Terms of service

About ReadTheTalk

ReadTheTalk is independently operated by an individual. In these terms, “we” and “us” refer to the operator of ReadTheTalk.

For questions about the product or these terms, contact support@readthetalk.com. We usually reply within 1–2 business days.

What ReadTheTalk does

ReadTheTalk reads pages on supported sources and produces reading material from them: a transcript, an overview (with chapters for longer episodes when useful), a readable article, and optionally a translation. It runs on the page you are already on and can send the original player back to a passage you select.

ReadTheTalk is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of the platforms it works with. Platform names and logos are used only to identify where content comes from.

Your account

ReadTheTalk is a Google Chrome extension for desktop, with Google sign-in. You must be at least 13 years old, and old enough to enter into this agreement where you live. One person per account; do not share it or resell access. To keep the service available to individual subscribers, we currently allow up to 3 signed-in devices and a limited number of processing tasks running at the same time, and we may adjust these limits; current limits are shown in the product.

You can request account deletion at support@readthetalk.com. Deletion automatically cancels your Stripe subscription without a refund. If cancellation cannot be confirmed, your account is kept so you can retry. See the privacy policy for how account data is handled.

What you may do with the service

You must have the right to process the material you point ReadTheTalk at. In particular, do not:

• use ReadTheTalk to build a copy of someone else's work for distribution, or to republish a transcript or translation you have no right to republish;
• resell, sublicense, or provide the service to others as your own;
• circumvent allowances, quotas, or any technical limit;
• probe, overload, or disrupt the service or the providers behind it;
• use the service for anything unlawful, or to process material you are not lawfully allowed to access.

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these rules.

Public and private results

Results generated from public sources are added to the public library by default. Before processing, you can choose to keep a result private; private results are not shown to other users. We do not currently support uploading your own audio files.

If you share a result publicly, other users may read it under their plan allowance. You remain responsible for having the right to process the source. Pro Picks are operator content; a user's private setting does not hide them from other Pro users, who can unlock the same episode independently.

Generated content can be wrong

Transcripts, translations, overviews, and chapters are produced by automated systems. Names, numbers, dates, and specialised terms can be misread, and meaning can shift in translation. Always check anything important against the original video or audio.

Do not rely on ReadTheTalk as your only source for legal, medical, financial, or safety-related decisions.

Plans, billing, and renewal

ReadTheTalk offers a Free plan and Pro at US$9.90 per month. Plan features and allowances are listed on the pricing page.

• Pro is billed monthly in US dollars, excluding tax. Any applicable tax is shown before payment. It renews automatically until cancelled.
• You can cancel by email or through the Stripe customer portal. Access continues until the end of the paid period; see the cancellation and refund policy.
• We give at least 30 days’ notice of a price change, applying it from the next renewal after that notice.
• When payments open, card details will be collected through Stripe’s payment interface. Do not send card details by email.

Digital access and delivery

ReadTheTalk is a browser extension and online reading service. No physical goods are shipped.

For questions about account access or billing, contact support@readthetalk.com. Include your account email and payment reference if relevant; do not include a password or full card number.

Allowances

Free includes 15 new community or shared processed items per UTC calendar month. Your own generated or unlocked results remain unlimited to read permanently. Unlocking Pro Picks requires Pro; Pro Picks are not available on Free. Once unlocked, they remain readable permanently. Free does not process new content or create missing translations.

A community or shared item counts when you first request its full generated result. Reopening it does not count again, and items you have already read remain readable without using a new item. Pro Picks are not available on Free, so they do not count against the 15 items. Platform-provided captions or transcripts do not count against the 15 items.

Free allowances reset on the first day of each calendar month at 00:00 UTC. Pro allowances reset on your monthly billing date. If you upgrade, Pro starts immediately and the Free counter is paused and is not converted into Pro hours; if Pro ends, a fresh Free 15-item allowance starts and resets on the next first of the month.

