Version 2026-09-15
Terms of Service
These terms are a draft. Runo is a preview service operated by one person, and this document has not been reviewed by a lawyer. It describes how the service works today, and it will be replaced before Runo accepts payment.
1. The service
Runo takes a file you upload, divides it into chapters, and narrates it using an AI text-to-speech model. You receive audio files, a player, and an audiobook you can download. Runo retrieves nothing on your behalf: every document in your library is one you placed there.
All narration is AI-generated speech. No human reads anything aloud. Every file is watermarked and tagged as machine-generated.
2. Accounts
Accounts are currently issued by invitation. You are responsible for keeping your password, if you have one, and your recovery code confidential, for taking reasonable care of the devices or password manager that hold your passkeys, and for activity under your account. Notify Runo if you believe someone else has obtained access to it.
Once your account has a passkey, you may turn its password off and set one again from your account page. Keep your recovery code. If you lose your passkeys and the code and have no password, Runo can return the account to you only through support. That takes at least three days and requires access to the account's email address. Without that mailbox, the account may not be recoverable.
You may delete your account at any time from your account page. Deletion is immediate and permanent. Your books, your audio and your playback history are deleted with it and cannot be restored.
3. Your content
You are responsible for the text you upload. Upload only works you own, works you have purchased, works in the public domain, or works you otherwise hold the right to have narrated for your own listening.
Runo is for personal listening. Do not use it to produce audio that you publish, sell or distribute unless you hold the rights to do so. Do not use it to make a person appear to say something they did not say.
Do not remove copy protection in order to use Runo. Some ebooks are sold with DRM. Removing it is unlawful in the EU and in many other countries, including for a book you have paid for and for your own use. Runo refuses files it can identify as protected, and you must not upload a file whose protection has been removed.
Runo does not review what you upload, and your library is private to you. This is a consequence of how the service is built and is not permission to upload material you have no right to narrate. Runo has no way to share a book or its audio with another person: there are no public links, and nothing you upload is visible to another account.
4. Reporting illegal content
If you believe content on Runo is illegal, whether because it infringes your copyright or for any other reason, report it here. Anyone may use that form and no account is required. It is the notice-and-action mechanism required by Article 16 of the EU Digital Services Act.
Reports may also be sent to dmca@runoaudio.com. The form requests everything required, so a report submitted through it is dealt with faster.
Runo confirms receipt of every report. A person reviews it; no automated system takes these decisions. Runo then tells you what was decided and what you can do if you disagree with it.
Where Runo acts on a report, the affected person is given reasons. The audio produced is deleted, access to the upload is blocked, and the account holder receives a written statement of what was done, the facts relied on, the grounds, and how to challenge it. An account against which reports are repeatedly upheld may be suspended.
5. Voices
The voices Runo offers are licensed for this use and their provenance is documented. You may not use Runo to clone a real person's voice without that person's clear permission. Voice upload is not available at present; when it is, it will require that permission explicitly.
6. Usage limits
Each plan includes a monthly quantity of narration, measured in hours of audio produced, and a limit on the number of books an account may hold. Narration consumes real computing time, so these limits are enforced rather than advisory. Your usage is shown on your account page.
7. Payment
Runo does not currently charge for anything. Plans exist and their limits apply, but no money changes hands and no payment details are collected. You will be informed before that changes.
8. Availability and liability
Runo is a preview service. It may be unavailable, may lose queued work, and may change without notice. Retain your own copy of anything you would not want to lose; the audio is downloadable for that purpose.
The service is provided as it is, without warranties. To the extent permitted by law, Runo is not liable for indirect or consequential loss. Nothing in these terms limits rights you hold as a consumer that cannot be limited, including your rights under Finnish and EU consumer law.
9. Termination and suspension
You may stop using Runo and delete your account at any time.
Runo may block an upload, or suspend an account, that breaches these terms, that is used to infringe copyright, or that places the service at risk. Where it does, you receive a written statement of reasons: what was done, why, on what basis, whether any automated system was involved, and what you can do about it. It remains available at /restricted, and a suspended account can sign in far enough to read it.
A suspended account may still download everything Runo holds about it. That right is not suspended. Where an upload is blocked, the audio is deleted immediately; the text extracted from your file is retained, inaccessible, for six months so that you have material with which to contest the decision, and is deleted thereafter. Deleting your account erases all of it immediately instead, and nothing in these terms prevents you from doing so.
10. Changes to these terms
Where these terms change materially, the version below changes and you are asked to accept the new one. Runo records which version each account accepted, and when.
11. Governing law
These terms are governed by Finnish law. If you are a consumer, you retain the protection of the mandatory law of your country of residence.
12. Contact
support@runoaudio.com. This is Runo's single point of contact for users under Article 12 of the Digital Services Act. A person answers it: it is not an automated system, and you are not required to use a form or a chatbot to reach Runo.
It is also Runo's single point of contact for Member State authorities, the European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services under Article 11. Correspondence is accepted in Finnish, Swedish or English.
To report content you believe is illegal, use the reporting form rather than this address. It collects what the law requires, so a report submitted through it does not have to be returned to you for further detail.