Skip to content

Terms of Service

Last updated: April 17, 2026

1. Agreement to Terms

By accessing or using SurfacedBy at surfacedby.com (the "Service"), operated by Ali K., an independent developer based in Taiwan ("we," "our," or "us"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you disagree with any part of these Terms, you may not access the Service.

2. Description of Service

SurfacedBy is an AI visibility monitoring platform. We track how AI-powered search engines (including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode) reference and cite your domain. The Service provides analytics, insights, citation tracking, competitor analysis, and recommendations to help improve your brand's visibility in AI-generated responses. The Service also offers optional integration with Google Search Console and Google Analytics (GA4) to correlate organic search performance and website analytics with AI citation data. Developer API access is available to everyone through SurfacedBy Console at console.surfacedby.com, and to paid dashboard subscribers through their account. API-specific terms are set out in Section 10.

3. User Accounts

3.1 Account Creation

To use the Service, you must create an account. You agree to:

  • Provide accurate, current, and complete information
  • Maintain and promptly update your account information
  • Maintain the security and confidentiality of your password
  • Accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account
  • Notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account

3.2 Account Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account at our sole discretion for conduct that violates these Terms, is harmful to other users or third parties, or involves fraudulent or abusive use of the Service. You may delete your account at any time through your account settings.

For paid accounts, we will provide at least 14 days' written notice before termination, except in cases of fraud, abuse, or illegal activity, where termination may be immediate. You may appeal a termination decision within 7 days of receiving notice by contacting support@surfacedby.com.

Following account termination, your data will remain available for export for 30 days. After that period, your data will be deleted in accordance with Section 9.

4. Free Audits and Trials

4.1 Free Audits

We offer a free AI visibility audit limited to 10 queries across 2 AI platforms per domain. Free audits are rate-limited to one per IP address per 72 hours. Free audit results represent a sample of AI visibility and should not be considered comprehensive.

4.2 Trials

We may offer trial periods for paid features. Trials last 7 days unless otherwise stated at the time of activation. No credit card is required to start a trial. Trials are limited to one per person; we use IP address tracking and email hash matching to detect and prevent trial abuse. Trials provide temporary access to Starter-level functionality. If you do not subscribe to a paid plan before the trial expires, your access reverts to the free tier.

5. Subscription and Payment

5.1 Plans and Fees

Access to monitoring, analytics, and advanced features requires a paid subscription. Current plans and pricing are available on our pricing page. All fees are quoted in US dollars and are non-refundable except as required by applicable law.

5.2 Billing Processor

All payments are processed by Polar.sh, our third-party billing provider. SurfacedBy does not store your payment card data. Payment information is collected and managed entirely by Polar in accordance with their security and privacy policies. For any billing disputes or payment-related questions, please contact support@surfacedby.com.

5.3 Automatic Renewal

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or annual) unless you cancel before the renewal date. You can cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings or our payment provider. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

5.4 Billing Failures

If a payment fails, we will retry the charge for up to 7 days. If payment remains unsuccessful after the retry period, your account will be downgraded to the free tier. We will notify you via email before any downgrade occurs.

5.5 Price Changes

We reserve the right to modify subscription fees. We will provide at least 30 days' notice of any price increases via email. Continued use of the Service after the price change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the new pricing.

5.6 Downgrade and Cancellation

If you cancel or downgrade your subscription, you retain access to paid features until the end of your current billing period. After that, domains exceeding your new plan's limits may be archived. We provide a 7-day grace period before archiving to allow you to choose which domains to keep active.

6. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

  • Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, or our systems
  • Use automated tools, bots, or scrapers to access the Service outside of our provided interfaces
  • Interfere with or disrupt the Service or impose unreasonable load on our infrastructure
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the Service
  • Share your account credentials with others or allow multiple individuals to use a single account
  • Resell, sublicense, or redistribute the Service or its data without our written consent
  • Submit domains you do not own or have authorization to monitor

7. Third-Party Integrations and Content

The Service integrates with third-party platforms including Google Search Console, Google Analytics (GA4), various AI and search-data APIs used to test how AI platforms reference your domains, and payment processors (Polar.sh). Your use of these integrations is subject to the respective third party's terms of service. We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or policies of third-party services. Third-party integrations (such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics) are optional and the Service is fully functional without them.

AI-generated responses displayed within the Service originate from third-party AI platforms. SurfacedBy does not own, generate, or control these responses. The accuracy, completeness, and content of AI-generated responses are the sole responsibility of the originating AI platform. SurfacedBy makes no representations or warranties regarding third-party AI output.

8. Intellectual Property

8.1 Service Ownership

The Service, including its design, code, algorithms, analytics methodology, branding, and documentation, is owned by Ali K. and protected by copyright and intellectual property laws. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or create derivative works from any part of the Service without our explicit written permission.

8.2 Trademarks

"SurfacedBy" and the SurfacedBy logo are trademarks of Ali K. You may not use our trademarks without prior written consent, except as permitted in Section 8.4.

8.3 Algorithms and Methodology

SurfacedBy retains exclusive ownership of all proprietary algorithms, scoring methodologies, analytical processes, and derived insights logic used to operate the Service. Nothing in these Terms grants you any rights to our algorithms or methodology.

8.4 User Content License

You may embed screenshots, charts, and reports from your own SurfacedBy dashboard in your own content (such as blog posts, presentations, and client reports), provided you include attribution to SurfacedBy (e.g., "Data from SurfacedBy" or "Source: surfacedby.com"). This license is non-exclusive, non-transferable, and limited to content generated from your own account data.

