Answers to the most common questions from coaches and students. Can't find yours? Email us.
It's free to use today, and if that ever changes you'll be told before anything is charged.
You can download all your data (students, lessons, notes, messages, invoices and payments) any time from Account → Privacy & data.
Your data is backed up daily and can be restored to any point in the last 7 days. Still, keep your own copy of anything you can't afford to lose.
More detail on availability and fees is in our Terms of Service.
VerbalGerbil is operated by Sequel Solutions LLC. Support, privacy and legal questions all go to miles@sequelsolutions.net.
That address is also the contact in our Privacy Policy and our Terms.
Walk through Settings: what you coach, how you charge, your policies, and your open times.
Add a student, find your way around their page, and get them into their own portal, plus how to keep a parent in the loop.
Book lessons, manage a booked lesson, and see how cancellations and self-booking work.
Open the lesson screen, start the call, and let AI notes work in the background.
Mark how the lesson went, turn the AI draft into a recap, and set up next time.
Build a reusable library, share it with students, and attach materials to a specific lesson.
The two ways money reaches you, how to set your rates, and where to see what you've earned.
How prepaid packages, monthly billing, and pre-authorized card charges work together.
Keep the words a student tripped over straight out of the lesson, let AI write the meanings, and let spaced repetition do the rest.
A brand-new account comes with a few sample students so the app isn't empty. Click around, then hit "Clear sample students" (on Today or the Students page) when you're ready to add your own.
Students → Add a student, then open their hub and hit "Invite to portal" — you can email the invite straight from here, or copy the link and send it your own way. When they accept, they get their own portal with your lessons, resources, and payments.
Student logins are for ages 18 and over. If a student is under 18, don't send the link yet — they won't be able to sign up.
Schedule → "Book a lesson". Pick the time in your own timezone — everyone sees lesson times in their local clock automatically. Every lesson runs on the built-in call, so there's nothing to paste or send: your student joins from their portal. If the call fails, the lesson screen offers an emergency outside link for that one lesson, without canceling. That lesson gets no AI notes.
At lesson time, open the student and start the call from the top of their lesson screen. Your notes sit right next to the video. If AI assistance is on (it is by default; change it in Settings) and you and your student both have Record my lessons on, transcription starts with the call, your student sees an indicator, and a draft recap appears when the call ends. Your student gets the draft recap, homework, worksheet and flashcards usually about 20 minutes after the call ends, unless you write your own or uncheck them first. You can change what was shared at any time.
When you're done, use "Wrap up & exit" at the top of the lesson screen, then "Save wrap-up". The lesson moves into the student's Past lessons (on your side and theirs). You can always reopen a past lesson from their hub's Lessons tab ("Open") to add notes, fix a typo or change what's shared.
Sign up at verbal-gerbil.com with email/password or Google. You'll land with a sample roster of students already in place so you can click around and see how everything works. When you're ready for the real thing, go to the Students page and hit "Clear sample students" to start fresh.
Add a student from the Students page, then open their hub and use "Invite to portal". Type their email and we send the invite for you — or copy the personal invite link and send it yourself (text, WhatsApp, whatever you normally use).
When they open the link, they create their own login (or, if they already have a student account from another coach, they can tap "Add to my account" and keep everything under one login). Each student gets their own portal: their lessons, resources, payments, and messages with you.
Student logins are for ages 18 and over. If a student is under 18, don't send the link yet — they won't be able to sign up.
Yes. Open the student's hub → Edit details → "Parent / guardian": add their email and turn on recap emails. You choose whether the email includes your actual notes or just says a recap was posted.
We check with the parent first. When you save the address, we send it one email asking if they'd like recaps. It doesn't name your student. Nothing else is sent until they confirm. The student's hub shows where things stand ("parent not confirmed yet", "parent CC'd" or "parent said no"), and the lesson screen shows whether the parent gets a copy.
Once they've confirmed, the parent gets one email per lesson when you save its recap or homework. Editing the recap later won't send it again. Recaps saved before they confirmed weren't sent: save that lesson's recap again to send it. Parents don't get a login (the portal stays your student's), and every recap email has a link to turn them off.
