Terms of Service

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to these Terms on your behalf and is responsible for your use of the Service. Cloud AI features have a separate minimum age of 18, as explained in Section 5.

By using the Service, you confirm that you meet these eligibility requirements.

2. Accounts

Registration. A verified email address is required to create an account. Keep your account information accurate and current.

Security. Keep your sign-in credentials private and take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorized account access. Notify us at hello@cortexcards.app if you believe your account has been compromised.

Multiple accounts. You may maintain separate accounts for legitimate personal, club, or administrative use. You must be authorized to act for anyone you represent. Use membership and role features to collaborate rather than sharing credentials. Do not use multiple accounts to evade suspension, payment requirements, usage limits, or access controls. Subscriptions and access rights do not automatically transfer between accounts.

Account inactivity. We do not automatically delete free accounts solely because they have been inactive.

Account deletion. You may request deletion in the app after verifying your identity, or contact us with a deletion request. Shared deck or course owners may need to transfer or resolve ownership first. Ordinary deletion includes a 30-day recovery window followed by final processing, as explained in the Privacy Policy. Cancel any App Store subscription separately, as explained in Section 3.

Suspension or termination. We may restrict or close your account for violations of these Terms, abuse that harms the Service or its users, or a legal requirement, subject to applicable law.

3. Subscriptions and billing

Plans. Cortex has Free and Cortex Plus plans. Features and limits are described on our pricing page. For subscriptions offered through Apple's App Store on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, the purchase screen shows the localized price, currency, and billing period before you agree to buy.

Billing and renewal. Paid monthly and annual App Store subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel, subject to Apple's purchase terms. Apple processes payment; RevenueCat helps verify purchases and manage access on your Cortex account.

Promotional access. Promotional access, if granted, expires on its stated date without billing or automatic renewal. A separate paid subscription follows the billing rules above.

Price changes. Subscription price changes follow Apple's notice and consent requirements and applicable law.

Cancellation. Manage or cancel your subscription through your Apple account's subscription settings. See Apple's cancellation instructions. Cancellation normally stops renewal at the end of the paid period; access remains until the subscription expires unless a refund, revocation, or applicable law changes that result. Deleting Cortex, signing out, or deleting your Cortex account does not cancel the subscription.

After expiry. Your owned and imported content remains usable. Content already acquired from shared decks remains available while new shared cards and updates pause, unless another active entitlement authorizes them. Starting another personal Anki content import requires an active Plus entitlement; other plan-dependent features follow the published limits. Course and deck access restrictions and valid content removals still apply. Plan-dependent moderator roles end on downgrade; deck and course ownership remains separate.

Refunds. Request refunds for App Store purchases through Apple's refund process. Eligibility depends on the purchase, Apple's rules, and applicable law.

4. Acceptable content

You must have ownership, permission, or another lawful basis to use content you create, import, or share through the Service. Do not submit:

• Viruses, malware, or other content designed to compromise software or hardware;
• Content prohibited by applicable law, including United States federal law, Idaho law, and the laws of your country of residence; or
• Pornography, hate speech, harassment, or defamatory content.

Importing Anki .apkg files or other third-party material does not give you additional rights to that material.

5. AI features

Cloud AI features are limited to users aged 18 or older, even when a parent or guardian permits use of Cortex.

AI results may be inaccurate or incomplete. Check them before relying on or saving them. Do not submit identifiable patient records or other sensitive personal records to cloud AI. Our Privacy Policy explains AI processing, providers, model-training safeguards, retention, and your choices.

6. Deck sharing

Sharing is optional. You choose whether to publish content in a shared deck or contribute to a course. Share only material you are authorized to distribute. Access depends on public or invite-only settings and applicable membership and subscription rights.

License to Cortex. You retain ownership of your original content. You grant Cortex a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to host, copy, synchronize, display, distribute to authorized users, and make technical adaptations such as file-format conversions. This license is limited to operating the Service and providing the sharing you authorize.

Subscriber license. Sharing authorizes recipients to use the content for personal study through the Service, including permitted offline use. Redistribution, re-uploading, publication, or commercial use requires the rightsholder's permission or another lawful basis.

