Terms of Service

Welcome to StudyLens. We've done our best to write these terms in plain English so you actually understand what you're agreeing to. Each section starts with a short summary, followed by the formal version.

StudyLens (Pty) Ltd (“StudyLens”, “the operator”, “we”, “us”, “our”) operates the website at studylens.co.za and the related apps and services (together, the “Service”). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you don't agree, please don't use the Service.

1. Definitions

The words we use a lot, defined once so we don't have to keep explaining them.

• “Account” — the personal login you create on StudyLens.
• “Content” — anything you upload (photos of textbooks, notes, worksheets) and anything the Service generates from it (summaries, flashcards, quizzes, study guides).
• “Subscription” — a paid plan giving you access to paid features.
• “CPA” — the South African Consumer Protection Act, 68 of 2008.
• “POPIA” — the South African Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013.

2. Your account

You need to be 13 or older. Under 18 needs a parent's OK. One account per person. Keep your password safe.

2.1 Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to create an Account. If you are under 18, you confirm that a parent or legal guardian has read these Terms and agrees to them on your behalf. A parent or guardian who signs up for a child remains responsible for the Account, including any payments.

2.2 Account security

You are responsible for keeping your login details (email and password) secure and for everything that happens on your Account. Tell us immediately at hi@studylens.co.za if you think someone else has accessed your Account.

2.3 Accurate information

You agree to give us accurate, up-to-date information when you sign up and to keep it accurate. One Account per person — please don't share Accounts or create multiple Accounts to abuse free trials or promotions.

3. Subscriptions and billing

Paid plans renew automatically until you cancel. Prices are in South African Rand. You can cancel any time from your settings — no questions asked.

3.1 Plans and prices

Our current plans are billed in South African Rand (ZAR):

• Free — R0. Includes a monthly allowance of credits (currently 60, roughly 15 page scans) that refills every month. No payment details required.
• Pro — R79 per month, billed every month. 250 credits per month.
• Pro Annual — R690 per year, billed once per year (works out to about R57.50/month). 250 credits per month.
• Legacy plans — if you subscribed to an earlier plan (such as Founding at R99/month), it continues on its original terms until you cancel or switch.

All prices include VAT where applicable. We may change prices at any time, but existing subscribers keep their original price for the rest of their current billing period, and we will give you at least 30 days' notice before a price change applies to your renewal.

3.2 Payment

Payments are processed by Paystack, a regulated payment processor operating in South Africa and Nigeria. We never see or store your full card details. By subscribing, you authorise Paystack to charge your chosen payment method on a recurring basis until you cancel.

3.3 Auto-renewal and cancellation

Monthly and yearly Subscriptions auto-renew at the end of each billing period unless you cancel before the renewal date. You can cancel any time from your Account settings, or by emailing hi@studylens.co.za — no reason required. If you cancel, you keep access until the end of the period you've already paid for, and you won't be charged again.

3.4 Failed payments

If a recurring payment fails, we'll retry the payment a few times over a few days. If it still fails, your Account may be downgraded to the free tier until payment is sorted out.

4. Refunds

7-day money-back guarantee on your first paid purchase — full refund, no questions asked. After that, refunds are at our discretion based on the situation.

4.1 7-day money-back guarantee

If you're unhappy with your first paid Subscription, email hi@studylens.co.za within 7 days of the purchase and we'll refund you in full. No need to justify it. This applies once per customer, on your first paid purchase.

4.2 Refunds beyond 7 days

After the 7-day window, refunds are at our discretion. We will consider things like:

• Whether the Service was unavailable for a long period due to our fault.
• Whether a feature we promised was materially broken.
• Whether you were charged in error or by mistake.
• How much you've used the Service during the period.

For the 5-year once-off plan, refunds outside the 7-day guarantee are calculated pro-rata, less a reasonable admin fee, and only where the law (including the CPA) requires it.

4.3 Your CPA rights

Nothing in these Terms takes away your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, including your right to fair value, good quality, and safe services, or your right to cancel certain agreements within the cooling-off period set by the Act.

5. Acceptable use

Use StudyLens to study. Don't use it to cheat, scrape, spam, or break the law.

You agree not to:

• Upload material that infringes someone else's copyright (only upload textbooks, notes, and worksheets you're legally allowed to use for personal study).
• Upload material that is illegal, harmful, abusive, hateful, sexually explicit, or invades someone's privacy.
• Use StudyLens to cheat on graded work, submit AI-generated answers as your own where that's not allowed, or break your school's academic integrity rules.
• Try to reverse-engineer, scrape, crawl, or copy the Service or its data without our written permission.
• Use bots, scripts, or automated tools to access the Service in ways we haven't allowed.
• Overload, attack, or interfere with the Service or other users (for example, DDoS, mass account creation, or spamming).
• Resell, redistribute, or commercially exploit StudyLens or its output without our written permission.
• Pretend to be someone else, including impersonating other students or StudyLens staff.

