Last updated 9 September 2026. These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are entered into between Calamus LLC, an Arizona limited liability company (“Calamus”, “we” or “us”), and the person accepting them (“you”). They apply to the web application at write.calamusapp.com, the macOS desktop application, the iPadOS and iOS applications, and the website at calamusapp.com (together, the “Service”). By accessing or using any part of the Service you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service.
1. The Service
1.1. The Service is a writing application comprising a manuscript editor, Binder, Outliner, Corkboard, Codex, Research, Moodboard, Snapshots, and a Compile function that generates EPUB and PDF files. The Service further includes a social queue capable of publishing extracts of your manuscript to third-party accounts that you connect.
1.2. The Service is delivered through more than one implementation. The web and desktop applications share a common implementation; the iPadOS and iOS applications are separate native builds. Functionality may become available in one implementation before another. These Terms apply to all implementations, and a difference in available functionality does not alter your rights under these Terms.
2. Accounts and eligibility
2.1. An account is required to use the application. You must provide a valid email address, which is the address to which password resets, purchase receipts, support correspondence, and notices concerning connected third-party accounts are sent.
2.2. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity conducted under your account. Two-factor authentication is available in Settings and is verified on each request to your content, not solely at sign-in. Accounts are issued to a single individual. Disclosure of your credentials confers on the recipient access to all content in the account, including the ability to publish to any connected third-party account.
2.3. You must be 13 years of age or older to hold an account. If you are under 18, a parent or legal guardian must review and accept these Terms together with you. If you are under 16 and resident in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, acceptance must be given by your parent or legal guardian. We do not knowingly establish an account for a person under 13; where we identify such an account we close it and delete its contents.
2.4. Sign-in from an unrecognized browser requires an additional verification step, by authenticator application or by a code sent to the address on the account, after which that browser is recognized for 30 days. Recognized browsers are listed in Settings under Security and may be revoked there.
2.5. Account access is logged. Sign-ins, failed sign-ins, device verifications, export downloads, connection and disconnection of third-party accounts, account deletion, and refunds are recorded in a security log together with the originating IP address and user agent. That log is retained indefinitely and contains no part of your content. The fields recorded are set out in the Privacy Policy.
3. Ownership of your content
3.1. You retain all right, title and interest in the manuscripts, notes, images and other materials you create or upload through the Service (“your content”). Calamus asserts no ownership of your content, acquires no license to publish, reproduce or otherwise exploit it, and has no right to disclose it to any third party except as required by law.
3.2. Your content is not used to train any machine-learning model, by us or by any third party. The Service contains no artificial intelligence functionality capable of transmitting your content to a model provider.
3.3. You may export your content at any time. Settings provides export of all projects in archive form, or delivery of an export link by email, and the Compile function generates EPUB and PDF files that do not require the Service in order to be opened.
4. Backups
Your content is stored in a hosted database subject to row-level security, and deleted items remain recoverable for the periods stated in the Privacy Policy. That does not constitute a backup under your control. You are responsible for retaining your own copies of your content, and should export and retain such copies at regular intervals independently of the Service.
5. Purchase and payment
5.1. Purchases of Calamus are processed by Stripe Checkout. Calamus does not receive or store your payment card details. On completion of payment, Stripe notifies Calamus and the purchase is recorded against the account corresponding to the email address supplied at checkout. Where no account exists for that address, an account is created and an invitation issued to it.
5.2. Prices and the scope of a purchase are subject to change. No such change applies retrospectively to a purchase already completed.
5.3. A purchase covers the modules it includes at the time of purchase and all subsequent updates to those modules, at no additional charge.
6. Calamus Ideas and subscription terms
6.1. Calamus Ideas, the iOS application, is included at no additional charge for holders of a Calamus license. No subscription is required of such holders.
6.2. Calamus Ideas is also offered separately, to persons who do not hold a Calamus license, as an auto-renewing subscription sold through Apple rather than as a purchase processed by Stripe.
6.3. The subscription is $4.99 per month, purchased within the Calamus Ideas application and not on this site. Apple is the seller of record and payment is charged to your Apple ID on confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically at the same price at the end of each monthly period unless automatic renewal is disabled at least 24 hours before the end of the then-current period, and Apple charges the renewal within the 24 hours preceding that date. The subscription is managed and canceled in the Settings application on your device, under your Apple ID account. Deletion of the application does not cancel the subscription.
