Terms of use

1Who we are

BellaBye is run by 53Alpha Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17409008). Our registered office is 5 Knightcott Road, Abbots Leigh, Bristol, BS8 3SB. You can reach us at hello@bellabye.com.

These terms apply whenever you use bellabye.com or the BellaBye app. By creating an account, you agree to them. Please read them with our Privacy policy and Voice policy.

2Your account

You need to be 18 or over, and the parent or guardian of the children you add, to create an account. Your account is for your family, and you’re responsible for how it’s used.

• We sign you in with a link sent to your email, so please keep your email account secure. Each link works for 15 minutes.
• Children never need an account. They only ever listen.
• Please keep your email address up to date, so we can reach you about your plan.

3Your free story

Paid plans aren’t on sale yet, while BellaBye is in its invitation-only beta. This is how they’ll work when they start.

Every new family can make one free story, read in your own voice or one of our BellaBye voices. It’s a short story to listen to, and you don’t need a card. There’s one free story for each email address.

If you don’t choose a plan, we keep your voice for 30 days after you record it, then delete it. We email you a week before and the day before.

4The beta

While BellaBye is in beta, families join by invitation only. A beta family gets the Nightly plan free for 4 weeks from accepting, which we may extend, and we never take a payment during that time. When it ends, we’ll tell you, and you’ll have 14 days to choose a plan before your account moves to the free story only. As BellaBye is still being tested, some features may change or be briefly unavailable during the beta.

5Plans and payment

Paid plans aren’t on sale yet, while BellaBye is in its invitation-only beta. This is how they’ll work when they start.

Our plans, what each one includes and their prices are on our Pricing page. Prices are shown in pounds or US dollars, depending on where you are, and your currency is fixed when you first pay. You pay the price shown when you choose your plan.

• Before you pay, we show you the price, how often you’ll pay, when your plan renews and how to cancel.
• Plans renew automatically, every month or every year, until you cancel. We email you 3 days before a monthly plan renews and 7 days before a yearly plan renews.
• Payments are taken securely by Stripe, our payment provider. We never see your full card details.
• If a payment doesn’t go through, we’ll try again and let you know. After 7 days unpaid, new stories pause, but every story you’ve made still plays.
• If we change a plan’s price, we’ll email you at least 30 days before it applies to you, and you can cancel before then.

6Stories and top-ups

Paid plans aren’t on sale yet, while BellaBye is in its invitation-only beta. This is how they’ll work when they start.

Each plan includes a number of new stories a month, shown on the Pricing page. They come back on the same day each month, including on a yearly plan. Stories you don’t use don’t carry over to the next month.

• Making a story uses 1 story, whatever its length. Each night of a series uses 1 story, when that night is made.
• Reading a story again in another voice uses 1 story.
• Your child’s first drawing is free. Drawing your child again after that uses 1 story.
• Redrawing a page inside a story is free 3 times for each story, then uses 1 story each time.
• Downloading a story’s audio or picture book is free.
• If a story or a drawing fails, it never uses a story.
• On a paid plan you can buy a top-up of 10 extra stories. They’re used after your monthly stories and don’t run out while your plan is active. If your plan ends, any top-up stories you haven’t used are kept for 12 months, in case you come back.

7Changing or cancelling your plan

Paid plans aren’t on sale yet, while BellaBye is in its invitation-only beta. This is how they’ll work when they start.

• Move up at any time. You pay the difference for the rest of the period, and the extra stories are yours straight away.
• Move down and the change starts on your renewal date. Nothing is deleted: if you have more children or voices than the new plan allows, you choose which to keep using, and the rest still play but can’t be used in new stories.
• Cancel at any time in the app, in two clicks. Your plan runs to the end of the period you’ve paid for, and you can keep making stories until then.
• After your plan ends, your voices are kept for 90 days, then deleted, and your stories stay for a further 12 months to play, then they’re deleted. We email you 30 days, 7 days and 1 day before your voices are deleted, and choosing a plan again before then keeps everything.

You can update your card and see your invoices in Your plan, in the app.

8Refunds

Paid plans aren’t on sale yet, while BellaBye is in its invitation-only beta. This is how they’ll work when they start.

If you change your mind, cancel within 14 days of your first payment. If you haven’t made any stories, we’ll refund you in full. If you have, we’ll refund you less the stories you’ve used, each charged at the price of one story in a top-up (for example £7.99 for 10 stories is about 80p a story).

After that, we don’t refund the rest of a month or year you’ve paid for. If you delete your account, your plan ends straight away, so to keep BellaBye until the end of your period, cancel your plan instead and delete your account later.

9Recording voices

BellaBye reads stories in the voices your child loves. To keep every voice safe:

• Only record your own voice, and only if you’re 18 or over.
• Family and friends record their own voice from your invitation, and give their own permission.
• Only upload a recording of someone else if they’ve said yes and they’re 18 or over. You’re responsible for having their permission, and we’ll delete the voice if they tell us they didn’t agree.
• Never record or upload a child’s voice.
• We make a private digital copy of each voice, using AI, that only your family’s stories can use.
• Anyone who records can delete their voice at any time.

Our Voice policy explains this in full.

10Your stories and pictures

Stories, pictures and voice copies are made by AI, from what you tell us, and checked automatically before you see them so they suit your child’s age. AI can occasionally get something wrong, so please tell us if anything isn’t right and we’ll put it right.

Every story and picture is made for your family. You’re welcome to keep, play, download and print them, and to share them with family and friends, for as long as you like, even after you leave BellaBye. Please don’t sell them or use them for a business.

We keep the rights in BellaBye itself: the app, its look, our characters and picture styles, and the sounds, music, jingle and BellaBye voices we use, some of which we license from others. They’re part of your stories for your family to enjoy, but you can’t use them on their own.

You give us permission to use what you tell us about your family only to make and look after your stories, as our Privacy policy explains.

11Using BellaBye kindly

Please don’t use BellaBye to:

• record, upload or copy anyone’s voice without their permission, or record a child’s voice
• use a voice to pretend to be someone, or to deceive anyone
• ask for stories that are hurtful or unkind about real people
• type in someone else’s personal details, such as surnames, addresses or schools
• copy, resell or interfere with BellaBye itself

If a request worries us, we may not make the story. If something you type suggests a child may be at risk, we stop and show you where to get help. If an account breaks these terms, we may pause or close it, and we’ll tell you why.

12If something goes wrong

We work hard to keep BellaBye running smoothly, but we can’t promise it will never be interrupted. If something isn’t right, tell us and we’ll put it right as quickly as we can.

If we break these terms, we’re responsible for loss or damage you suffer that was a foreseeable result. We’re not responsible for loss that wasn’t foreseeable, or for any business loss, as BellaBye is for your family’s own use. Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn’t allow us to limit.

Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer.

13Changes to these terms

If we change these terms, we’ll update the date at the top of this page. If a change affects you, we’ll email you before it applies, and if you don’t agree, you can cancel before it does.

14The law that applies

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your local courts. If you live outside the UK, you keep any rights the law where you live gives you.

15Contact us

Questions about these terms? Email hello@bellabye.com or send us a message from our Contact page.