9. Your Data

9.1 Data You Submit

You retain all rights to the data you submit to the Service (domain information, brand details, competitor lists, and keywords). By using the Service, you grant us a non-exclusive license to use, store, and process your data solely for the purpose of providing and improving the Service. We handle your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

9.2 Scan Results and Reports

Scan results, analytics, and insights generated by the Service are derived works created using our proprietary algorithms and third-party AI platform data. You are granted a perpetual, non-exclusive license to use, copy, and share scan results and reports generated from your account data, even after your account is closed or your subscription ends. This license survives termination of these Terms.

9.3 Data Portability

You may export your scan results and reports at any time in JSON or CSV format through the Service's export functionality. We are committed to ensuring you can take your data with you.

9.4 Data Deletion

Upon account deletion, your data will be permanently deleted from our active systems within 30 days. Data will be purged from backups within an additional 30 days after deletion from active systems (60 days total from account deletion). Once purged, your data cannot be recovered.

10. API and Console Terms

10.1 Who Can Use the API

The SurfacedBy API is available in two forms. Professional and Business dashboard subscribers receive a data API for managing their own account at surfacedby.com (Professional is read-only, Business is read and write). Anyone, subscriber or not, can sign up at SurfacedBy Console (console.surfacedby.com) to purchase prepaid credits and trigger on-demand scans through the API. Full reference documentation is available at https://docs.surfacedby.com/v1/api/introduction.

10.2 Credit Packs

On-demand scans through SurfacedBy Console are paid for with prepaid credits. Credit packs are one-time purchases and do not auto-renew. Credits do not expire. The number of credits required per scan depends on the number of keywords, platforms, and optional add-ons selected, and is displayed before each scan is submitted. We reserve the right to update credit pricing for future scans, but credits already purchased retain their original purchasing power.

10.3 Refund Policy

If a scan terminally fails due to an error on our side, the credits consumed by that scan are automatically refunded to your account balance. Credits used for successfully completed scans are not refundable. Unused credit pack purchases may be refunded within 14 days of purchase on request to support@surfacedby.com, subject to the policies of our billing provider.

10.4 API Keys

API keys grant access to your account and must be kept confidential. You are responsible for any activity performed with your keys. We provide test keys for development against a sandbox; only live keys consume credits and touch production data. You can revoke or rotate keys at any time from the Console or dashboard. We may revoke keys with notice if we detect abuse, security concerns, or violations of these Terms.

10.5 Rate Limits and Fair Use

Rate limits apply to all API requests and vary by plan. Exceeding your limits returns a 429 response. Persistent abuse, attempts to circumvent limits, or workloads that threaten platform stability may result in temporary or permanent key revocation. Limits for each plan are published in the API reference.

10.6 Webhooks

You can register HTTPS endpoints to receive webhook notifications for scan and account events. All webhook deliveries are signed with HMAC SHA256; you should verify the signature before trusting a delivery. Failed deliveries are retried with exponential backoff; repeated failures may disable the endpoint.

11. Data Accuracy and Limitations

AI visibility data is derived from querying AI platforms and analyzing their responses. AI platform responses are non-deterministic and may vary between queries. Visibility scores, citation rates, and other metrics are approximations based on available measurement data and should be used as directional indicators, not absolute measurements. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any data or insights provided by the Service.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, that AI platforms will continue to operate in their current manner, or that scan results will be available within any specific timeframe.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Service operator shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses resulting from: (a) your use of or inability to use the Service; (b) changes to AI platform behavior or availability; (c) unauthorized access to your account; (d) any third-party conduct on the Service; or (e) any other matter related to the Service. Our total liability for any claim arising from or related to these Terms shall not exceed the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or $100, whichever is greater.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Service operator and its agents and contractors from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorney's fees) arising from your violation of these Terms or your negligent or wrongful use of the Service, including infringement of any third-party rights resulting from such use.

We will promptly notify you of any claim subject to indemnification and provide reasonable cooperation at your expense. You shall have the right to assume control of the defense of any such claim with counsel of your choosing, provided that you may not settle any claim that imposes obligations on us without our prior written consent.

15. Governing Law and Disputes

15.1 Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of China (Taiwan), without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

15.2 Informal Resolution

Before initiating any formal dispute resolution proceeding, you agree to first attempt to resolve the dispute informally by sending a written notice describing the dispute to legal@surfacedby.com. Both parties agree to negotiate in good faith for at least 60 days from the date the notice is received. If the dispute cannot be resolved informally within this period, either party may proceed with the formal dispute resolution process described below.

15.3 Venue and Jurisdiction

Any dispute arising from these Terms or the Service that is not resolved through the informal resolution process shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Taiwan Taipei District Court as the court of first instance, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction.

15.4 Individual Claims Only

You agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class, consolidated, or representative action. You waive any right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide proceeding against the Service operator. If this waiver is found to be unenforceable in your jurisdiction, then the entirety of this dispute-resolution provision shall be null and void in respect of that claim.

16. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the revised Terms on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. For significant changes, we will also provide notice via email. Material changes will take effect 30 days after notice for users with active paid subscriptions. For all other users, changes become effective upon posting. Your continued use of the Service after changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you must stop using the Service.

17. Force Majeure

Neither party shall be liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations under these Terms where such failure or delay results from events beyond the affected party's reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, acts of war or terrorism, epidemics or pandemics, internet or telecommunications outages, changes to or outages of third-party AI platforms or APIs, power failures, government actions or orders, or labor disputes. The affected party shall promptly notify the other party and make reasonable efforts to mitigate the impact of the force majeure event.

18. General Provisions

  • Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect.
  • Waiver: Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
  • Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and SurfacedBy regarding the Service.
  • Assignment: You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms without our prior written consent.

19. Contact Information

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us:

  • Email: support@surfacedby.com
  • Website: https://surfacedby.com/contact