6.4. Because Apple is the seller of record, refunds of a subscription purchased through the App Store are administered by Apple under Apple’s policies. Clause 7 governs purchases of Calamus processed by Stripe and does not apply to such a subscription. No provision of clause 7 is triggered by a refund granted by Apple.
6.5. A subscription confers a license to Calamus Ideas only. It does not constitute a license to Calamus, and it does not enable the Compile function, the macOS or iPadOS applications, or the social queue, which is a feature of Calamus and not of Calamus Ideas.
7. Refunds, chargebacks, and their consequences
7.1. Calamus is sold without a right of refund, save as provided in clause 8 and as required by applicable law. The 14-day trial described in clause 9 is provided so that the purchasing decision may be made before payment. On completion of purchase the software is delivered and the Compile function is enabled immediately.
7.2. Where a purchase is defective or has otherwise miscarried, write to support at calamusapp dot com and we will review the matter.
7.3. Where a refund is granted, or a chargeback is raised and upheld, the license granted by that purchase terminates immediately and the consequences set out below apply. You are advised to read this clause before requesting a refund.
- Seven-day export period. For seven days following the refund, sign-in remains available for the sole purpose of reaching the backup page and exporting your content in archive form. No other function of the Service remains available.
- Notice. The refund notification states the expiry date of that period. A reminder is sent each day until the export is downloaded or the period expires, and a final notice is sent 24 hours before deletion.
- Deletion. On expiry of the seven-day period the account and all content within it, including manuscripts, scenes, notes, Codex entries and uploaded images, is permanently deleted. No copy is retained from which the account may be restored, and the deletion is irreversible by either party.
- No repurchase. An email address in respect of which a refund has been granted or a chargeback upheld may not be used to purchase Calamus again. That restriction does not expire. It does not apply where the contract was canceled in exercise of the right of withdrawal described in clause 8.
7.4. Notwithstanding clause 7.3, we retain a record of the email address, the payment reference, and the relevant dates. That record is retained to evidence the transaction and the refund, as required for accounting and tax purposes, and to give effect to the restriction stated in clause 7.3. It contains no part of your content.
7.5. The security log described in clause 2.5 is likewise retained following deletion of the account. A chargeback may be raised after an account has been deleted, and that log constitutes the record by which such a claim is answered. It contains no part of your content.
8. Consumers in the EEA and the United Kingdom
8.1. Consumer law in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom confers a right to withdraw from a distance contract within 14 days and to receive a full refund. Digital content supplied before the expiry of that period is excepted from the right, but only where the consumer has expressly requested that supply begin immediately and has acknowledged that doing so extinguishes the right of withdrawal. Both are requested at checkout, before payment, by affirmative action on your part rather than by a pre-selected option, and the purchase does not complete without them. The same acknowledgment is reproduced in the receipt sent to you.
8.2. Where that consent was given, the purchase is final and clause 7 applies. Where it was not given, or where we failed to provide confirmation of the contract on a durable medium, the right of withdrawal subsists and we will refund you in full within 14 days of receiving notice. Notice to support at calamusapp dot com is sufficient; no particular form of words is required.
8.3. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits a right conferred on you by the consumer law of your place of residence which may not lawfully be excluded or limited. Where a provision of these Terms conflicts with such a law, that law prevails and the remaining provisions continue in effect.
9. Trial
9.1. The trial runs for 14 days in the web application. It requires no payment card, is limited to one per email address, and includes all functionality except the Compile function and the native macOS, iPadOS and iOS applications.
9.2. Content created during a trial is your content on the same terms as content created following purchase, and may be exported in DOCX, RTF, Markdown or plain text format at any time, including after the trial has ended.
9.3. On expiry of the 14-day period, account access continues for a further seven days. Purchase within that period restores full functionality with all content intact. If no purchase is made, the account and all content within it is deleted on expiry of that period. Notice is sent daily while the period is open and again 24 hours before it expires.
