Privacy Policy
Last updated: 13 July 2026
ScholarAI ("ScholarAI", "we", "us", "our") is an AI-powered research assistant that helps you find, read, and reason over academic literature and patents. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, who we share it with, and the rights you have. It covers scholarai.io, the ScholarAI web app (app.scholarai.io), the ScholarAI API, and the ScholarAI GPT.
1. Who we are
ScholarAI is operated by ScholarAI, Inc., a company registered in Delaware, United States, with its registered office at 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington, DE 19808. Where European or UK data-protection law applies, ScholarAI, Inc. is the "data controller" for the data described here.
For any privacy question, or to use your rights, email us at support@scholarai.io.
2. The personal data we collect
| Category | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Account data | Your email address and, depending on how you sign in, your name and profile details. Sign-in is handled by our identity provider (see section 6). |
| Content you submit | Your searches, questions, prompts, and conversations; the projects you create; the documents you upload and the text we extract from them; and the results we generate for you. |
| Payment data | If you subscribe, Stripe collects and processes your billing details. We never see or store your full card number. |
| Technical data | IP address, browser and device type, and cookie identifiers. |
| Usage & analytics data | How you use the service — pages viewed, features used, and session activity, including session recordings from our analytics tools (see section 4). |
Most of this comes straight from you. Technical and usage data are gathered automatically through cookies and similar technologies (see section 4).
3. How we use your data, and our legal basis
Where European or UK data-protection law applies, we need a lawful basis for each use of your data:
| Purpose | Data used | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Set up and run your account; answer your questions; search, retrieve, and analyse papers and patents; manage your projects and uploads | Account data, content you submit, technical data | Performance of a contract with you |
| Send your queries and documents to AI providers and academic databases to generate your results (section 6) | Content you submit | Performance of a contract |
| Take payment and manage your subscription or credits | Account data, payment data (via Stripe) | Contract, plus legal obligation (tax/accounting records) |
| Keep the service secure and stop fraud and abuse | Technical data | Legitimate interests (protecting the service and our users) |
| Measure and improve the product | Usage & analytics data | Legitimate interests (improving the service); consent where the law requires it for the cookies involved (section 4) |
| Diagnose problems using session replay | Usage & analytics data | Consent where required by law (section 4) |
| Measure our advertising | Technical & usage data, via an ad pixel on our marketing site | Consent where required by law (section 4) |
| Answer your enquiries and send essential service messages | Account data | Legitimate interests / contract |
4. Cookies and similar technologies
We use cookies and similar technologies in three groups:
-
Strictly necessary — sign-in, session continuity, security, and load balancing. These keep the service working and don't need your consent.
-
Analytics — Google Analytics (via Google's tag), Amplitude (product analytics), and Hotjar (session recordings and heatmaps) show us how ScholarAI is used and what to improve. Hotjar may record individual sessions.
-
Advertising & referrals — the TikTok pixel on our marketing site helps us measure our advertising, and Tolt tracks referral sign-ups.
Analytics and advertising cookies aren't essential, and where the law requires consent for them, that's what we rely on. You can block or remove them any time through your browser's cookie settings or a tracker/ad blocker. Google has an opt-out add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout), and you can opt out directly with TikTok (in your TikTok ad settings). Blocking these cookies won't stop you using ScholarAI.
5. Marketing
We don't currently send marketing emails. If that changes, marketing will be strictly opt-in, and every message will carry an unsubscribe link.
Essential service messages (say, about your account, security, or billing, or to deliver invitations or discount codes you've requested) aren't marketing and go out as needed.
6. Who we share your data with
We share personal data only with the service providers that help us run ScholarAI, and we never sell it. Those providers are:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) — hosting, data storage, and transactional email. Our infrastructure and data live in the United States (Oregon).
- Auth0 (Okta) — sign-in and identity (US).
- Stripe — payment processing (US / global).
- AI and document-processing providers (US) — external AI services generate answers from your queries and retrieved content, and extract text from the papers and documents you work with.
- Academic databases and search services (US) — we send your search queries and paper identifiers to scholarly databases, patent databases, and search services to find papers, metadata, and full texts.
- Analytics and advertising tools — see section 4 for the list and your choices.
- Hosting and infrastructure providers (US) — marketing-site hosting and content delivery.
If you use ScholarAI through ChatGPT (the ScholarAI GPT), your ChatGPT conversation is handled by OpenAI under OpenAI's own terms and privacy policy; we receive the queries the GPT sends to our API and return results to it.
We may also share data where the law requires it, to enforce our terms, or as part of a business sale or reorganisation. Ask us using the contact details below if you'd like more detail on our providers.
7. International transfers
ScholarAI's infrastructure and data storage are in the United States. If you use ScholarAI from outside the US — including the EEA or UK — your personal data is transferred to and processed in the United States, and in the other countries where the providers in section 6 operate. Where European or UK law applies to those transfers, we rely on legal safeguards such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (and its UK Extension) for certified providers, and Standard Contractual Clauses. Ask us using the contact details below for more detail.
8. How long we keep your data
- Account and content data — for as long as your account is active. You can delete individual papers and projects any time (this removes the uploaded files and extracted content), and you can delete your account from your profile settings. We action account deletions and erasure requests within one month; residual copies in our backups then expire on a fixed schedule.
- Payment and transaction records — kept for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
- Analytics data — kept according to each provider's standard retention settings.
- Short-lived caches — working caches used to answer your queries expire automatically within hours.
9. How we protect your data
We encrypt data in transit (TLS), encrypt stored account data and uploaded content at rest, take regular backups that we test, and limit who can access personal data. No online service is ever completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information.
10. Your rights
If you are in the EEA or UK, you can: access your data; have it corrected or erased; restrict or object to how we process it; ask for it in portable form; and withdraw consent any time. You can also complain to your local data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office — ico.org.uk). Depending on where you live, you may have similar rights under your local law.
To use any of these, email support@scholarai.io and we'll respond within one month.
11. Children
ScholarAI is for users aged 13 and over. We don't knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you think a child under 13 has given us personal data, contact us and we'll delete it.
12. Automated processing
ScholarAI uses automated processing to search literature and generate answers and summaries. This has no legal or similarly significant effect on you — the results are informational, and you decide how to use them (see also the accuracy note in our Terms).
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. We'll post the new version here and update the "Last updated" date, and flag material changes where appropriate.
14. Contact
Questions or requests: support@scholarai.io.