From a student's hub or the Schedule page, use "Book a lesson" and choose once, weekly or every two weeks. On the week grid, tap the ⋯ menu on any lesson to reschedule it, mark it ✓ Completed, mark that your student didn't show, or cancel it.
A lesson shows Missed when a student cancels inside your notice window or doesn't show. Whether it costs anything is a separate choice you make: bill it or waive it. Skipping a date ahead of time is free and shows as Canceled.
You don't need the grid for a lesson you already have open. Its screen has the same controls, some under ⋯ More: ✓ Mark completed, "didn't show" (after your student's name), ↻ Reschedule (date, time, duration) and, from an hour before the start until the call window closes, Call not working? (an emergency outside link for just this lesson, with no AI notes, and the way back).
The lesson screen turns into a short wrap-up: the AI draft appears under the video, a few cards take you through reviewing what's shared, and "Save wrap-up" marks the lesson completed. Then "Book the next lesson" opens the booking panel with that student already picked. Everything autosaves if you just leave.
Every student hub has a Notes tab, and "Add a private note" on the student's page opens it. Private notes are for you only — jot down anything about your teaching plan or observations. Notes you mark as shared with the student show up in their portal, so use those for recaps, homework, or things you want them to remember.
Build a reusable library on the Resources page, then share from it in two ways. Attach it to one lesson: open the lesson and use "+ Attach materials" (the student sees it on that lesson's page and in their materials, labeled with the date). Or share it generally from the student hub's Resources tab, for things that apply to every lesson. The hub tab shows how each resource is shared.
Attach a link when you add a resource and the card opens the material — for you and for your students. Made a typo, or need to fix a link? Hit Edit on any library card to change anything, or delete the resource (it disappears from every student's portal too).
Every resource can carry tags (comma-separated, on add or edit) and an optional collection — a folder-style path like "Openings/Sicilian" or "B1/Grammar". On the Resources page you can then search across titles, tags, subjects and collections; sort A–Z or by recently added; and group the whole library by kind, subject, tag, or collection. No folders to maintain — it's all just labels you can change any time.
Pick Chess when you add the student and their lessons get a live shared board in the built-in call: moves sync both ways, with variations, chapters, and a position editor. Import any game by pasting a PGN or pulling the student's recent chess.com / lichess games, and track their ratings on the student hub.
Build a drill library too: add resources with the "Chess (PGN)" kind (paste the PGN, tag it), then mid-call use "From my library" on the board to load a drill. Drills you load stay out of the student's records unless you hit "Keep in lesson". And when a live game turns out to matter, "Save game" puts it (with your annotations) on the student's shelf, where it opens as an interactive board they can replay any time. Chess files in your own library open on a board for you too.
Pick Tutoring when you add the student and choose the area (reading, math, science, writing, test prep). Test-prep students get a Scores card on their hub: log practice-test scores by section, set the goal score and test date, and watch the trend — your student sees the same card, read-only, in their portal. AI lesson recaps are tuned to the subject, so a tutoring recap reads like tutoring, not a language lesson.
Yes. During any built-in call, hit ⧉ Pop out the video on the strip above the video. The call moves to its own window you can drag anywhere, and the lesson page gives the freed space to your workspace — board, notes, materials. Transcription and AI notes keep running, and ⇤ Bring it back here returns the call inline whenever you want. Students have the same button.
Yes — open Settings and add weekly windows under "When can students book you?". Students then get a "Book a lesson" page in their portal showing your open slots (in their own timezone), minus anything already on your calendar. Booking uses a lesson from their package (or their monthly plan) and messages you automatically. Leave the windows empty and only you can book.
Go to Settings. There you choose your vocabulary (like calling a session a "lesson"), your pricing model (hourly, packages, or monthly), your rates and currency, your video preference, and your cancellation policy. Students see your cancellation policy on their Payments tab.
Connect your own Stripe account from the Payments page. Payments go straight from your student to your Stripe account; VerbalGerbil never touches the money.
