For adult learners

What is Alefba?

Alefba helps you learn to read and speak Persian: the letters, everyday words, how people really say them at home, and short practice conversations. It was first built for children of Persian-speaking families, and when you start you choose Me, an adult: the lessons are the same, but the conversations are with a coworker, your in-laws, a shopkeeper or a taxi driver, and the app speaks to you as a grown-up.

What does it keep?

On your device, and only there: the first name or nickname you type, your lessons and scores, and your settings. These are stored in the browser and never sent to us. You can clear them with Reset all progress in the Review tab.

If you sign in for the talks, Alefba's server keeps your email address, which plan you have, and the time each talk started, so it can count talks (those times are deleted after about 100 days). It never keeps what is said in a talk. Sign-in codes are sent through Resend, an email delivery service. Before a code is sent, a quick robot check from Cloudflare (called Turnstile) makes sure a person is asking, so nobody can use the site to send lots of emails.

Payments are handled by Stripe, so Alefba never sees your card number. One cookie keeps you signed in on that device. Alefba has no advertising, no analytics and no tracking cookies.

To delete your account, open the Review tab, then Account and plans, then Delete account, and enter the code we email you. That ends any plan, removes your email address and your talk counts from Alefba, and deletes your customer record at Stripe (Stripe keeps its own records of past payments). The only thing Alefba keeps is a scrambled code made from your email address, used just to remember that the free talks were used, so they aren't given again.

How do the AI talks work?

In a talk, you chat with a character, like a coworker, a relative or a shopkeeper, using the Persian words you've learned. The character's replies are written by Claude, an AI made by Anthropic. Every talk is labeled AI on screen, and the characters never pretend to be real people.

• Talks start only after you sign in with your email on that device, using a code we send. Signing out turns talks off again.
• What you type in a talk is sent through the Alefba server to Claude so it can write the reply. The Alefba server doesn't save the chats.
• Your name is never sent, and neither is your email address. Email addresses, phone numbers and links you type are removed before anything is sent.
• Anthropic handles the messages under its commercial terms, which don't allow it to train its AI on them. It deletes them within 30 days, except in limited cases, such as a message flagged for a safety review. See how long Anthropic keeps this data.
• With a plan, you can also practice speaking. In lessons, you say a word out loud and hear your own voice next to a native speaker's; that recording stays on your device and is never sent anywhere. In talks, you can say a reply instead of typing it: that recording goes to Cloudflare's speech-to-text, which turns it into text and then deletes it, and Cloudflare doesn't keep it or use it to train its AI. The app asks your browser for the microphone first, and you can turn it off in the browser's settings at any time.
• To stop the service being overused, the server briefly keeps the internet address a request came from, in memory only, for up to an hour. To limit sign-in emails, it also counts them under a scrambled code made from that address, deleted within three days.

What do the plans cost?

The alphabet and the first 3 levels are free, and every family gets 3 free talks. A plan opens all 12 levels (188 words and 24 adult conversations) and the AI talks:

Every plan also includes speaking practice: you say words out loud and compare your voice with a native speaker's.

Plans renew by themselves (monthly or yearly) until you cancel. To cancel, switch plans or update your card, open the Review tab, then Account and plans. When you cancel, your plan stays until the end of the time you've paid for. Switching plans or deleting the account needs a code we email to you.

The rules, in short

• You're an adult, and the account is yours.
• Plans renew by themselves until you cancel. If prices ever change, your plan keeps the price you signed up for.
• Refunds: if something isn't right, write to us within 14 days of a payment and we'll refund it.
• Unlimited means up to 30 talks a day, to keep things fair for everyone. We may pause an account that misuses the talks, for example by trying to make the characters say harmful things.

How do the talks stay safe?

Every character keeps the same rules as in the children's version: nothing unsuitable for young children, steering kindly away from anything upsetting, and never asking for personal details such as an address, workplace or phone number.

AI can still make mistakes, so take the characters' Persian as a friendly guide rather than the last word, and don't share personal information in a talk.

If a talk ever shows something that worries you, please tell us (see below) so we can fix it. Chats aren't saved, so a screenshot or a short description helps.