Terms of Service

3.1 AI-Curated Financial News Platform

alphai aggregates market-moving news and exposes it through several surfaces:

• A free news feed sourced from public publishers via GDELT and enriched by AI (per-article summary, category, relevance score 1–10, and per-ticker impact analysis).
• A public REST API at api.alphai.io, with tiered per-minute and per-day rate limits.
• An MCP server at mcp.alphai.io for AI agents and trading bots, accessed via OAuth 2.1.
• Personal watchlist and ticker news alerts (paid tiers).
• Embedded TradingView charts on stock pages — for reference only, not analysis we produce.

3.2 Data Sources

Our Service aggregates news article metadata from public publishers via GDELT (Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone) and enriches articles using OpenAI. We surface AI-generated summaries and per-ticker analysis; the full original article body is not redistributed via the website, REST API, or MCP server. Original publisher links are preserved on every article page so you can read the source.

We perform automated text-and-data-mining on lawfully accessible content to generate this enrichment, within the meaning of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/790. We do not mine paywalled or otherwise non-public content. Publishers who do not wish their content mined or summarized can opt out by contacting us at info@alphai.io — see §9.5.

3.3 Service Availability

We aim for high availability of the Service and may perform maintenance, updates, and modifications at any time. The Free and Basic tiers are best-effort and offered without uptime guarantees; Pro and Enterprise tiers may have additional service-level commitments as described on our pricing page or in a separate written agreement. Scheduled maintenance will be communicated in advance when possible.

4.3 Regulatory Compliance

• We are not licensed as an investment advisor or broker-dealer
• Our Service is not regulated by financial authorities as investment advice
• Always consult qualified financial professionals before making investment decisions
• Ensure your use of our Service complies with local securities laws

5.1 Account Creation

You may create an account using:

• Email address and password
• Google OAuth authentication

One account per person (or one per organization for business use). Creating or operating multiple accounts to multiply Free-tier allotments, trials, rate limits, or API keys is prohibited; we may suspend or terminate all accounts involved without prior notice (see §7.3).

5.2 Account Security

You are responsible for:

• Maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials
• All activities that occur under your account
• Notifying us immediately of any unauthorized access
• Using strong, unique passwords; we recommend signing in with Google for stronger account protection.

5.3 Account Information

You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and to update such information to maintain its accuracy.

6.1 Subscription Tiers

We offer the following subscription tiers:

• Free ($0) — unlimited news on the website; REST API and MCP for evaluation / personal, non-commercial use at 20 requests/minute and 100 requests/day, 1 API key, a 30-day news-archive window on the API, watchlist of up to 10 tickers.
• Basic ($2.99/month or $29.99/year) — ad-free, unlimited watchlist, 10 ticker news alerts (daily digest delivery), 60 requests/minute and 10,000 requests/day on REST API and MCP, a 90-day news-archive window on the API; licensed for commercial use within your own organization (no redistribution).
• Pro ($9.99/month or $99.99/year) — 150 requests/minute and 100,000 requests/day on REST API and MCP, 5 API keys, full news-archive access, bulk 50-row pages, 50 ticker news alerts with instant per-article delivery and signed webhook delivery; licensed for commercial use, including redistribution of the enriched feed (AI summaries, relevance scores, per-ticker analysis) as an integrated part of your own product, with visible attribution to alphai.io. This license does NOT cover redistributing the data as a standalone product — a news feed, dataset, bulk export, or API of its own, or any product whose primary value is our data passed through — nor use of the data as a substitute for the Service. Such use requires a separate Enterprise agreement.
• Enterprise — contact us at /contact for custom volume, SLAs, team accounts, and data-syndication licensing (standalone or bulk redistribution).

The live tier matrix is shown on alphai.io/pricing and may be updated periodically.

6.2 Payment Processing

• All payments are processed securely through Stripe
• We accept major credit cards and digital payment methods
• Prices are displayed in your local currency where supported by Stripe Checkout. The final charge currency is shown at checkout.
• Prices may vary by region due to local taxes and fees

6.3 Billing Cycles

• Subscriptions are billed in advance on a monthly or annual basis
• Your subscription automatically renews unless cancelled
• We reserve the right to change prices with 30 days' notice
• Continued use after price changes constitutes acceptance

6.4 Taxes

You are responsible for all taxes, fees, and duties associated with your subscription, except for taxes based on our net income.

