Terms of Use

1. Who these terms cover

These terms are between Boondoggle Studio, LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company doing business as Hemingway Editor App ("Hemingway," "we," or "us"), and you. They govern our websites, web application, and Hemingway add-in for Microsoft Word, including free use, trials, and subscriptions purchased online or by invoice. They do not govern our legacy desktop application, which has its own license agreement. If you accept these terms for an organization, you confirm that you have authority to bind it. In that case, "you" includes that organization, and it is responsible for its authorized users.

You must be at least 18, or the age of majority where you live if higher, and legally able to make this agreement. You may not use the service if applicable sanctions or other law prohibit us from providing it to you.

By accepting these terms in our signup or purchase process, or through an order form agreed by both parties, you agree to them and to the agreed purchase details. An invoiced purchase does not require a separately signed agreement, but you must accept these terms and the purchase details before we activate it. Website use is subject to these terms to the extent a binding agreement is formed under applicable law. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information.

Our Data Processing Addendum ("DPA"), version 2026-10-08, is automatically part of this agreement whenever its stated scope applies to personal information we process on your behalf. You do not need to request or separately sign it to receive that protection. We can provide a signature copy on request.

The DPA applies to covered processing under a free account as well as a paid account. Ending payment does not end its protections while that processing continues.

These terms apply to all covered plans. An order form or addendum agreed by both parties may expressly change specific terms for the purchase it covers. Those changes control only the provisions they identify. Mandatory law, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, and the applicable UK transfer instrument retain their required priority. Commercial documents cannot weaken those protections. The DPA controls processing matters within its scope.

Section 15 contains individual arbitration and class-action restrictions. It affects how disputes may be brought, subject to rights the law does not allow you to waive.

2. Your account and team

Give us accurate registration and billing information and keep it current. Protect your login credentials and tell us promptly at support@hemingwayapp.com if you suspect unauthorized access. You are responsible for the devices, internet connections, browser profiles, and other systems you use to access Hemingway and for their associated charges.

Each paid seat is for one person at a time. Teams may give seats to employees and contractors working under their control, within the purchased seat limit. A team may reasonably reassign a seat, for example when an employee leaves, but may not share credentials or use reassignment to allow concurrent use of one seat by several people.

You can sign in using an email code or Google Login. Organizations on a qualifying plan can configure required single sign-on (SSO). Once required SSO is configured, users must sign in through the organization's identity provider to access that organization; email-code or Google Login cannot bypass that requirement. Your organization controls its identity-provider access. SSO does not by itself include automatic user provisioning or removal through SCIM, or promise that every existing session ends immediately when access changes.

Team administrators can manage membership and see aggregate AI-credit usage for each member. Follow your organization's lawful instructions when using its subscription. The organization is responsible for deciding who may join its team and promptly removing access when appropriate.

The Word add-in uses the same Hemingway account and AI-credit allowance as the web app, not a separate pool of credits. When you finish using Hemingway on a shared device, sign out of each place you used it, including the website and Word add-in.

The features available in the Word add-in depend on your Hemingway plan. See our documentation for supported Word versions and available features.

3. Permission to use Hemingway

We give you a limited, nonexclusive right to use the features included in your plan for their intended purposes, while this agreement and any required subscription remain in effect. Your content remains yours. Section 6 explains your rights in the content you submit and the AI output you receive. We retain ownership of our software, methods, documentation, designs, and other service materials. These terms do not transfer those materials to you.

Do not copy, resell, sublicense, reverse engineer, or create derivative software from Hemingway except where mandatory law permits it. Do not remove proprietary notices. Do not scrape the service, bypass access or usage limits, extract our internal prompts or technology to build a competing service, interfere with other users, or use unsupported automated or non-human access. Automation is permitted only where we expressly document or agree to support it. These restrictions do not limit rights that cannot legally be restricted.

The HEMINGWAY mark belongs to Hemingway, Ltd. and is used under license. Our other marks and third-party marks belong to their respective owners. This agreement does not give you permission to use them as your own or suggest an endorsement.

4. Paid plans, credits, renewal, and cancellation

Your checkout, agreed order form, or purchase confirmation identifies your price, currency, billing period, included seats, and AI-credit allowance. Paid rewriting credits reset monthly, even if you pay annually. Unused credits do not carry over. We do not automatically charge you for use beyond your available credits.