Updates and access changes. Closing a deck to new subscriptions stops new admissions; it does not remove existing subscribers. Published updates can change shared content while personal scheduling and review history remain separate. Plan expiry follows Section 3. Course-private content requires course authorization; deck roles alone do not grant it.

Content removal. Content may become unavailable through an authorized deletion, a valid rights withdrawal, a copyright complaint, a legal requirement, or enforcement of these Terms. If continued use is no longer authorized, recipients must stop that use and remove copies as required by law or the applicable license. Removal from offline devices may be delayed, and we cannot erase copies outside our control.

Shared contributions after account deletion. Contributions, revisions, moderation records, and media belonging to an ongoing shared resource may remain after a contributor leaves or deletes their account, as described in the Privacy Policy.

Content quality. Evaluate shared content for your study needs; it may be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable.

7. Prohibited activities

The following activities are prohibited:

• Reselling or commercially exploiting the Service without our authorization, or redistributing content without the necessary rights or another lawful basis. Lawful use of your own original content is permitted;
• Abusive scraping or automated requests that overload the Service, bypass access controls, or collect or redistribute content without authorization. Accessibility tools and expressly authorized integrations are permitted;
• Reverse engineering, decompiling, or attempting to extract source code from the Service, except as permitted by applicable law or a component's license;
• Circumventing subscription tiers, feature restrictions, or access controls;
• Impersonating Cortex or misrepresenting your affiliation with us; and
• Encouraging or assisting others in any of the above.

8. Intellectual property and copyright reports

Platform rights. Cortex software, design, branding, and original platform content belong to Joshua Hoffman or their respective licensors. These Terms permit use of the Service without transferring ownership of the platform. Open-source components remain subject to their respective licenses. Your content and the license you grant Cortex are covered in Section 6.

Copyright reports. We respect intellectual property rights. If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, email hello@cortexcards.app with the following information so we can investigate:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
3. Identification of the material on the Service that you claim is infringing, with enough detail for us to locate it;
4. Your contact information, including name, address, telephone number, and email address;
5. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

We review reports and may remove or restrict access to infringing content. If your content was removed and you believe the decision was mistaken, contact the same email address with the relevant details. We will review your response and any applicable legal requirements before deciding whether access can be restored.

Repeat infringers. We terminate accounts used for repeated copyright infringement in appropriate circumstances.

False reports. Knowingly making a material misrepresentation in a copyright report may result in legal liability.

9. Medical disclaimer

Cortex is an educational study tool, not a substitute for professional medical advice. Medical and scientific material, including shared content and AI results, may be inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated. Do not use the Service for patient care, diagnosis, treatment, or clinical decisions.

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call emergency services immediately.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

11. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL WE BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, REVENUE, PROFITS, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR CLAIMS RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR THE SERVICE, INCLUDING THROUGH APPLE, IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) $50.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability or consumer rights that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

12. Governing law and dispute resolution

Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Idaho, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. If you are a consumer, mandatory protections under the laws of your place of residence continue to apply.

Informal resolution. Please contact us at hello@cortexcards.app before starting a formal dispute. We will make a good faith effort to resolve the matter within 30 days. This process does not prevent either party from seeking urgent relief, meeting a legal filing deadline, or exercising a right that cannot be restricted by law.

Court proceedings. If informal resolution does not resolve the dispute, either party may bring a claim in a court with jurisdiction, including an eligible small-claims court. These Terms do not require binding arbitration or waive your right to participate in a class action where that right is available under applicable law.

13. Changes to these terms

We will publish the revision and effective dates for changes to these Terms and notify you of material changes as required by applicable law.

Changes apply from their stated effective date, without retroactive effect. We will seek affirmative agreement where required by law. If you do not accept revised Terms, stop using the Service, cancel any subscription renewal through Apple, and request account deletion if you wish.

14. Business transfer

We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms as part of a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or sale of assets. Any transfer of personal information remains subject to our Privacy Policy and applicable law.

15. Contact

For questions about these Terms, email hello@cortexcards.app.