The terms for using Phonicspal.

1. Who we are

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Phonicspal platform and services (the "Service") provided by Phonicspal Pty Ltd (ACN 703 020 320, ABN 45 703 020 320) ("Phonicspal", "we", "us"). By creating an account or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information and forms part of your agreement with us.

2. Eligibility and accounts

• The Service is for adults (18 or older): educators, school staff, tutors and homeschool parents in Australia.
• Where student-facing features are used, a teacher, parent or school administrator must set them up and supervise them.
• Accounts are provided through our sign-in provider (Clerk). Keep your sign-in details safe. You are responsible for what happens under your account. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has used it.
• Give us accurate information when you create your account, and keep it up to date.
• One account is for one person. Don't share a paid account with colleagues; a school plan covers a team (see School plans).

3. Plans and prices

• Free. Some features are free. The Free plan has limits, such as how many resources you can make each week. The current limits are on our pricing page. If we lower them, we email you at least 30 days before (see Changes to these Terms).
• Pro. Our paid plan for one person costs A$229 a year or A$25.96 a month. What it includes is on our pricing page.
• Our prices include GST and are in Australian dollars, for Pro and for school plans (see School plans). Phonicspal Pty Ltd is registered for GST. We don't charge a fee for paying by card.
• You pay in advance for each year or month. Payments are processed by Stripe. You can pay by card or the other ways shown at checkout, such as Apple Pay.
• Tax invoices. Every payment comes with a tax invoice showing our name, our ABN, the date, what you bought, the price and the GST included. You can download your invoices at any time from Manage Billing in Phonicspal. If you need one reissued, for example with your school's name, email us and we'll send it within 28 days.
• Fair use. Pro has no weekly limit on resources. To keep Phonicspal working well for everyone, some tasks have daily limits (for example, how many stories or pictures can be made in a day). Normal classroom use won't reach them.
• Your saved work stays yours. If you move from Pro to Free, for any reason, your saved lessons, printables, games, stories and Phonics Checks stay in your account. Anything you made on Free, and anything you saved before 9 November 2026, still opens. Anything you made on Pro from 9 November 2026 (on your own plan or your school's) opens again when you're back on a paid plan, or you can use one of your free resources to keep one open for good. The same goes for a copy of it someone shares with you. Your classes, students and Phonics Check results stay readable.

4. Automatic renewal

• Pro is a subscription. It renews automatically at the end of each year or month, at the price then in force, until you cancel. We charge the payment method saved with Stripe.
• Yearly plans: we email you 30 days and 7 days before each renewal with the renewal date, the price and how to cancel.
• Monthly plans renew each month on the date you started, or on the last day of a shorter month. Each payment comes with a receipt by email.
• You don't need to give notice to stop a renewal. Cancel before the renewal date and you won't be charged again.

5. Cancelling

• Cancel any time in Phonicspal: open Manage Billing and choose cancel. You don't have to tell us why. You can also email team@phonicspal.com and we'll cancel it for you.
• Cancelling stops future payments. Pro stays on until the end of the year or month you've already paid for, then your account moves to Free. We show the end date when you cancel.
• Cancelling doesn't refund the rest of the period you've paid for, except as set out in Refunds.
• If you change your mind before the end date, you can turn the renewal back on in Manage Billing.
• Deleting your account cancels your subscription straight away and ends Pro. It doesn't refund the time left on its own. If your payment is still within the 14 days in Refunds, email us and ask. If you'd rather use the time you've paid for, cancel first and delete your account later. If we can't confirm your payments have stopped, we won't delete your account yet, and we'll tell you.

6. Refunds

• Your rights under the law come first. You always have the refund and other rights set out in Australian Consumer Law below. Nothing in these Terms takes them away.
• 14 days to decide. If you've just started Pro and it isn't for you, email us within 14 days of your first payment and we'll refund that payment in full. This covers a first yearly, monthly or foundation payment.
• Yearly renewals. If your yearly plan renews and you meant to cancel, email us within 14 days of the renewal payment and we'll refund it in full.
• When we refund a payment in full, Pro ends straight away and your account moves to Free. Your saved work stays.
• Apart from these cases and your rights under the law, we don't refund a payment because you've changed your mind.
• Refunds go back to the card or wallet you paid with. Your bank usually shows them within 5 to 10 business days.
• If you think we've charged you by mistake, email us and we'll look into it straight away.

7. Failed payments

• If a renewal payment doesn't go through, Stripe emails you a link to update your card and tries the payment again over about two weeks. You keep Pro while it tries.
• If the payment goes through, your plan carries on with the same renewal date.
• If it still hasn't gone through after the last try, your subscription is cancelled and your account moves to Free. You won't owe us anything for that period, and your saved work stays.