AI credits limit your use of the AI rewriting tools identified in your plan. Running out of credits does not end your paid plan or prevent you from using other included premium features that are not limited by credits.

Unless your agreed purchase details say otherwise, prices and payments are in U.S. dollars. You authorize our payment processor to charge your chosen payment method only for payments you expressly approve, including recurring payments where you agree to them. Applicable taxes are shown or charged as required by law.

We may agree to bill you by invoice. Your agreed purchase details specify the payment due date, when paid access starts, and whether payment is required before activation. An invoice does not itself authorize automatic charges or change the agreed purchase terms. You must pay agreed fees when due; suspension for nonpayment follows section 11.

If your plan renews automatically, each renewal covers the billing period in your agreed purchase details. Cancel through your account before the next renewal to stop it. For an invoiced plan, you may instead contact support@hemingwayapp.com before renewal, unless your order form specifies another method. Your paid access normally continues until the period you already paid for ends. Any more favorable cancellation rights required by law still apply.

Ending your paid subscription sooner requires our agreement, unless these terms or the law give you that right. You can still request account closure under section 11.

Payments are generally nonrefundable. We will provide a refund when required by law or promised in these terms or an applicable refund policy. We may also expressly agree to a refund. This means unused prepaid time is not automatically refundable if you choose to close your account, we agree to end your subscription early, or we end your access because you broke these terms.

We may suspend or terminate access on the grounds described in section 11, subject to its notice, cure, and refund provisions.

When your paid subscription ends, you can keep using your account with the features available on our free plan. These terms still apply. You can also choose to close your account.

A downgrade does not transfer an organization's data or control over it to individual team members. We retain information only for a permitted continuing purpose under the DPA, Privacy Policy, and Retention Schedule.

We will email you at least 30 calendar days before a subscription price increase. The increase will apply no earlier than your first renewal after the full notice period and will not change an already paid billing period. The notice will explain the new price, when it applies, and how to cancel renewal before the higher price applies. We will also provide renewal reminders and any additional notices or obtain agreement where required by law. Materially unfavorable changes to included plan benefits follow section 10, even if described on a pricing or plan page rather than in these terms. Contact support@hemingwayapp.com promptly about an incorrect charge or invoice; we will review a good-faith dispute.

Trial duration, included features, and any conversion to a paid subscription must be disclosed when you enroll. A free trial does not authorize a paid charge unless you agree to that charge.

Do not use different email addresses, multiple accounts, or other methods to obtain repeated trials or free credits beyond the limits of an offer, unless we expressly allow it.

Beta and preview features may be incomplete, may change, and may be withdrawn. The content, confidentiality, and privacy protections in these terms still apply to their use.

5. Separate desktop license

Our legacy desktop application is licensed separately under its own license agreement. Buying that application does not include an Editor Plus subscription unless your purchase confirmation expressly says so. These terms do not replace or amend that separate agreement. The Word add-in is part of the service covered here, not the legacy desktop product, even when used in a desktop version of Word.

6. Your writing belongs to you

"Customer Data" means the content you supply for processing. This includes your documents and text you draft, type, paste, or import. It also includes prompts, style guidance, custom editing instructions, and any other content you supply. Customer Data also includes the AI output we return for that content. It does not include Hemingway's software or other service materials.

You keep all ownership rights, including any copyright, in the writing, custom prompts, instructions, and other content you submit. We transfer to you any rights we have in the AI output we provide. You may use your content and that output for lawful purposes, including publishing, selling, and other commercial uses. We receive only the limited permission described below to process this material, not ownership or permission to reuse it for unrelated purposes. This does not mean every output can be copyrighted, is unique, or is free of another person's rights. For example, AI may produce a sentence similar to a sentence someone else already wrote.

You give us only the permission needed to process Customer Data to provide the features of the service, maintain and secure the service, investigate specific fraud or abuse, provide requested support, comply with binding law, and carry out the limited return/deletion process in the DPA and Retention Schedule. This permission lasts only as needed for those purposes under the applicable retention rules. It is not a perpetual right to reuse your writing.

