Terms of Service
Last updated 30 July 2026
These terms are an agreement between you and BranchBook ("we", "us"), of Grinnell, Iowa, covering your use of BranchBook at branchbook.ai (the "Service"). By creating an account you accept them. If you don't accept them, don't use the Service.
1. What the Service does
BranchBook is a writing tool. It presents a drafting method in layers, checks submissions against stated criteria, stores your work, and exports it to a Word document. An automated reader validates submissions; it doesn't write, edit, or suggest anything. We don't promise the method will produce a finished or publishable book.
2. Your account
Accounts are created by signing in with Google. You're responsible for keeping access to that Google account secure, and for everything done through your BranchBook account. You must be at least 16 years old, or the age of digital consent where you live, whichever is greater. One person per account.
3. Your content, and who owns it
You own everything you write. We claim no ownership of your manuscripts, notes, titles, or any other content you put into the Service, and we acquire no rights in them.
You grant us only the narrow licence required to run the Service for you: to store your content, transmit it for validation as described in the Privacy Policy, display it back to you, and include it in files you ask us to generate. That licence exists solely so the software can function, ends when you delete the content or your account, and permits nothing else. In particular we do not publish your work, share it, sell it, or use it to train any model.
4. Automated validation
When you submit a passage, its text and the text of the passage above it are sent to Anthropic's API so an automated reader can judge whether the submission meets the stated criteria. Anthropic does not train its models on API inputs or outputs. If you'd rather that didn't happen, don't submit passages. Drafting, saving and exporting send nothing anywhere.
The reader gets things wrong sometimes. Verdicts are not editorial judgements and carry no rights over your work. You may complete any passage yourself, without validation, using "Accept without checking".
5. Subscription, billing, and who you are paying
BranchBook costs $9.99 per month. Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders: Paddle provides all customer service enquiries relating to payment and handles returns. Paddle's own terms apply to the payment transaction, and any sales tax or VAT is collected and remitted by Paddle.
Subscriptions renew automatically each month until cancelled. You can cancel any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for. We may change the price with at least 30 days' notice by email, and the new price applies from your next renewal.
6. Free trial
New accounts get 14 days of full access without a card, subject to a cap on automated validations that is far above ordinary use. The trial ends by itself. Nothing is charged unless you decide to subscribe.
7. Refunds
See the Refund Policy, which forms part of these terms.
8. Access to your work if you stop paying
If your subscription lapses or you cancel, you keep the ability to read and export everything you have written. Writing and checking stop. Getting at your own manuscripts doesn't. We won't hold your work hostage to a payment.
9. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Use the Service to produce or store material that is unlawful where you are, or that sexualises minors;
- Attempt to reach another account's data, or probe, scan, or test the security of the Service;
- Automate access in a way that degrades the Service for others, or resell access;
- Deliberately submit content designed to manipulate the automated reader into producing prose or advice; or
- Reverse engineer the Service except where that right cannot lawfully be excluded.
We may suspend an account doing these things. Where it's reasonable we'll tell you why and give you a chance to put it right, and you'll keep export access either way.
10. Availability
We aim to keep the Service running and to back up your work, but we can't guarantee it never goes down, and we may change or drop features. If we shut the Service down altogether we'll give at least 30 days' notice by email, and export will keep working the whole time.
11. Disclaimer of warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by law, 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 error-free, that validation will be accurate, or that your work will not be lost.
12. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or lost data, arising out of these terms or the Service. Our total liability for all claims in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of the amounts you paid us in that period or $50.
Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you.
13. Termination
You can stop using the Service and delete your account whenever you like. We may terminate or suspend an account for a material breach of these terms. When an account ends we delete your content as described in the Privacy Policy, so export anything you want to keep first.
14. Governing law and disputes
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Iowa, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.
Please read this paragraph carefully; it affects your legal rights. Except for claims that qualify for small-claims court, and except for claims seeking injunctive relief over intellectual property, any dispute arising out of these terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration, administered under the rules of a recognised arbitration provider, seated in Iowa or conducted remotely at the claimant's option. You and we each waive any right to a jury trial and to participate in a class or representative action. If this paragraph is found unenforceable, the courts of the State of Iowa have exclusive jurisdiction.
If you are a consumer resident in the EU, UK, or another jurisdiction whose law gives you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts and under your local consumer-protection law, nothing here removes that right.
15. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. For material changes we will give at least 30 days' notice by email or in the app before they take effect. Carrying on using the Service after that means you accept them. If you don't, cancel and export your work.
16. Contact
BranchBook1328 Spring St
Grinnell, IA 50112
United States
support@branchbook.ai