Legal · Official Rules
The AIStoryHub Short Story Contest.
No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. The full legal terms below govern the Contest; the contest page is the plain-English summary.
No Purchase Necessary
No Purchase Necessary
No purchase or payment is required to enter or win The AIStoryHub Short Story Contest ("the Contest"). A free AIStoryHub account, which costs nothing to create, is required to submit an entry. Making a purchase, subscribing to a paid plan, or connecting a paid API key does not improve your chances of winning.
Sponsor
Sponsor
The Contest is organized by AIStoryHub ("Sponsor," "we," "us"), operator of the platform at aistoryhub.co. Questions about these rules can be sent to [email protected].
Entry Period
Entry Period
The Contest opens August 1, 2026 at 12:00am ET and closes August 31, 2026 at 11:59pm ET ("Entry Period"). Entries received before or after the Entry Period will not be considered, regardless of when the underlying draft was written.
Eligibility
Eligibility
The Contest is open worldwide to individuals who have reached the age of majority in their country or state of residence (18 years old in most jurisdictions), except where the Contest, or receipt of the prize, would violate local law, export control, or trade sanctions administered by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and except to residents of Quebec, Canada, who are not eligible due to provincial contest-registration requirements. Employees, contractors, and officers of AIStoryHub, and their immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling) or household members, are not eligible to enter. One entry per person or account. Entrants found operating multiple accounts to submit multiple entries will be disqualified in full.
How to Enter
How to Enter
To enter, create a free AIStoryHub account (or use an existing one) and write an original short story of at least 10,000 words that you used AIStoryHub, in some way, to draft. The story does not need to have been started during the Entry Period, and the platform does not need to have been used for the entire draft; a story you began before August 1, 2026 is eligible, as is a story mostly written off-platform, as long as AIStoryHub's tools played a real part in drafting it. Sponsor verifies platform usage from AIStoryHub's own account activity records; entrants are not required to submit separate proof. To submit, open your story list on AIStoryHub once the story reaches 10,000 words and click the "Enter contest" button on its story card, which appears starting August 1, 2026; confirming in the resulting dialog completes the submission. No export, email, or separate form is required.
Entry Requirements
Entry Requirements
Each entry must: be an original prose short story of at least 10,000 words, written by the entrant alone; not have been previously published, self-published, or entered in another contest; not infringe any third party's copyright, trademark, or other rights; not contain sexually explicit or NSFW content; and not contain content that is otherwise unlawful, defamatory, or that Sponsor reasonably determines to be harmful, offensive, or in violation of AIStoryHub's Terms of Service. Sponsor may disqualify any entry that does not meet these requirements, at its sole discretion.
Judging
Judging
Entries are reviewed by a judging panel selected by Sponsor. Before review, identifying information (author name, account details, any bio) is removed from each entry. Entries are scored on: voice and craft (40%), story and structure (30%), originality (20%), and adherence to these rules (10%). The three highest-scoring eligible entries win first, second, and third place, respectively. All judging decisions are final. In the event of a tie, Sponsor's judges will select the winner by further review of the tied entries.
Prizes
Prizes
First place receives $300, second place receives $125, and third place receives $75, total prize pool $500. Each prize is delivered as an Anthropic API key, provisioned by Sponsor and preloaded with the stated amount in credit; no purchase, receipt, or reimbursement request from the winner is required. Where issuing an Anthropic API key is not possible in a winner's jurisdiction, Sponsor may provide an equivalent-value prize by another means, at Sponsor's discretion. Prizes are non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for a different form of payment beyond what is described here. Winners are solely responsible for any taxes owed on their prize. Sponsor may issue a tax form (such as IRS Form 1099) where required by law.
Winner Notification
Winner Notification
Winners will be notified by email at the address associated with their AIStoryHub account by September 15, 2026, and must respond within 14 days to claim their prize. If a winner cannot be reached, does not respond within this window, or is found ineligible, Sponsor may select an alternate winner from the remaining eligible entries.
Rights in Your Story
Rights in Your Story
You retain full copyright and ownership of your entry. By entering, you grant Sponsor a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to reproduce and display excerpts (up to 1,000 words) of your entry, and your author name, on AIStoryHub's website, blog, and social channels, for the purpose of promoting the Contest and its winners. Sponsor will not publish your entry in full, or use it for any commercial purpose beyond Contest promotion, without your separate written permission.
General Conditions
General Conditions
Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend, or modify the Contest, or these rules, if fraud, technical failure, or any other factor beyond Sponsor's reasonable control impairs the integrity of the Contest. Sponsor is not responsible for entries lost, delayed, or misdirected due to technical issues, including email delivery failures. By entering, you agree to release and hold harmless Sponsor, its officers, and contractors from any claims arising from your participation in the Contest or receipt of a prize. These rules are governed by the laws applicable to Sponsor, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, to the extent permitted by local law where the entrant resides.
Contact
Contact
Questions about these Official Rules can be sent to [email protected]. Questions about submitting an entry can be sent to [email protected].