Terms of Service

Last updated: September 29, 2026

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are a binding agreement between you and LarkTide Technologies LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company ("LarkTide", "we", "us"). They govern your access to and use of LarkTide API, including the API at https://api.larktide.com/v1, the console at console.larktide.com, this website, and the related documentation (together, the "Service"), as each becomes available. LarkTide API is currently an invite-only beta and is being launched.

"You" means the business, organization or individual developer that creates an account, and anyone you allow to use it. Please read these Terms together with our Acceptable Use Policy, Pricing page, Credits & Refund Policy (the "Refund Policy") and Privacy Policy.

Contents

1. Agreement and acceptance
2. Eligibility
3. Invite-only accounts and account security
4. API keys
5. Credits, fees and payment
6. Acceptable use
7. Third-party models
8. Customer content and outputs
9. Suspension and termination
10. Beta service
11. Disclaimer of warranties
12. Limitation of liability
13. Indemnity
14. Export controls and sanctions
15. Changes to these Terms
16. Governing law and venue
17. Notices
18. General
19. Contact

1. Agreement and acceptance

You accept these Terms by creating an account, using an invitation code, purchasing credits, generating or using an API key, or otherwise using the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of a company or other entity, you confirm that you have authority to bind it, and "you" includes that entity. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

LarkTide provides a unified, OpenAI-compatible API and one API key through which you can send requests to AI models operated by third-party providers. LarkTide provides the unified API, API keys, per-key usage tracking, spending limits and billing. The models themselves are developed and served by their providers, not by LarkTide.

2. Eligibility

To use the Service you must meet all of the following:

• You are at least 18 years old.
• You are using the Service for business, professional or developer purposes. The Service is not offered to consumers, and you must not use it for personal, family or household purposes.
• You are not located in, ordinarily resident in, or organized under the laws of mainland China or any country or region that is subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions or embargoes, and you are not accessing the Service from any of them.
• You are not a person or entity on any U.S. government restricted-party list, and you are not owned or controlled by, or acting for, such a person or entity.
• You have not previously been suspended or removed from the Service for a violation of these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, unless we have agreed in writing to let you return.

The Service is also not offered where the relevant model provider does not offer its service. You must not use a proxy, VPN or any other technique to misrepresent your location or to get around these restrictions. If you stop meeting any of these requirements, you must stop using the Service immediately.

3. Invite-only accounts and account security

During the beta, access is by invitation. You can request access at access@larktide.com. If we accept your request, we will send an invitation code, which you use to create an account. An invitation code is for the person or organization it was issued to. Do not sell, publish or share it. We may decline, delay or withdraw any invitation at our discretion.

When you create an account you must give us a working email address and keep it accurate and current. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure, for all activity under your account, and for making sure that anyone you allow to use it follows these Terms. Tell us promptly at security@larktide.com if you believe your account or any API key has been compromised. You may not create more than one account to avoid limits, fees, suspension or enforcement.

4. API keys

Your account lets you create API keys. Each key is a secret credential, and it gives whoever holds it the ability to use the Service and spend your credits. You agree to:

• keep your keys confidential and store them securely, and never put them in public code repositories, publicly visible client-side code or public forums;
• not share your keys with anyone outside your organization, and not sell, rent, lease, sublicense or otherwise resell or redistribute your keys or your credits;
• not operate a service whose main purpose is to re-offer access to LarkTide API to third parties; and
• revoke and replace any key that may have been exposed.

You may use the Service to power your own applications and products for your own end users, but you remain responsible for those end users and for making sure their use complies with these Terms and the Acceptable Use Policy.

You are responsible for all use of your keys and for all charges incurred through them, whether or not you authorized the use. Spending limits and per-key usage tracking are tools to help you manage usage. They do not change your responsibility for it, and a request that is already in progress when a limit or your credit balance is reached may still be completed and charged.

We may rate-limit, throttle, revoke or disable keys to protect the Service, other customers or model providers.

