Effective and last updated: September 26, 2026
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and College Decoded LLC ("College Decoded", "we") and govern your use of collegedecoded.com, the College Decoded mobile apps, and related services (the "Services"). By creating an account, subscribing, or using the Services, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.
College Decoded provides college search, cost and financial-aid estimates, scholarship and career exploration, credit-by-exam planning, application and deadline tracking, test prep, and AI-assisted guidance. The Services are educational planning tools. They are not professional counseling, financial, tax, or legal advice.
We use public data sources (listed on our Data Sources page) and our own estimates. Data can be incomplete or out of date, and colleges change their prices, deadlines and credit policies. Check important decisions against the college, scholarship provider, testing organization, or government source.
You may use the Services for your own or your family's educational planning, or, with a counselor account, for your professional work. You agree not to:
Our AI features (such as the AI Counselor, essay feedback and College Plan reports) give guidance to help you learn and plan. Do not submit AI-generated essays or answers as your own work, and follow your school's and each college's rules. AI output can be inaccurate or incomplete; you are responsible for reviewing it before you rely on it. How AI features handle your information, including the consent required for users under 18, is described in the Privacy Policy.
College Decoded has a Free plan and paid Basic, Plus and Premium subscriptions, billed monthly or annually. Current prices and features are on our Pricing page.
Every Basic, Plus and Premium subscription bought on our website starts with a 14-day free trial. You add a payment card to start; you are not charged during the trial. If you don't cancel before the trial ends, the subscription converts to a paid plan at the price shown at checkout and renews automatically.
A College Plan purchase also includes free access to subscription features: 14 days, or 30 days for adult learners. That access ends on its own and never renews or charges you.
Subscriptions renew at the end of each billing period at the then-current price until you cancel. We will give at least 30 days' notice before a price change applies to your subscription.
You can cancel at any time in your account settings. You keep access to paid features until the end of the period you have already paid for, and you are not charged again.
Payments are non-refundable, including for partial billing periods and unused time, except where the law requires a refund. The free trial is how to try a paid plan before paying.
College Plan reports and seasonal passes are one-time payments. A College Plan is non-refundable once it has been generated and delivered.
Subscriptions bought in the College Decoded iOS app are billed by Apple to your Apple ID, renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and are managed and cancelled in your Apple ID subscription settings. Apple handles refund requests for those purchases under its own policies.
Promotional codes may give temporary access or a discount, can expire, may have usage limits, and cannot be sold, transferred, or combined with other offers unless the code's terms say so.
Counselor accounts are for independent educational consultants and school counselors. Counselors who view student information through College Decoded must use it only to support those students, keep it confidential, and follow applicable privacy laws, including FERPA where it applies.
Free school counselor resource access is verified manually and can be denied or revoked. It includes guides, worksheets, calculators, share links and sample previews with sample data, and no student rosters, uploads, notes, records, messaging or caseload tools. Do not enter student names, emails, records, parent contact details or financial aid information into it.
Deadline reminder texts are an optional Premium feature for linked parents and guardians who verify their mobile number and check the consent box. By doing so you agree to receive recurring automated texts with application and financial-aid deadline reminders for the linked student. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Message frequency depends on the student's saved colleges and deadlines. Message and data rates may apply. We send texts only between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in your local time. Reply STOP to cancel at any time or HELP for help, or turn reminders off in your account. The student can turn off a linked parent's reminders. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
You own what you create and upload, such as essays, notes and profile details. You give College Decoded a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free permission to store, process and display it to provide and improve the Services for you and the people you choose to share with. The permission ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies kept as described in the Privacy Policy. We may remove content that breaks these Terms.
The Services, including our software, design, data compilations, scores, reports and the College Decoded name and logo, belong to College Decoded LLC or its licensors. We give you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Services under these Terms. Third-party data is used under its own license; see the Data Sources page.
The Services link to or work with other companies' services, including colleges' websites, payment processors, sign-in providers and AI providers. We are not responsible for their content, policies or practices. Some links may be affiliate links, which we label; a commission never changes our recommendations or search results.
You can stop using the Services and delete your account at any time from the Privacy Center. Deleting your account cancels any subscription billed by card immediately, without a refund; cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription in that store first. We may suspend or end access for a violation of these Terms, fraud, non-payment, abuse of AI features or automated use, or risk to other users or to College Decoded. Before deleting your account you can download your data from the Privacy Center.
We do not guarantee admission, scholarships, financial aid, test scores, credit acceptance, savings, employment outcomes, or the accuracy of third-party data or AI output. The Services are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind to the extent the law allows.
To the maximum extent the law allows, College Decoded LLC is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or opportunities, arising from your use of or inability to use the Services.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless College Decoded LLC and its officers, employees and affiliates from claims and expenses arising from your violation of these Terms or misuse of the Services.
College Decoded LLC is a Delaware limited liability company with its principal place of business in Tennessee. These Terms are governed by Delaware law, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be resolved by binding individual arbitration under the American Arbitration Association's rules, held in Tennessee. You and College Decoded waive the right to a class action or class-wide arbitration.
We may update these Terms. We will notify account holders by email or in the app at least 30 days before a material change takes effect. If you keep using the Services after that, the new Terms apply; if you don't agree, stop using the Services and cancel your subscription.
Questions about these Terms: [email protected].
College Decoded LLC