Terms of service

1. Who we are

Custom Crossword (customcrossword.app) is run by 1001793541 Ontario Inc., trading as Custom Crossword ("we", "us"). You can reach us at [email protected]. By using the site you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use it.

2. The service

Custom Crossword lets you make crossword puzzles from words you choose, write their clues, share them by link so others can solve them in a browser (alone, or against friends in a race), and buy print-ready PDFs of them. Some features are paid, as described on Pricing. We keep improving the service and may add, change or remove features; if we remove something you've paid for, we'll tell you and refund what's fair.

3. Accounts

You can make and share puzzles without an account. But to keep your puzzles across devices, use the AI clue writer, or buy anything, you need a free account, which you open by signing in with your email address or your Google account. Keep access to that email or Google account secure: anyone who can sign in as you can use your account.

You must be at least 13 years old to open an account (or older, if the law where you live requires it). A teacher may make and share puzzles for a class; pupils solving a shared puzzle don't need an account.

4. Your puzzles

What you make is yours. You keep every right you have in the words, clues and titles you put into a puzzle. That doesn't make any word or clue yours alone: everyday words, the theme words we suggest and short clues turn up in other people's puzzles too, by coincidence, and that's fine. So that we can run the service, you give us permission to store them, lay them out as a crossword, show them to anyone who opens your puzzle's link, and make the PDFs you ask for. That permission ends when you delete the puzzle, except for copies in our private backups and copies others have already printed.

Shared puzzles are unlisted, not secret. Anyone who has the link can open the puzzle, and links can be forwarded. Don't put anything in a puzzle you wouldn't want its solvers, and the people they might pass it to, to see.

The site, its software (including the engine that builds the grids), the grid layout and the PDFs' design are ours. You may print and copy the PDFs you buy as often as you like, for yourself, your family and friends, your event, your classroom or your workplace. Selling the PDFs, or copies of them, as a product of your own needs our written permission.

5. What you may not do

• Put anything in a puzzle (including a race nickname) that is unlawful, hateful, harassing, sexually explicit, or that threatens or bullies anyone.
• Share someone else's private information (addresses, phone numbers, health details and the like) without their permission.
• Use material you don't have the right to use.
• Try to break, overload, probe or get around the limits of the site, or reach puzzles or data that aren't yours.
• Use automated means to make puzzles in bulk, or to copy the site.
• Copy, decompile, disassemble or reverse-engineer the site's software, including its crossword engines, or use any of it outside this site.

We may remove a puzzle or a nickname that breaks these rules, and close an account that keeps breaking them. To report a puzzle, write to [email protected] with its link.

6. Payments

Prices are shown in Canadian dollars in Canada and in US dollars elsewhere (see Pricing); tax is added at checkout: any sales tax the law requires where you live (such as GST/HST in Canada, VAT, or US sales tax). Your bank may convert the charge into your own currency.

Who you pay. Our PDFs and plans are sold through Link, Stripe's checkout: Stripe's company Sold through Link, LLC resells them to you on our behalf, as the seller of record. It takes your payment, works out the tax, collects it and pays it to the tax authorities, and emails your receipts, and your card statement shows the charge as LINK.COM* followed by our name. By paying you also accept Link's terms and Stripe's terms for buyers. We never see or store your card number. We remain responsible to you for the PDFs and plans themselves, and for our refund policy.

• A single PDF (CA$3 in Canada, US$3 elsewhere) is a one-time purchase for one puzzle. You can download it again whenever you're signed in, and changes to its title, clues or paper size are free. Changing its words makes a new puzzle.
• Plus and Pro are subscriptions, billed in advance each month or each year, and they renew automatically at the then-current price until you cancel. Plus includes PDFs for 10 puzzles in each monthly period; unused ones don't carry over. Pro includes unlimited PDFs and the AI clue writer within fair use (see section 7).
• Cancelling: cancel any time from your account's billing page (or at link.com, where Link shows your purchases). Your plan keeps working to the end of the period you've paid for and then stops; we don't charge you again. PDFs you've bought or made under a plan stay yours.
• Price changes for a subscription are emailed to you at least 30 days before they apply, and you can cancel before then.
• Emails we send about your account and purchases (sign-in links, receipts, renewal and price notices) are part of the service. We send nothing else, such as news or offers, unless you've said yes to it.
• Refunds are covered by our refund policy.

7. The AI clue writer

The AI clue writer suggests clues for your answers. Its suggestions are made by a computer program and can be wrong, clumsy or unsuitable, so read them before you use them: the clues in your puzzle are your choice. Free accounts can use it on 1 puzzle a month. On Pro it's available for every puzzle within fair use, which means the amount a person making puzzles for themselves, their family, friends, class or team would use. If use goes well beyond that, we may slow it down or pause it. Now and then the clue writer may be unavailable for a while; everything else on the site keeps working in the meantime.

8. Availability and changes

We work hard to keep the site running, but we can't promise it will always be available or free of errors. We may change these terms; if a change matters, we'll say so on the site or by email before it applies, and the date at the top of this page will change. If you keep using the site after that, you accept the new terms.

9. Our responsibility to you

The site is provided "as is". As far as the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability to you for anything related to the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have by law that can't be limited, including your rights as a consumer.

10. Ending

You can stop using the site whenever you like, and ask us to delete your account at [email protected]. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms; if we close yours without a good reason, we'll refund any unused part of a subscription.

11. The law

These terms, and any dispute about them or the service, are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. Any claim about these terms or the service must be brought only in the courts of the Province of Ontario, Canada, and you and we both accept the jurisdiction of those courts. If we ever disagree, write to us first: most problems are solved with a conversation.

This section doesn't take away a right that the law where you live says can't be given up by agreement. If a court decides any part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest of these terms still apply.

12. Contact

1001793541 Ontario Inc., trading as Custom Crossword. Email: [email protected].