5. Credits, fees and payment

5.1 Prepaid credits

The Service is paid for with prepaid US-dollar credits ("credits"). You buy credits by card, and usage is deducted from your credit balance. The main rules are summarized below. The full price list is on the Pricing page, and refunds are covered in the Credits & Refund Policy.

5.2 What credits are

Credits are a prepayment for LarkTide services only. They are not legal tender, they are not a deposit, and they earn no interest. Credits cannot be cashed out. Money is returned to you only through a refund under the Refund Policy or as required by law.

5.3 Usage charges

Each request is deducted from your balance at the per-token rates published on the Pricing page for the model you select. Those rates cover input tokens, cached input tokens and output tokens, plus cache writes where a model lists them. Reasoning ("thinking") tokens are billed as output tokens. A request that is in progress when your balance reaches zero may leave a small negative balance, which will be deducted from your next credit purchase.

5.4 Payments and taxes

Card payments will be processed by Stripe. Stripe collects and handles your card details under its own terms and privacy policy, and LarkTide never sees full card numbers. Naming Stripe here does not imply that Stripe endorses LarkTide or the Service. You agree to provide accurate payment information and to use only payment methods you are authorized to use. Prices exclude taxes where applicable. You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your purchases, and where we are required to collect a tax, we may add it to your purchase.

5.5 Refunds and disputes

Unused paid credits from a purchase can be refunded to the original payment method if we receive your request within 7 days after that purchase. To ask for a refund, email support@larktide.com. The 5% platform fee and credits you have already used are not refunded. If you close your account, or if we close it for a reason other than a violation of these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, the remaining paid credit balance is refunded to the original payment method on request. If we close your account for such a violation, the account-closure refund does not apply and we are not required to refund the remaining balance, except where the law requires it. Refunds required by law are always honored. We cannot make a refund where the law prohibits us from paying you. Details are in the Refund Policy.

If you dispute a payment with your card issuer, your account will be suspended until the dispute is resolved. Please contact us at support@larktide.com first, and we will try to resolve the problem quickly.

6. Acceptable use

You must use the Service only in compliance with the Acceptable Use Policy, which is part of these Terms, and with all applicable laws. You must also follow the usage policies of the model providers as described in Section 7. You must not attack, probe or interfere with the Service, bypass usage limits, spending limits or security controls, or use the Service to develop a competing product by copying LarkTide's software or console. If you find a security problem, please report it to security@larktide.com rather than exploiting it.

7. Third-party models

The AI models available through the Service are open-weight models from third-party providers, currently Zhipu Z.ai (GLM), DeepSeek, Moonshot AI (Kimi) and MiniMax. The providers develop and serve those models, not LarkTide. Model and provider names and trademarks belong to their owners and are used only to identify the models. They do not imply endorsement, and LarkTide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the model providers. We make no promise that any particular model will be available, accurate, or suitable for your use.

• Provider policies. When you use a model, you must also comply with the usage policies, license terms and other requirements that the model's provider applies to it. If a provider's requirements conflict with these Terms, the stricter requirement applies to your use of that model.
• Data goes to the provider. Content you send is transmitted to and processed by the provider of the model you select, under that provider's terms. Providers may process data outside the United States. See our Privacy Policy.
• Changes to models. We may add, change, restrict or remove models at any time, for example because a provider changes or withdraws a model, changes its terms, or stops serving a region. We will update the Pricing page to reflect the models we offer.
• Changes to rates. Model rates follow each provider's official list prices. When a provider changes its list price, we may change our rates to match. Rate changes are posted on the Pricing page before they apply. Continuing to use an affected model after a change applies means you accept the new rate.
• Provider outages and actions. Providers may change, rate-limit, restrict or discontinue their models or services without notice to us. We are not responsible for a provider's acts, omissions, availability, or outputs.

