Tella makes personalized, illustrated, narrated stories starring your child. Each one is built around who they are — their name, how they look, what they love, and how they feel — so they see themselves as the hero of the adventure.

Tella is designed for children roughly 2–10. You tell us your child’s age so stories match their reading level and interests. A grown-up sets everything up and stays in control behind an admin code.

During setup you share a bit about your child: their name, appearance, favorite things, favorite animal, and a little about their personality. Every story is written and illustrated from those details — no two children get the same story.

No. You describe your child’s appearance with simple choices during setup. We never ask for or use photos of your child.

Tella works right in your web browser on phones, tablets, and computers. Native iOS and Android apps are on the way.

From the create page, pick your child, choose a length and any story options you like, and tap create. Tella writes, illustrates, and narrates the whole thing for you.

Most stories take about 30 seconds to a minute to create. The opening appears first so you can start reading while the rest finishes in the background, and longer stories take a little more time.

You choose per story: short (3–5 min), medium (6–8 min), or long (9–11 min).

A Mini is the short, free story new accounts get to try Tella. It’s a bite-size adventure — about 2 minutes and a handful of scenes — versus the longer short, medium, and long stories, which run 3–11 minutes with many more scenes. Minis are still fully personalized, illustrated, and narrated.

Short, medium, and long stories include one gently animated scene — a special moment that comes to life. Free Mini stories are illustrated and narrated, but don’t include the animated scene.

Subscribers can pick from our full library of art styles. Free stories and credit-pack stories use our default style.

Yes. Tap “Update Appearance” on the create page, or go to Settings → Child profile, to change your child’s look anytime — it updates how they’re drawn in every new story. You can update your child’s appearance up to 5 times a day, and your grown-up character up to 5 times a day as well. The limit resets at midnight (US Central Time), and updating appearance is always free — it never uses credits.

Yes. Every story is narrated aloud with word-by-word highlighting so early readers can follow along — and there’s a read-it-yourself mode for reading together.

Every story you make is saved to your library to enjoy again anytime. You can delete any you don’t want to keep.

Yes. Your child is always the hero, and up to 3 friends can join each story: your grown-up character, their favorite animal sidekick, and the story friends they’ve met in earlier adventures. Pick who joins on the create page — everyone keeps the same look from story to story.

When a story introduces a memorable new character — a kitten who kept knocking things over, a helpful dragon — Tella remembers them. They show up on the create page as story friends your child can invite back into future stories. A brand-new friend gets their permanent look the next story they join, and from then on they’re drawn the same way every time. You can pick up to 3 friends per story.

Any story can become a series. Choose “Continue a story” on the create page (or tap continue at the end of a story) to write the next chapter — it picks up where the last one left off, with the same characters, the same look, and a “previously on” thread connecting the adventures. Chapters are grouped together in your library.

The first two chapters can introduce new story friends. From chapter 3 on, the cast is settled — the story deepens with the characters your child already knows, the way a favorite book series does.

A credit is what it costs to make a story. A short story is 2 credits, a medium story is 4, and a long story is 6.

Yes — new accounts get 2 free credits to make a free Mini story and try Tella, no card required. Free trial credits are good for 14 days.

A subscription is the full Tella: monthly credits, the full art-style library, a profile for each child, priority generation, and credit rollover. Credit packs are just stories — the default style, one child profile, on the standard queue.

Starter is $7/mo (6 credits), Plus is $14/mo (14 credits), and Max is $28/mo (32 credits). Paying annually saves 20%. See the plans page for the full comparison.

On any subscription, up to 4 unused credits roll over into the next month — about two extra short stories. Rollover is a subscriber perk.

No. Purchased pack credits never expire, and they stick around even if you cancel a subscription.

Yes. Your credits work for any child profile on the account.

No — changing how your child or your grown-up character looks is always free and never uses credits. To keep things running smoothly, appearance updates are limited to 5 per day each (your child and the grown-up), resetting at midnight (US Central Time).

You’ll be prompted to subscribe or grab a credit pack to keep making stories. Everything you’ve already created stays in your library.

Go to Settings → Plan & credits and manage your plan. Cancelling stops future charges, and you keep access through the end of the period you’ve already paid for.

Subscriptions and credits are generally non-refundable — cancelling stops future charges but doesn’t refund the current period. Purchases made through the App Store or Google Play follow that store’s own refund policy.

Anytime, from Settings → Plan & credits. Upgrading unlocks more monthly credits and features right away.

On the web, payments are handled securely by Stripe (major cards). In the iOS or Android app, purchases go through your Apple or Google account.

Purchases made inside the iOS or Android app are managed in your Apple or Google account subscription settings.

If we ever change pricing, we’ll give you at least 30 days’ notice, and you can cancel before it takes effect.

We follow COPPA. Only a grown-up creates and manages the account, data is encrypted, and we never sell it or use it for advertising.

Only your account. Your stories are private to you unless you choose to share one.

Yes. Every Tella story is written for a young audience, tuned to your child’s age, and runs through multiple safety checks before and after it’s made. A grown-up stays in control, and we always recommend reading along.

Each story passes through several layers before it reaches your child:

• Kid-first prompts. Every story is built from instructions we’ve written specifically for a young audience and tuned to your child’s age, so the tone and content fit where they are.
• Safety-tuned AI. We generate with leading AI models that carry their own built-in content safety filters, on top of ours.
• Input screening. Details entered during setup or story creation are screened and cleaned first, so nothing stray or off-limits carries into a story.
• Post-generation review. Once a story is made, a separate AI reviewer re-reads the text and checks the illustrations for identity slips, off-tone moments, or real-world logos and characters — and character artwork is vision-checked and regenerated if something off slips in.
• A grown-up in the loop. Everything is set up by an adult behind an admin code. No system is perfect, which is why we always recommend reading along, especially the first time.

You can remove your family’s data anytime, straight from the app:

• Delete your whole account. Go to Settings → Account and tap “Delete account.” This permanently removes your account and everything tied to it — every profile, story, image, and audio file we hold for your family.
• Delete a single child’s profile.Open Settings → Privacy & data, choose the child, and tap Delete to remove just their profile and stories.
• Can’t sign in? Email us at hello@tella.kids from your account’s email address and we’ll delete your account and data for you.

Deletion is permanent. We remove your data from our systems within 30 days, and any backup copies are purged within 90 days. If you’d like a copy first, you can export everything from Settings → Account before you delete.

Yes — go to Settings → Account and tap “Export my data” to download everything we store about your family as a file, anytime.

The best way to reach us is by email at hello@tella.kids. We’re a small team of parents, so we do our best to get back to you as quick as we can.

Include the story link (or a screenshot) and a quick note about what went wrong. The more detail you can share, the faster we can sort it out.

Absolutely — we build Tella together with parents, and we’d love to hear your ideas. Your suggestions go straight to the team.