We and our providers do not use your content to train, fine-tune, or improve AI models. We will not enable voluntary provider sharing for those purposes. We will not sell Customer Data, use it for advertising, or collect your writing to improve the product generally. We use it only for the limited purposes described above.

We treat Customer Data as confidential even if it is not labeled confidential. We limit access to personnel and providers who need it for those permitted purposes and are bound by confidentiality duties. People do not routinely read your AI content for Hemingway. Limited human access may occur for requested support, specific security or abuse investigations, or binding legal requirements. Providers may also allow limited human review for security, abuse monitoring, or legal requirements.

7. Using AI features

Editor Plus trials and paid plans include AI features. Some work automatically as you write; others run when you choose them. To provide these features, we may send the necessary text—including surrounding context or your full document—to the AI providers identified in our Service Providers and Subprocessors.

AI output can be wrong, incomplete, biased, or similar to other output. Review it before using or publishing it, especially for consequential subjects. Hemingway helps with writing; it does not provide professional medical, legal, or financial advice. Do not use it to make automated decisions about employment, credit, housing, insurance, healthcare, education, criminal justice, or similarly consequential matters. Do not falsely represent AI-generated content as human-generated where that would mislead others or violate applicable rules.

8. Permitted information and prohibited conduct

You must have the rights and permissions needed to submit Customer Data and instruct us to process it. Ordinary business personal information, such as a colleague's name in a draft, is permitted under the applicable protections. Unless we expressly agree in writing to support it, do not submit protected health information governed by HIPAA, payment-card details outside our approved payment flow, classified government information, ITAR-controlled technical data, CJIS information, or other information requiring protections we have not agreed to provide.

Do not use Hemingway to break the law, infringe others' rights, misuse personal information, impersonate others, commit fraud, threaten or harass people, promote violence or hatred, exploit children, encourage self-harm, spread malware, or send unsolicited bulk messages. Do not attack the service or access another customer's information. If you discover misuse or unauthorized access, promptly notify us and take reasonable lawful steps within your control to stop it and limit its effects.

Lawful writing about politics, health, relationships, gambling, and adult subjects is not prohibited merely because of its subject. Specific AI features and their providers may impose stricter content restrictions or decline a request, including some adult or sexual content. We cannot require a provider to process a blocked request and do not promise that every otherwise permitted topic can use every AI feature.

9. Storage, security, and requests

Our Privacy Policy and Retention Schedule explain how we and our providers handle information, where it may be processed, and how long it is kept. When the DPA applies, it also governs subprocessor changes, notice, and objections.

Hemingway is not a cloud document library. In the web app, your working document normally remains in your browser. In Word, the document remains in the location you or your organization use for Word files, such as your device or Microsoft-managed storage. Hemingway account closure or sign-out does not delete those files, their version histories, or copies controlled by you or Microsoft. Secure shared devices and browser profiles, and keep your own document copies. AI processing can still send supported text outside your device as described above.

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards for information we handle. The security safeguards and customer-content incident commitments in DPA Schedule B are part of these terms and apply to Customer Data, whether or not it includes personal information. The DPA also states the applicable personal-data breach, assistance, and audit duties. These duties are not displaced by the service disclaimers below.

Send privacy, access, or deletion requests to support@hemingwayapp.com. We may verify your identity and, for organization-controlled processing, work through your organization.

10. Availability and changes

We provide support on a best-efforts basis at support@hemingwayapp.com. We do not promise a fixed response time, uptime percentage, service credits, or uninterrupted service. We may change or discontinue features, subject to your paid purchase commitments, our express data protections, and mandatory law.

We may update these terms by posting a dated version. We will email you at least 30 calendar days before changes that materially reduce your rights or benefits or increase your obligations take effect. This also applies to changes in your plan or purchase terms.

For paid plans, these changes take effect at your first renewal after the 30-day notice period. For free accounts, they may take effect after that period. Our email will explain what is changing and when, so you can cancel renewal or stop using the service beforehand. Changes that only benefit you or do not change your rights or obligations may take effect sooner.

We will ask you to accept changes and provide additional notice when required by law. Changes to subprocessors follow the DPA. An order form identifies the version of these terms initially accepted; later changes follow this section unless the parties expressly agree otherwise. Posting an update does not change any expressly negotiated exception in an order form or addendum.

