Terms of Use

Effective October 12, 2026 · Last updated October 12, 2026

1About these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Refine ("we", "us"), the developer of the Refine app and the refines.app website. By downloading or using Refine you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use Refine.

Our Privacy Policy explains what data Refine collects and why. It is part of these terms.

2Who can use Refine

You must be at least 13 years old to use Refine. If you are under 18, or under the age of majority where you live, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms for you.

You do not need to sign in to use Refine. Without signing in, Refine keeps your library under an anonymous account tied to this installation of the app, and it cannot be recovered if you delete the app or change devices. If you sign in with Apple, your library stays with your Apple ID and comes back on a new device. You are responsible for activity on your account.

3What Refine does

Refine helps you understand and remember books and documents. It identifies a book from its cover or barcode, writes a two-minute read of it, turns chapters into short reads, reads them aloud, lays a chapter's ideas out as a map, answers questions about a passage, and schedules short reviews so the ideas stay with you.

We improve Refine often. We may add, change or remove features, and some features may be available only on Refine Pro.

4Summaries and other generated content

Refine's two-minute reads, chapter reads, takeaways, maps, review questions, answers to your questions and narration ("generated content") are produced automatically. Text is written by language models from third-party providers, currently Anthropic and Google, and narration uses voices from Speechify.

• It can be wrong. Generated content may misstate what a book says, leave out something important, or attribute an idea to the wrong place. Refine checks its reads for some kinds of errors, but it cannot guarantee accuracy.
• It is a guide, not a substitute. A summary tells you what a book argues. It does not replace reading the book, and it is not the author's words unless shown as a quotation.
• It is not professional advice. Many books Refine covers deal with money, health, law and psychology. Nothing in Refine is financial, investment, medical, legal or psychological advice. Talk to a qualified professional before acting on it.

5Books, authors and copyright

Refine is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the authors or publishers of the books it covers. Book titles, author names and cover images belong to their owners and are shown only to identify the book.

Refine's summaries and commentary are our own work, made for you to learn from. You may use them for your own personal, non-commercial learning. You may not copy, publish, sell or distribute them, or use them to make a product that competes with the book or with Refine.

Where Refine offers a book's full text, it is a work in the public domain or one its publisher makes freely available, such as titles from Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg, arXiv and PubMed Central. Those texts remain subject to their own licences.

The same published book can be scanned by many readers, so a read Refine writes for a book in its catalogue may also be shown to other readers of that book. This never applies to files and text you upload (see section 6).

6Your content

"Your content" is what you put into Refine: documents and PDFs you import, web pages and text you add, photos of pages, highlights, notes, answers and questions.

• It stays yours. You keep every right you have in your content.
• You let Refine work with it. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, process, copy and transmit your content, including sending it to the providers in section 4, only to provide Refine to you. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies kept in backups for a limited time or as the law requires.
• It stays private. Content you upload, and the reads written from it, are not shown to other readers.
• You have the right to use it. You confirm that you own your content or have permission to use it this way, for example a copy of a book or document you own. Do not upload content that is unlawful, infringes someone else's rights, or that you are not allowed to share with service providers.

If you turn on Obsidian sync or export your notes, Refine writes your highlights and notes into a folder you choose. You are responsible for that folder and anything you do with its files.

7Copyright complaints

We respect authors' rights. If you believe something in Refine infringes your copyright, send a notice to our copyright agent at copyright@refines.app with: your contact details; the work you believe is infringed; where in Refine the material appears; a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner; and your physical or electronic signature.

If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you can send a counter-notice to the same address. We disable the accounts of people who repeatedly infringe others' rights.

8Refine Pro, trials and credits

Paying through Apple

All purchases in Refine are made through Apple's App Store and are subject to Apple's terms. Apple charges your Apple ID, handles billing, and decides refunds. The price and length of each plan are shown in the app before you buy.

Subscriptions renew automatically

Refine Pro is an auto-renewing subscription, monthly or yearly. Payment is charged to your Apple ID when you confirm the purchase. It renews automatically at the same price for the same period unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends, and your Apple ID is charged within the 24 hours before renewal. You can turn off auto-renewal any time in your iPhone's Settings: tap your name, then Subscriptions. Cancelling stops the next renewal. It does not refund the current period.

Free trial

The yearly plan may include a 7-day free trial. If you do not cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends, the yearly price is charged when it ends. If you allow notifications, Refine reminds you the day before the trial ends, and the trial screen shows the day you will be charged. The reminder is a courtesy: cancelling in time is up to you. A trial is available once per Apple ID. Any unused part of a trial ends when you buy a subscription.

Books included with Pro

Refine Pro includes 3 new books per calendar month, counted in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The count resets on the 1st of each month, and unused books do not carry over. A book counts when you first add its chapters to your library. Opening a book you have already added does not count again. Trial members get the same 3 books.

Books you have added stay in your library and remain readable if your subscription ends. New books after that need Pro or a credit.

