Terms of Service

Effective October 6, 2026

Friendlai (the "Service") is operated by Digital Fluency LLC ("we", "us"). These terms are an agreement between you and us. By using the Service, whether you chat, call the API, buy credits or run a node, you agree to them. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.

1. Friendlai is a beta and an experiment

Friendlai is an early, experimental service. Mistakes can and will happen. Features may change or disappear without notice. The Service may be slow, unavailable, or lose data, including conversations, usage records, credit balances and reward records. Pricing, free allowances, the reward rate and the models offered may change at any time. We may pause, limit or shut down all or part of the Service at any time, for any reason, with or without notice.

2. How the Service works

Your messages, and the rest of the conversation they belong to, are sent to computers ("nodes") run by independent members of the community, who are not our employees or agents. Those people's computers process your content to generate replies. We don't control those computers and can't guarantee what happens on them. Don't send passwords, secrets, financial or health information, or anything else you wouldn't want a stranger to see. The privacy policy describes what we store.

3. AI output

Replies are generated by AI models and may be wrong, incomplete, outdated, offensive, or made up, and may resemble other people's content. A node may also return a reply that wasn't produced by the model it claims to run. Don't rely on output for medical, legal, financial, safety or other important decisions. You are solely responsible for how you use output, including checking it before you act on it or share it.

4. Who can use Friendlai

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service, and at least 18 (or the age of majority where you live) to buy credits, create API keys or run a node. You're responsible for everything done through your account, API keys and node keys; keep them secret. You can use the Service without signing in, but we may limit or stop guest access at any time.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • break any law, or use the Service to harm, harass, deceive, defraud or exploit anyone;
  • generate or distribute content that sexualizes minors, promotes violence or terrorism, or infringes anyone's rights;
  • use the Service to develop weapons, malware, or attacks on any system;
  • get around rate limits, free allowances, billing or other restrictions, for example with multiple accounts or automated guest sessions;
  • interfere with, probe, overload or attack the Service, its nodes or its users;
  • resell or redistribute access to the Service without our written permission;
  • misrepresent AI output as written by a person when that would mislead someone.

We may remove content, refuse requests, and suspend or close accounts, API keys or nodes at any time, for any reason or no reason, without notice and without liability.

6. Your content

You keep whatever rights you have in what you send. You give us, and the nodes that process it, a worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, transmit, process and display your content as needed to run, secure and improve the Service. You confirm you have the right to send it. Result pages opened from a shared link (/r/… and /m/…) can be seen by anyone with the link. As between you and us, you may use the output you receive, subject to these terms and to the licenses of the underlying open models.

7. Credits and payments

  • Credits are a prepaid, limited license to use the Service. They are not money, have no cash value, can't be transferred, and are not a deposit, stored-value account or security.
  • Free daily credits expire as described on the credits page. Purchased credits don't expire while the Service operates, but we may change what credits buy (for example, model prices).
  • All purchases are final and non-refundable, except where the law requires otherwise, including if a query fails, a reply is poor, or the Service changes or shuts down. We may, at our sole discretion, issue refunds or credits, and doing so once doesn't oblige us to do it again.
  • Because of the beta nature of the Service, usage may occasionally be miscounted. Our records of usage and balances are final, but we may correct errors in either direction.
  • Payments are processed by Stripe under its own terms. Prices are in US dollars, and you pay any applicable taxes.
  • If a payment is reversed or disputed, we may remove the related credits and suspend your account.

8. Running a node

If you run a node, you also agree that:

  • You run it voluntarily, on hardware and an internet connection you're allowed to use for this, and at your own cost and risk, including electricity, wear on your hardware, bandwidth, and your internet provider's or employer's rules.
  • You won't read, copy, store, log, share or otherwise use the prompts and replies that pass through your node except to answer them, and won't alter, fabricate or pad replies or token counts.
  • The node software is provided as is. Unless you turn it off, it updates itself automatically from friendlai.xyz, and you consent to those updates.
  • You are an independent participant, not our employee, contractor, partner or agent. Running a node doesn't create any employment or agency relationship.
  • We may disable your node or remove it from the network at any time, for any reason, without notice.

9. Node rewards

  • Rewards are a discretionary incentive, not wages, and not a debt we owe you until we actually pay them. Payouts are still being set up; we don't promise when, how, or whether rewards can be redeemed.
  • We set the reward rate and may change it at any time, including for work already done but not yet paid. Our records of the work your node did are final.
  • We may withhold, reduce or cancel rewards we believe in good faith were earned through errors, abuse, fraud, padded output, or breaking these terms, and rewards may be forfeited if we close your account or end the reward program.
  • You're responsible for any taxes on rewards, and we may require tax and identity information, and set minimums and limits, before paying any.

10. API

The API is subject to these terms and to rate limits we set and may change. We may change or remove API features, including breaking changes, without notice.

11. No warranties

The Service, all output, the node software and everything else we provide are provided "as is" and "as available", with all faults and without warranties of any kind, express, implied or statutory, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, availability and security. We don't warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure or free of harmful components, that data will be preserved, or that nodes will behave honestly.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we and our members, managers, employees and agents won't be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, goodwill or business, or for damage to your hardware, arising out of or relating to the Service, even if we were told they were possible. Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us for credits in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) twenty US dollars ($20). These limits apply to every theory of liability and even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose.

We aren't responsible for the conduct of node operators, other users, or third parties such as Google, Stripe or hosting providers.

13. Indemnity

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless Digital Fluency LLC and its members, managers, employees and agents from any claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your content, your use of the Service or its output, your node, or your breach of these terms or of law.

14. Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Minnesota and applicable US federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before filing a claim, you agree to email us and try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 60 days.

Arbitration and class-action waiver. Any dispute that isn't resolved informally will be settled by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, held in Minnesota or remotely. Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in small-claims court. You and we each waive the right to a jury trial and to bring or join any class, collective or representative action. If this arbitration agreement is found unenforceable, disputes will be heard only in the state or federal courts located in Minnesota, and you consent to their jurisdiction. Any claim must be brought within one year after it arose, or it is permanently barred.

15. Changes and termination

We may change these terms at any time by posting a new version here with a new effective date. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept the changes. You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or end your access at any time, for any reason. Sections 3, 6, 7 (non-refundability), 9, and 11–16 survive termination.

16. Everything else

These terms and the privacy policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service. If any part is unenforceable, the rest still applies, and the unenforceable part is limited to the minimum extent necessary. Our not enforcing a provision isn't a waiver. You can't transfer these terms; we can, for example to a successor business. We aren't liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

Questions: friendlai@digitalfluency.net.