Terms of Service

BetterLingo ("BetterLingo", "we", "us") operates the Japanese-language study service at betterlingo.io. 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

BetterLingo is a study tool for the Japanese language and the JLPT exam levels N5 to N1. It provides quizzes, spaced-repetition review, kanji practice, reading material, and AI-assisted grading and tutoring of free-form Japanese you write yourself.

It is a study aid, not a qualification, a teacher, or a translation service. We do not guarantee that using it will produce any particular exam result. AI-generated grading, corrections and explanations can be wrong, and you should not rely on them as authoritative Japanese, legal, medical, financial or any other kind of professional advice.

2. Accounts

You need an account to use most of the service. You may register with an email address and password, or with Google. You are responsible for keeping your credentials secure and for everything done through your account. Tell us at [email protected] if you believe your account has been used without your permission.

You must be at least 13 years old to hold an account. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may only use the service with the consent of a parent or guardian.

3. Free and paid plans

The Free plan is available at no cost and requires no payment details. It is limited by an energy system that caps how much AI grading you can use in a period.

Pro is a paid subscription billed monthly or yearly. Current prices are shown on the pricing page and are charged in US dollars. A subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period until you cancel it. You can cancel at any time from the customer portal; cancelling stops the next renewal and leaves your access running until the end of the period you have already paid for.

We may change prices. A change never applies to a billing period you have already paid for, and we will tell existing subscribers before a change affects their renewal.

4. Payment and the merchant of record

Payments are processed by Lemon Squeezy, which acts as the merchant of record for every order. That means Lemon Squeezy — not BetterLingo — is the seller of record for your purchase, and handles payment, invoicing, sales tax and VAT. Your card details are handled by Lemon Squeezy and its payment providers and are never sent to or stored by us.

Refunds are covered by our Refund Policy.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• share, resell or sublicense your account or its paid features;
• scrape, bulk-download or redistribute our questions, articles or other content;
• use the AI features to generate unlawful, abusive or harassing content, or to attempt to extract the underlying prompts or models;
• attack, overload, probe or otherwise interfere with the service or its infrastructure;
• use automated means to create accounts or to consume AI credits.

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these rules. Where we close a paid account for a breach that is not serious, we will refund the unused part of the current period.

6. Your content

The Japanese you write into the app — answers, tutor messages, notes — remains yours. You grant us the limited licence needed to run the service: to store it, to display it back to you, and to send it to the AI providers described in our Privacy Policy so that it can be graded or answered.

7. Our content

The software, question banks, articles, kanji material, branding and design of BetterLingo are ours or our licensors'. Your subscription grants you a personal, non-transferable right to use them for your own study, and nothing more. Japanese-language source material, JLPT level definitions and public dictionary data remain the property of their respective owners; BetterLingo is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Japan Educational Exchanges and Services, the Japan Foundation, or any other JLPT organiser.

8. Availability

We aim to keep the service running but do not promise uninterrupted or error-free operation. We may change, suspend or discontinue features. If we discontinue a paid feature that you are actively paying for, you may cancel and we will refund the unused part of the current period.

9. Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, the service is provided "as is" and we exclude all implied warranties. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profits, lost study time, or exam outcomes. Where liability cannot be excluded, our total liability to you is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose.

Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for fraud, and nothing here removes the statutory rights of a consumer.

10. Ending the agreement

You may stop using the service and delete your account at any time by writing to [email protected]. We may close an account with reasonable notice, or immediately if you seriously breach these terms. Sections that by their nature survive termination — content ownership, liability, governing law — continue to apply.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The date at the top of this page shows when they last changed. A change that materially reduces your rights will be notified to account holders by email or in the app before it takes effect, and continuing to use the service after that point means you accept it.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Japan, and the courts of Japan have jurisdiction, except where mandatory consumer-protection law in your country of residence gives you the right to bring proceedings locally.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected]. Questions about a payment, an invoice or a tax receipt are usually fastest through Lemon Squeezy, whose details appear on your order confirmation.