These Terms of Service ("Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Athena Education, Inc. ("Athena," "we," "us," or "our") governing your access to and use of the Athena web application, Chrome extension, mobile applications, and all related services (collectively, the "Services").
By creating an account, clicking "I agree," or otherwise accessing or using the Services, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you are using the Services on behalf of an organization (e.g., a university or disability services office), you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.
If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Services.
Athena provides an AI-powered note-taking and accessibility platform designed for students with disabilities and the disability services offices (DSOs) that support them. Features include, but are not limited to:
We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature of the Services at any time with reasonable notice.
You must be at least 13 years of age to use the Services. If you are under 18, you represent that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf. The Services are intended primarily for college and university students and educational staff.
You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and to keep your account information up to date. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.
Notify us immediately at support@athena.education if you suspect unauthorized access to your account. We are not liable for any loss resulting from unauthorized use of your account.
Each account is for one individual. You may not share your account credentials with others or create multiple accounts to circumvent plan limits.
You agree to use the Services only for lawful purposes and in a manner consistent with these Terms. You agree not to:
Recording consent: Laws regarding audio recording consent vary by jurisdiction. You are solely responsible for obtaining any required consent before recording lectures, meetings, or conversations using Athena. Many states require all-party consent.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules at our sole discretion.
You retain full ownership of the notes, transcripts, flashcards, and other content you create using the Services ("Your Content"). These Terms do not transfer ownership of Your Content to Athena.
By using the Services, you grant Athena a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, process, and display Your Content solely to provide the Services to you. This license terminates when you delete Your Content or close your account.
We do not use Your Content — including notes, transcripts, or audio — to train, fine-tune, or improve any AI or machine learning models, except with your explicit, separately obtained written consent.
You are solely responsible for Your Content. You represent and warrant that you have all rights necessary to grant the license above, and that Your Content does not violate any law or infringe any third-party rights.
We reserve the right to remove any content that violates these Terms or that we are legally required to remove, with or without notice.
The Services, including all software, design, text, graphics, logos, and AI-generated outputs produced by Athena's systems (as distinguished from Your Content), are owned by Athena Education, Inc. and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.
You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Services for their intended purpose. You may not copy, reproduce, modify, distribute, or create derivative works of the Services or any Athena-owned content without our prior written consent.
"Athena" and related logos are trademarks of Athena Education, Inc. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right to use our trademarks.
Athena offers free and paid subscription plans. Paid plans are typically purchased by institutions (DSOs or universities) on behalf of their students. Individual student accounts may be provisioned at no charge through an institutional subscription.
Paid subscriptions are billed in advance on a monthly or annual basis. All fees are in US Dollars unless otherwise stated. Payments are processed by Stripe. By providing payment information, you authorize Athena (via Stripe) to charge your payment method for all applicable fees.
Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period unless cancelled before the renewal date. Cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing period; you will retain access until then. No partial refunds are provided for unused periods unless required by law.
We may change subscription prices with at least 30 days' written notice. Continued use after the notice period constitutes acceptance of the new price.
You are responsible for any applicable taxes, duties, or fees imposed by governmental authorities on your subscription.
If you download or access Athena through the Apple App Store, Google Play, the Chrome Web Store, or another third-party distribution platform, you must also comply with that platform's applicable terms, policies, and usage rules.
Subject to these Terms, Athena grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the Services on devices, browsers, and accounts you own or control, solely for your internal lawful use and only in accordance with these Terms and any applicable platform rules.
Third-party platform operators are not parties to these Terms and are not responsible for the Services, maintenance, support, warranty claims, or claims relating to the Services, except as required by applicable law or their own platform terms. To the extent required by a platform's terms, that platform and its affiliates are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms as they relate to your use of the Services distributed through that platform.
Some features require browser, extension, or device permissions, such as microphone, camera, file access, storage, web-request inspection, or tab messaging. By enabling a permission, you authorize Athena to use it solely as described in our Privacy Policy and any in-product disclosures.
If these Terms conflict with mandatory platform terms that apply to a platform-distributed version of Athena, the mandatory platform terms control only to the extent necessary for that platform-distributed version.
Your use of the Services is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. The Privacy Policy explains what data Athena collects, how Athena handles and stores it, and the third parties with whom it is shared.
By using the Services and enabling any optional permissions or workflows, you instruct Athena to process your information as described in the Privacy Policy, including through vendors and subprocessors used to provide authentication, storage, transcription, AI features, analytics, diagnostics, billing, hosting, support, and organization administration.
Where Athena processes educational records (as defined by FERPA) on behalf of an educational institution, Athena acts as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest. Athena agrees to:
Institutions using Athena are responsible for their own FERPA compliance, including obtaining any required student consent and notifying students of Athena's role as a service provider.
The Services integrate with or rely upon third-party services, including Supabase for authentication and storage, AssemblyAI for transcription, OpenAI for certain AI and text-to-speech features, PostHog for product analytics, Sentry for diagnostics, Stripe for payments, and hosting or identity providers that support Athena's infrastructure. Your use of those integrated services may also be subject to their own terms and privacy policies.
Links to third-party websites within the Services are provided for convenience only. We do not endorse and are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or accuracy of third-party websites.
Read carefully. This section limits Athena's liability. Please review it.
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ACCURACY OF TRANSCRIPTION OR AI-GENERATED CONTENT.
We do not warrant that:
AI-generated content (summaries, flashcards, notes) may contain errors or omissions. Do not rely solely on AI-generated content for academic submissions, medical decisions, or other high-stakes purposes without independent verification.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ATHENA AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF PROFITS, OR LOSS OF GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES.
IN NO EVENT SHALL ATHENA'S TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO ATHENA IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS ($100).
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Athena and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or in any way connected with:
You may stop using the Services and delete your account at any time from your account settings or by contacting support@athena.education.
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Services at any time, with or without cause, with reasonable notice where practicable. Grounds for immediate termination include, but are not limited to, violation of these Terms, illegal activity, or actions that harm other users or the integrity of the Services.
Upon termination, your right to use the Services ceases immediately. Provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including Sections 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 16.
After termination or account deletion, Athena may retain data for the periods and purposes described in the Privacy Policy, including backup, security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, billing, support history, and institution-configured retention or review workflows.
Before filing a formal claim, you agree to contact us at legal@athena.education and attempt to resolve the dispute informally. We will try to resolve disputes within 30 days of receiving your notice.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
Any dispute not resolved informally shall be submitted to binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, in English, in the State of Delaware. You and Athena each waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.
This arbitration clause does not apply to claims for injunctive or equitable relief to protect intellectual property rights, or to claims that applicable law requires be resolved in court.
If you are located in a jurisdiction where mandatory arbitration clauses are unenforceable, disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.
We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email or by posting a prominent notice in the app at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you must stop using the Services and delete your account before the effective date.
If you have questions about these Terms, please contact:
We're happy to clarify. Reach out and we'll get back to you within 2 business days.
legal@athena.education