any applicable taxes, until you cancel. You agree to keep your payment information current.

If a payment fails, we and Stripe may retry the charge one or more times, and we may suspend or cancel your paid access until payment succeeds. You remain responsible for any amounts owed.

Free trials and promotions. If we offer a free trial or promotional rate, it applies only as described at the time of the offer. Unless you cancel before the trial or promotional period ends, your access will automatically convert to a paid subscription, and your payment method will be charged at the then-current price. Offers may be limited and may not be combined.

6. Automatic renewal and cancellation

Your subscription automatically renews. Cancel any time online to avoid future charges. At the end of each billing period (each month for a monthly plan, or each year for an annual plan), your subscription automatically renews for another period of the same length and your payment method is charged the then-current price, plus applicable taxes, until you cancel. Credit packages are one-time purchases and do not automatically renew. We obtain your consent to these auto-renewal terms at checkout as required by applicable law.

You can cancel at any time online. You may cancel through your account’s self-service billing portal (our billing settings) at any time. You do not need to call or email us to cancel. For convenience you may also email us at support@storyaloft.com, but online self-service cancellation is available without contacting us.

For annual plans, we will send you a renewal reminder before your renewal date charges your payment method, as required by applicable law.

When you cancel, the cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period you have already paid for (the rest of the current month, or the rest of the current year on an annual plan). You keep access until then, and your subscription then ends. We do not provide partial-period refunds. We do not automatically delete your content on cancellation; you can delete it as described in our Privacy Policy.

7. Refunds

All sales are final. Subscription fees (monthly and annual) and story credit packages are non-refundable, and story credits are non-refundable and have no cash value, except where a refund is required by applicable law.

If you cancel a subscription, you will not receive a refund or a proration for the unused portion of your term or for any unused story credits. You keep access through the end of the period you have already paid for. Purchased credit packages are non-refundable once purchased, including any unused credits. If you believe you were charged in error, contact us at support@storyaloft.com and we will review it in good faith.

8. Price changes

We may change our prices or plans. Any change to the recurring price of your subscription will apply to your next renewal, and we will give you advance notice as required by law. If you do not agree to a new price, you may cancel before it takes effect.

9. Taxes

Prices may not include applicable taxes. Where we are required to collect sales tax or similar taxes, they will be added at checkout and charged with your subscription or purchase. You are responsible for any taxes associated with your use of the Services other than taxes based on our net income.

10. Your content and your child’s content

You and your family may provide content such as a child’s first name, a photo, and a recorded voice (“Your Content”). You represent and warrant that you are the parent or guardian of the child (or otherwise have all rights and permission) to provide Your Content and to grant the license below. You grant us a limited, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, reproduce, and adapt Your Content solely to create and deliver your family’s stories and to operate, secure, and improve the Services. We do not sell Your Content, share it for advertising, or use it to train AI models, as further described in Section 11 and our Privacy Policy. You can delete Your Content as described in our Privacy Policy.

11. Generative AI, narration, and ownership of outputs

The Services use third-party generative artificial intelligence to create stories, illustrations, and AI narration, including the optional synthesis of a parent’s recorded voiceto narrate that family’s stories.

AI outputs are probabilistic. Stories, images, and narration are generated by automated, probabilistic models and may be inaccurate, unexpected, imperfect, or otherwise not what you intended. They are provided without any warranty of accuracy or suitability for any purpose. You are responsible for reviewing all content before sharing it with a child.

We do not train AI models on your content. We do notuse Your Content or your child’s content (including photos and voice) to train, fine-tune, or develop AI models, whether ours or any third party’s. A synthesized voiceis used only to narrate that family’s stories and is deleted on request.

Ownership and your license. We and our providers retain all right, title, and interest in and to the underlying technology, models, prompts, templates, and artistic style used to generate stories. The personalized story outputs we create for your family are licensed to you for personal, non-commercial use only. Similar themes, elements, names, or imagery may be generated for other families, and you receive no exclusive rights in any output.

12. Our intellectual property

We own (or license) the Services, including all software, designs, text, graphics, the StoryAloft name, logos, and trademarks, and the distinctive artistic style of our illustrations. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Services for your personal, non-commercial use. You agree not to copy, scrape, frame, reverse engineer, decompile, or otherwise attempt to extract source code from the Services, and you agree not to use any output, story, image, or other material from the Services to build, train, or improve a competing model, product, or dataset. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

13. Feedback

If you send us suggestions, ideas, or other feedback about the Services (“Feedback”), you agree that we may use it for any purpose without any obligation or compensation to you, and you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use and exploit the Feedback.

14. Acceptable use

You agree not to misuse the Services, including by: uploading content you do not have the right to use; providing another person’s information (including a child’s) without authorization; attempting to reverse engineer, disrupt, overload, or gain unauthorized access to the Services; using automated means to access or scrape the Services; or using the Services for any unlawful, harmful, or infringing purpose.

15. Third-party services

The Services rely on third parties. Stripeprocesses payments, and your payments are also subject to Stripe’s terms and privacy policy. Our generative AI providers process inputs to produce outputs as described above. We are not responsible for third-party services, and your use of them may be governed by their own terms.

