This Privacy Policy explains how Bonsai ("Bonsai," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and protects information when you use the Bonsai application and related services (the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree to the practices described here.

1. Who this applies to & age requirement

The Service is intended for users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, contact us at support@bonsaiedu.org and we will delete it. If you operate Bonsai in an educational setting with students under 13, additional requirements (such as COPPA in the U.S.) may apply, and verifiable parental or school consent may be required.

2. Information we collect

a. Account information

When you create an account we collect your name, email address, and a password. Passwords are never stored by us in readable form — they are hashed and managed by our authentication provider, Supabase. If you sign in with Google, we receive basic profile information from Google (such as your name, email, and avatar) as permitted by your Google account.

b. Content you create

Bonsai lets you interact with AI study tools. We process the content you provide to these features so they can respond, including:

• Messages and questions you send in Learn, Explain, and Discuss.
• Drawings, handwriting, and typed notes you make in the Notebook.
• Images you upload for the AI to read or describe.
• Quizzes and answers you generate or submit in Review.

c. Approximate location (for the garden weather)

The home screen shows weather that reflects your local sky. To do this we ask your browser for your location, only with your permission. Your coordinates are rounded to roughly city-level (about 1 km) on your device before they're used to look up a place name (via BigDataCloud) and local weather (via Open-Meteo). We do not store precise GPS location, and if you decline, the garden simply skips the weather. You can change or re-prompt this permission anytime from Profile → Location or your browser's site settings.

d. Device & usage data

We store certain preferences locally in your browser (for example, your chosen theme/dark mode and selected AI model) using local storage. We and our providers may also process limited technical data such as browser type and basic logs needed to operate and secure the Service.

e. Usage counts (for plan limits and carbon accounting)

So that we can enforce plan limits and work out how much carbon removal your usage requires, we keep a running count, against your account, of:

• how many prompts you send in a calendar month;
• how many requests you make on a given day, so that daily plan limits can be applied;
• how many requests reached each AI model (Everyday or Deep Focus);
• how many tokens those requests used — a token is roughly a word or word-fragment; and
• which plan (free or Pro) you were on when that usage happened, so the carbon we remove for it matches the commitment that applied at the time.

These are counts only. They record how much you used the Service, not what you asked or what the AI replied — the numbers cannot be turned back into the text of your prompts. Token counts are reported to us by our AI provider rather than by your browser, so the figure shown in your garden reflects real usage. Monthly counts are kept per calendar month and are what the impact statistics in the app are calculated from; daily counts exist only to apply the day's usage limit.

f. Payment information

If you subscribe to a paid plan, payments are processed by our payment provider, Stripe. Your card number and full payment details are entered on Stripe and handled by Stripe — we never receive or store your full card number. We retain only limited billing records needed to provide and account for your subscription (for example, your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, plan status, and renewal date). Stripe's handling of your payment data is governed by Stripe's own privacy policy.

g. Anti-abuse / bot protection

To protect sign-up, sign-in, and password reset from automated abuse, we use Cloudflare Turnstile, which may process your IP address and limited device/behavioral signals to tell humans from bots. This is done in our legitimate interest in securing the Service.

3. How AI features process your content

When you use an AI feature, the content you submit is processed to generate a response. Depending on your configuration, this processing may occur locally on your device and/or through AI service providers we use to operate the Service. We do not sell your content, and we do not use it to identify you for advertising.

4. How we use your information

• To create and manage your account and keep you signed in.
• To provide the Service's features and generate AI responses.
• To personalize your experience (e.g., theme, weather scene, saved progress).
• To count your usage against your plan's monthly limits.
• To measure the carbon your usage caused, fund its removal, and show you those figures in the app.
• To maintain security, prevent abuse, and debug problems.
• To communicate with you about your account (e.g., password resets).
• To comply with legal obligations.

5. Service providers we share data with

We share information only with providers that help us run the Service, under their respective terms and privacy policies:

• Supabase — authentication and database (account data).
• Google — "Sign in with Google" (if you use it) and Google Fonts.
• Open-Meteo and BigDataCloud — weather and IP-based approximate location.
• Scaleway — AI processing: your tutor messages and notebook images are sent to an open model hosted on Scaleway to generate responses. Which model receives them depends on the choice in your account settings: Google's Gemma (the default) or Alibaba Cloud's Qwen.
• Stripe — payment processing and subscription management (if you subscribe to a paid plan).
• Cloudflare — application hosting/delivery and bot protection (Turnstile).
• Our email provider — to send account emails such as confirmations and password resets.
• jsDelivr — delivery of the Supabase client library.

We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

6. Cookies & local storage

We use browser local storage and similar technologies to keep you signed in and remember your preferences. These are essential to the Service's basic functionality. We do not use third-party advertising trackers.

7. Data retention

We keep your account information for as long as your account is active. You may delete your account at any time from within the app (Profile → Delete account), or by contacting us at support@bonsaiedu.org. When you delete your account we cancel any active subscription so you are not charged again, and we delete or anonymize your personal information, except where we must retain limited records to comply with the law (for example, tax and payment records relating to a paid subscription).

The usage counts described in section 2(e) are anonymized rather than deleted. They are detached from your account and merged into an anonymous monthly total that is no longer linked to you or to any individual. We do this because we have already committed to removing the carbon that usage caused: deleting the figures outright would mean removing less carbon than we actually emitted. What remains is a bare monthly total with no connection to you.

8. Your rights & choices

Depending on where you live (for example, under the GDPR or CCPA), you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or export your personal information, and to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise these rights, contact us at support@bonsaiedu.org. You can also sign out, reset your password, or request account deletion at any time.

9. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) and access controls. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. International data transfers

Our providers may process and store data in countries other than yours (for example, the United States). Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for such transfers.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date above, and significant changes may be communicated through the Service.

12. Contact us

Questions about this policy or your data? Contact us at support@bonsaiedu.org.