8. Customer content and outputs

8.1 Ownership

"Input" means the prompts, files and other data you send to the Service, and "Output" means what a model returns in response (together, "Content"). As between you and LarkTide, you own your Input and your Output, to the extent that any rights exist in them. We claim no ownership of your Content. You are responsible for your Content, including having the rights and any notices or consents needed to send it to the Service and to the model providers. The Service is not designed for data that needs special regulatory handling, such as protected health information or payment card data, so do not send it unless you have confirmed that the law and the relevant provider's terms allow it. Outputs generated by AI models may not be unique, and other users may receive similar outputs. Your use of Outputs remains subject to the applicable model provider's license terms.

8.2 What we do with Content

You give LarkTide a limited right to transmit and process your Content only as needed to operate the Service and to send it to the model provider you choose. LarkTide does not store your prompts or outputs for normal requests. If a model provider returns an error response, we may log that response for troubleshooting. LarkTide does not use your Content to train any model. We do collect account and usage metadata, such as model, token counts, cost, timestamps, request IDs, IP address and user agent, and purchase records, which are described in our Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for how a model provider handles your Content once it is sent to that provider.

8.3 Your responsibility for Outputs

AI models can produce inaccurate, incomplete, biased or inappropriate output. You are responsible for evaluating Outputs and for how you use them, including reviewing them with appropriate human oversight before relying on them for anything important.

8.4 LarkTide materials

LarkTide and its licensors keep all rights in the Service, including its software, console, documentation, name and branding. We give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Service during the term of these Terms, for your internal business purposes and to build applications that use the API, subject to these Terms.

9. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or restrict your access to the Service, including disabling API keys, immediately and without prior notice if we reasonably believe that:

• you have violated, or are likely to violate, these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy;
• your account, keys or payment method may have been compromised or used fraudulently;
• a model provider requires it, or your use creates a risk to the Service, other customers or model providers; or
• suspension is needed to comply with law, including export controls and sanctions.

We will also suspend an account while a payment for its credits is disputed with a card issuer, until the dispute is resolved (see Section 5.5).

These Terms apply from when you first accept them until your account is closed. We may terminate these Terms and close your account if you materially breach them, if you stop meeting the eligibility requirements, or if we discontinue the Service or end your access to the beta. Where we can reasonably do so, and the law allows, we will give you notice by email to your account email address. You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time by contacting support@larktide.com.

When your account is closed, your API keys stop working, your right to use the Service ends, and any credits that have not been refunded can no longer be used. If you close your account, or we close it for a reason other than a violation of these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy (including because we discontinue the Service or end the beta), the remaining paid credit balance is refunded on request under Section 5.5 and the Refund Policy. Suspension by itself does not cause credits to expire. Provisions that by their nature should continue after termination will continue, including Section 5, Sections 8.1 through 8.3, Section 9 and Sections 11 through 14 and 16 through 18.

10. Beta service

The Service is an invite-only beta and is being launched. During the beta, features, endpoints, models, limits, rates and documentation may change, be limited, or be withdrawn, and the Service may be unavailable, interrupted or contain errors. We make no commitment to any level of availability, uptime, latency or support response, and nothing in these Terms or elsewhere on our website is a service level agreement. Do not rely on the Service for anything where an interruption or error would cause serious harm without your own safeguards and backups. We may end the beta or change how access works at any time.

11. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICE, AND ALL MODELS AND OUTPUTS MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH IT, ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY. LARKTIDE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

LARKTIDE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE, THAT ANY MODEL OR OUTPUT WILL BE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, LAWFUL OR FIT FOR YOUR PURPOSE, OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. MODELS ARE PROVIDED BY THIRD PARTIES, AND LARKTIDE MAKES NO WARRANTY ABOUT THEM. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty disclaimers, so some of the above may not apply to you, and in that case the disclaimers apply to the fullest extent the law permits.

12. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

1. LARKTIDE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, GOODWILL, DATA OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD THEY WERE POSSIBLE; AND
2. LARKTIDE'S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID TO LARKTIDE IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE LIABILITY, AND (B) US$100.

These limits apply to every legal theory, including contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability and statute, and even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose. LarkTide is not liable for the acts, omissions, availability or outputs of any model provider or other third party. The limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law, and they do not reduce your obligation to pay amounts you owe. You and LarkTide agree that these limits are a fair allocation of risk and a basis of the bargain, reflected in the price of the Service.

