Terms of Service

1. The Service

GroundRoute is a search control plane for AI agents. We route search and page-fetch requests across third-party search providers (such as Serper, Brave, Exa, Tavily, Firecrawl, and Perplexity — “Search Providers”), cache results to reduce duplicate calls, and return normalized results over an HTTP API, an MCP server, and an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. GroundRoute does not itself crawl or index the web; it orchestrates requests to Search Providers and caches their responses.

2. Accounts and API keys

You must provide accurate account information and keep your credentials secure. You are responsible for all activity under your account and API keys, including activity by your agents and end users. API keys are shown in plaintext only once at creation; you are responsible for storing them securely. Notify us promptly at support@groundroute.ai if you suspect unauthorized use. You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into these Terms.

3. Plans, billing, and the gain-share model

GroundRoute offers two plan types:

Managed usage is prepaid: you maintain a credit balance and may enable automatic top-ups against a saved payment method. We meter usage server-side per request. Charges are computed from our records of routed requests and cache outcomes. Prepaid credits are consumed as you use the Service; except where required by law, credits are non-refundable once purchased. We may change pricing on reasonable notice; changes apply to usage after the effective date. Payments are processed by Stripe — see the Privacy Policy; we never store full card numbers.

4. Bring-Your-Own-Key terms

If you use BYOK, you represent that you are authorized to use the Search Provider keys you supply and that your use complies with each provider's terms. We encrypt stored provider keys at rest and use them only to fulfill your requests. You remain responsible for charges those providers bill you directly, and for keeping your keys valid. We are not a party to your agreement with any Search Provider.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• violate any law, regulation, or third-party right, or any Search Provider's terms;
• send queries or fetch content for unlawful, infringing, deceptive, or harmful purposes;
• circumvent rate limits, quotas, billing, or access controls, or share access to evade metering;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other customers' data, or our infrastructure;
• scrape, resell, or redistribute the Service in a way that competes with GroundRoute as a routing layer without our written consent;
• introduce malware, or use the Service to facilitate denial-of-service, mass surveillance, or harassment.

We may throttle, suspend, or terminate access for violations, for non-payment, or to protect the Service, other customers, or third parties. Where practical we will give notice; for severe abuse or security risks we may act immediately.

6. Your content and results

You retain ownership of the queries you submit. Search results originate from third-party Search Providers and are subject to their rights and terms; GroundRoute makes no claim of ownership over them and grants no rights beyond passing them through to you. You are responsible for how you use returned results. We process queries and cache results to operate the Service as described in the Privacy Policy.

7. Service availability

We work to keep the Service available but do not guarantee uninterrupted operation. The Service depends on third-party Search Providers and infrastructure that may fail, rate-limit, or change. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue features with reasonable notice where feasible. Unless a separate written SLA is agreed, the Service is provided without an uptime commitment.

8. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. We do not warrant that search results are accurate, complete, current, or fit for any purpose; results are generated by third-party Search Providers.

9. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER PARTY WILL BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, OR DATA, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE THREE (3) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law.

10. Indemnification

You will defend and indemnify GroundRoute against third-party claims arising from your use of the Service in breach of these Terms, your content or queries, or your violation of law or a Search Provider's terms, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

11. Term and termination

These Terms apply while you use the Service. You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access as described in Section 5 or if you materially breach these Terms. On termination, your right to use the Service ends; provisions that by their nature should survive (including billing for usage incurred, disclaimers, liability limits, and indemnities) will survive.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, notify you. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

13. General

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and GroundRoute regarding the Service. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact us at support@groundroute.ai.