If you break these rules, we may suspend or terminate your Account (see section 11).

6. Intellectual property and your content

Your scans stay yours. The study guides StudyLens creates are co-owned and licensed back to you for personal study only.

6.1 Your uploads

You keep all the rights you already have in the material you upload (your photos, notes, worksheets). You confirm you have the right to upload that material. By uploading, you give us a limited, royalty-free licence to process and store it for the sole purpose of providing the Service to you.

6.2 Generated study material

The summaries, flashcards, quizzes, and study guides that StudyLens generates from your uploads are co-owned — we hold rights in the format, structure, and AI-generated layer; you hold rights in the underlying source material you supplied. We grant you a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use the generated material for your own personal study only. You may not resell or commercially exploit it.

6.3 Our intellectual property

The StudyLens name, logo, software, code, designs, and brand are owned by StudyLens (Pty) Ltd. You may not copy, modify, or use them without our written permission.

7. AI-generated content disclaimer

AI makes mistakes. Check important answers against your textbook or teacher. Don't rely on StudyLens for graded work where you're supposed to do it yourself.

StudyLens uses AI models (currently Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude) to generate study material. AI output can be wrong, incomplete, biased, or oversimplified, even when it looks confident. Always cross-check important facts against your textbook, your notes, or a qualified teacher.

StudyLens is a study aid — not a replacement for actual learning, classroom teaching, or professional educators. We don't guarantee any grade, exam result, or learning outcome. We don't provide medical, legal, financial, or any other professional advice through AI output.

You are responsible for following your school's rules on AI and academic integrity. Don't use StudyLens to cheat.

8. Service availability

We try hard to keep StudyLens online, but we don't promise zero downtime.

We aim for high uptime, but we provide the Service on a best-effort basis and don't offer a formal service-level agreement (SLA). The Service may be unavailable from time to time for maintenance, upgrades, AI provider outages, hosting issues, or things outside our control. We'll do our best to give notice for planned maintenance and to keep unplanned downtime short.

9. Limitation of liability

If something goes wrong, the most we'll owe you is what you've paid us in the last 12 months. South African law still gives you certain rights that we can't exclude.

To the maximum extent allowed by South African law:

• StudyLens is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind beyond those required by law.
• Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.
• We are not liable for indirect, consequential, or special damages — such as loss of grades, loss of opportunity, loss of profits, or loss of data — even if we were warned they could happen.

Nothing in these Terms limits any rights you have under the CPA, POPIA, or other South African law that cannot legally be excluded.

10. Indemnity

If we get into trouble because of something you did with StudyLens, you'll cover our costs.

You agree to cover us for reasonable costs and losses we suffer because of your breach of these Terms or your misuse of the Service (for example, uploading material you didn't have the right to use). This doesn't apply where the loss is caused by our own negligence or wrongdoing.

11. Suspension and termination

You can cancel any time. We can suspend or close your Account if you break the rules — we'll give you 7 days' notice unless it's urgent.

11.1 By you

You can cancel your Subscription or delete your Account any time from your settings, or by emailing hi@studylens.co.za.

11.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate your Account if you materially breach these Terms. Where reasonable, we'll give you at least 7 days' written notice by email so you have a chance to fix the issue or back up your data. For serious or urgent breaches (for example, illegal content, security threats, fraud, or harm to other users), we may suspend immediately and explain afterwards.

11.3 What happens to your data

After your Account is closed, your personal data is deleted within 30 days, and backups are purged within 90 days (see the Privacy Policy for details).

12. Changes to these Terms

If we change the Terms in a way that affects you, we'll email you and show a banner in the app first.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email and an in-app banner at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date means you accept the updated Terms. If you don't accept them, you can cancel your Account before the effective date.

13. Governing law and disputes

South African law applies. Disputes go to South African courts. Talk to us first — most things can be sorted out by email.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute relating to the Service or these Terms will be handled by the competent courts of the Republic of South Africa.

Before going to court, please contact us at hi@studylens.co.za so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to complain to the National Consumer Commission or to refer disputes to the appropriate consumer tribunal under the CPA.

14. Other bits

• Entire agreement. These Terms plus the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service.
• Severability. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce a rule once, that doesn't mean we've given it up forever.
• Assignment. You can't transfer your Account or rights under these Terms without our consent. We may transfer our rights and obligations to a successor (for example, in a business sale), provided your rights aren't reduced.

15. Contact

Questions, complaints, or feedback? Email us at hi@studylens.co.za. We try to reply within 2 business days.