Billing, Subscriptions & Refunds

1. Plans

Prices are in US dollars. The current limits of each plan, in minutes of talking, are shown in DuckyHelper, Settings, Plan & billing before you buy.

How limits work. Your use counts against three windows at once: 1 hour, 5 hours, and a week. Each window starts with your first use after the last one ended, and resets a fixed time later. Everything Ducky does counts (talking, Ducky's thinking, reading your screen, tests, reports and pictures), measured in credits: 1 credit is 1 cent of what it costs us to run, and about 8 credits are a minute of talking. When a window is full, Ducky finishes its sentence and stops until the window resets, unless you have credits and "Keep going on credits" is on.

How Free works. Each account gets 3 minutes of live voice once. After that, live voice on Free uses credits you bought or were given (for example, for joining through a friend's invite, section 13), and otherwise you keep going by typing: Ducky answers in writing, with the same boards, diagrams and quizzes, up to a number of messages a day shown in DuckyHelper (it resets at midnight UTC). Free's windows cover the other things Ducky makes for you, like pictures. When many Free learners use DuckyHelper on the same day, Free can pause until the next day; paid plans and credits are not affected.

Unlimited's fair use. Unlimited has no 1-hour or 5-hour limit. It has one weekly fair-use cap of 9,695 credits, about 20 hours of talking a week. Past the cap, credits work as on any plan. The cap exists so a plan with no hourly limits can be offered at this price; if your use is far beyond what one person learning would need (for example, an account shared between people, or automated use), we may contact you or limit it under the Acceptable Use Policy.

2. Automatic renewal

When you start a paid plan:

• It renews automatically at the price and interval shown (every month for Plus and Pro, every week for Unlimited) and your card on file is charged at the start of each new period, until you cancel.
• We show these terms right beside the button you press to pay, in the app and on Stripe's checkout page, and we keep a record of the words you were shown and when you agreed.
• We email you a confirmation when the plan starts, with what it costs, how often it renews and how to cancel. For monthly plans we also email a reminder 3 days before each renewal. For Unlimited you get a receipt each week.
• Price changes: if we change a plan's price, we'll email you at least 7 days (and no more than 30 days) before the new price applies to you, with how to cancel. If you don't cancel, the new price applies from your next renewal.

3. Cancelling

• Online, any time: DuckyHelper, Settings, Plan & billing, Manage billing opens Stripe's secure page, where you can cancel in a couple of clicks. The link in our renewal reminders and receipts goes there too. You can also email support@duckyhelper.com from your account's email and we'll cancel it for you.
• When it takes effect: at the end of the period you've paid for. Your plan stays on until then, and nothing more is charged. After that you're on Free.
• Credits you bought stay yours until they expire.
• Deleting the app doesn't cancel a plan. Cancel in Manage billing first.

4. Changing plans

• Upgrading (to a bigger plan) is charged at once. Within the same interval you pay only the difference for the rest of the period; your unused time on the old plan is credited. Moving from a monthly plan to Unlimited, your unused monthly time is taken off today's charge, then Unlimited renews weekly. With a card on file, the upgrade happens in one tap in the app.
• Downgrading or switching to a smaller plan happens in Manage billing, where Stripe shows the exact change before you confirm.

5. Credits

• What they're for: credits are spent only when a plan window is used up and "Keep going on credits" is on, and on Free for live voice (see "How Free works" in section 1). The oldest credits are used first.
• Buying: credit packs and custom amounts from $5 to $500. DuckyHelper shows how many credits an amount buys before you pay.
• They expire 12 months after you buy them (or after we give them to you). We email you before credits expire.
• Not money: credits have no cash value, can't be transferred or sold, and aren't refundable except as described in section 8 or where the law requires.

6. Your card on file and one-tap payments

Your first payment goes through Stripe's checkout page and saves your card. After that, top-ups and upgrades in the app can be paid in one tap (a second tap confirms, so nothing is charged by accident). You can see, change or remove your card in Manage billing.

7. Auto top-up

Auto top-up is off unless you turn it on. When it's on, if a session would otherwise stop because a limit ran out and your credits are almost gone, we charge your card on file the amount you chose and add the credits, so you keep talking. It runs at most 3 times in any 24 hours, never on a card whose last charge failed, and only during a live session. You'll get a receipt for each charge. Turn it off any time in Settings, Plan & billing.

