Frequently asked questions

Yes. OnceUponaBookshelf has no user accounts, and there is no chat interface for a child to type into — a parent fills in a short story form, and the app generates a self-contained story. Stories generate on-device whenever possible, and nothing about your child is stored on our servers. A short, general-audience ad plays while a story is written unless you have Remove Ads, and only after a grown-up check. See our guide: is it safe to let AI write your child's bedtime story?

Most stories are written entirely on-device using Apple's on-device Foundation Models, so your child's name, age, interests and story idea never leave the phone. On devices that can't run the on-device model, the app falls back to Cloudflare Workers AI to write that one story, with your permission. Either way, nothing is kept once the story is delivered back to your device.

Stories can be narrated aloud using professional storyteller voices from ElevenLabs, rather than a robotic text-to-speech voice. We looked at using a parent's own recorded voice, but the quality wasn't consistent enough for bedtime, so narration uses these warm, professional voices instead. The story text is sent to ElevenLabs to generate the audio, which is then saved to your device so you can replay it anytime, including offline.

Story generation runs on-device on supported iPhones, so writing a story works without an internet connection. Narrating a new story needs a connection the first time, since the audio is generated by ElevenLabs; once narrated, the audio is saved to your device and plays back offline. A connection is also needed if your device falls back to cloud story generation, or when syncing a shelf across devices with iCloud.

OnceUponaBookshelf is designed for parents and guardians to use with young children, typically toddlers through early readers. A parent sets each child's name and age, and stories are written to suit that reading age. The app itself is operated by an adult, not a child.

OnceUponaBookshelf is free to download, and story writing itself is free for everyone — a short ad plays while a story is written. Remove Ads is an optional yearly subscription that turns that ad off. Narration is a separate, one-off purchase (audio credits). Pricing for both is shown in the app and managed entirely through Apple — the app never sees your payment details.

A short ad (Google AdMob) plays while a personalised story is being written, unless you have Remove Ads. It's never shown to a child on their own: before it plays, a parent has to answer a simple arithmetic question, the same grown-up check used elsewhere in the app for anything that leaves it. Where required, you're also asked whether ads can be personalised, and iOS separately asks permission to track — saying no to either still shows the ad, just not a tailored one.

OnceUponaBookshelf runs on iPhone with iOS 18 or later. Writing stories on-device needs an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 models, iPhone Air, or iPhone 17 models and later) running iOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence turned on. On other iPhones the app asks your permission and writes the story in the cloud instead, so it still works. Narration works on every supported iPhone, since it's generated by ElevenLabs and then saved locally.

Many AI story apps send every prompt to a cloud server. OnceUponaBookshelf writes stories on-device wherever your iPhone supports it, needs no account, and narrates stories in warm, professional storyteller voices rather than a synthetic one — built specifically for a calm bedtime routine rather than an open-ended chat. It also includes 26 Traditional Tales, free forever with narration built in. There's no tracking unless you opt in to personalised ads.