Terms of Service.

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) constitute a legally binding agreement between you (“you,” “your,” or “User”) and CostMe (“CostMe,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) governing your access to and use of the CostMe mobile application, the progressive web app (“PWA”), this website, and any related services, content, and features (collectively, the “Service”). By accessing or using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our EULA, each of which is incorporated herein by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

The Service is a personal-finance reflection tool. It provides calculators, behavioural prompts, vault and cooldown decisions, in-app educational research, and an optional AI conversational assistant named “Amy.” The Service is intended for personal, informational, and reflective use only. The Service is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, bank, money transmitter, lender, insurance product, tax-preparation service, medical device, mental-health service, or legal practice.

Amy is an AI behavioural-finance companion built into CostMe. Amy is NOT:

• A licensed financial advisor, planner, or accountant
• A medical professional, therapist, or psychologist
• A lawyer or legal advisor
• A licensed insurance, tax, or investment professional
• A crisis counselor or emergency responder

Amy provides behavioural framing based on peer-reviewed research, not personalized professional advice. Information from Amy is for educational purposes only. You are responsible for your own financial, medical, legal, and personal decisions. Always consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation.

CostMe uses third-party artificial-intelligence systems to power Amy. AI systems can produce information that is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, biased, or fabricated (“hallucinations”). AI outputs may differ each time you ask the same question. AI does not have real-time access to your bank, brokerage, or any account; any figures Amy cites are illustrative unless drawn from data you have personally entered into the app.

You agree that you will not rely on Amy as your sole source of information for any important decision. CostMe is not liable for losses, damages, or decisions made based on Amy's responses. See Section 14 for liability limitations.

CostMe is not a crisis intervention service. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, considering self-harm, or in immediate danger, please contact a qualified human responder:

• United States - Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline)
• Canada - Call or text 988
• United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland - Call 116 123 (Samaritans)
• Australia - Call 13 11 14 (Lifeline)
• International directory - iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/

If you are in immediate danger, call your local emergency number (911 in the US/Canada, 999 in the UK, 000 in Australia, 112 across the EU, or the equivalent for your country).

Amy may surface these resources when signs of distress are detected and will refuse to provide methods of self-harm, methods of harm to others, or any content intended to facilitate a crisis. Amy is not a substitute for professional help. The presence of in-app safety messaging does not establish a duty of care, a clinician-patient relationship, or any other professional relationship between you and CostMe.

You agree not to use CostMe or Amy to:

• Plan or facilitate harm to yourself or others
• Request methods of self-harm, suicide, or violence
• Obtain information about weapons, explosives, or means of harm
• Circumvent or replace legal, medical, financial, or emergency professional advice
• Use Amy as a sole source of crisis or emergency information
• Engage in fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, or any unlawful activity
• Harass, stalk, defame, or impersonate any person
• Reverse engineer, scrape, automate, or extract data from the Service (see Section 18)
• Train, fine-tune, evaluate, or otherwise improve any AI or machine-learning model using CostMe's outputs, prompts, or research library

Violating these terms may result in immediate account suspension or termination. CostMe reserves the right to refuse service to any user at our discretion, subject to applicable law.

You must be at least 18 years of age in your jurisdiction (or the higher local age of majority) to use the Service. CostMe uses a launch-gate age verification step but cannot guarantee against false declarations. Parents and guardians are responsible for ensuring minors do not access the Service. If we become aware that a user is under 18, we will terminate the account.

An account is required to use the Service. You must register and sign in (by email and password or by Sign in with Apple) to access the Service, including the calculator, vault, and Amy. You agree to provide accurate information, to keep it current, and to maintain the confidentiality of your credentials. You are responsible for all activity on your account. Notify us immediately at the email in Section 26 of any unauthorized use.

The Service offers the following tiers (all prices in U.S. dollars and subject to change): Jade (free); Opal / Premium at $7.99 per month or $59.99 per year; Flint / Pro+ at $19.99 per month or $159.99 per year; and the web-only Flint Max at $200 per month (available only through the website and PWA via Stripe, not on the App Store). On iOS, subscriptions are billed and processed through Apple Inc. in accordance with the Apple Media Services Terms. On the website and PWA (costme.io, app.costme.io), subscriptions and one-time purchases are billed and processed through Stripe.

