Terms of Service

Last updated: 7 November 2026 · These terms form the agreement between you and HanziLoom

1. Acceptance

By using hanziloom.com or the HanziLoom web app (together, "the Service"), you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you are authorised to accept these Terms for it.

2. What the Service is

HanziLoom is a browser-based tool for learning to read, write, hear and recall Chinese characters. It runs entirely in your browser and stores progress locally on your device. It is not a school, does not issue certificates, and is not a substitute for a teacher or an official course.

3. Free tier and Pro

We may adjust what is included in each tier. We will not remove features from a licence you have already paid for during its term. A lifetime licence covers the version family it was sold with plus reasonable future updates; it does not oblige us to develop new products.

4. Licence granted to you

Subject to these Terms and to payment of any applicable fee, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for your own learning, on devices you own or control. A single licence is intended for one person, across up to three devices that you personally use.

You may not: resell, rent, sublicense, share or publish your activation code; redistribute the app or its data files; scrape or bulk-download the character, audio or definition datasets; use the content to train a machine-learning model; or remove copyright and attribution notices. Educational institutions wanting classroom use should contact us for a group licence rather than sharing one code.

5. Prices, payment and taxes

Current prices are shown on the purchase screen and in the app. Prices are in US dollars and may change; the price you see at checkout is the price that applies to that order.

Payments are processed by Creem, which acts as the merchant of record. That means Creem is the seller of record for your purchase: it issues the invoice in its own name, collects payment, and calculates, collects and remits any VAT, GST or sales tax due in your jurisdiction. Your card statement will show Creem, not HanziLoom. Creem's terms and privacy policy apply to the payment itself.

6. Refunds

If you are not satisfied, email [email protected] within 14 days of purchase and we will refund the full amount, without requiring a reason. We will also refund any purchase that was charged in error, or where a code never worked and we could not fix it.

If you are a consumer in the EU or UK, you normally have a 14-day right of withdrawal for digital content. By starting to use Pro features immediately after purchase you ask us to begin supply during that period; the statutory right then ends once supply has begun, but our own 14-day refund promise above still applies, so in practice you keep the same protection.

Refunds are returned through Creem to your original payment method. Once a refund is issued, the associated activation code stops being valid.

7. Activation codes

Pro is unlocked by a code of the form HL-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX, verified offline by your browser. Codes may be time-limited (monthly, yearly) or lifetime. When a time-limited code expires, the app reverts to the free tier; your learning progress is not affected. If you lose your code, email us with your order reference and we will re-send it.

8. Acceptable use

Do not attempt to break, overload or probe the Service or its hosting; do not attempt to generate valid codes without paying; do not use automated tools to harvest content; do not use the Service where doing so would break the law. We may suspend access if you do.

9. Intellectual property

The app, its design, its audio recordings and its example sentences are ours or licensed to us. The HSK word list follows the official Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education (GF 0025-2021). English definitions are derived from CC-CEDICT under CC BY-SA 4.0. Full attribution and licence texts are in Licences & attribution.

10. Availability and changes

We aim to keep the Service available, but we do not promise uninterrupted access. Because the app works offline once loaded, most outages do not stop existing users from studying. We may modify, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service; if we discontinue a paid feature during your licence term, we will refund the unused portion.

11. Disclaimer

The Service is provided "as is". We do not warrant that the content is free of errors, that it matches any particular exam syllabus, or that studying with it will produce a specific result. Mandarin pronunciation varies by region and by speaker; the audio is a reference, not the only correct rendering.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss, or for lost data, lost profits or lost study time. Our total liability arising out of the Service is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for death, personal injury or fraud.

13. Consumer rights

Nothing in these Terms removes rights you have as a consumer under the mandatory law of your country of residence. Where these Terms conflict with such law, that law prevails.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the People's Republic of China, and the courts of Chongqing have jurisdiction, except where mandatory consumer protection law gives you the right to bring a claim in your own country. Before any formal step, please write to us — most issues are settled by email.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the product evolves. The version in force is the one published on this page at the time you use the Service. Material changes will be announced in the app before they take effect, and will not apply retroactively to a licence already paid for.

16. Contact

Support and billing: [email protected]
Privacy requests: [email protected]
Operator: HanziLoom, sole-proprietor business, Chongqing, China.