Terms of Service

Effective date: June 2, 2026 Last updated: June 2, 2026

Plain-language summary. Cogito is an AI assistant for philosophy research. By using it you agree to these terms. You must be 18 or older. Paid plans renew monthly and are non-refundable, but you can cancel anytime and keep access until the end of your paid period. The AI can be wrong — verify important information and don't treat its output as professional advice. This summary is for convenience only; the full terms below govern.

This document is provided in good faith and is accurate to the operation of the service, but it is not legal advice and is not a substitute for review by a licensed attorney.

1. Agreement to these terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and William Chastain, an individual sole proprietor doing business as "Cogito" ("Cogito", "we", "us", or "our"), governing your access to and use of the Cogito website, application, and services (the "Service") at https://cogito.williamchastain.com.

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the Service. The Service is not directed to, and may not be used by, anyone under 18. By using the Service you represent that you meet these requirements.

3. The Service

Cogito is an artificial-intelligence research assistant that helps you explore philosophy using a corpus of public-domain texts (Project Gutenberg) and reference sources such as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, arXiv, and Wikipedia. Responses are generated by an AI model and are not produced or reviewed by a human.

The Service is an informational and research tool only. It does not provide legal, medical, financial, academic-credentialing, or other professional advice, and no attorney-client, doctor-patient, or other professional relationship is created by using it.

4. Accounts

You must provide accurate information and keep your account secure. Authentication is provided through our identity provider, Clerk.
You are responsible for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly at williamchastain2005@gmail.com if you suspect unauthorized use.
You may not share your account, or create an account on behalf of someone who is not eligible.

5. Plans, billing, and cancellation

5.1 Plans

The Service offers a Free plan ($0) and paid subscription plans: Pro at $9.99 per month and Max at $19.99 per month. Each plan includes a monthly usage allowance. Prices are in U.S. dollars and exclusive of any applicable taxes.

5.2 Recurring billing

Paid plans are subscriptions that automatically renew each month. By subscribing, you authorize us, through our payment processor Stripe, to charge your payment method the then- current plan fee at the start of each monthly billing period until you cancel. Payment is processed by Stripe under its own terms; we do not store your full card details.

5.3 Cancellation

You may cancel at any time through the billing portal in your account. When you cancel, your subscription remains active until the end of the current paid period, after which it will not renew and your plan reverts to Free. To stop a renewal, cancel before the next billing date.

5.4 Refunds

All fees are non-refundable. Except where a refund is required by applicable law, we do not provide refunds or credits for partial billing periods, unused allowance, or fees already charged. Canceling stops future charges; it does not refund the current period.

5.5 Usage allowances

Each plan includes a monthly usage allowance, measured by the underlying AI-model usage your activity consumes. If you reach your plan's allowance before the end of a billing period, further requests may be paused (the Service may return an error and decline new requests) until your allowance resets at the next cycle or you upgrade. Allowances reset on your monthly billing date.

5.6 Price changes

We may change plan prices or allowances. We will give you reasonable advance notice of changes that affect you (for example, by email or in-app notice), and changes take effect at your next billing period. Continuing to use a paid plan after a price change takes effect means you accept the new price; if you do not agree, cancel before it takes effect.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of these Terms;
upload or submit content you do not have the right to use, or that infringes others' intellectual-property, privacy, or other rights;
upload malware, or content that is unlawful, harassing, or harmful;
upload others' confidential information or sensitive personal information without authority (see the Privacy Policy);
attempt to circumvent, disable, or exceed usage limits, rate limits, or access controls;
create multiple accounts, or delete and re-create your account, to evade, reset, or exceed usage limits or allowances;
scrape, resell, or redistribute the Service, or use it to build or train a competing model or product;
reverse engineer, interfere with, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or its underlying systems; or
use the Service in a way that imposes an unreasonable load on our infrastructure or that of our providers.

We may suspend or terminate access for violations of this section.

7. Your content

Ownership. You retain ownership of the prompts, messages, and files you submit ("Your Content").
License to operate the Service. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide license to host, store, process, transmit, and display Your Content solely to provide and improve the Service to you — including transmitting it to our AI provider and other sub-processors described in the Privacy Policy. This license ends when you delete the content or close your account, except for residual copies retained as described in the Privacy Policy or required by law.
Your responsibility. You represent that you have the rights necessary to submit Your Content and that doing so does not violate any law or third-party right.

8. AI output — important disclaimer

The Service uses generative AI. AI-generated output may be inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, biased, or fabricated ("hallucinated"), including citations, quotations, and references that appear authoritative but are wrong. You should:

independently verify any information before relying on it, especially quotations and citations, against primary sources; and
not rely on the output as professional advice or as a substitute for your own judgment.

You are solely responsible for how you use AI output. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for actions taken in reliance on it.

9. Intellectual property

The Service — including its software, design, branding, and the name "Cogito" — is owned by us and protected by intellectual-property laws. These Terms do not grant you any right to our trademarks or branding.
The reference corpus consists of public-domain works (e.g., Project Gutenberg) and third-party reference sources, each subject to its own terms and licenses.
Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for your own personal or internal research purposes.

10. Third-party services

The Service depends on third-party providers (including Anthropic, Clerk, Stripe, Vercel, Neon, and Inngest) and external reference sources. Your use of features powered by these providers may also be subject to their terms. We are not responsible for third-party services, their availability, or their acts or omissions, including outages or changes outside our control.

11. Termination

By you. You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time.
By us. We may suspend or terminate your access, with or without notice, if you violate these Terms, if required by law, or if necessary to protect the Service or other users.
Effect. On termination, your right to use the Service ends. Data handling following termination is described in the Privacy Policy. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (e.g., Sections 7–9, 12–14) survive.

12. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that AI output will be accurate or reliable. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of these exclusions may not apply to you.

13. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

We will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or related to your use of (or inability to use) the Service.
Our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the liability, or (b) US $100.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so some of the above may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless William Chastain (Cogito) from any claims, damages, losses, and reasonable expenses (including attorneys' fees) arising out of your misuse of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right, including in connection with Your Content.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. You agree that the state and federal courts located in California will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. Nothing here deprives you of the protection of mandatory consumer-protection laws of your place of residence.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, provide notice (for example, by email or an in-app notice). Changes take effect when posted unless stated otherwise. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

17. Miscellaneous

Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.
Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a transfer of the Service.

18. Contact us

William Chastain (Cogito) Email: williamchastain2005@gmail.com