13. Indemnity

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless LarkTide Technologies LLC and its members, managers, officers, employees and contractors from and against any third-party claim, and any resulting losses, damages, liabilities, judgments, penalties, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees), arising out of or related to: (a) your Content; (b) your or your end users' use of the Service in violation of these Terms, the Acceptable Use Policy, a model provider's requirements, or applicable law; (c) your breach of the eligibility or export and sanctions requirements; or (d) your infringement or violation of another person's rights.

We will give you prompt written notice of any claim, allow you to control its defense and settlement (except that you may not settle a claim in a way that imposes obligations on LarkTide or admits fault on its behalf without our written consent), and reasonably cooperate at your expense. We may take part in the defense with our own counsel at our own cost.

14. Export controls and sanctions

You must comply with all export control, sanctions and import laws that apply to your use of the Service, including those of the United States. You represent that you are not located in, ordinarily resident in, or organized under the laws of mainland China or any country or region that is subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions or embargoes, and that you are not accessing the Service from any of them, and that you are not on any U.S. government restricted-party list or owned or controlled by anyone who is. You will not use the Service, export or re-export any Content or Output, or give access to the Service, in violation of those laws or to any person or place they prohibit. We may block or limit access by location or by other technical means, and may suspend or terminate any account that we believe is in breach of this Section.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time, for example as the beta develops or when the law or our services change. We will post the updated Terms at /terms and change the "Last updated" date. For a material change, we will also give reasonable advance notice by email to your account email address. Changes required by law, or needed to address a security or abuse issue, may take effect immediately. Changes to model rates follow Section 7 and the Pricing page. If you continue to use the Service after an update takes effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you do not accept them, stop using the Service and close your account, and any remaining paid credits can be refunded on request under Section 5.5. Changes apply going forward and do not apply to a dispute that began before the change.

16. Governing law and venue

These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or related to them or the Service, are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, USA, and applicable U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. You and LarkTide agree that the state and federal courts located in Wyoming have exclusive jurisdiction and venue over any such dispute, and each consents to personal jurisdiction in those courts. Before starting a formal proceeding, each of us agrees to give the other written notice of the dispute (if you are the one giving notice, by email to support@larktide.com) and to try in good faith to resolve it informally for at least 30 days. This does not stop either of us from seeking urgent injunctive or other equitable relief at any time.

17. Notices

We may give you notices under these Terms by email to the address on your account, by posting on the website or in the console, or through the Service. Notices to you are effective when sent or posted. Notices to LarkTide, including legal notices, must be sent by email to support@larktide.com and are effective when we receive them. You are responsible for keeping your account email address current and for checking it. Please use the other addresses listed in Section 19 only for their stated purposes, and note that a notice sent to them may not be treated as a legal notice. This section does not change how legal process must be served under applicable law.

18. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Acceptable Use Policy, the Pricing page and the Credits & Refund Policy, are the entire agreement between you and LarkTide about the Service and replace any earlier or contemporaneous understandings about it. If there is a conflict, these Terms control, except that the Pricing page controls for rates and the Refund Policy controls for credits, credit purchases and refunds. The Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information.
• Severability. If a provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted and the rest of the Terms will remain in effect.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, that is not a waiver of it. A waiver is effective only if it is in writing.
• Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent, and any attempt to do so is void. LarkTide may assign these Terms to an affiliate or to a successor in a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of all or substantially all of its relevant assets, and will notify you if it does.
• Events beyond our control. Neither party is liable for a delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including failures of internet, hosting, payment or model-provider services, government action and force majeure. This does not excuse a payment obligation.
• Relationship. You and LarkTide are independent contractors. These Terms create no partnership, agency, employment or joint venture, and there are no third-party beneficiaries.
• Interpretation. Headings are for convenience only. "Including" means "including without limitation". These Terms are written in English, and the English version controls over any translation.

19. Contact

We communicate by email only. The addresses below are our only contact channels. You can also find them on the Contact page.