Terms of Service

You may publish any story that is lawful in the United Kingdom and in the country you are writing from. We do not judge subject matter, genre, or how uncomfortable a story makes a reader feel. Fiction is allowed to be difficult.

You may not use Nottpad to publish sexual content involving minors, to incite violence against real people, to harass another account, to post material you do not have the rights to, or to run automated traffic against the service. Accounts that do any of these are removed without a warning period, and unlawful material is reported to the relevant authority.

You must be at least 13 to hold an account. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for everything published under your account.

Your story is yours. Publishing on Nottpad transfers no ownership, and we claim no share of any deal you sign elsewhere. You keep the copyright, the film rights, and the right to publish the same work anywhere else at the same time.

You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store your work, display it to readers, generate covers and previews of it, and include it in search and discovery results. That licence exists so the site can function; it ends when you delete the work, apart from copies retained in backups for up to 30 days.

We do not train generative models on your writing and we do not license your work to third parties for that purpose. If that ever changes it will be opt-in, announced in advance, and off by default.

Every published part receives a machine-assigned age band: All ages, 8+, 12+, 15+, or 18+. The classifier runs automatically after publish and may raise the band. Authors may declare a one-time 18+ self-label at publish; the classifier still runs and may raise the band further. Deliberately under-rating a story is a breach of these terms and repeat cases lose publishing access.

Stories rated 18+ are available to verified accounts only on the web. You must complete age verification with Didit and opt in before you can read them. Attempting to bypass verification, or sharing a verified account, ends access to mature content permanently.

Nottpad Premium is an optional subscription that removes third-party ads and unlocks Premium benefits. Current pricing is $2 per month or $20 per year USD. There is no free trial; billing starts when you subscribe. Prices may change with notice; your existing subscription price is honoured until renewal.

Free accounts see third-party advertising on story overview and end-of-part pages. Premium subscribers do not see ads while their subscription is active.

Credits are virtual currency purchased in bundles of 50, 120, or 300. On the website you buy them through Stripe Checkout. In the iOS and Android apps you buy them through Apple or Google in-app purchase. Credits unlock paid story parts and are not cash, are not transferable, and have no value outside Nottpad. The UI always calls them Credits, never Coins.

On the website you start a Premium subscription through Stripe Checkout and manage payment methods and cancellation through the Stripe Customer Portal. In the apps you subscribe and cancel through Apple or Google. Cancelling Premium stops ads from returning only after the current billing period ends.

Authors may mark parts as exclusive and set a Credit price only after Stripe Connect onboarding is complete and payouts are enabled. We do not hold funds for later. If Connect is incomplete, the part cannot be priced.

Locked part content is withheld in the database from users who have not unlocked it. Unlocking spends Credits from your balance atomically; the unlock is permanent for that account. Each unlock credits 70% of leftover after a reserved store fee to the author and 30% to the platform.

Direct messages are 1:1 and text only, with no images or other media. Messages are capped at 4,000 characters. Sends are rate-limited to 20 messages every 10 minutes.

The default is followers-only: only people you follow can message you. You can change this to everyone or nobody in Settings → Privacy. Blocks and mutes reject delivery. Accounts aged 13–17 cannot message 18+ accounts, and minors need a mutual follow before a thread can start.

Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer in the United Kingdom, including the right to a refund where digital content is faulty or not as described.

Outside those rights, Premium subscriptions are non-refundable for the current billing period once charged. Credit purchases and paid-part unlocks are final once delivered; we do not offer pro-rata refunds for partially read exclusive parts.

Chargebacks or payment disputes filed without contacting us first may result in account suspension pending investigation.

You can close your account at any time from Settings → Delete account. We email a confirmation link; after you confirm, the account is removed from live systems. Encrypted backups may retain your data for up to 30 days before permanent deletion. Export your work before closing your account; we cannot restore a deleted account after that window.

We may suspend or close an account that breaches section 1, repeatedly mis-rates stories under section 3, or exposes us to legal liability. Except where the law requires immediate action, we will tell you which clause was breached and give you a route to appeal within 14 days.

Nottpad is provided as it is. We work hard to keep the service available and your drafts safe, but we do not warrant uninterrupted access, and you should keep your own copies of anything you cannot bear to lose.

Stories on Nottpad are written by their authors, not by us. We are not liable for the content of user-published work beyond our obligations as a hosting provider. Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of its courts.