1. Who we are

EssayStory ("EssayStory", "we", "us", or "our") is a web application at www.essaystory.com that helps students draft, version, and revise college application essays with AI-assisted feedback. These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you ("you" or "user") and EssayStory.

2. Eligibility & accounts

You must be at least 13 years old to use EssayStory. If you are under 18, you should review these Terms with a parent or guardian.
You sign in using a Microsoft or Google account. You are responsible for keeping that account secure.
You agree to provide accurate information and to keep it up to date.
One person, one account. Sharing accounts is not permitted.

3. Your content

You own the essays, drafts, profile information, and any other content you create or upload to EssayStory ("Your Content"). We do not claim ownership of Your Content.

By using the service, you grant us a limited, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, and display Your Content solely to operate and improve EssayStory for you — for example, saving versions, generating AI reviews you've requested, and showing your essays back to you. This license ends when you delete Your Content or your account, except for backup copies which are purged within 30 days.

We do not use Your Content to train AI models, ours or any third party's. See our Privacy Policy for full details on how Your Content is handled.

4. AI-generated reviews

EssayStory uses large language models (currently Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service) to generate essay reviews on your explicit request.
AI output is suggestive, not authoritative. It may contain mistakes, miss nuance, or reflect bias. You are responsible for evaluating and editing suggestions before using them.
EssayStory is a writing aid, not a ghostwriter. You are responsible for ensuring that the essays you submit to colleges represent your own authentic work and comply with each college's policies on AI assistance. Misuse (e.g., submitting AI-generated text as your own where prohibited) is your responsibility, not ours.
We make no guarantee about admissions outcomes. No tool, human or AI, can guarantee admission to any school.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

Use EssayStory for anything illegal, harmful, harassing, hateful, or fraudulent.
Upload content you don't have the right to use, or content that infringes intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights.
Upload essays on behalf of another person without their knowledge and consent.
Attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, scrape at scale, or circumvent rate limits or security controls.
Use the service to generate content that you will submit to a program (academic, scholarship, employment) in violation of that program's rules on AI assistance.
Attempt to extract, exfiltrate, or manipulate the AI models or their prompts (e.g., prompt injection intended to abuse the service).
Resell, sublicense, or wrap the service in a competing product.
Use the service in a way that imposes an unreasonable load on our infrastructure.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules, with or without notice depending on the severity.

6. Subscriptions, billing, and refunds

EssayStory offers a free tier and paid subscription plans. Current pricing is shown on the Plans & pricing page.
Paid plans are billed in advance through Stripe. By subscribing, you authorize recurring charges to your payment method until you cancel.
You can cancel at any time from the Stripe Customer Portal (accessible from the Billing page). Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you keep paid features until then.
Refunds: If you cancel within 7 days of an initial subscription purchase and have not made substantial use of paid features, contact support for a refund. Other refund requests are evaluated case by case.
We may change pricing with at least 30 days' notice via email and an in-app notice. New prices apply to billing cycles after the notice period.
If a charge fails, we may downgrade your account to the free tier until payment is restored.
Taxes (sales tax, VAT, GST) may be added based on your billing location and are your responsibility unless stated otherwise.

7. Free trials and promotions

We may offer free trials or promotional pricing. Unless we say otherwise, trials automatically convert to a paid subscription at the end of the trial period using the payment method on file. You can cancel before conversion to avoid being charged.

8. Service availability

We work to keep EssayStory available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted access. Maintenance windows, outages, and third-party provider issues may interrupt service.
We may add, remove, or change features at any time. We will give reasonable notice for changes that materially reduce a paid plan's value.

9. Termination

You can stop using EssayStory at any time. To delete your account and data, email support@essaystory.com. Deletion is completed within 30 days.
We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms, if required by law, or if continuing to provide the service to you is no longer commercially viable.
Sections that by their nature should survive termination (content ownership, disclaimers, limitation of liability, governing law) will survive.

10. Intellectual property

EssayStory, including the software, design, brand, logos, and content we create, is owned by us and protected by intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the service for its intended purpose. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

11. Third-party services

EssayStory relies on third-party services including Microsoft Azure (hosting and AI), Microsoft Entra and Google Identity (sign-in), and Stripe (payments). Your use of those services through EssayStory is also governed by their respective terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party services we don't control.

12. Disclaimers

EssayStory is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and accuracy. We do not warrant that the service will be error-free, secure, or uninterrupted, or that AI-generated output will be accurate, complete, or fit for any purpose.

EssayStory does not provide professional college counseling, admissions advice, or legal advice.

13. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, EssayStory and its officers, directors, employees, and contractors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of (or inability to use) EssayStory — even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or related to these Terms or the service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) USD $100.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In those jurisdictions, the above limits apply to the maximum extent permitted by law.

14. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless EssayStory from any claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (a) your use of the service, (b) Your Content, (c) your violation of these Terms, or (d) your violation of any law or third-party right.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. You and EssayStory agree to bring any dispute exclusively in the state or federal courts located in San Francisco County, California, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. If you are a consumer located in a jurisdiction whose law requires application of local consumer-protection rules, those rules apply to the extent required.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email and/or an in-app notice at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use of EssayStory after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

17. Miscellaneous

Entire agreement: these Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and EssayStory regarding the service.
Severability: if any provision is held unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
No waiver: our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
Assignment: you may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
Notices: we may send notices to the email associated with your account or post them in-app.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email support@essaystory.com or visit our Support page.