6.5 Free Tier

• The Free tier on the website is unlimited (no daily article cap) — this supports our discoverability strategy.
• The Free tier on REST API and MCP server is capped at 20 requests/minute and 100 requests/day and is intended as an evaluation / non-commercial allotment, not for production or commercial workloads; production or commercial use requires a paid plan.
• The public data endpoints (/api/news/*, /api/symbols/*) require an API key; anonymous scraping is mitigated at the network edge rather than a fixed per-IP rate.
• Free tier comes with a single API key and is limited to one account per person or organization (§5.1). Generating multiple accounts to evade quotas — including registrations from disposable/temporary email addresses or automated sign-ups — is prohibited (§8.2); we may suspend or terminate all related accounts and revoke their API keys without prior notice (§7.3).

7.1 Cancellation

• You may cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings
• Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period
• You retain access to paid features until the end of the billing period
• No partial refunds are provided for unused portions of billing periods

7.2 Refund Policy

• We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee for first-time paid subscriptions
• To request a refund, email info@alphai.io within 30 days of your initial purchase. Refunds are processed manually within 5–10 business days, returning to the original payment method.
• Renewal charges (after the first paid period) are not eligible for the money-back guarantee; cancel before the next billing date to avoid them.
• Accounts with history of abuse or chargebacks may be ineligible for refunds.

7.3 Suspension and Account Termination

We may suspend or terminate an account immediately and without prior notice when we have a reasonable basis to believe the account:

• Evades quotas or tier limits — including operating multiple accounts (§5.1), rotating API keys across accounts, sharing credentials, or distributed scraping
• Redistributes or resells our data beyond the license of its plan (§6.1, §8.2–8.3)
• Scrapes, systematically downloads, or bulk-extracts content outside the documented API
• Engages in fraud, payment abuse, or chargebacks, or in illegal activities including market manipulation
• Interferes with or disrupts the Service, or otherwise materially violates these Terms

Enforcement is proportionate where practical: we may first throttle traffic, revoke individual API keys or OAuth grants, or temporarily suspend an account instead of terminating it — but we are not required to escalate gradually for clear-cut abuse. Where multiple accounts are operated in concert, all of them may be actioned together, and we may decline re-registration by the same person or organization.

Effect of suspension or termination: API keys and OAuth grants are revoked, alerts and webhook deliveries stop, and access to paid features ends. If the account is terminated for cause under this section, fees already paid for the current billing period are not refunded, except where a refund is required by applicable law. Failure to pay subscription fees results in downgrade to the Free tier rather than termination.

We may also close accounts that have been inactive for more than 12 months, with at least 30 days' notice to the account email.

8.1 Permitted Uses

You may use our Service for:

• Personal investment research and analysis
• Educational purposes and learning about financial markets
• Business analysis within your organization

8.2 Prohibited Activities

You may NOT:

• Resell, redistribute, or commercialize our data or insights, except as expressly licensed by your plan (§6.1) — and in no case as a standalone or competing data feed, dataset, bulk export, or API
• Create or operate multiple accounts to multiply Free-tier allotments, trials, API keys, or rate limits (§5.1)
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract our algorithms
• Use our data to train, fine-tune, or build models or datasets intended to replicate, compete with, or substitute for the Service
• Scrape, extract, or systematically download our content outside the documented API within your plan's limits
• Share account credentials with multiple users
• Use the Service for illegal activities or market manipulation
• Circumvent usage limits or access restrictions
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers

We may apply technical protections — throttling, CAPTCHA or bot challenges, IP or network blocks, and key or account suspension — to enforce these rules (§7.3).