10. Acceptable use
You shall not use the Service to store or publish unlawful material; use the social queue to publish material you do not have the right to publish; attempt to access data belonging to another account; circumvent rate limits or other technical restrictions; or use the Service in a manner that impairs its operation for other users. Automated scraping of the application is prohibited.
11. Indemnity
You are responsible for all material you store, import, publish or export through your account. You shall indemnify Calamus against any claim brought by a third party arising from that material, including reasonable legal fees and costs incurred in responding to it. This clause is included because Calamus hosts material belonging to others and has no means of verifying the rights subsisting in it.
12. Availability and third-party dependencies
The Service is hosted and depends on third-party providers, including Supabase, Vercel, Stripe, Resend, Upstash, and the third-party social platforms themselves. The Service may be unavailable, and functionality may be changed, replaced or withdrawn. Threads publishing is implemented but not enabled, and remains unavailable pending approval by that platform, which is not a determination made by Calamus.
13. Disclaimer of warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind, whether express, implied or statutory, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be available without interruption, that it will be free from defects, or that any particular defect will be corrected.
14. Limitation of liability
14.1. To the fullest extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Service, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, shall not exceed the amount paid by you for the Service.
14.2. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss of any kind, including loss of income, loss of sales, loss of time, the cost of recreating work, or the loss or corruption of content.
14.3. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that may not lawfully be excluded or limited, and nothing in these Terms excludes or limits a right conferred on you by the consumer law of your place of residence.
15. Assignment, succession, and discontinuation
15.1. Calamus LLC maintains a succession arrangement under which the company passes to family members and a legal trust. We may assign these Terms, together with your license and account, to a successor, being that trust, an heir, or a purchaser of the business. Any such successor is bound by these Terms until you have been offered replacement terms and afforded the opportunity to review them. Export and account deletion remain available to you on the same basis following any assignment.
15.2. If we discontinue the Service, we will give not less than 90 days’ notice by email, and the export and Compile functions will remain operative throughout that period so that you may extract your content and generate final EPUB and PDF files. This undertaking survives clause 12 and is not subject to the reservation of rights stated in that clause. Files already generated by the Compile function reside on your own device and are unaffected.
15.3. We will not assign the business to a successor that does not accept the notice obligation in clause 15.2. That obligation binds Calamus LLC and any successor to it.
16. Termination
16.1. You may delete your account at any time in Settings, under Danger Zone. The data deletion notice sets out the effect of deletion and the steps available to you before it.
16.2. We may suspend or terminate an account used in breach of these Terms, used to attack or impair the Service, or used to store or publish material that exposes the Service to legal risk. Where circumstances permit, we will give prior notice and an opportunity to export your content.
17. Copyright infringement and repeat infringers
17.1. Our designated agent for notifications of claimed copyright infringement, and the elements a compliant notification must contain under 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3), are set out on the legal notices page. We act on compliant notifications and will notify you if material in your account is removed or disabled in response to one, so that you may submit a counter notification.
17.2. We terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who are repeat infringers. Adoption and notification of that policy is a condition of the safe harbor provided by 17 U.S.C. §512(i).
18. Governing law and venue
18.1. Calamus LLC is a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of Arizona, United States. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Arizona, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions, and the state and federal courts located in Maricopa County, Arizona shall have jurisdiction over a dispute arising out of or relating to them.
18.2. If you are a consumer resident outside the United States, clause 18.1 does not deprive you of the protection of the consumer law of your place of residence, nor of a right to bring proceedings in the courts of that jurisdiction where that law so provides. Nothing in this clause prevents either party from bringing proceedings in a small claims court of competent jurisdiction.
18.3. These Terms contain no agreement to arbitrate and no waiver of the right to participate in a class action.
19. Amendments
We may amend these Terms. The date stated at the head of this document is the date of the current revision. Continued use of the Service following an amendment constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms.
20. Severability, waiver, and entire agreement
If a provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be severed and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect. No failure or delay in exercising a right under these Terms operates as a waiver of it. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the End User License Agreement and the Cookie Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Calamus in respect of the Service.
21. Notices
Notices concerning these Terms, a purchase, or an account must be sent to support at calamusapp dot com, or to Calamus LLC at the postal address stated on the legal notices page.