Readwise AI Policy
We think AI can make reading better. We also think too many companies rush to bolt it onto everything, with little regard for consent or quality. This policy sets a higher standard for ourselves: what we build, what we won’t, and whose permission we ask first.
It covers how we use AI across Readwise Highlights, Readwise Reader, Readwise Books, and Readwise Bookshop, and it is part of the Terms of Service.
1. Our principles
We seek to improve reading, not replace it
We want AI features that deepen understanding, encourage reflection, and keep the text at the center. We are not interested in tools that turn reading into shortcuts or replace the original. When we summarize, it is to help you choose what to read or pick up where you left off, not to read for you. AI should help you spend more time thinking about what you read, not less time reading it.
We make reading software, not AI models
We do not train large language models, and our AI providers may not use your data, your prompts, or book content to train theirs. Training means giving an AI model a large body of text so it can learn patterns and generate output. We do not make any information available for that purpose.
We seek permission, not forgiveness
We do not offer AI features on Digital Content, as defined in the Bookshop Terms, unless its publisher or independent author has given clear, explicit approval. We prefer to move carefully rather than assume how Digital Content can be used. If a publisher or independent author has not opted in, we do not treat silence as permission.
We believe AI should be optional, not mandatory
Readers, authors, and publishers want different things, and we respect that. Each of them can choose which AI features to turn on or off, or to use none of them. Some AI runs in the background because the apps depend on it. See Approval and preferences.
2. AI features
Each of our apps offers different AI features. Ghostreader is the name for the AI features that help you understand, navigate, and discuss what you read.
Readwise Highlights
In Readwise Highlights, AI works on the highlights you collect:
- Ghostreader: on a highlight in your Daily Review, ask about it, find similar highlights, or explain, expand, or translate the passage.
- Chat: ask questions across everything you have highlighted.
- Themed reviews and suggestions: Daily Review themes and chat suggestions picked from your highlights.
- Daily Review audio: listen to your Daily Review read aloud, with short introductions and transitions written by AI.
Readwise Reader
In Readwise Reader, Ghostreader works on the documents you save, such as articles, PDFs, EPUBs, newsletters, and transcripts:
- Prompts: define, explain, summarize, or ask your own questions about a passage or a whole document, and create summaries and tags automatically when you save a document.
- Chat: ask questions about one document or your whole library, with answers grounded in what you saved. You can also dictate your questions by voice.
Readwise Books
In Readwise Books, Ghostreader works on the books you read. Some features are available now, and others are still in development:
- Define: a dictionary gives you every meaning of a word. Define uses the surrounding paragraph to give you the meaning the author intended.
- Lookup: some terms are not in any dictionary, such as a character, a place, or a made-up technology. Lookup gathers mentions from across the book to explain what the term means and what role it plays.
- Translate: uses the surrounding paragraph to find the right equivalent of a word or short phrase in your language. It does not translate full passages or chapters.
- Ask Questions: ask about the plot, themes, characters, or arguments, and get answers grounded in passages from the book. It does not generate derivative content, such as role-play or alternate storylines.
- Personal Session Recaps: like the “previously on” segment before a TV episode, a recap of only what you last read, to help you pick up where you left off.
- Shared Session Recaps: let friends glimpse each other’s reading sessions. For fiction, they are spoiler-free and capture the mood of a passage without revealing the plot. For nonfiction, they share one takeaway with a quote. You can hide friends’ recaps entirely.
Text-to-speech
Readwise Highlights, Readwise Reader, and Readwise Books can read text aloud in natural-sounding synthetic voices. In Readwise Books, this feature is called Assistive Reader.
Assistive Reader is an accessibility feature. It reads the words on the page so readers who depend on audio, including people with visual impairments, dyslexia, or other print disabilities, can access the same books as everyone else. It gives a spoken rendering of the words, with no performance or narration of its own. It is not an audiobook, and it is not meant to replace one.
Because Assistive Reader is an accessibility feature, we do not limit it to readers with a disability. We do not ask anyone to disclose or prove a disability to have their books read aloud, and we cannot know who depends on it.
3. Approval and preferences
Publisher and author approval
We only turn on AI features for Digital Content after its publisher or independent author gives explicit approval. Approval is given feature by feature, so a publisher or independent author can approve some features for a title and decline others. They can withdraw approval for any feature at any time, and we will turn that feature off for their Digital Content. Publishers and independent authors can give or withdraw approval by emailing copyright@readwise.io.