8.3 API Usage Limits

• Subscription tiers include specific REST API and MCP rate limits (see §6.1) and key counts.
• Exceeding limits returns 429 Too Many Requests; sustained abuse may result in temporary suspension.
• Bulk and historical endpoints are available on the Pro tier and above.
• Redistribution rights are tier-scoped (§6.1). On Free and Basic, reselling, redistributing, or republishing news content extracted via the API/MCP — including AI-generated summaries and per-ticker analysis — is prohibited. On Pro, redistribution is licensed only as an integrated part of your own product, with visible attribution to alphai.io. Wholesale re-syndication — offering the data as a standalone feed, dataset, bulk export, or API — is prohibited on every self-serve tier and requires an Enterprise agreement.

8.4 Public REST API and MCP Server Terms

The REST API (api.alphai.io) and MCP server (mcp.alphai.io) are subject to the rules above and these additional terms:

• Authentication: REST uses an Authorization: Bearer ak_live_… API key; MCP uses OAuth 2.1 with Dynamic Client Registration and PKCE (S256). API keys must not be shared between accounts; OAuth credentials must not be transferred between users or organisations.
• Permitted use: building AI agents, trading bots, dashboards, internal research and monitoring tools.
• Prohibited: sharing API keys or OAuth credentials, evading rate limits via key rotation or multiple accounts, distributed scraping, reselling responses as a competing news data feed or dataset, or republishing AI summaries or analysis outside your plan's license (§6.1) or without attribution to alphai.
• Service level: Free and Basic tiers are best-effort and offered without uptime guarantees. Pro and Enterprise add priority support and (for Enterprise) negotiated SLAs.

9.1 Our Rights

We own all rights to:

• The platform software and underlying technology
• Our prompts, enrichment pipelines, and the resulting AI-generated summaries, categories, relevance scores, and per-ticker analyses we produce
• User interface design and user experience
• Trademarks, logos, and brand materials
• Aggregated and processed data insights

9.2 Third-Party Sources

• News article metadata is sourced from public publishers via GDELT and is subject to those publishers' terms.
• Embedded TradingView charts on stock pages are provided by TradingView under their own terms.
• You may not redistribute or resell content originating from these third-party sources, beyond what is permitted by their respective licenses.

9.3 User Content

• You retain ownership of content you provide
• You grant us a license to use your content to provide the Service
• You represent that you have rights to any content you provide

9.4 News Content & Source Attribution

• News article metadata (title, snippet, link to original) is sourced from public publishers via GDELT.
• Original copyright remains with the publishers. We provide AI-generated summaries and analysis based on these articles, not full-text reproduction.
• Links to original sources are preserved on every article page in the website, REST API, and MCP responses.
• The full article body used internally for AI prompts is not exposed via the website, REST API, or MCP server.

9.5 Publisher Rights & Opt-Out

• We respect the copyright of original publishers and do not reproduce or redistribute full article text via the website, REST API, or MCP server.
• Our analysis constitutes text-and-data-mining within the meaning of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/790, performed only on lawfully accessible content.
• A publisher who wishes their content excluded from our mining, summaries, or index — or who believes content has been used in error — may contact us at info@alphai.io (subject: 'Publisher Opt-Out'), and we will remove it promptly.

10.3 Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from claims arising from:

• Your use of the Service
• Investment decisions made using our platform
• Violation of these Terms of Service
• Violation of applicable laws or regulations

11.1 Privacy Policy

Our collection, use, and protection of your personal data is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

11.2 Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data, but cannot guarantee absolute security. You acknowledge the inherent risks of internet transmission.

11.3 GDPR Compliance

For users in the European Union, we comply with GDPR requirements. You have rights regarding your personal data as outlined in our Privacy Policy.

12.1 Service Changes

We reserve the right to:

• Add, modify, or remove features
• Update our enrichment prompts and analysis methods
• Change data sources or providers
• Modify subscription plans and pricing

12.2 Terms Updates

• We may update these Terms periodically
• Material changes will be communicated via email or platform notice
• Continued use constitutes acceptance of updated Terms
• You may terminate your account if you disagree with changes

13.1 Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of Bulgaria, without regard to conflict of law principles.

13.2 Jurisdiction

Any disputes shall be resolved in the courts of Sofia, Bulgaria. You consent to the personal jurisdiction of these courts.

13.3 Alternative Dispute Resolution

Before pursuing legal action, we encourage:

• Direct communication to resolve disputes amicably
• Use of online mediation platforms for cost-effective resolution