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No. LangBuddy translates on the device first, using the translation engine built into your phone. That is free, works offline, and needs no account. An API key buys the things a machine translator cannot give you — the pronunciation, the short explanation, the example sentence, and made-up quizzes.

Open Settings ▸ AI service, choose a provider, and use the link there to open that provider’s console. Create a key in your own account, then paste it into the field — it saves itself. Test checks that it works.

Keys are pay-as-you-go and you are billed by the provider, not by us. Settings shows roughly what a hundred words costs on the model you picked. DeepSeek is the cheapest of the ones offered and is the default.

It is stored in the iOS Keychain or the Android encrypted preference store, on your device. It is sent only to the provider it belongs to, over HTTPS, directly from your phone. We never see it, and it is never included in diagnostics or backups.

A capture that is too long for the model you chose comes back cut off. The app refuses an over-long capture while you are typing it and says what the limit is — shorten it, capture it in pieces, or choose a model that writes more. If a request simply failed, the entry keeps a retry button.

Writing a quiz means writing every question in every language in one reply, so a minute or two is normal. If it fails, ask for fewer questions. Remember that a made-up quiz is answered in one language by design.

Settings ▸ Data exports the whole vocabulary as a JSON file, or as an Anki deck. The JSON can be imported back into LangBuddy on another device; importing never overwrites or deletes anything, it only adds what is missing.

The app writes periodic backups into its own folder on the device and keeps the last few. Those are local: if you lose the phone, they go with it. For a real backup, export to JSON and keep the file somewhere of your own.

Not for anything the app does today. A hosted engine, and hosted storage that survives a change of phone, are being considered for later; those would need one. They would be options alongside the device and your own API key, never a replacement, and the privacy policy is updated before any of it ships.

Delete individual words by swiping them away in the list, or uninstall the app to remove everything at once — vocabulary, settings, local backups and your stored API key. Nothing is held on any server, so there is nothing left behind.

Detection is a guess, and a word can belong to more than one language (Gift is German for poison). Open the word and use Language: … — change; the app records it as your decision and translates again, and nothing overrules it afterwards.

Yes, please — the report form, or the email address above. Concrete cases help most: the word you captured, what you expected, and what you got.