Frequently Asked Questions

eterlearn is a two-phase learning tool. First, it explains anything — a dense article, a confusing document, a research paper, a piece of code — at the level you choose. Then, when you're ready, a Socratic challenger tests your understanding through guided questions rather than just handing you the answers. The goal is real understanding, not just familiarity.

Most AI tools give you the answer. eterlearn is designed to make you earn it. The explanation phase meets you at your level with a consistent structure that's easier to absorb. The tutoring phase won't let you move on until you've demonstrated understanding — not just recognized it. The interface removes the "what should I prompt?" friction that most people hit when trying to use AI for learning.

Yes, eterlearn is currently free to use. A free account is required to use the service.

Yes. An account is required to use eterlearn. Signing in gives you a personal library to save and revisit your sessions, and ensures your session history is never lost.

eterlearn works well with almost any text-based content: research papers, textbook chapters, technical documentation, news articles, legal clauses, code snippets, lecture notes, and more. It works best when the content is substantive — a paragraph or more. Very short inputs (a single sentence or definition) may not generate a rich enough explanation to make the tutoring phase worthwhile.

eterlearn is optimized for English. It may produce explanations in other languages if the source content is in another language, but quality and consistency are not guaranteed outside of English at this time.

Pick something you genuinely want to understand — not something trivially easy, and not something so advanced it would take weeks of background knowledge. Paste it in, pick your level honestly (don't pick "expert" if you're not one — the explanation will be less useful), and read the explanation fully before jumping into the tutoring session.

Pick the level that matches where you actually are, not where you want to be:

• 5-year-old — no background knowledge, everyday words only, pure analogy
• Schooler — some general education, familiar with school subjects, no domain expertise
• Collegegrad — comfortable with academic reading, some domain familiarity
• Expert — deep domain knowledge, wants precision and nuance over simplification

Picking too high a level will produce an explanation that skips context you need. Picking too low will produce one that's too simplified to be useful for the tutoring phase. When in doubt, go one level lower than you think — you can always go deeper.

Read the explanation fully first. Don't skim it. The tutoring session works best when you've made a genuine attempt to understand the explanation and have formed at least a rough mental model. The Socratic challenger will probe that model — the more you've engaged with the explanation, the more productive the session will be.

• Strict — the challenger never reveals the answer, even if you ask directly. Best for studying, memorization, and situations where you want to genuinely test yourself.
• Coach — Socratic by default, but reveals relevant answers after three consecutive wrong attempts on the same point. Best for homework or learning new material where getting stuck is counterproductive.
• Collaborator — answers when asked, then offers to explain why. Best for professionals under time pressure or adult learners who want depth over drilling.

Once you start a tutoring session, the mode is locked. Choose before you begin.

No, that's the point — especially in Strict mode. The Socratic challenger is designed to guide you to the answer through questions, not hand it to you. If you're genuinely stuck, try answering in smaller pieces: what do you know for certain? What are you unsure about? The challenger will meet you where you are and ask simpler questions if needed. If you need the answer directly, switch to Coach or Collaborator mode at the start of your next session.

Yes. Every session gets a permanent shareable URL at eterlearn.com/e/[session-id]. Anyone with the link can view your explanation and tutoring conversation. Use this to share study sessions, show your reasoning trail, or collaborate with classmates or colleagues.

Yes. All your sessions are saved to your personal library and accessible indefinitely. Find them under your account in the library view.

Most productive sessions are 10–20 messages (5–10 turns). If you're finding the session unproductive after 10 turns, it's usually more effective to re-read the explanation and start a fresh session than to continue. Sessions are capped at 40 messages total.

Do not submit:

• Passwords, API keys, or authentication credentials of any kind
• Personal identification information (social security numbers, passport numbers, etc.)
• Medical records or health information about yourself or others
• Financial account details (bank accounts, credit card numbers, etc.)
• Confidential business information you are not authorized to share externally
• Personal information about other people without their consent
• Content covered by a non-disclosure agreement

Content you submit is sent to Anthropic's API for processing and stored in our database. Treat it as you would any third-party cloud service — only submit what you're comfortable sharing outside your device.