8. Refunds

We want this to be fair and simple:

• New subscribers: within 7 days of your first payment for a paid plan, email support@duckyhelper.com and we'll refund that payment in full if you've used less than 10% of the talking time it included. (This applies once per person.)
• Mistakes: if you were charged by mistake, charged twice, or an auto top-up ran that you didn't mean to set up, tell us within 30 days and we'll refund the charge, along with any credits from it that you haven't used.
• Otherwise, payments for plans and credits are non-refundable, including for partly used periods, except where the law requires a refund.
• When we refund a credit purchase, the unspent credits from it are removed. Refunds go back to the card you paid with; your bank may take a few days to show it.
• If we close your account without cause or stop offering DuckyHelper, we'll refund the unused part of what you prepaid.

Please contact us before disputing a charge with your bank; we can usually fix it faster.

9. Failed payments

If a renewal payment fails, Stripe tries the card again over the following days, and we email you a link to update it. Your plan stays on while it retries. If the payment still fails, the plan ends and you're moved to Free. Auto top-up pauses on a card that failed until a payment by hand succeeds or you add a new card.

10. Taxes

Prices don't include taxes. If we're required to collect sales tax, VAT or a similar tax, we'll add it and show it before you pay.

11. Children's accounts

Accounts for children under 13 can't make payments or take part in invites (section 13). A parent who wants to pay for a plan should contact support@duckyhelper.com.

12. Plans we set up for you

Sometimes we give an account a plan for free (for example, for testing or a promotion). It's ours to change or end, and it never charges you. Promotion codes may be accepted at checkout under their own terms.

13. Invites

While we offer invites, DuckyHelper shows you a personal invite link in Settings, Plan & billing. Using it is up to you.

Who can take part. You and your friend both need to be 13 or older. Accounts for children under 13 can't invite anyone, get an invite's minutes or earn a reward. Your friend has to make a new DuckyHelper account through your link. An account you make for yourself doesn't count, and neither does a sign-up from a browser you've signed in to DuckyHelper on.

What your friend gets. 80 credits, about 10 minutes of live voice, once they've talked with Ducky for 2 minutes in one session. These are credits like the ones you buy (section 5): they last 12 months, they're used when a plan's own time runs out (we turn on "Keep going on credits" for them) and on Free for live voice, and they have no cash value. One link can give these minutes to at most 30 friends a day and 100 friends a calendar month (UTC), counted when each friend reaches their 2 minutes; friends past those limits don't get them.

What you get. When a friend you invited pays for their first plan, you get account credit: $20 if that plan is Plus, $50 if it's Pro or Unlimited. Only the friend's first plan payment counts (a later upgrade adds nothing), and each friend can earn you a reward once. The credit is added once that first payment is 14 days old, which leaves time for a refund under section 8, and we email you when it's added. You can get at most 20 rewards in a calendar month (UTC).

When there's no reward. You don't get a reward for a friend if, before it's added:

• any of your friend's payments is refunded or disputed;
• a card saved on your friend's account is also saved on yours;
• you already got 20 rewards that month;
• either account was deleted, or says it's under 13.

If a payment is refunded later. If one of your friend's payments is refunded or disputed after you got the reward, we take the reward's amount back from the account credit you have left. If you've already used some or all of it, we take back only what's left and never charge you for the rest.

How account credit works. Account credit is a US dollar balance on your account at Stripe, our payment processor. Stripe takes it off your next payments for a plan (Plus, Pro or Unlimited) automatically until it's used up. It can't pay for credit packs or top-ups. It isn't cash and has no cash value: it can't be withdrawn, refunded, sold or moved to another account. It stays on your account until it's used, and ends if your account is deleted or closed. It's separate from credits (section 5), and your invoices in Manage billing show when it was used.

Fair play. Invites are for sharing DuckyHelper with people who might want it. Don't spam your link, buy or sell invites, make accounts to invite yourself, pay for a friend's plan with your own card, or post your link where that isn't allowed. If you share your link publicly (for example, on social media or in a video), say that you get a reward when people join. If we believe invites were misused, we may refuse or take back a friend's minutes and your rewards (including account credit from invites), stop your account from inviting, and act under the Acceptable Use Policy.

Changes. We may change the invite rewards and rules, or end invites, at any time, as with any other feature (see the Terms of Service, section 3). Changes are published here, with a new version. Credits and account credit you already received stay yours, except as described above.

14. Statements and receipts

Charges appear on your card statement as MINGLLM (with "DUCKY" or "DUCKYHELPER" when there's room). Receipts are emailed for every payment, and past invoices are in Manage billing.

15. Contact

• Billing questions, cancelling, refunds: support@duckyhelper.com
• Legal notices: legal@duckyhelper.com, or by mail to MingLLM, Inc., c/o Legalinc Corporate Services Inc., 131 Continental Dr, Suite 305, Newark, DE 19713, USA