AI output is not advice. Paid tiers increase your access to Amy (the AI coach), but Amy's output may be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date and is not financial, investment, tax, legal, medical, or other professional advice. See Sections 3 and 4. Paying for a higher tier does not change this.

Auto-renewal: Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period at the then-current rate unless cancelled at least twenty-four (24) hours before the end of the current period.

Lifetime purchases (web only): The Service offers two non-renewing, one-time lifetime purchases through Stripe: Founders Lifetime, available for the first fifty (50) customers across all tiers at a one-time price of $149.99, and Standard Lifetime, available after the Founders cap is reached at a one-time price of $199.00. Both grant the buyer CostMe Pro+ for the operational life of the Service. Lifetime purchases are not sold on the App Store and do not transact through Apple. The fifty-buyer Founders cap is enforced server-side at the time of checkout; if the cap is reached after you reach checkout, the price displayed before payment will reflect Standard Lifetime.

Cross-platform entitlement: A subscription or lifetime purchase made on one surface (App Store or web) grants entitlement on the other surface when you sign into the Service with the same account. We do not double-charge.

Cancellation: Manage or cancel any iOS subscription through the App Store. Web and PWA subscriptions can be managed through the Stripe customer portal accessible from in-app Settings. Lifetime purchases are non-recurring and require no cancellation.

Each subscription helps cover the real costs of running CostMe: AI compute for Amy, secure storage and processing on our backend, payment processing fees, and the small team building and supporting the product. Because these costs are incurred as soon as your subscription begins, all sales of web and PWA subscriptions and one-time purchases (including lifetime purchases) through Stripe are final. You can cancel future renewals at any time through the Stripe customer portal (accessible from in-app Settings); cancellation stops the next billing cycle and you retain access through the end of the current period. Once a charge is made, it is non-refundable.

Pricing changes: CostMe may modify subscription pricing, billing intervals, or plan features at any time. The product runs on services that cost us money - AI compute for Amy, secure backend infrastructure, payment processing fees, and the team that builds and supports the product - and as we add features and these costs evolve, prices may change. If we change the price of a plan you are actively subscribed to, we will notify you by email at least thirty (30) days before the change takes effect, and the new price will apply at your next billing cycle after the notice period. You may cancel at any time during the notice period to avoid the new price and will retain access through the end of your current billing period. For new subscribers, prices shown on costme.io and app.costme.io are current as of your purchase date; if the price changes after you subscribe, the price you paid is locked for your current billing cycle. Apple-purchased subscriptions (iOS) are governed by Apple's own price-change notification process; refer to your App Store account for any changes.

iOS purchases (Apple): Refund requests for App Store purchases are handled exclusively by Apple under Apple's refund policy. Submit a request through reportaproblem.apple.com. CostMe does not have visibility into Apple refund determinations and cannot override them.

To maintain quality of service for everyone, protect against abuse, and manage the costs of the third-party AI systems that power Amy, your use of Amy and other compute-intensive features is subject to reasonable fair-use limits. These limits may include rate limiting and throttling, and may be applied on a rolling hourly, daily, weekly, or other basis.

Where a plan or feature is described as “unlimited,” “no rate limit,” or using similar language, that description is subject to these reasonable fair-use limits. “Unlimited” means we do not impose a fixed per-period cap under normal individual use; it does not permit automated, bulk, resale, programmatic, or other use that is excessive relative to typical personal use, and it does not guarantee unconstrained throughput at all times.

Fair-use limits may differ by subscription tier and may change over time as we tune the Service. We may also temporarily reduce, queue, or suspend access to AI features to preserve availability, respond to incidents, or prevent abuse. Where practicable, the current applicable limits are surfaced in the Service. Persistent or deliberate attempts to circumvent these limits may result in throttling, suspension, or termination under Section 16.