Assistive Reader and highlights follow the digital rights management (DRM) requirements each publisher sets for its Digital Content. If a publisher limits text-to-speech, Assistive Reader follows that limit, for example by reading one page at a time. Highlights you make in Digital Content are also saved to your Readwise Highlights library, up to the length those requirements allow, and AI features there can use them like any other highlight.
Content you add yourself, such as documents you save in Readwise Reader or books you upload to Readwise Books, is handled differently. Your own settings decide which AI features work on it, as long as you have the right to use that content. See Sideloaded Content and Acceptable User Content in the Terms of Service.
Your preferences
You can turn AI features on or off at any time in each app’s settings:
- Readwise Highlights: the AI setting turns off Ghostreader, chat, themed reviews, and chat suggestions.
- Readwise Reader: the Ghostreader setting turns off Ghostreader, including automatic summaries.
- Readwise Books: the Ghostreader (AI) settings turn off Define, Lookup, Translate, Ask Questions, and Session Recaps. When recaps are off, we do not create them for your reading. Assistive Reader is off until you turn it on in the Appearance menu while reading.
These settings apply to your whole library, including content you add later. They do not turn off AI that runs in the background, because the apps depend on it. Turning off AI features does not affect the rest of the app.
4. AI that runs in the background
Some of our AI runs behind the scenes, rather than as a feature you choose to use. For example:
- Search and chat: we turn the text of your documents and highlights into embeddings, numbers that capture what a passage means, so you can search by meaning and chat can find the right passages.
- Saving and organizing: we use AI to clean up saved articles, transcripts, and podcasts, and to fill in missing details such as a title or author.
- Page photos: we use AI to turn a photo of a book page into highlights. In Readwise Books, we also use it to read your place in a book from a photo when you log a reading session.
- Recommendations: we may use the titles on your shelves to recommend books or suggest readers with similar taste to follow.
- Bookshop catalog: we use AI to group the editions of the same work into a single entry; classify titles by market, category, genre, and subgenre; write short book descriptions from the details publishers provide; and improve search results.
- Community safety: we may use AI to help detect spam, fake reviews, manipulation, or content that breaks the Community Guidelines. AI only assists: a person reviews before we take serious action against an account or its content. See How we moderate in the Community Guidelines.
These follow the same rules as every other AI feature, described in Data and AI providers.
5. Data and AI providers
We send each AI provider only the data needed for the feature you use, usually a selection of text and its surrounding context. Our agreements with the providers that run AI models say that they:
- never train on your data. They may not use your data, your prompts, or book content to train or improve their models, and we never turn on any option to share data for that purpose; and
- keep it only briefly. They may keep the data we send them for a limited time, usually up to 30 days, only to monitor for abuse and meet legal requirements. They do not use it for anything else.
How long we keep your AI chats, and who on our team can see them, is described in the Privacy Policy.
If you add your own OpenAI API key in Readwise Reader, requests that use it are sent under your OpenAI account and its terms, so the commitments above do not cover them.
Our AI providers
We currently use these AI providers. This list may change as we add or replace providers.
- OpenAI: Ghostreader, Define, Lookup, Translate, Session Recaps, Daily Review audio, turning photos of book pages into highlights, reading your place in a book from a photo, and preparing saved documents and transcripts.
- OpenRouter: sends AI chat and search requests, and reader suggestions in Readwise Books, to models from Google (Gemini), OpenAI, and other model providers.
- Inworld, Unreal Speech, and Microsoft Azure: text-to-speech.
- Deepgram: turning podcast audio and dictated questions into text.
- Google Cloud Vision: turning photos of book pages into highlights.
- Turbopuffer: storing the embeddings that power search and chat.
- Modal: hosting the open-source AI models we use, for example, to clean up PDFs.
6. Limitations and accuracy
AI features are provided “as is” and “as available.” Their output may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or out of date.
In plain terms: AI features can be wrong. Ghostreader is a reading companion, not an authority, so when it matters, check the source. Text-to-speech can also make mistakes, like mispronouncing a word or misreading text.
If an AI feature gives you a wrong, harmful, or low-quality result, tell us in the app or at hello@readwise.io. Your reports help us fix problems and make these features better.
Our liability for AI output is governed by Limitation of liability in the Terms of Service.
7. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as our practices, technology, or legal obligations change. When we do, we update the “Last updated” date at the top. If a change is material, we tell you before it takes effect, for example in the app, on our website, or by email.
8. Contact information
For questions about this AI Policy, email us at hello@readwise.io. Our mailing address is in Contact information in the Terms of Service.