Terms of service

Ikou Benkyou is a Japanese learning app on the web, iPhone and iPad, run by Nodular Pty Ltd (ABN 46 080 093 134), an Australian company. “We” and “us” mean Nodular Pty Ltd, and “you” means the person using it.

These terms apply whenever you use the website, the web app or the mobile app. By creating an account or buying anything, you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use Ikou Benkyou.

You need to be at least 13 to use Ikou Benkyou. If you're under 18, a parent or guardian needs to agree to these terms for you, and to make any purchase.

An account is for one person. Keep your sign-in to yourself, and tell us at support@ikoubenkyou.com if you think someone else has used it. You're responsible for what happens on your account.

You can delete your account at any time, from Profile on the web or Settings, Account in the app. It is erased a calendar month after you ask, less a day, and until then you can sign in and choose to keep it. Our privacy policy explains what we keep after deletion and why.

The first lessons are free, with their audio and games. Premium is a subscription that opens every lesson, adds unlimited practice and your own lists, and includes a monthly allowance of AI credits.

• Price. You see the price, the billing period and any tax before you pay. Prices on the web include tax.
• Renewal. Premium renews automatically at the end of each month or year, at the price you agreed to, until you cancel.
• Cancelling. Cancel at any time: on the web from Settings, Subscription, or for an App Store subscription in your Apple ID's subscription settings. You keep Premium until the end of the period you've paid for.
• Price changes. If we change the price of your plan, we'll tell you at least 30 days before it applies to you, so you can cancel first.
• Offers. A discount or launch offer applies only as described where you took it up, and only to the payments it names.

Our refund policy explains when you can get money back.

AI credits pay for work we buy from AI providers for you, such as making a learning block from your own text, with its audio or a picture. Each action shows its price in credits before you use it, and if the work fails or is refused, its credits are given back.

• Premium's allowance is given each calendar month while you have Premium. What's left at the end of the month expires.
• Credit packs you buy never expire while your account is open, and are used after the month's allowance.
• Credits aren't money. They can't be exchanged for cash, moved to another account or sold, except for refunds under our refund policy or the law.
• We may change how many credits an action costs. A new price applies only to actions started after it's shown, never to work already under way.
• Credits end when your account is deleted. If we stop offering AI features altogether, we'll refund the credits you bought and haven't used.

On the web, payments are processed by Stripe. Where Stripe sells to you as the merchant of record, your receipt names it, and Stripe's own terms of sale apply alongside these.

On iPhone and iPad, purchases are made through the App Store and charged to your Apple ID. Apple's standard licence agreement and its terms apply to them, and Apple handles their billing and refunds.

Text, photos and recordings you give us, and the blocks and lists you make from them, stay yours. You give us permission to store them, process them (including sending them to the AI providers that do the work) and show them back to you, only to run Ikou Benkyou for you.

Only give us material you have the right to use, and don't include other people's personal information.

Blocks, readings, translations, audio and pictures made by AI are a learning aid, and they can be wrong. Check anything that matters, such as a translation for an official document, with a reliable source. Our own lessons are checked lesson by lesson, and every sound and answer has a report flag if something looks off.

Please don't:

• break the law, or use Ikou Benkyou to harass or harm anyone;
• copy, scrape, resell or republish our lessons, audio, art or games, or train AI models on them;
• get around paid features, usage limits or security, or reverse engineer the apps except where the law allows it;
• put a heavy or automated load on our servers, or interfere with other learners;
• ask the AI features for unlawful, hateful or sexual content.

We may limit, suspend or close an account that breaks these terms. Unless it's serious or the law stops us, we'll tell you why first and give you a chance to fix it.

The lessons, characters, voices, art, games and software are ours or licensed to us. We give you a personal, non-commercial licence to use them through Ikou Benkyou while your account is open. Teachers who want to use them with a class can ask us at support@ikoubenkyou.com.

We keep improving Ikou Benkyou, so features and lessons change. We sometimes need to take it offline for maintenance or to fix a problem, and we try to keep that short and to say so in the app. If we remove something central to what Premium includes, we'll tell you and you can cancel; if we close Ikou Benkyou altogether, we'll refund the unused part of any Premium period you've paid us for.

Our services come with guarantees that can't be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. If there's a major failure, you're entitled to cancel and get a refund for the unused part, or compensation for its drop in value. You're also entitled to compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If a failure isn't major, you're entitled to have it fixed in a reasonable time, and if it isn't, to cancel and get a refund for the unused part.

Nothing in these terms takes away those rights, or rights you have under the consumer laws where you live. Apart from them, and as far as the law allows, we aren't liable for loss that we couldn't reasonably have foreseen, or that comes from things outside our control.

We may update these terms as Ikou Benkyou changes. The date at the top says when they last changed. If a change matters to you, such as one to what you pay or what Premium includes, we'll tell you by email or in the app at least 30 days before it takes effect.

These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. If you live elsewhere, you keep the protection of the mandatory consumer laws where you live. If we have a disagreement, please write to us first: most things can be sorted out quickly.

Questions about these terms, or anything else: write to support@ikoubenkyou.com, or see the support page. Nodular Pty Ltd, ABN 46 080 093 134.