8. Price changes

• We may change the price of Pro. If a new price affects you, we'll email you at least 30 days before you would first pay it.
• A new price only applies from your next renewal after that notice, never to time you've already paid for.
• If you don't want to pay it, cancel before your renewal date and you won't be charged again.

9. The foundation offer

To thank the teachers and families who joined Phonicspal before the Free and Pro plans started, we offer foundation members 50% off their first year of Pro.

• Who it's for: every Phonicspal account created by the end of Sunday 8 November 2026 (Perth time) and not deleted. Phonicspal team accounts are excluded.
• What it is: your first year of yearly Pro for A$114.50 (including GST) instead of A$229.
• First year only. At the end of the foundation year, the plan renews at the full yearly price, A$229 a year today, or a new price we've given you notice of under Price changes. We remind you 30 days and 7 days before, as for any yearly plan.
• How to claim: use the "Claim your foundation price" button in the app or in our email, signed in to your eligible account, by the end of Wednesday 9 December 2026 (Perth time). There's no code to enter.
• Yearly plan only. If you start on the monthly plan, you can still switch to the foundation yearly price before the deadline: email us and we'll move you across, with credit for the unused part of your month.
• Once per account. The offer can be used once. It can't be used again after you cancel, after a refund, or on another account, and it can't be transferred, exchanged for cash or combined with another offer.

10. Invites and rewards

Every account has its own invite link, such as phonicspal.com/r/sarah-jones. The link carries your name, so the people you send it to can see who invited them.

Joining through an invite. A friend who joins through your invite link pays for Pro from their first day, at the normal price (or the foundation price, if they are a foundation member, see The foundation offer).

Free months started before 9 November 2026. Until then, a friend who joined through an invite could try Pro free for their first 30 days. If you started one of those free months, it carries on as it was set up: unless you cancel before the 30 days end, it becomes the Pro plan you chose and we charge your card on day 30, and the 14 days in Refunds start from that first payment. A foundation member who started a free month can't also have the foundation price.

Rewards for inviting. When a friend joins through your invite link, or through a share link you made, and pays for Pro, you earn free Pro time.

• What you earn: 30 days of Pro for each friend whose first payment goes through, added as soon as it does. Signing up on its own doesn't count. There's no limit on how many friends you can invite.
• On the Free plan: we add 30 days of Pro straight away. If you earn more than one, they add up, one after another. When your Pro time runs out, your account goes back to Free and you aren't charged.
• On a paid plan: your next payment moves 30 days later. In rare cases Stripe can't move the date. Then we give you a credit worth one month of your plan off a future bill instead.
• One referrer per account. Who invited an account is set when the account is created, and it can't be changed later.
• When there's no reward: for inviting yourself or another account of your own, for a friend who pays with the same card as you, or for fake accounts.
• Refunds: if your friend's first payment is refunded within 14 days, we take the reward back.
• No cash value. Rewards can't be transferred, exchanged or sold, and they end if your account is closed.
• Misuse: we may hold back or take back a reward that comes from a fake or self referral, or from other misuse of the programme. If you think we got it wrong, email us and a person will look at it.
• Changes: we may change or end the invite programme at any time. A change applies to future invites only. It never takes away a reward you've already earned or a free month that has already started.

11. School plans

• Schools can buy a plan that gives their teachers Pro. We quote school plans individually. The price, the number of teachers, the dates and how to pay are set out in the quote. The quoted price includes GST, and the quote shows how much of it is GST.
• A school plan is covered by these Terms plus the quote or order the school accepts. If they differ, the accepted quote or order wins.
• We invoice the school with a tax invoice showing our ABN and the school's name or ABN.
• A school plan doesn't renew automatically. Before it ends, we send a new quote for the next period.
• Already paying for Pro? When your school's plan starts covering you, we cancel your own plan and refund the part you haven't used, worked out by the day. If we miss it, email us.

12. Acceptable use

• Use the Service lawfully, ethically and for educational purposes.
• Do not upload unlawful, harmful, abusive, or infringing content.
• Do not attempt to disrupt, probe, or bypass security or rate limits.
• Do not scrape, reverse-engineer, or redistribute Service content or data outside the scope of your licence.
• Do not use content the Service makes in a way that infringes someone else's rights or misleads students.

13. Student personal information

If you enter student personal information (such as names, class groups or progress notes), you confirm that you have the authority to do so, for example from your school or a parent or guardian, as your school's rules and privacy law require. Some schools and education departments require a consent form before student details go into an online service. Check yours first.

Enter only what you need, such as a first name. Don't enter sensitive information about students, such as health or disability details or government identifiers.

