Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and Readwave ("Readwave", "we", "us") governing your use of the Readwave application for Windows 11 and the readwave.org website (together, the "Service"). By downloading, installing, or using Readwave, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. License to use Readwave

Subject to these Terms, Readwave grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the Readwave application on devices you own or control, for your personal or internal business use.

You may not: (a) copy, resell, sublicense, rent, or redistribute the Service; (b) reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code or bundled models except to the extent that restriction is prohibited by law; (c) remove or alter any proprietary notices; or (d) use the Service to build a competing product. Readwave, its software, branding, and bundled assets are owned by Readwave and its licensors and are protected by intellectual property laws.

2. Plans, subscriptions, and billing

Readwave offers a Free plan and a paid Pro subscription.

• Free plan. Includes local read-aloud with the built-in voices, subject to a fair-use limit of 20,000 words / week.
• Pro plan. $8/month or $69/year, as selected at checkout. Pro removes the word limit and unlocks Smart Reading (premium cloud voices are a planned addition).
• Free trial. Pro includes a 14-day free trial. If you do not cancel before the trial ends, your subscription converts to a paid plan and the applicable fee is charged.
• Auto-renewal. Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or yearly) at the then-current price, until cancelled.
• Cancellation. You may cancel anytime. On cancellation, Pro features remain active until the end of your current paid period, after which your account reverts to the Free plan. Cancelling during the free trial means you are not charged.
• Payments. Billing is processed by Stripe. You authorize us and Stripe to charge your selected payment method for applicable fees and taxes.
• Price changes. We may change subscription pricing; changes apply to future billing periods and we will provide reasonable notice where required.

3. Refunds

Refund policy placeholder. Replace with your finalized policy before launch. Suggested starting point: the 14-day free trial lets you evaluate Pro before paying; outside of rights granted by applicable consumer law, paid fees are generally non-refundable. Contact [email protected] and we'll do our best to make things right.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to: (a) violate any law or the rights of others; (b) process content you do not have the right to use; (c) attempt to gain unauthorized access to, disrupt, or overload the Service or its backend; (d) circumvent usage limits, licensing, or security controls; or (e) use automated means to abuse cloud features. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.

5. Cloud features and third parties

Pro premium voices and Smart Reading send the text you choose to process to our backend and to third-party AI / text-to-speech providers, and payments are handled by Stripe. Your use of these features is also subject to those providers' terms. See our Privacy Policy for what is sent and how it is handled. You are responsible for ensuring you have the rights to submit any text you send through cloud features.

6. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT VOICE OUTPUT, SUMMARIES, OR TRANSLATIONS WILL BE ACCURATE OR SUITABLE FOR ANY PURPOSE.

7. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, READWAVE AND ITS SUPPLIERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM, OR (B) USD $50. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you.

8. Termination

You may stop using the Service and uninstall the app at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms or to comply with law. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including ownership, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and governing law) will survive.

9. Governing law

Governing-law placeholder. These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules, and the courts located there will have exclusive jurisdiction. Confirm the correct jurisdiction with your lawyer before launch.

10. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be posted here with a new effective date; continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

11. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email [email protected] or visit readwave.org.