To bill someone, open a student's Billing tab and create an invoice. The amount is prefilled from their rate, and you'll need the student's email on file. They'll get a Stripe-hosted page to pay by card, and the invoice flips to Paid automatically once it clears.
On the built-in call: video right inside the lesson screen — no links, and it's where AI notes come from. If the call fails during a lesson, the lesson screen offers an emergency outside link for that one lesson: "Call not working?" under ⋯ More, or the button under the error. That lesson shows a "No AI notes" chip, and your student's Join opens your link.
There's no link to send. Your student opens their own portal and taps the lesson's Join button, which appears 15 minutes before the start. The call is private to the two of you, so it has no shareable link. If your student can't find it, send them the portal invite.
On the built-in call only, and only when you and your student both have Record my lessons on. By default they're automatic: transcription starts when you join (your student sees a transcription indicator, so check they're comfortable with it), and when the call ends you get a drafted recap, private key points and suggested focus areas.
The draft is shared with your student automatically usually about 20 minutes after the call ends. If you save the wrap-up sooner, your version is what's shared, and you can still change it later. When the draft comes from the full lesson recording, its suggested focus areas start checked: uncheck any you don't want your student to see, then save. Prefer to write everything yourself? Set AI assistance to "Off" in Settings and these panels don't appear at all.
The full transcript is saved with the lesson too: you and your student can open "Full transcript of this call" on the lesson page once it's ready, a while after the call. Because lesson audio is processed by AI and the transcript is stored, keep sensitive details (health, finances, ID numbers) out of the conversation.
Transcripts are temporary. We delete the transcript 90 days after the lesson. The recap, practice work, notes and chat stay. Each lesson page shows the date its transcript will be deleted.
Yes — the built-in call has a lesson chat right beside the video. Unlike a normal video-call chat, it's saved with the lesson (handy for vocab, spellings and links), and you can edit or unsend your own messages. Both you and your student can revisit it any time by reopening the lesson.
Yes. Open the student's hub → Lessons tab → find it under Past lessons → "Open". You can edit notes, redraft the AI notes from the call's transcript, and update what's shared.
Always yours. You book in your local time; your student sees the same lesson in their local time; the 12/24-hour style follows each person's own device.
Use "Sign out" at the bottom of the sidebar, under your name and email.
You can only join through a personal invite link from your coach — there's no public sign-up for students. Open the link they send you and create your own login. If you already have a student account here (say, from a different coach), choose "Add to my account" instead so both coaches live under one login.
Logins are for students 18 and over. If you're under 18 we can't set up an account for you yet, but your coach can keep teaching you as normal.
Your portal has Home (your next lesson and the last recap), My lessons, Practice, Chapters, Resources from your coach, Payments (your plan, open invoices, payment history and your coach's cancellation policy), Messages, and Account (name, password, phone number, reminders and a download of your data). Which of these you see depends on your subject.
Practice only appears for language and chess subjects — there's nothing to drill on the others. Chapters is for chess: it collects every chapter from every lesson, oldest first, so you can read back through everything you've been taught. Below those, the sidebar also has Report a problem, Help, and Sign out.
If you're learning a language, Practice holds two tools: Flashcards and Worksheets (the worksheets your coach shared from your lessons, newest first). Flashcards come in rounds of up to 10 words to answer, plus up to 5 new words (from your most recent lesson first, with a small New tag). Every card works the same way: it shows the meaning (in your own sentence when there is one), you say the word, tap Show answer, then Not yet or Got it. Once a word is growing you can type it instead: type the French, tap Check, and the card shows the answer and whether it matched (a missed accent still counts). Tap Continue to go on, or count it the other way in one tap if it was only a typo. Show answer is always there. How you grade a word decides when it comes back: a word you know well comes back less and less often, and one you miss comes back later in the same round. At the end of a round, Keep going starts the next round.
Words your coach kept during a lesson land here, and you can add words you tripped on yourself from the same page. If you leave the meaning blank, AI writes one as you add it. If it can't find one, the word isn't added, and you can try again with what you think it means.