Product suggestions

If you voluntarily suggest a product improvement, such as "please add dark mode," you allow us to use that suggestion without payment or attribution. Customer Data, support attachments, and confidential information do not become freely usable feedback because you send them with a suggestion or bug report.

11. Suspension and ending access

We may immediately restrict access as reasonably needed to address an urgent security threat, fraud, unlawful activity, binding legal requirement, or serious threat to the service or other users. We will limit the restriction to what the situation reasonably requires and give notice when lawful and practical.

For an ordinary breach of these terms that can be fixed, we will give you written notice explaining the problem and 15 calendar days after that notice to fix it before ending access for that breach. This does not prevent the proportionate urgent restrictions described above. We may secure a compromised account, including invalidating credentials, and will make reasonable efforts to notify its registered contact.

If Hemingway materially breaches these terms, you may give us written notice describing the breach at support@hemingwayapp.com. If we do not fix it within 30 calendar days after receiving that notice, you may end the affected service and receive a refund of prepaid fees attributable to its unused time from the effective termination date through the prepaid end date. This applies to monthly and annual prepayments, prorated for the unused portion of the paid term. The refund is paid in full, without reduction under section 14's damages limit. This cure period does not postpone incident notifications, privacy duties, or any remedy or deadline that applicable law does not allow us to postpone.

You may stop using Hemingway or close your account. Section 4 explains how this affects your subscription and any refund.

If your access is suspended or terminated, you must stop using the affected service. Account closure and the end of processing are handled under the DPA and Retention Schedule. Ending access does not transfer ownership of your content to us. Payment obligations already incurred and provisions intended to continue afterward—including confidentiality, privacy, liability limits, and dispute resolution—remain in effect.

12. Other websites and materials

External websites or optional third-party services may have their own terms. We do not endorse or control a website merely by linking to it. This does not disclaim our responsibility for providers we engage to perform our own service or processing obligations.

13. Warranties and responsibility for claims

Except for our express promises in these terms, the applicable DPA, an agreed order form or addendum, a purchase confirmation, and warranties the law does not allow us to exclude, we provide the service "as is" and "as available." To the extent permitted by law, we exclude implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and noninfringement. We do not promise error-free output, uninterrupted availability, compatibility with every system, or achievement of a particular writing result. These exclusions do not erase our express content, confidentiality, or privacy obligations.

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend Hemingway and its affiliates, officers, directors, and employees against a third-party claim caused by your unlawful Customer Data or prohibited use, and pay the resulting damages, reasonable settlement amounts, and reasonable defense costs. This does not cover claims caused by Hemingway's breach or fault. We must promptly notify you, provide reasonable assistance at your expense, and allow you to control the defense. You may not settle by admitting fault for us or imposing a nonmonetary obligation on us without our written consent. We may participate with our own lawyer at our expense.

14. Liability limits

To the extent permitted by law, Hemingway's total liability for claims arising from this agreement will not exceed US $100. This is an aggregate limit, not a separate amount for each claim.

Neither party is liable to the other for indirect, special, incidental, punitive, or consequential damages arising from this agreement. These limits apply regardless of the legal theory and whether the possibility of loss was known. They do not limit liability or remedies that cannot legally be limited, required rights under the DPA's transfer clauses, or the express claim-defense obligations above. We will pay any refund expressly promised in this agreement or your purchase terms in full under its stated calculation, without reducing it by the liability limit. This does not create a refund for ordinary cancellation.

Nothing here removes mandatory consumer rights. If a limitation is prohibited where you live, it applies only to the extent allowed there.

15. Disputes

First send a written description of the dispute and requested relief. Notices to Hemingway go to Boondoggle Studio, LLC, Attn: Legal, PO Box 72, Durham, NC 27702, with an email copy to legal@hemingwayapp.com. We will send notices to your registered contact. If the dispute is unresolved 30 days after receipt, either party may begin the applicable proceeding. This step does not prevent urgent relief or a filing needed to preserve a legal deadline.

