For the 4.2 million expats navigating Germany

That scary German letter?
Here’s what it actually says.

Snap a photo, paste the text, or drop the PDF. In under 20 seconds you get a plain-English explanation, every deadline flagged, and a ready-to-send German reply. No C1 required.

1,990 letters decoded so far 3 free — no account needed From €2.92/mo after
Works on letters in German · Explanations in ENESFRITPL

Try it with your own letter.

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1,990
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/mo on yearly plan
3,473
Letter types covered
As used by expats from
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A real example

From impenetrable German to action in 3 taps.

Here’s an anonymised Finanzamt letter our users actually uploaded, and exactly what Briefed gave them back.

The letter

Finanzamt München · 12. März 2026

Sehr geehrter Herr Smith, hiermit übersenden wir Ihnen den Einkommenssteuerbescheid für das Steuerjahr 2024. Nach Überprüfung Ihrer eingereichten Unterlagen ergibt sich eine Nachzahlung in Höhe von € 847,00.

Bitte überweisen Sie den genannten Betrag bis zum 15. April 2026 auf folgendes Konto. Die Festsetzung erfolgt gemäß §155 Abgabenordnung. Sollten Sie mit dem Bescheid nicht einverstanden sein, können Sie innerhalb eines Monats Einspruch einlegen.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Ihr Finanzamt München.

What Briefed says

Plain English · with actions

You owe €847 in 2024 income tax. Pay by 15 April 2026, or file an objection within one month if it looks wrong.
Actions
Draft reply
Your rights
  • 1Transfer €847 to the Finanzamt IBAN (listed in the letter) before 15 April 2026.
  • 2Use Steuernummer 143/234/12345 as the payment reference.
  • 3Save the deadline to your calendar — we generate a one-click .ics for you.
Finanzamt München Betreff: Einkommenssteuerbescheid 2024 — Steuernummer 143/234/12345 Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, ich bestätige den Erhalt Ihres Steuerbescheids vom 12. März 2026. Ich werde den Betrag von €847,00 bis zum 15. April 2026 auf das angegebene Konto überweisen. Mit freundlichen Grüßen, [Your name]
  • You have one month from the letter date to file an Einspruch (objection) — free.
  • You can request a payment plan (Stundung) if €847 is a hardship.
  • Consult a Steuerberater if the amount is large — Briefed is not legal advice.
What we handle

Every letter the German state, your landlord, or your Kasse can throw at you.

How it works

Three taps. No German required.

i.

Upload or paste the letter

Take a photo on your phone, drop a PDF, paste the text. HEIC, blurry, Deutsche-Post-window envelope — all fine.

ii.

Read it in plain English

We extract the point, the numbers, and the deadlines. You see what the letter means — not a dictionary-style translation.

iii.

Close the tab. You’re done.

Every deadline flagged, every next step listed, and a ready-to-send German reply drafted when you need one.

Expats who sleep better now

Receipts from people who actually live here.

I got a Mahnbescheid on a Sunday and thought my life was over. Briefed told me it was a billing error from my old gym, gave me a German objection letter, and I sent it the same day.
AP
Aisha P.
Product designer · Berlin · 3 yrs in DE
My Krankenkasse raised my rate and I had no idea I could switch for free. Briefed flagged the Sonderkündigungsrecht — I saved €480 this year just from one letter.
MR
Marco R.
Freelance developer · Munich · 5 yrs in DE
Every Finanzamt envelope used to cost me €80 at the Steuerberater just to translate. Now I only call them when Briefed says the stakes are serious. That's my yearly plan paid back in a week.
LK
Lena K.
Small business owner · Hamburg · 7 yrs in DE
Pricing

Less than a Berlin coffee.

Start free. Upgrade only when German bureaucracy insists on being a subscription.

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  • 3 letter explanations
  • All document types
  • Draft replies included
  • Deadline detection
Monthly
€5/ month
Flexible. Pause for the quiet months, resume when the Briefträger strikes.
  • Unlimited explanations
  • Deadline reminders
  • Letter history & search
  • Cancel anytime

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Your letters, your business

Private by design — because your mail is no one else’s business.

Never stored, never trained on

Your letter is processed in memory and deleted within 60 seconds. It never enters a training dataset. Ever.

GDPR + EU-hosted

All processing happens on servers in Frankfurt. No transfer to the US, no third-party trackers on the upload page.

No account needed to start

Your first three letters work with zero signup — upload, read, close the tab. No email fishing, no paywall tease.

Questions, politely

Things people ask before the first upload.

Is this legal advice? +

No. Briefed is an AI explainer — it translates and summarises so you know what you’re looking at. For anything with significant legal or financial stakes (court summons, large tax bills, eviction notices), consult a lawyer or Steuerberater. We’ll tell you in the output when we think that’s warranted.

What happens to my letter after I upload it? +

It’s processed in memory on EU-based servers and deleted within 60 seconds. It is never stored, never shown to another user, and never used to train AI models. We keep only anonymous usage stats (letter type, processing time) to improve the product.

Does it work with photos from my phone? +

Yes. JPG, PNG, HEIC, even slightly blurry or angled shots. Briefed OCRs the letter, straightens the text, and ignores the window-envelope frame. For best results, put the letter on a dark surface in even light.

Which languages do you explain letters in? +

Currently English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Polish. You pick the language after upload. More EU languages rolling out through 2026.

What if the letter is NOT in German? +

Briefed is specifically trained on German administrative language (Behördendeutsch). It will handle other official letters in German cities (some Austrian, Swiss, or bilingual Brussels letters work too), but it’s not meant for English-language junk mail.

Can I cancel the subscription? +

Yes, in two clicks from your account page. No phone call, no retention email. German bureaucracy should be the only thing in your life that’s hard to cancel — and we’re trying to fix that too.

Open the next envelope without the dread.

Three letters, free, no account. If the relief doesn’t hit, you close the tab and owe us nothing.

Try Briefed now