Athena Subprocessors
Last updated: October 7th, 2026
Athena is operated by Instructure, Inc. We use the service providers below (subprocessors) to run Athena. Each is bound by written data-protection terms, may use personal information only to provide its service to us, and may not use it for its own purposes. We tell institutional customers of changes under Instructure's Data Processing Addendum. Questions: privacy@studywithathena.com.
Hosting and data storage
| Provider | What it does for Athena | Personal information it processes | Location |
|---|
| Amazon Web Services | Hosts Athena's learning engine, its database, and uploaded files, in infrastructure operated by Instructure's core platform team | Conversations, study materials, uploads, course context read from your LMS, LMS connection credentials (encrypted), account identifiers | United States |
| Vercel | Hosts the Athena web application and handles file uploads | Account information, requests to the application, uploaded files | United States |
| Neon | Database for the web application | Account information, subscription status, settings, study records | United States |
Running the service
| Provider | What it does for Athena | Personal information it processes | Location |
|---|
| Upstash (QStash) | Schedules and delivers background jobs (for example conversation analysis, study reminders, push notifications) | Job identifiers (user, chat, course) and push-notification text; no conversation content | United States |
| Ably | Delivers real-time update signals from Athena's servers to your browser (for example that a course sync finished) | Account identifier and course identifier, in transit only; not stored | Global in-transit network; nothing stored |
| Apple (Apple Push Notification service) | Delivers push notifications to the iOS app | Device tokens, notification text | United States |
| Resend | Sends account and study emails | Email address, name, email content | United States |
| Stripe | Processes payments for personal subscriptions | Email, payment details (card numbers are held by Stripe, not Athena), transaction records | United States |
| Apple App Store | iOS app distribution and in-app purchases | Purchase and subscription identifiers | United States |
AI
| Provider | What it does for Athena | Personal information it processes | Location |
|---|
| OpenAI | Generates tutoring responses and study content (paid API terms; no training on Athena data) | Your messages, conversation history, uploads and course material, preferred first name, LMS identifiers | United States |
| Anthropic | Same, under Instructure's enterprise agreement (no training on Athena data) | Same | United States |
| Google (Gemini API) | Generates tutoring responses and study content (paid API terms; no training on Athena data) | Same | United States |
Analytics and operations
| Provider | What it does for Athena | Personal information it processes | Location |
|---|
| PostHog | Product analytics and session replay (replays show the page as the learner saw it, including conversation text; passwords and account details are masked) | Account identifier, usage events, session replays | United States |
| Observe | Logs and traces for the learning engine | Account identifiers, request metadata | United States |
| Dash0 | Logs for the web application | Account identifiers, request metadata | United States |
Third parties that receive information for their own purposes
These are not subprocessors: they receive identifiers and usage information from your browser through tags on our website to measure our advertising, and use it under their own terms. They are not loaded for sponsored learners once signed in, for visitors from the EU/EEA/UK/Switzerland, or when your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal. See the Privacy Policy for your choices.
| Partner | Purpose |
|---|
| Meta (Meta Pixel) | Advertising measurement and attribution |
| TikTok (TikTok Pixel) | Advertising measurement and attribution |
| Reddit (Reddit Pixel) | Advertising measurement and attribution |
| Google (Google Analytics 4, Google Ads tags) | Website analytics and advertising measurement |
Not on this list, and why
- Your school's LMS (for example Canvas): your school's system, read with your authorization; not a provider working for Athena.
- GitHub: holds Athena's source code, not personal information about users.