Subject to mandatory law and the exceptions below, disputes about this agreement or the service will be resolved by one neutral arbitrator through the American Arbitration Association (AAA), under its applicable Consumer Arbitration Rules for consumer disputes and its Commercial Arbitration Rules for business disputes to which those rules apply. The applicable AAA rules and mandatory law determine the appropriate classification and preserve any required consumer protections. Rules and filing information are available at https://www.adr.org. If AAA cannot administer the dispute, the parties may agree on another suitable arbitration provider. If they do not agree within 30 calendar days after either party receives the other's written request to select a replacement, either party may bring the dispute in a court with jurisdiction. This fallback does not delay an earlier right to go to court under applicable law or arbitration rules, urgent relief, or a filing needed to preserve a deadline.

The arbitration will be in English unless applicable law or the governing rules require otherwise. For a claim below $10,000, the claimant may request a telephone, online, or written proceeding, subject to applicable rules and rights. Other hearing rights follow those rules. An in-person hearing for a U.S. resident will be within 100 miles of the resident's home unless otherwise agreed or required. The arbitrator may award the individual relief available under applicable law and this agreement, must give a reasoned written award, and must apply applicable filing deadlines. A court with jurisdiction may enforce the award.

Fees and costs follow the applicable AAA rules and mandatory law. Each party pays its own lawyers unless applicable law or those rules provide otherwise. Settlement offers must not be disclosed to the arbitrator until the award is decided.

To the extent enforceable, disputes must proceed individually, and the parties waive class or consolidated proceedings and a jury trial for disputes subject to this provision. No waiver applies to a remedy or proceeding that law makes nonwaivable. Either party may bring an individual small-claims case or seek emergency court relief to preserve the position pending arbitration. Claims for defamation, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or infringement or misappropriation of the other party's intellectual property are excluded from arbitration.

Arbitration information will be confidential except as needed to obtain legal advice, comply with law, report to a regulator, exercise protected rights, or enforce or challenge an award. A court decides whether a waiver that applicable law reserves to courts is enforceable. If the restriction on class or consolidated proceedings is unenforceable for a claim, that affected claim must proceed in a court with jurisdiction, not in class or consolidated arbitration. If the agreement to arbitrate is unenforceable for a dispute, that dispute may proceed in a court with jurisdiction. Otherwise, an unenforceable provision is severed to the extent lawful and the remaining provisions continue to apply. These rules preserve proceedings and remedies that applicable law makes nonwaivable. These dispute provisions survive termination.

North Carolina law governs, without its conflict-of-laws rules, subject to mandatory protections of your home jurisdiction. For disputes properly heard in court, the parties submit to state and federal courts in Raleigh, North Carolina, except where mandatory law provides another forum. An addendum agreed by both parties, including an incorporated Public-Sector Rider, may provide different dispute terms.

16. Copyright complaints

Send copyright notices to legal@hemingwayapp.com or Boondoggle Studio, LLC, Attn: Legal, PO Box 72, Durham, NC 27702. Identify the copyrighted work, the material claimed to infringe and where we can find it, your contact information, and your physical or electronic signature. Include a good-faith statement that the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or law, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and you are authorized to act for the owner.

If material is removed by mistake, send a signed counter-notice identifying the removed material and its former location, your name, address and telephone number, and a statement under penalty of perjury that you reasonably believe the removal resulted from mistake or misidentification. Include consent to the federal district court for your address, or if outside the United States, the federal district where Hemingway is located, and agreement to accept service from the original complainant or its agent.

We may forward notices to affected parties and will follow the applicable DMCA process. Where that process applies, restoration follows the statutory 10–14-business-day procedure unless we receive the required notice of court action. We terminate repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. Our starting rule is three takedown actions; related notices may count as one, and a withdrawn notice or successful counter-notice may remove an action. We may act sooner where appropriate. This procedure does not suggest that we host a general library of user documents.

17. Other terms and contact

You may not transfer this agreement without our consent, except where law requires otherwise. We may transfer it in a merger, acquisition, or sale of the relevant business if the successor assumes our obligations and preserves the same data protections. We will notify you of the transfer. Other assignments require the other party's written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld.

These terms and their expressly incorporated documents are the agreement for the covered services. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains effective to the extent permitted by law. A failure to enforce a provision once does not waive it. Electronic notices and agreement records may be used as evidence on the same basis as other business records.

For service or privacy requests: support@hemingwayapp.com. For legal notices: legal@hemingwayapp.com; Boondoggle Studio, LLC, PO Box 72, Durham, NC 27702.