Frequently Asked Questions

Bookwise is a modern book-tracking platform designed for readers who care about the details. It offers quarter-star ratings, mood-based discovery, an AI book companion, reading analytics, book clubs, and much more — independent and built for readers.

Yes! Bookwise offers a generous free plan with book tracking, quarter-star ratings, reading sessions, AI summaries, reading insights, a reading journal, Goodreads import, and more — forever, no credit card needed. For the full experience — including the AI Book Companion, 16+ analytics visualizations, unlimited shelves, and book club creation — you can upgrade to Bookwise Plus starting at $4.99/month. Every new account includes 14 days of Plus so you can experience everything before deciding.

Every new account automatically gets 14 days of full access to Bookwise Plus — no credit card required. It's our way of letting you experience the complete platform before deciding. You'll get the AI Book Companion, advanced analytics, unlimited shelves, book club creation, and more. After 14 days, you keep everything on the free plan unless you choose to subscribe.

Click "Sign Up Free" on the homepage. You can sign up with your email address or use a social login provider. After creating your account, you'll go through a quick onboarding wizard to personalize your experience.

Bookwise offers quarter-star ratings (20 levels of precision vs. Goodreads' 5), a spoiler-aware AI companion, detailed reading analytics with 16+ visualizations, mood and pacing discovery, modern book clubs with real-time chat, Kindle highlights import, and a clean, modern interface. You can also import your entire Goodreads library via CSV.

Bookwise offers two plans: Free and Plus. The Free plan includes book tracking, quarter-star ratings, reading sessions, AI summaries and quotes, reading insights, Goodreads import, and more. Bookwise Plus ($4.99/month or $39.99/year) adds the AI Book Companion chat, AI recommendations, advanced analytics, unlimited shelves, book club creation, CSV export, and Year in Review.

Every new account automatically gets 14 days of full Bookwise Plus access — no credit card required. It's our way of letting you experience everything Bookwise has to offer: the AI Book Companion for spoiler-free discussions, 16+ analytics visualizations, unlimited shelves, book club creation, and more. After 14 days, you keep everything on the free plan unless you choose to subscribe.

Your data is never deleted. All your books, reviews, reading sessions, notes, and shelves stay intact on the free plan. You keep AI summaries, quotes, insights, your reading journal, and follower connections. You just lose access to premium features like AI chat, advanced analytics, and unlimited shelves.

Yes! You can switch plans at any time from your billing settings. When switching from monthly to annual, you'll be credited for any remaining time on your current billing cycle. The annual plan saves you 33% — that's like getting 4 months free.

Absolutely. You can cancel, pause, or downgrade at any time from your account settings. If you cancel, you'll keep access to Plus features until the end of your current billing period, then you'll be moved to the free plan.

We accept all major credit and debit cards through Stripe, our secure payment processor. Your payment information is handled entirely by Stripe and never stored on our servers.

Search for any book using the search bar or command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+K). You can add books to your shelves directly from search results or from individual book pages. Bookwise uses the Open Library database with millions of titles.

Bookwise comes with four built-in shelves: Currently Reading, Read, Want to Read, and Did Not Finish (DNF). Books automatically move between shelves as you track your reading progress. Free users can create up to 3 custom shelves and 1 public shelf, while Plus subscribers get unlimited shelves.

Unlike most platforms that only allow full or half-star ratings, Bookwise lets you rate books in 0.25-star increments on a 0 to 5 scale. That gives you 20 levels of precision, so you can finally distinguish between a 3.25 and a 3.75.

Yes. Bookwise supports community-driven content warnings so readers can make informed decisions about what they read. You can view existing warnings on book pages and contribute your own.

When you start reading, you can log a reading session that tracks your start page, end page, and reading duration. Sessions are tied to specific books and help Bookwise calculate your reading speed, daily averages, and other analytics.

Absolutely. Each reading session records how long you read. Over time, Bookwise builds up detailed reading statistics — daily averages, peak reading hours, total time per book, and more.

