Terms of service

These terms are a contract between you and Company legal name (“Winston AI”, “we”, “us”). They govern your use of our website, apps, browser extension and API (the “service”). By creating an account or using the service, you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use the service.

If you use the service on behalf of an organization, you accept these terms for that organization and confirm you have the authority to do so. Where an organization has signed an order form or enterprise agreement, that agreement wins if it differs from these terms.

Our privacy policy explains how we handle personal data and forms part of these terms.

• You must be at least 13, or the minimum age of digital consent where you live, to create an account. Younger students can use Winston AI only through a school account.
• Give us accurate information and keep it up to date.
• Keep your password and API keys secret. You're responsible for activity under your account, so tell us straight away if you think someone else has access.
• Each seat is for one person. Don't share sign-in details; on a Team plan, invite colleagues instead.

Team and school workspaces are controlled by their owner and admins. They can add or remove members, see scans run in the workspace, and close the workspace.

Use Winston AI lawfully and in good faith. In particular, you agree not to:

• Upload content you don't have the right to submit, or content that contains malware.
• Use results to harass, discriminate against or publicly shame anyone.
• Resell, sublicense or share access to the service, or get around credit, plan or rate limits.
• Scrape the service, or access it by automated means other than our API.
• Probe or test our systems for vulnerabilities without written permission, except through our responsible disclosure process.
• Reverse engineer the service, or use its outputs to build or train a competing detection product.
• Edit a report and present it as an unaltered Winston AI result.

We may suspend accounts that break these rules. Where it's reasonable, we'll warn you first and give you a chance to fix the problem.

Our scores estimate how likely it is that text was written by an AI model. They come from statistical models that can be wrong in both directions: human writing can be flagged as AI (a false positive), and AI writing can go undetected (a false negative). Accuracy varies with length, genre, language and editing.

You're responsible for how you use results. If you make decisions about other people, such as students, employees or freelancers, weigh results alongside other evidence, follow your organization's policies, and give the person a fair chance to respond. Talking with a writer about a flagged result suggests a fair process.

Accuracy figures we publish describe performance on our benchmark datasets. They aren't a guarantee of how the service will perform on any particular text.

• Subscriptions renew automatically each month or year until you cancel. We charge the payment method on file at the start of each period.
• Credits are used as you scan, at the rates on our pricing page and shown before each scan. Credits have no cash value and can't be transferred or exchanged.
• Rollover: unused credits on a paid plan roll over while your subscription is active, and expire when it ends. The one-time Free allowance doesn't expire while your account is open.
• Price changes: we'll give you at least 30 days' notice. New prices apply from your next renewal, and you can cancel before then.
• Taxes: prices exclude taxes such as VAT or sales tax unless stated, and we add them where required.
• Failed payments: if a payment fails, we'll retry and email you. If it still hasn't gone through after 14 days, we may move your account to the Free plan.

Payments are processed by Stripe. By paying, you also agree to Stripe's terms for payment services.

You can cancel a subscription at any time from the Billing page in your dashboard. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep access until then.

Fees are non-refundable except as described here or where the law requires otherwise. We refund duplicate charges and other billing errors reported within 30 days. Credits for scans that fail, or that you cancel before they finish, go back to your balance automatically.

If you're a consumer in the EU or UK, you can withdraw from a purchase within 14 days. Because the service starts straight away, we may deduct an amount for credits you've already used. Confirm withdrawal wording with counsel.

You keep all rights to the text and files you submit (“your content”). You give us a limited, worldwide licence to host, copy and process your content only as needed to provide the service to you: running scans, keeping your history and generating reports you share. The licence ends when you delete the content, apart from backup copies, which are cleared on our standard schedule.

We don't use your content to train AI models, and we don't add it to any shared or public database. See section 3 of our privacy policy.

You confirm you have the rights and permissions needed to submit your content, including writing by other people such as students or contributors. If you scan personal data for an organization, you're responsible for having a lawful basis to do so.

The service, including our software, detection models, design and brand, belongs to Winston AI and its licensors. These terms give you the right to use the service; they don't transfer any ownership. You may download and share reports you generate, as long as you don't alter them or remove our attribution.

If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them without any obligation to you.

The service may link to or work with third-party products, such as learning management systems or sign-in providers. Their own terms govern your use of them, and we aren't responsible for them.

You can stop using the service and delete your account at any time from Settings. We may suspend or end your access if you materially breach these terms, if your use creates a security or legal risk, or if the law requires it. Where it's reasonable, we'll give you notice and a chance to export your data first.

If we discontinue the service, we'll give at least 60 days' notice and refund prepaid fees for any period after it ends.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including those on content, intellectual property, disclaimers, liability and governing law, continue to apply.

The service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We don't promise that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that results will be accurate, complete or suitable for any particular decision. See section 4 on AI detection results.

Nothing in these terms limits rights you have as a consumer that can't be limited by contract.

To the extent the law allows, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data or goodwill, arising from these terms or the service.

Our total liability for all claims relating to the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose and US$100.

These limits don't apply to liability that can't be limited by law, such as for fraud, gross negligence, or death or personal injury caused by negligence.

If you use the service for business purposes, you agree to defend and indemnify Winston AI against third-party claims arising from your content or your breach of these terms, including decisions you make about other people based on results.

These terms are governed by the laws of governing law jurisdiction, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be resolved in the courts of venue, unless the law of the country where you live as a consumer gives you the right to bring proceedings there.

Before filing a claim, please write to legal@winstonai.ai so we can try to resolve the issue informally. Most problems are settled that way.

We may update these terms as the service changes. For material changes, we'll email account owners and show a notice in the app at least 30 days before they take effect. If you keep using the service after that, the updated terms apply; if you don't agree, you can cancel before then.

• Questions about these terms: legal@winstonai.ai
• Postal address: Company legal name, registered address