Credits

A credit adds one book to your library. Anyone can buy credits, with or without Pro, at the price shown in the app. Credits are used up when you add a book. They have no cash value, cannot be exchanged for money, transferred, or sold, and are refunded only through Apple. Credits do not expire while Refine is offered. If we ever stop offering Refine, we will give you reasonable notice to use them.

Price changes

We may change prices. Apple tells subscribers before a price increase takes effect, and in some cases asks you to agree to it. A new price applies from your next renewal.

9Invite rewards

You may be able to invite friends to Refine and earn credits:

• When a friend you invited first buys a credit, you and your friend each get 1 credit.
• When that friend first pays for Refine Pro, either directly or when a trial converts, you each have 2 credits in total from that friend. Starting a trial alone earns nothing.
• You can earn at most 2 credits per friend and 20 reward credits per calendar month.

Reward credits work like bought credits but are never refundable. Inviting yourself, using several accounts or Apple IDs, or any other way of gaming the program is not allowed; we may remove credits earned that way and suspend the accounts involved. We may change or end invite rewards at any time. Credits you have already earned stay yours.

10Apple Health and readiness

If you connect Apple Health, Refine reads your sleep, heart rate variability and resting heart rate to decide how many review cards to show. These readings are processed on your iPhone and never sent to us. Connecting Health is optional, read only, and can be turned off in your iPhone's Settings.

Refine is not a medical device. Its readiness is not a measure of your health and is not meant to diagnose, treat or prevent any condition.

11Using Refine fairly

You agree not to:

• copy, scrape, or bulk download Refine's summaries, maps or narration, or use them to train or improve another product, model or service;
• reverse engineer, decompile or tamper with the app, except where the law allows it despite this restriction;
• get around Refine's limits, security or App Check, or reach its servers other than through the app;
• use Refine to infringe anyone's rights, or to upload unlawful, harmful or deceptive content;
• resell Refine or access to it, or use it for a commercial service, without our written permission;
• interfere with Refine or other people's use of it.

12Other services and links

Refine relies on services from other companies, including Apple, Google (Firebase), Anthropic and Speechify, and shows information from catalogues such as Open Library, Google Books, Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg, arXiv and PubMed Central. Refine links to other websites, such as a store page to buy a book. We are not responsible for other companies' websites, products or terms.

13Refine's rights and your licence

Refine, including the app, its design, software, summaries, maps and the Refine name and icon, belongs to us or our licensors. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the app on Apple devices you own or control, as allowed by the App Store's Usage Rules and these terms. We keep all rights we do not expressly give you.

If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them without obligation to you.

14Ending your account

You can stop using Refine at any time. You can delete your account in the app, in the You tab under Account. Deleting it removes your library, highlights, notes and other content from our servers, except where we must keep something by law. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription. Cancel it in your iPhone's Settings as described in section 8.

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, puts Refine or other people at risk, or where the law requires it. Where reasonable, we will tell you first and give you a chance to fix the problem.

15Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as Refine changes or as the law requires. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. If you keep using Refine after a change takes effect, the new terms apply. If you do not agree, stop using Refine and cancel your subscription.

16Disclaimers

Refine is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement. We do not promise that Refine will be uninterrupted, error-free or that generated content will be accurate or complete.

17Limits on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, arising from your use of Refine or reliance on generated content. Our total liability for any claim relating to Refine is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for Refine in the 12 months before the claim and US$50.

Some places do not allow these exclusions or limits, so some of them may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, such as for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

18Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before going to court, please contact us at support@refines.app so we can try to resolve the problem. Any dispute will be decided by the courts located in King County, Washington, and either of us may bring a qualifying claim in small-claims court.

If you live in the European Union, the United Kingdom or another country with mandatory consumer protections, you keep those protections and may bring claims in the courts where you live.

19Terms Apple requires

If you got Refine from Apple's App Store, these terms also apply:

• These terms are between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are solely responsible for Refine and its content.
• Your licence to use Refine is limited to Apple-branded devices you own or control, as allowed by the App Store's Usage Rules.
• We, not Apple, are responsible for maintaining and supporting Refine. Apple has no obligation to provide support.
• If Refine fails to meet a warranty that applies to it, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any. To the fullest extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for Refine.
• We, not Apple, are responsible for any claims about Refine, including product liability claims, claims that Refine does not meet legal or regulatory requirements, and consumer protection, privacy or similar claims.
• If someone claims that Refine or your use of it infringes their intellectual property, we, not Apple, are responsible for investigating, defending, settling and discharging that claim.
• You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• You must comply with any third-party terms that apply when you use Refine, such as your wireless carrier's.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.

20General

If any part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a term right away, we have not given up the right to. You may not transfer these terms to anyone else; we may transfer them as part of a merger, sale or reorganisation. These terms, with the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about Refine.

21Contact

Refine
500 Wall St, Seattle, WA 98121, United States
support@refines.app