If you're learning chess, Practice is drills instead: positions taken from the games and studies your coach has shared with you, to play out on a board.
Go to Payments in your portal and tap "Pay now" on any open invoice. You'll pay by card on a secure, Stripe-hosted page. Once it goes through, the invoice updates to Paid right away.
Your portal shows one coach at a time: your home page, My lessons, Resources, Messages, Payments and booking a lesson, plus Practice and Chapters where your coach uses them.
The Your coaches menu, at the top of your portal sidebar (or under More on a phone), shows which coach that is and changes it. A dot beside it means another coach has unread messages, and that coach's name in the menu says how many.
My lessons → tap any past lesson. Its page keeps everything from that day: your coach's recap, any homework and focus areas they set, anything shared for that lesson, and, on lessons held in the built-in call, the lesson chat (great for vocabulary and links sent during the lesson).
Yes — every upcoming lesson in My lessons has a Cancel option. Outside your coach's cancellation window it's free; inside it, you'll see a warning that the lesson will still count as billed under their policy. Your coach is notified either way.
Need a new time instead? Use Move this lesson on the same card — it opens your coach's open times so you can pick one yourself. (If they haven't turned on self-booking, the card offers to message them instead.) Moving inside the cancellation window means your coach's policy still applies to the original lesson; the page shows what that means for your plan before you pick a time.
If your coach has turned on self-booking, yes: tap Book a lesson (Home or My lessons) to see their open times in your own timezone and grab one — it uses a lesson from your package or monthly plan, and your coach is told right away. If the page says they haven't turned on self-booking, just message them and they'll book you in.
You land straight on that lesson's summary page — recap, homework, your focus areas, anything shared for the lesson, and the chat log. It's the same page you can come back to any time from My lessons, and it fills in as your coach finishes their notes.
Open the lesson it belongs to (My lessons → tap the lesson), find the Your work card, and tap "+ Send a file" — upload with a title and an optional note. Your coach sees it on that lesson and gets a message right away. Sent the wrong file? Remove it from the same place: your coach stops seeing it straight away, and the file stops opening for anyone who had the link. We keep a copy for at least 30 days (never more than about two months) in case it was a mistake, then delete it.
Just tap it. Chess files open as an interactive board right in your portal — step through the moves, branches and comments at your own pace. Games saved from your live lessons work the same way, so you can replay what you studied any time.
If your coach offers it, you can save a card on your Payments page (Stripe stores it; VerbalGerbil never sees the number). Your Payments page says what it can be charged for on your plan: on a package, a late cancellation or no-show your coach marks; if you pay per lesson, each completed lesson too. You'll get a warning before a late cancellation counts as billed, and any upcoming charge shows on your Payments page before it's taken, then in your payment history and messages.
On a monthly plan, your month arrives as an invoice. Your Payments page shows the next one, with the amount and date, before it's sent. Pay it by card with Pay now like any other invoice.
Account → Notifications → Reminders & messages — pick email, text, both, or in-app only (pick the coach first if you have several). The Messages page shows what's currently set.
On the sign-in page, tap Forgot password? and we'll email you a reset link (it works once and expires in an hour). You can also tap show/hide in any password box to see what you're typing.
Tap "Join" on your next lesson (Home or My lessons). It opens the video call right inside your portal — or, if your coach moved that one to an outside link, takes you there. Times are always shown in your own timezone.
Use "Sign out" at the bottom of your portal sidebar.
If someone behaves inappropriately (harassment, threats, scams, or anything that makes you uncomfortable), use “Report a problem” in your sidebar (it goes straight to VerbalGerbil, with your account attached, so we can follow up), or email us with what happened and who was involved. We review every report, and accounts that violate our conduct rules can be suspended or removed. Reports are kept confidential from the person being reported.
Signed in? The fastest route is “Report a problem” in your sidebar — it reaches us with your account attached. Or email us and tell us what you were trying to do, what happened instead, and what browser you're using — that's usually enough for us to track it down quickly.
See also our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.