The common questions.
Twenty questions we hear most often. Grouped by topic. If your question is not here, the contact page has the email channels for the relevant team.
About the product
What is Papyra?
Papyra is an AI-assisted academic writing tool. The principal feature is the generation of essay drafts and document corrections with citations that are verified against real, published academic sources before any reference enters your bibliography. Operated by Aithena LLC, a Colorado company. Read more on the About page.
How is Papyra different from ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini?
General-purpose AI assistants generate citations the same way they generate any other text — by predicting plausible-looking strings based on patterns in their training data. The result is that a meaningful fraction of the references they produce do not correspond to real papers. Papyra separates citation from generation: references are retrieved from CrossRef and OpenAlex (real academic databases) before they appear in your draft. The DOI resolves. The source is real.
What can I produce with Papyra?
Three main outputs: Document Correction (surgical edits to a draft you already have, including citation verification and replacement), academic essay drafts with verified citations, and academic presentations with the same citation guarantees. The exact features available to you depend on your plan and the credits in your account.
What languages does Papyra support?
Papyra supports more than fifty languages for input and output. Citation verification works against the same global databases (CrossRef, OpenAlex) regardless of the language of the surrounding draft. Essay quality is highest in English, but defensible academic output is achievable in any language we support.
Is Papyra a real-time tool or do I have to wait?
Document Correction and most generation tasks are processed asynchronously — you submit, and the output is delivered when the citation verification pass completes. The pipeline includes generation, citation retrieval, verification against external databases, and assembly. Typical turnaround is minutes, not hours.
Citations and accuracy
Are the citations actually real?
Yes. Every reference in a Papyra output is retrieved from CrossRef (the registry of digital object identifiers covering 140+ million scholarly works) or OpenAlex (the comprehensive open catalog of scholarly publications). The DOI resolves on doi.org. The journal exists. The paper is real and findable. We do not insert AI-generated citation strings into your bibliography. See the AI & Citations guide for the technical detail.
What if a citation cannot be verified?
If our verification system cannot resolve a candidate reference, the system either replaces it with a verified alternative or flags it before delivery. You will not receive an output with a reference we could not verify. If you do find a citation in a Papyra output that you cannot locate in any database, this is a system error and we treat it as such — you are entitled to either a re-generation or a refund. See the refund policy for the formal process.
Can Papyra cite specific authors I want to include?
Yes, with caveats. You can specify required references (by DOI, by full citation, or by author + year). The system will incorporate those into the draft if and only if they verify against the academic databases. References that don't verify won't be silently swapped — you'll know they were excluded and why.
What citation styles does Papyra support?
APA, MLA, Chicago (both Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date), and Harvard variants. The full reference for each style is in the Citation Guide. The APA spoke is the most complete and is the right starting point for most US academic work.
Should I still verify the citations myself?
Yes. Even though our citations are retrieved from real databases, you should spot-check that each source actually supports the claim attributed to it. Verification of existence (the paper is real) and verification of relevance (the paper says what we attributed to it) are different operations. The first is automated; the second remains your responsibility. Plan thirty seconds per reference for the second pass.
Academic policy & AI detection
Will my professor catch this?
Papyra is not designed to evade detection. Whether a professor identifies an output as AI-assisted depends on (a) what your institution's policy on AI assistance is, (b) the AI detection tools they run, and (c) how thoroughly you have engaged with and revised the output before submission. Our Academic Integrity page explains our position in detail. The honest answer: if your institution prohibits AI assistance, do not use Papyra for that course or assignment.
Is using Papyra cheating?
Depends entirely on what your institution permits and what your specific course policy says. Most universities now distinguish between permitted AI use (drafting, brainstorming, citation help, language refinement) and prohibited AI use (substituting for the academic engagement the course requires). Papyra is built for the first kind of use. Read your course's syllabus on AI before assuming any specific use is acceptable.
What if I need to disclose AI use?
If your institution's policy requires students to disclose AI assistance in submitted work, disclose it. Papyra is not built to hide its provenance. We do not provide tools to scrub or obscure the AI involvement in generated content. The user remains responsible for compliance with disclosure requirements.
Can AI detection tools (Turnitin, GPTZero) identify Papyra output?
Possibly. AI detection tools have well-documented accuracy issues — false positive rates can be substantial, especially for non-native English writers. We don't optimize against these tools and we don't recommend treating them as reliable measures. If you receive a false positive on your own original writing, the Citation Guide covers how to defend a paper that has been incorrectly flagged. If you receive a true positive on a Papyra-generated paper at an institution that prohibits AI use, the appropriate response is to engage with your institution honestly.
What if I'm falsely accused of using AI when I didn't?
This is unfortunately common, particularly for non-native English speakers and students with formal writing styles. The defense is documentary: keep version history of your draft, save research notes, retain your original sources. The AI & Citations guide covers the false-accusation scenario in detail. If you are facing an academic integrity hearing for work you did yourself, document the writing process and request a substantive review rather than relying on the detection tool's verdict.
Billing, refunds & account
How does pricing work?
Papyra is sold via subscription tiers and prepaid credits. The specific options and per-deliverable cost depend on the plan you choose at checkout. Subscription tiers include monthly credit allocations that reset (and do not roll over) at the start of each cycle. Prepaid credits expire one year from purchase. The terms of service have the formal version.
What is your refund policy?
Charges are generally non-refundable. We make exceptions for (a) system failure or undelivered output, (b) verifiably broken citations that cannot be resolved despite our verification system, and (c) statutory consumer rights in jurisdictions where they apply (notably the EU 14-day right of withdrawal and equivalent UK rights). The full refund policy includes the exact eligibility criteria and process.
What happens to my data?
Your inputs and outputs are stored only as long as your account is active. We do not sell personal data. We share necessary data with the AI providers we use (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI when applicable), citation databases (CrossRef, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar), payment processor (Stripe), and email service (Resend). We do not use your inputs to train AI models without your explicit consent. The full privacy policy details every data flow.
Can I delete my account?
Yes. Account deletion is available in your account dashboard. Upon deletion, your data is purged from our active systems within thirty days, with longer retention only where required by law (e.g., tax records). If you cannot find the deletion option in your dashboard, email us from your account address and we will process it manually.
How do I cancel a subscription?
Cancellation is available in your account dashboard. The cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing cycle — you retain access to paid features until the end of that period. There is no pro-rated refund for partial periods. After the period ends, your account remains intact (you can resubscribe later without losing your data) but you lose access to paid-tier features and unused subscription-tier credits.