Model selection and graceful degradation. The specific AI model or model family used to generate a given reply may vary on a per-request basis and is selected by CostMe based on factors including, but not limited to: your subscription tier and entitlements, current and recent usage, aggregate system load, abuse and anomaly signals, cost- protection ceilings, infrastructure availability, and content type (for example, text vs. multimodal input). Subscription tiers describe a target experience and the most-capable model available to that tier; they do not guarantee that a specific model will be used on every individual turn. To keep Amy responsive for everyone, when fair-use limits or cost ceilings are reached, CostMe may serve replies generated by a less- capable model temporarily, and where practicable will surface this in the response. This graceful degradation is a feature of the Service's fair-use design - your subscription, entitlements, and billing are not affected by it, and full access to your tier's most-capable model resumes at the next applicable reset window.

Per-account variation. CostMe may apply individualized limits and serving decisions on a per-account basis in response to your usage patterns, account age, payment history, abuse signals, regional regulations, and other legitimate operational factors. Two users on the same subscription tier may, at any given moment, see different limits, model availability, or feature access. These adjustments are made to keep the Service available, reliable, and affordable for everyone using it, and are not a downgrade of your subscription.

Reset windows, cached responses, and evolving limits. The duration of any usage window (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or other) is operational and may be adjusted as CostMe tunes the Service. Some replies may be drawn from a cache of recent, similar responses to keep latency low and reduce inference cost, particularly on the free tier. The set of features available within a tier, the specific budgets and quotas associated with a tier, and the models available to a tier may evolve over time as CostMe improves the Service and underlying AI providers release new models. Material changes that affect what you pay for will be communicated in advance per Section 17 (Modifications to These Terms).

Subject to your compliance with these Terms, CostMe grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to download, install, and use the Service solely for your personal, non-commercial use. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. The Service, including all content, software, designs, trademarks, the CostMe research library, and other intellectual property, is owned by CostMe or its licensors and protected by intellectual-property laws.

You retain ownership of content you submit (chat messages, uploaded documents, vault entries, profile probe responses). By submitting content, you grant CostMe a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, and process such content for the purpose of operating, providing, securing, and improving the Service - including by transmitting it to the LLM provider strictly to generate Amy's response. You represent that you have the rights necessary to grant this license and that your content does not infringe any third party's rights or applicable law.

We do not use your content to train our own AI models, and our LLM provider is contractually prohibited from training on your content (see Privacy Policy § 3).

Aggregate-data licence. By using the Service, you grant CostMe a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable licence to use anonymized, aggregated behavioural data derived from your use of the Service to (a) improve the Service and CostMe's AI features; (b) conduct or publish behavioural-economics research; (c) generate aggregate trend reports for partners (academic institutions, brands, retailers, financial institutions); and (d) produce the public CostMe Impulse Index. “Anonymized” and “aggregated” have the meaning given in Privacy Policy § 14.6 - bucketed, hashed, time-truncated, and de-identified. We will never share or license information that identifies you personally without your explicit consent. You may exclude your contributions from externally-shared aggregate datasets at any time from Settings → Data Sharing.

The Service interoperates with third-party services across the following categories: Apple (iOS, App Store, Sign in with Apple); our AI inference provider, which processes the content you send to Amy to generate responses; our cloud hosting provider and database provider, where your account data and Amy chat history are stored; our web payment processor (Stripe); our crash-reporting provider; and, if you enable push notifications, Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (push notification delivery for Android and PWA). Your use of push notification delivery is also subject to Google's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of any third-party service is subject to that service's terms and policies. CostMe is not responsible for any third-party service. Further detail on these providers is in the Privacy Policy, and the current sub-processor list is published on our sub-processors page.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, COST ME EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. COST ME DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT AMY'S OUTPUTS, CALCULATIONS, OR RESEARCH CITATIONS ARE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, OR COMPLETE.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, COST ME AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AFFILIATES, AND LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR:

• Any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages
• Loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, savings, or financial outcomes resulting from Amy's responses or the Service
• Decisions made by users based on CostMe's content, Amy's framing, or the research library
• Harm caused by users to themselves or others
• Any claim arising from AI hallucination, inaccuracy, or unavailability

COST ME'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID COST ME IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) FIFTY UNITED STATES DOLLARS (USD $50).