We use student information only to provide the Service to you, on your or your school's instructions. We do not use it for marketing, advertising or profiling. Our Privacy Policy explains where it is stored and who can see it.

14. Content our tools write and draw

Some features use language and image models from Google (Gemini) and, as a backup when Google's service fails, OpenAI to write stories and sentences, draw pictures and suggest content. You acknowledge that:

• Content made this way may contain errors or phrasing that isn't right for young children. Review it before you use it with students.
• It is a planning tool, not professional educational advice. Your professional judgement comes first.
• We send these providers the settings for your request (sounds, word lists, levels, themes) and anything you type into it, such as story characters or notes. If you import a class list from a file, the file is read by the same providers to find the names. Don't type students' full names or other personal details into a story or sentence request.
• We work to reduce errors and bias, and we keep improving our prompts and checks, but we can't promise content will be free of them.

15. Public content and sharing

• Stories you make can be shared in the public library for other Phonicspal users. New accounts start with this on, and with your first name and last initial shown on your public stories. You can turn either off in your account, and change a story's visibility at any time.
• You grant us a licence to display, distribute and make available any content you make public, for as long as it stays public.
• Share links (phonicspal.com/s/...) let anyone with the link see a preview of what you shared, with your first name, last initial and profile picture. A share link works until you turn it off.
• Slide links and QR codes for classroom use open without signing in and expire after 7 days.

16. Email

We send emails you need to use the Service, such as your welcome, receipts and tax invoices, renewal reminders, failed-payment notices and notice of changes to these Terms or our prices. These come whatever your email settings.

We also send news, teaching tips and digests. You can turn each kind off in your account, or with the unsubscribe link in any of these emails. We comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).

17. Licence and intellectual property

• We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Service for classroom, tutoring, home and school planning purposes.
• We and our licensors own all intellectual property in the Service, including software, data structures, phonics datasets, design, and brand assets. Except for the licence above, no rights are granted.
• Phonicspal™ is a trade mark of Phonicspal Pty Ltd. You may not use it, or a name or logo confusingly similar to it, without our written permission.
• By submitting content (e.g. uploads, lesson content, feedback), you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, display, and process that content to operate and improve the Service. You retain your rights to content you upload yourself.
• Printables, worksheets, games, stories, slides and other materials you create with the Service ("Outputs") are licensed to you for use with your own students or children, and for sharing free of charge with colleagues, your school and your students' families. This licence continues after you move to Free or close your account. You must not sell, license or otherwise commercialise Outputs, or any material substantially derived from them, including by listing them on marketplaces such as Teachers Pay Teachers, Teach Starter, Etsy or similar sites, or by bundling them into paid resource packs or courses. Worksheets you print or save as a PDF carry a hidden code linking them to the account that made them, so we can identify the source of materials offered for sale. We may suspend or close accounts that breach this clause (see Suspending and closing accounts).

18. Third-party trade marks, programme names, and government assessments

Phonicspal references third-party phonics programme names (such as InitiaLit, Sounds-Write, Little Learners Love Literacy, Jolly Phonics, UFLI Foundations, Get Reading Right, PhOrMeS, Sound Waves, PLD, Read Write Inc., Letters & Sounds, Literacy Hub, Bug Club Phonics, Phonics Hero, Phonics Plus Victoria, Reading Eggs, ELSA, and others) solely to describe compatibility and to help educators align their existing scope and sequence with our tools.

• All programme names, logos, and related marks are the property of their respective owners.
• Phonicspal is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or in any way officially connected to any of these programmes or their providers.
• We use programme names only to identify the programme being discussed, in good faith. This does not imply any partnership, certification, or approval.
• If you are a rights holder and believe a reference on our Service misrepresents your programme or use of your mark, please contact us at team@phonicspal.com and we will review and, where appropriate, amend or remove the reference promptly.

Phonicspal also references government literacy assessments, including the Year 1 Phonics Check, the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, and state and territory equivalents, in order to describe what those assessments are and to help teachers act on their results.

• Phonicspal is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or in any way officially connected to the Australian Government Department of Education, any state or territory education department, or Education Services Australia.
• Our own Phonics Check tool is an independent Phonicspal product. It is not the official check, it does not reproduce official test materials, and it draws on our own word lists.
• Where we quote figures published by a government body, we attribute them to their published source.