Yes. Session content — the text you submitted and the explanation and tutoring conversation generated — is stored in your personal library and retained until you delete it or close your account.

Content you submit is processed by Anthropic's API to generate explanations and tutoring responses. Anthropic does not use API inputs to train its models by default. For full details, refer to our Privacy Policy.

No. We do not sell, share, or monetize your data. For full details on what we collect and how we use it, refer to our Privacy Policy.

Email contact@eterlearn.com with the subject line "Delete my account." We will delete your account and all associated data within 30 days. For full details on your data rights, refer to our Privacy Policy.

Yes. Rate limits apply to all users to keep the service available and affordable for everyone.

You'll see a clear message telling you the limit you've hit and how long until you can try again. Nothing is lost — your current session remains accessible in your library.

Yes. Submitted content is capped at 50,000 characters (roughly 8,000–10,000 words). Content above this limit will be truncated with a warning. Individual tutor messages are capped at 4,000 characters. Tutoring sessions are capped at 40 messages total (20 turns).

PDFs must be under 10 MB. Image-based PDFs (scanned documents with no extractable text) are not supported — if you upload one, you'll see a message asking you to paste the text directly instead.

• Text — paste any text directly into the input field
• URL — paste a link and eterlearn will extract the readable content from the page
• PDF — upload a PDF and eterlearn will extract the text (text-based PDFs only; scanned/image PDFs are not supported)

If you see an error on your PDF, it's most likely an image-based PDF — a scanned document where the pages are images rather than text. eterlearn cannot extract text from these. The solution is to copy the text manually and paste it into the text input instead.

A few common reasons:

• The page is behind a paywall or login
• The page is heavily JavaScript-rendered and the content isn't accessible to extraction
• The site blocks automated access

If URL extraction fails, copy the text from the page manually and paste it into the text input.

eterlearn uses Anthropic's Claude models. Explanations are generated by Claude Haiku (optimized for speed and clarity). Tutoring sessions are powered by Claude Sonnet (optimized for reasoning and staying in character). Both are state-of-the-art models — the choice between them is about matching the right model to the right task, not quality vs. budget.

We aim for high availability but do not guarantee uptime. eterlearn is an independent project without an enterprise SLA. If the service is temporarily unavailable, try again shortly.

eterlearn supports two sign-in methods: a magic link sent to your email (no password required) and Google OAuth. Both are free and take under a minute.

Check your spam folder first. If it's not there, try requesting another link. If the problem persists, email contact@eterlearn.com.

Yes. eterlearn is fully responsive and works on phones and tablets. The tutoring chat interface is optimized for smaller screens — the explanation collapses into an expandable section so the chat has full screen space.

Yes. eterlearn is an educational tool and should be used as one. Submitting illegal, harmful, or abusive content, attempting to circumvent rate limits, scraping the service, or using it to harm others are all prohibited. For the full list, refer to our Terms of Use.

Personal and professional learning use is fine — using eterlearn to prep for a work presentation, learn a new skill for your job, or study for a professional certification is exactly what it's designed for. Reselling eterlearn's outputs as a standalone product or using it to build a competing service is not permitted. For details, refer to our Terms of Use.

AI-generated content can contain errors. eterlearn is a learning aid, not an authoritative source. Always verify important information — especially anything medical, legal, financial, or safety-critical — from primary or professional sources. If you encounter a consistent or significant quality issue, let us know at contact@eterlearn.com.

Email contact@eterlearn.com for anything — support questions, data requests, feedback, or to report a problem. We aim to respond within 48 hours.

Email contact@eterlearn.com with a description of what happened and, if possible, a link to the session where the issue occurred. Feedback on explanation quality, tutor behavior, and feature requests is genuinely welcome.