Terms of Service
Last updated 2026-09-03
These are the terms for using pnut, the website at pnut.pub and the pnut app for iPhone. They are short on purpose. By creating an account or using pnut you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use pnut. Questions go to hello@pnut.pub.
What pnut is
pnut is a reading service. It offers books, mostly works in the public domain, together with material around them: narrated audio, a lexicon, chapter recaps, primers, notes on characters, places and setting, and a community of readers. Some books can be read in the browser for free. The pnut edition of a book adds the audio and the notes.
Your account
Anyone 13 or older can create an account; you confirm that when you sign up, and we do not knowingly keep accounts for anyone younger. Keep your password to yourself, and tell us if you think someone else has used your account. You are responsible for what happens under it. One account per person.
Paying for pnut
Reading the text of a public-domain book on pnut is free. What costs money is a book's Premium edition: narrated audio, the reading companions, character portraits and setting cards, and looking up a word in the lexicon as you read. An edition is yours to keep once you have it, whatever happens to your plan.
The Premium edition is bought with credits. A credit costs $5, and the Premium edition of a public-domain book is one credit. The Reader plan gives you credits every month: two for $9.99, or four for $15. Prices are in US dollars and sales tax is added where the law requires it; we sell in the United States only for now.
The plan renews monthly until you cancel or pause it, both of which you can do at any time from your settings. Cancelling stops new credits at the end of the month you have paid for and keeps the credits you already have. Pausing stops new credits until you resume. If a payment fails we retry for five days and then the plan lapses; nothing you hold is affected. There is no trial and no minimum term. Credits have no cash value and cannot be transferred, and any unspent credits are forfeited if you delete your account.
Refunds. A book's edition is refunded in full if you have read or listened to less than five percent of the book, at any time; ask from the book's page and credits return to your wallet the same moment, while a card payment goes back the way it came. The Reader plan is refunded in full on request within 14 days of the first charge. Renewals are not refunded.
Everything is sold on the website at pnut.pub. Nothing is bought or sold inside the app: it shows what your account already has and points you to the website for the rest. Payments are handled by Chargebee and Stripe, who hold your card details so that we never do.
The books and the notes
The books are their authors' work. Where a text is in the public domain it belongs to everyone; where it is not, it is used with permission. The material pnut adds around a book, including the notes, recaps, definitions and the narration, belongs to pnut or its licensors. You may use it for your own reading. You may not copy it out in bulk, sell it, or use it to build a competing product.
Much of that added material is drafted by software and reviewed by people, and the narration is produced by software from recordings of a member of the pnut team. We work to make it accurate and to label it, but it is not a substitute for the book, and it can be wrong. Read the book.
What you post
You keep ownership of the reviews, posts, notes and other content you create on pnut. You give us permission to store it, show it to other members where you have chosen to share it, and keep operating the service with it. You can delete what you have posted, and you can delete your account from Settings.
Do not post anything unlawful, hateful, harassing, sexually explicit, or that you do not have the right to share, including other people's private information. Do not impersonate anyone. Do not try to break, overload or get around the service's protections. We may remove content and may suspend or close accounts that break these rules, and we will tell you why unless the law prevents it.
Ending things
You can stop using pnut at any time and delete your account from Settings. We can suspend or close an account for breaking these terms. If we close the service, we will give reasonable notice and a way to get your notes out.
What we do not promise
pnut is provided as it is. We work hard to keep it running and accurate, but we do not promise it will always be available, free of faults, or that the material around a book will be complete or correct. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect losses arising from your use of pnut. Nothing in these terms limits rights that the law gives you and does not let you give away.
Changes to these terms
If we change these terms in a way that matters, we will say so on this page and update the date at the top, and where the change is significant we will email account holders. Continuing to use pnut after that means you accept the new terms.