19. Third-party services

The Service relies on other companies to deliver its features. Key providers include:

• Clerk (sign-in and accounts)
• Stripe (payments, receipts and invoices, and the billing page where you cancel or update your card)
• Google Gemini, with OpenAI as a backup (writing stories and sentences, drawing pictures, reading class lists you import)
• PostHog (product analytics, proxied via our domain)
• Meta (measuring our advertising, on our website and sign-up pages)
• Vercel (hosting, file storage, and page view analytics)
• PlanetScale (our database)
• Resend (email delivery)
• Upstash and Cloudflare (protection against abuse and spam)
• ElevenLabs (recordings in our word library)

Payments are also covered by Stripe's own terms. Our Privacy Policy lists what each provider receives and where. We are not responsible for third-party services beyond the scope of our agreements with them.

20. Changes to the service

• We may add, change or remove features, with reasonable notice where we can.
• If we remove a main feature of Pro, or cut back what it lets you do in a way that matters (for example, a much lower daily limit on stories), we email you at least 30 days before. If that happens during a period you've paid for, you can cancel and we'll refund the unused part of that period, worked out by the day.
• We work to keep the Service reliable, but we can't promise it will always be available or free of errors. We tell you about planned maintenance in advance where we can.

21. Australian Consumer Law

Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you are entitled to cancel your service contract with us, and to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value. You are also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If the failure does not amount to a major failure, you are entitled to have problems with the service rectified in a reasonable time and, if this is not done, to cancel your contract and obtain a refund for the unused portion of the contract.

The Australian Consumer Law is in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or changes any guarantee, right or remedy you have under it, or under any other law that can't be excluded.

22. Warranties and disclaimers

Subject to Australian Consumer Law above, and to the extent the law allows, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available". We exclude all other warranties, guarantees and representations not set out in these Terms, including about the accuracy of content our tools write or draw and uninterrupted availability.

23. Limitation of liability

• Nothing in this section limits any guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law, or any liability that the law doesn't allow us to limit. The one exception is the limit for some school plans set out below, which section 64A of the Australian Consumer Law allows.
• Subject to that, our total liability arising out of or relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the liability, or A$100.
• Subject to that, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as lost revenue or opportunity, that was not reasonably foreseeable.
• For a school plan, where the service is not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, and to the extent section 64A of the Australian Consumer Law allows, our liability for failing to meet a consumer guarantee is limited, at our choice, to supplying the service again or paying the cost of having it supplied again.

24. Indemnity

If you upload content that infringes someone else's rights, or use the Service unlawfully, and a third party makes a claim against us because of it, you agree to cover our reasonable losses and costs from that claim. This is reduced to the extent we caused or contributed to the loss.

25. Suspending and closing accounts

• You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time via your account settings or by contacting us.
• We may suspend or close your account if you seriously breach these Terms, or breach them and don't fix it within 14 days of our notice. We may act straight away, without notice, where that's reasonably needed to stop seriously unlawful use, a risk to the Service's security, or a risk to children.
• We may close a Free account that hasn't been signed in to for 2 years, after emailing you at least 30 days before. We never close a paid account for inactivity.
• If we close a paid account for a reason that isn't a breach by you, we refund the unused part of your period, worked out by the day.
• When your account closes, your licence to use the Service ends (the licence for Outputs you've already made continues). Most of your data is deleted 30 days later. Our Privacy Policy explains what is kept longer and why, including public stories, share links, some saved content, billing records and backups.
• Schools may ask us to export or delete their student data at any time.

26. Disputes

If you have a problem with the Service or a payment, please contact us at team@phonicspal.com first. We will try to resolve it within 30 days. This doesn't stop you from contacting your state or territory consumer protection agency, or using any other right you have under the law. If we can't resolve it, either of us may go to the courts set out in Governing law.

27. Force majeure

We are not liable for failure or delay in performing our obligations where the failure or delay is caused by events beyond our reasonable control (including natural disasters, internet or infrastructure outages, pandemics, government actions, or third-party service failures). This doesn't affect your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, including to a refund of the unused part of a plan.

28. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. You submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Queensland and the Commonwealth courts competent to hear appeals from them.

29. General

• Entire agreement: These Terms, our Privacy Policy and, for a school plan, the accepted quote or order, are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.
• Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force.
• Waiver: Our failure to enforce any right or provision does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
• Assignment: You may not assign your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may assign our rights in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, and will tell you if we do.

30. Changes to these Terms

• We may update these Terms, for example when the law or the Service changes. We post the new version here with a new date and a summary of what's changed.
• If a change could leave you worse off, we email you at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you don't accept it, you can cancel before then, and we'll refund the unused part of any period you've paid for, worked out by the day.
• A change never alters the price of a period you've already paid for. Price changes follow Price changes.
• If you keep using the Service after a change takes effect, the new Terms apply.

31. Contact

Questions about these Terms, billing or refunds can be sent to team@phonicspal.com.