GOOD TALK

Terms of service

Last updated November 2, 2026

These terms are the agreement between you and Good Talk (“we”, “us”) for using goodtalk.online. By creating an account, booking, buying or teaching on Good Talk, you agree to them. How we handle your data is in our privacy policy.

1. Accounts

• You must be 18 or older to have an account. A parent or guardian can sign a child up for a group class from their own account and is responsible for that child’s place.
• One account is for one person. Give us accurate details and keep your password to yourself; you are responsible for what happens under your account.
• Tell us at hello@goodtalk.online if you think someone else has used your account.

2. What Good Talk is

• Good Talk is where learners find teachers, book and pay for lessons, take them in our online classroom, and review afterwards. It is also where learners find language partners to practise with for free.
• Teachers are independent. They aren’t our employees. They set their own prices and hours and are responsible for their lessons. We check teachers before listing them, but we can’t promise any particular result from lessons.
• Language partners are other learners, not teachers and not checked by us. Practice is free and stays on Good Talk.
• We work to keep the site and classroom running but can’t promise they will always be available or that every call will connect. Every teacher keeps a backup meeting link for that reason.

3. Booking and paying

• Prices are in US dollars, set by each teacher and shown before you pay. The price is fixed when you order; later changes don’t affect it.
• You pay through PayPal. An unpaid booking is held for 30 minutes and then cancelled. If your payment arrives later and the time is still free, we restore the booking; otherwise we refund you.
• Trial lessons: one trial with each teacher, and one unfinished trial at a time. If you miss a trial lesson, you can’t book further trials.
• Free speaking check: once per person.
• Lesson packs are for one teacher and one lesson length. A 5-lesson pack lasts 90 days and a 10-lesson pack 180 days from when your payment is confirmed. Each lesson must start before the pack expires; lessons not used by then are lost.

4. Cancellations, absences and refunds

• A cancelled or missed trial that is refunded also gives you back your trial with that teacher. If a lesson returns to a pack with less than 7 days left, the pack is extended to 7 days from then.
• Unused pack lessons can be refunded while the pack is valid: the pack price, minus the lessons used at the pack’s per-lesson price.
• If something went wrong, report it on the lesson’s page within 48 hours of the end. We check with you and the teacher and then decide. A lesson nobody reports a problem with counts as held 48 hours after it ends.
• Refunds are made by hand to the PayPal account you paid from (or the way you paid, for lessons paid outside Good Talk).
• If a teacher leaves Good Talk, unused pack lessons are refunded in the same way.

5. Group classes

• The price is per person per lesson, paid for the whole class when you sign up. Group classes take place on the class’s meeting link (such as Google Meet or Zoom).
• A class starts only if enough people have paid by its sign-up deadline, at least 48 hours before the first lesson. If it doesn’t start, everyone who paid gets a full refund.
• Missed lessons aren’t refunded, and single lessons can’t be cancelled. The teacher’s prep and notes stay on each lesson’s page.
• If the teacher can’t teach a lesson, it moves to after the last lesson. A class can move up to two lessons; after that it ends early and lessons not taught are refunded. If the teacher doesn’t come to a lesson, that lesson is refunded.
• If a class offers a lower price once enough people join, the difference is refunded to everyone who qualifies.

6. Books

• Books are digital downloads (PDF and audio) for your own personal use. Please don’t share, copy for others or resell them.
• You can get a refund until you first download or play any file from the book. By downloading or playing a file you ask for the book to be delivered straight away, and you accept that from then on you can no longer cancel the purchase.
• If you later get the same book with a group class, we refund the book you bought separately.

7. How everyone should behave

Lessons and practice only work if people feel safe. On Good Talk you must not:

• harass, threaten or insult anyone, or send sexual, hateful or violent content;
• record a call without the other person’s agreement;
• use language partners to ask for money, sell things, or move people to other apps (contact details aren’t allowed in partner profiles, greetings or chat);
• pretend to be someone else, send spam, or post things you don’t have the right to share;
• try to break, overload, scrape or get around the security of the site.

Use the block and report options on partner cards, or write to hello@goodtalk.online. We may remove content, hide profiles, or suspend or close accounts that break these rules.

8. If you teach on Good Talk

• You apply and we decide whether to list you. Keep your profile, prices and availability accurate, and keep a working backup meeting link.
• You teach as an independent contractor and are responsible for your own taxes and any permits you need.
• Platform fee. For one-to-one lessons with students who found you on Good Talk, the fee depends on how many paid lessons you’ve had with the same student: 20% for lessons 1 to 9, 15% for lessons 10 to 29, and 10% from lesson 30. Students you bring yourself (through your invite link, a group class only you recruit for, or lessons you record as paid to you directly) pay 10% from the first lesson, one-to-one and in group classes, with a minimum of $0.50 per payment. You keep the whole price of trial lessons. Group classes are 10% when only you recruit, and 20% for other students when the class is listed on Good Talk. PayPal’s fees are on us. Your pricing page shows what you receive.
• Lessons paid to you directly. You can record lessons your students paid you outside Good Talk. Once held, each costs $1 (a group class place, $0.50 a lesson); the first $5 each month is free and no month costs more than $29. We take it off your next payout, or you pay it by PayPal within 14 days. While a bill is overdue you can’t record more of these lessons; nothing you recorded is removed.
• Your students stay yours. We don’t recommend other teachers to students you bring to Good Talk: their pages centre on you, and our notifications and emails to them don’t suggest anyone else. They can still look at other teachers themselves.
• Earnings. You earn for a lesson when it is held, when the student doesn’t come, or when the student cancels less than 24 hours before. Earnings become payable 48 hours after the lesson if no problem is open. We send payouts monthly once you’re owed at least $50, at present by WeChat transfer in RMB at the Bank of China rate on the day. If a lesson is refunded after you were paid, we take it off your next payout.
• Cancelling a lesson needs a reason. Repeated cancellations at short notice may mean we stop listing you.
• We may change the fees or payout terms. We’ll give you at least 30 days’ notice, and changes never apply to lessons already booked.

9. Content

• You keep the rights to what you write or upload: profiles, lesson prep, courses, notes and messages. You give us permission to store it, show it to the people it’s meant for, and, for anything you make public, show it on the site. For a course you publish, that includes letting other Good Talk teachers make their own copy to teach from, if we offer that option.
• Only post what you have the right to share.
• The Good Talk name, site and platform materials belong to us. Teachers’ books and materials belong to their authors.

10. Liability

• Good Talk is provided as it is. As far as the law allows, we don’t give promises beyond what these terms say.
• As far as the law allows, we are not responsible for indirect losses, and our total responsibility to you is limited to what you paid Good Talk in the 12 months before the claim.
• Nothing in these terms limits responsibility that can’t be limited by law, or takes away rights you have under the consumer laws where you live.

11. Ending your account

• You can stop using Good Talk at any time and ask us to close your account. Unused pack lessons are refunded as described above.
• We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms. If we close your account for a reason that isn’t your fault, we refund lessons you’ve paid for and not taken.

12. Changes and contact

When we change these terms we update the date at the top. If a change matters, we’ll tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect; if you keep using Good Talk after that, the new terms apply.

If something goes wrong, please write to us first at hello@goodtalk.online. We’ll try to sort it out with you.