Pro includes 20 hours of source processing per subscription month. Captions and audio transcription use the same hours; there is no separate transcription allowance. Each new processing source can be up to 6 hours; Pro Picks can be longer. Unlocking a Pro Pick for the first time uses half its source duration (for example, 3 hours uses 1.5 hours); this is a long-term Pro benefit. After that, reading it is unlimited permanently. Each Pro user unlocks independently; if one user keeps their copy private, other Pro users can still unlock the same Pro Pick. If your language is missing, it uses a translation pass instead of charging the source duration again. While Pro is active, you can also read community or shared results without limit. Re-reading a result you have unlocked uses no allowance. When an allowance runs out, new processing and new unlocks stop until it resets.

Pro includes up to 20 new translations per UTC day, including the first translation after processing. The allowance resets at 00:00 UTC. One document version in one target language counts once when translation succeeds; reading an existing translation and retrying a failed translation do not use an extra pass. Translation does not use processing hours. Pro Picks are not split by the 6-hour processing cap. Unused passes do not roll over.

Refunds and processing failures

You can request a full refund of your first Pro payment before 168 hours have elapsed since the charge if counted usage is less than 60 source minutes when we execute the refund. This includes unlocking a Pro Pick at its full source duration, not the discounted hours. Failed processing with no completed source stage and translation passes do not count toward the 60 minutes. Partially completed processing counts the source minutes already charged. Renewal payments (the second and later charges), requests at or after 168 hours, and usage of 60 minutes or more are not refundable, except for duplicate charges, billing errors, or refunds required by law. If a refund is approved, we also cancel the subscription.

The 60-minute limit counts source content duration, not processing time or the number of stages completed. Partial success counts the source minutes already charged; a retry that completes the remaining work adds only the remaining charge, without counting the completed part twice. We do not offer prorated refunds for unused days or allowance.

Failed processing charges no minutes if the source stage did not complete. Partial success charges half of the source minutes, rounded up; retrying charges only the remaining part. This is separate from a subscription refund. Full details are in the refund policy.

Intellectual property

ReadTheTalk’s software, branding, and original website materials belong to their respective owners and licensors. Videos, podcasts, transcripts, and other source materials remain subject to the rights of their creators and other rights holders. Making material publicly accessible does not transfer its copyright to ReadTheTalk.

We do not claim ownership of third-party source content or grant you permission to republish it. A generated transcript, summary, or translation does not remove the rights in the underlying material. Use and redistribution must respect those rights and applicable law.

Platform-provided captions are shown only in the reading interface for users who can access the source. We do not provide a download or bulk export of third-party captions, and they are not republished as standalone public pages. If a platform or rights holder asks us to remove or limit material, we will do so and may change the affected source or feature.

Public library material must have an appropriate basis for publication. If you believe content shown by ReadTheTalk infringes your rights, email support@readthetalk.com with the content URL, the work concerned, and your contact information so we can investigate.

Availability and changes to the service

Supported sources change, and pages we read can stop working when those sites change. We may add, change, or discontinue sources and features. We aim for continuity but we do not promise uninterrupted or error-free service, and we may take the service down for maintenance.

If we discontinue the service entirely, we will give reasonable notice and a way to retrieve the results you have generated.

Suspension and termination

You may stop using the service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you break these terms, if we are required to by law, or if your use creates risk or legal exposure for us or for others. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will tell you why.

Disclaimers

The service is provided “as is”. To the extent the law allows, we make no warranty that generated content is accurate or complete, that any particular source will remain supported, or that the service will be available at any given time.

Limits on our liability

To the extent the law allows, our total liability arising out of or relating to the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profits, data, or goodwill.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, and nothing removes consumer rights you have that cannot be waived.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This choice does not remove mandatory consumer protections that apply where you live.

For a complaint or dispute, contact support@readthetalk.com. You retain any rights available under applicable law and through your payment provider.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change is material, we will tell you in the product or by email before it takes effect, and we will change the update date above. Continuing to use the service after that means you accept the new terms.

Contact

Email support@readthetalk.com. We usually reply to general enquiries within 1–2 business days. Refund requests are reviewed and answered within 3–5 business days.