App stores. If you access the Services through the Apple App Store or Google Play, the terms of that store also apply, and you agree to comply with them. You acknowledge that these Terms are between you and StoryAloft only, and not with Apple or Google. Apple and Google have no obligation to provide any maintenance or support for the Services and provide no warranty for the Services. To the extent you access the Services through the Apple App Store, Apple is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

16. Disclaimers

The Services are provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement, to the fullest extent permitted by law. We do not warrant that any AI-generated content will be accurate, appropriate, or error-free, and we do not guarantee any educational, developmental, or behavioral outcome. The Services are not medical, psychological, developmental, or other professional advice and are a supplement to, not a replacement for, reading with your child, professional care, or formal education. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of the above may not apply to you.

17. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, StoryAloft and its owners, members, officers, employees, and suppliers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any lost profits, lost data, or loss of goodwill, arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total cumulative liability for all claims relating to the Services or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) US $100. You agree that this allocation of risk is an essential basis of the bargain between you and StoryAloft and that we would not provide the Services without it. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you.

18. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless StoryAloft and its owners, members, officers, employees, and suppliers from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to your misuse of the Services, Your Content, or your violation of these Terms or of the rights of any other person.

19. Termination

You may stop using the Services at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms, if required by law, or to protect the Services or other users. Upon termination, your right to use the Services ends. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including payment obligations, content licenses you granted, ownership, Feedback, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, dispute resolution, arbitration, and governing law) will survive.

20. Informal dispute resolution (required first step)

Before starting an arbitration or filing any claim, you and StoryAloft agree to first try to resolve the dispute informally. You must send an email to legal@storyaloft.com that includes a description of the dispute, the relief you are seeking, and your contact information. You and StoryAloft then agree to negotiate in good faith for sixty (60) days from the date of that email. This informal resolution process is a precondition to starting arbitration or litigation. Any applicable limitations period and arbitration filing deadlines are tolled while the parties engage in this process.

21. Binding arbitration and class action waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS. This section is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

Agreement to arbitrate. Except for the carve-outs below, any dispute, claim, or controversy between you and StoryAloft arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms that is not resolved through the informal process in Section 20 will be resolved by binding individual arbitration, and not in court, administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect. The arbitrator, and not any court, will decide all issues relating to the scope, interpretation, enforceability, and applicability of this arbitration agreement, except that a court, and not the arbitrator, will decide the enforceability of the class action waiver below.

JURY TRIAL WAIVER. You and StoryAloft each waive the right to a trial by jury.

CLASS ACTION WAIVER. You and StoryAloft agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims (except as part of the batching process below) and may not preside over any class or representative proceeding.

30-DAY RIGHT TO OPT OUT. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement (including the class action and jury trial waivers) by emailing legal@storyaloft.com with your name, the email associated with your account, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out, within 30 days of the date you first accept these Terms. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms. If you opt out, disputes will be resolved in the courts described in Section 22.

Carve-outs. This arbitration agreement does not require arbitration of: (a) an individual claim that qualifies for small-claims court; or (b) a claim for injunctive or other equitable relief to protect intellectual property rights or to stop unauthorized use or abuse of the Services. Either party may bring such claims in the courts described in Section 22.

Mass and coordinated arbitration (batching). If 25 or more similar demands for arbitration are filed against StoryAloft by or with the assistance of the same or coordinated counsel, or in a coordinated manner, you and StoryAloft agree that the demands will be batched and resolved in staged groups (bellwether batches) to manage administrative and filing fees. A batch will consist of no more than a set number of demands at a time, decided by an administrative arbitrator if needed, and the remaining demands will be held in abeyance (with applicable deadlines tolled) until prior batches conclude. This provision is intended to promote the efficient resolution of mass filings.

Severability of this arbitration agreement. If the class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or request for relief, that claim or request will be severed and brought in the courts described in Section 22, while all other claims will continue to be resolved in arbitration. If any other part of this arbitration agreement is found unenforceable, that part will be severed and the remainder will continue to apply.

Right to reject future changes to this section. If we make a material change to this arbitration section in the future, you may reject the change by emailing legal@storyaloft.com within 30 days after the change becomes effective, in which case the most recent version of this arbitration section before the change will apply to you.

22. Governing law and venue

These Terms and any dispute between you and StoryAloft are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 21. The Services are operated from and intended for users in the United States. For any claim that may proceed in court (including the carve-outs in Section 21, claims by users who opted out of arbitration, or if arbitration is found not to apply), you and StoryAloft agree to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in Virginia, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

23. Miscellaneous

These Terms and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and StoryAloft regarding the Services and supersede any prior agreements. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full effect (severability). Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our consent, and any attempt to do so is void; we may assign these Terms freely, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control (force majeure). Headings are for convenience only. Provisions that should survive termination will survive.

24. California users (Civil Code Section 1789.3)

Under California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California residents are entitled to the following notice: The provider of the Services is StoryAloft LLC (Virginia, USA), reachable at support@storyaloft.com. The fees for the Services are the subscription and credit-package prices disclosed at checkout; there is no minimum charge beyond those disclosed prices. If you have a complaint regarding the Services or wish to request further information, you may contact us at support@storyaloft.com, or contact in writing the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.

25. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the updated version here with a new “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, notify you. Changes are effective when posted unless we state otherwise. Continued use of the Services after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms. Your rights regarding changes to the arbitration section are described in Section 21.

26. Contact us

StoryAloft LLC (Virginia, USA)
Support: support@storyaloft.com
Legal and arbitration notices: legal@storyaloft.com