No judgment! You can mark a book as Did Not Finish (DNF). It moves to your DNF shelf, and your reading sessions up to that point are still preserved in your analytics.

Yes. You can set yearly reading goals (number of books or pages) and track your progress throughout the year. The dashboard shows your goal progress with visual indicators so you always know where you stand.

The AI Book Companion is a conversational tool powered by Claude that lets you discuss any book in your library. You can ask about themes, characters, plot details, and more. It adapts to your reading progress so it never spoils anything you haven't read yet.

When you chat with the AI companion, it knows how far you've read based on your reading sessions. It will only discuss content up to your current progress and will avoid revealing anything that happens later in the book.

Bookwise uses AI to generate book summaries, notable quotes, reading insights, and personalized recommendations. All AI content is clearly labeled so you always know what's generated versus user-contributed.

AI-generated book summaries, quotes, and reading insights are included on the free plan. The interactive AI Book Companion (chat) and AI-powered book recommendations require a Bookwise Plus subscription. Every new user gets a 14-day trial of Plus to try all AI features.

Book clubs on Bookwise feature real-time chat, book nominations with voting, scheduled meetups with RSVP, and role-based management (admin, co-admin, member). Clubs can be public or invite-only. Free users can join 1 book club, while Plus subscribers can join and create unlimited clubs.

Yes. Bookwise has a follow system where you can send follow requests to other readers. Once connected, you can see their reading activity, reviews, and shelves (based on their privacy settings).

Badges are achievements you earn by reaching reading milestones — like finishing your first book, completing a reading goal, logging a certain number of sessions, and more. They appear on your public profile.

You control your privacy. Your public profile shows what you choose to share. You can configure visibility settings for your shelves, reviews, and reading activity in your account settings.

Yes! Export your Goodreads library as a CSV file (from Goodreads settings), then use Bookwise's import tool to bring in your books, shelves, ratings, and reviews. The importer automatically matches your books, tries cleaned title variations for tricky titles, and learns from your manual matches to improve over time. Plus subscribers also get AI-powered matching that uses web search and AI to find obscure books that aren't in the Open Library database. Goodreads import is available on the free plan, with AI matching as a premium bonus.

Yes! Bookwise provides a one-click Kindle bookmarklet that extracts your highlights, notes, and bookmarks directly from Amazon's Kindle notebook page. Simply drag the bookmarklet to your browser toolbar, visit your Kindle notebook, and click it — your highlights are automatically matched to books in your Bookwise library. It's the easiest way to bring your Kindle reading data into Bookwise.

Yes. Bookwise Plus subscribers can export their data as CSV. We believe your data belongs to you, and you should never be locked in to any platform. All your reading data, reviews, and notes remain accessible regardless of your plan.

Bookwise collects your account information (name, email, profile picture via Clerk authentication), reading activity (shelves, ratings, sessions, reviews), and usage data to improve the service. See our full Privacy Policy for details.

Your public profile is visible to other Bookwise users, but you control what's shown. You can configure privacy settings for your shelves, reading activity, and reviews in your account settings.

Yes. You can request account deletion from your settings. There's a 30-day grace period during which you can change your mind. After 30 days, all your data is permanently and irreversibly deleted.

No. Bookwise does not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We use your data only to provide and improve the service. We are independent and not backed by advertising revenue.

Bookwise works in all modern browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. The interface is fully responsive and optimized for both desktop and mobile screens.

Bookwise is a web application optimized for mobile browsers. There is no native app at this time, but the responsive design provides a great experience on phones and tablets.

Bookwise uses the Open Library API for book metadata — titles, authors, covers, page counts, and more. This gives you access to millions of titles without requiring any API keys or additional setup.

Yes. Bookwise uses Convex for its database (with enterprise-grade security), Clerk for authentication (passwords are never stored directly), and all connections are encrypted via HTTPS.