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR LIMIT THE ENFORCEABILITY OF LOW LIABILITY CAPS FOR CONSUMER CONTRACTS. IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS, OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. NOTHING IN THESE TERMS EXCLUDES OR LIMITS LIABILITY FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE, WILFUL MISCONDUCT, FRAUD, DEATH, OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY COST ME'S NEGLIGENCE TO THE EXTENT SUCH LIABILITY CANNOT BE EXCLUDED BY LAW.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless CostMe and its officers, directors, employees, agents, affiliates, and licensors from and against any claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from (a) your use of or inability to use the Service; (b) your violation of these Terms; (c) your violation of any third-party right, including intellectual-property or privacy rights; (d) any content you submit; or (e) any claim that your actions caused harm to yourself or a third party.

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without cause or notice, including for violations of these Terms. You may delete your account from in-app Settings at any time. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination (including ownership, disclaimers, indemnification, liability limits, arbitration, and governing law) will survive.

We are not liable for any failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, pandemics, labour disputes, power or telecommunications failures, internet outages, denial-of- service attacks, or third-party service-provider failures (including cloud-hosting, payment processors, or AI providers).

You agree not to: (a) reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code of the Service; (b) modify or create derivative works; (c) circumvent or disable any security or tier-gating features; (d) use any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated means to access the Service; (e) interfere with the integrity or performance of the Service; (f) collect personally identifiable information from the Service; or (g) use the Service to develop, train, or improve any competing product or AI model.

The Service may be subject to export-control and economic- sanctions laws of Canada, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other jurisdictions. You represent that you are not located in a sanctioned country or territory and are not listed on any sanctions or restricted-parties list maintained by any applicable authority.

The following section applies only to users located in the United States. If you are not in the United States, dispute resolution is governed by Section 21 below.

20.1 Informal Resolution.

Before initiating any formal dispute, you agree to first contact us at the address in Section 26 with a written description of the dispute and to engage in good-faith informal negotiations for at least thirty (30) days.

20.2 Binding Individual Arbitration.

If the dispute is not resolved through informal negotiations, you and CostMe agree to resolve any and all disputes, claims, or controversies arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service through final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, or, if AAA is unavailable, by JAMS under its applicable rules. The arbitration shall be conducted in English, in a mutually convenient location or by video conference, before a single arbitrator. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this section.

20.3 Class-Action Waiver.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you and CostMe agree that each may bring claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of representative or class proceeding. If a court determines that this waiver is unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) shall be severed and brought in court, with all other claims proceeding in arbitration.

20.4 30-Day Opt-Out.

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to the address in Section 26 within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms. The notice must include your full name, the email address associated with your account, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out. Opt-out does not affect any other provision of these Terms.

20.5 State-Specific Limits.

Class-action waivers may be unenforceable in certain jurisdictions or for certain claims (for example, public injunctive relief in California under McGill v. Citibank). To the extent any portion of this Section 20 is held unenforceable in any jurisdiction or for any claim, that portion shall be severed and the remainder shall remain in effect.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. For users outside the United States (and U.S. users who validly opt out of arbitration under Section 20.4), the exclusive jurisdiction and venue for any dispute is the courts of Toronto, Ontario, except where prohibited by applicable law (including mandatory consumer-protection venues in the EU and UK).

We may modify these Terms at any time. Modified Terms will be posted on the Service with an updated “Last Updated” date. Material changes will, where reasonably practicable, be notified within the Service. Your continued use of the Service after modifications constitutes acceptance.

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

The following applies to your use of the CostMe iOS application obtained from the Apple App Store. In any conflict between these provisions and other provisions of these Terms, the following control as to the iOS application.

Acknowledgement. These Terms are concluded between you and CostMe only, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the Service or its content.

Scope of License. The license for the iOS application is non-transferable and limited to use on any Apple-branded products you own or control as permitted by the Apple Media Services Terms.

Maintenance and Support. CostMe, not Apple, is responsible for maintenance and support.

Warranty. CostMe is solely responsible for any product warranties not effectively disclaimed. On warranty failure, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any).

Product Claims. CostMe, not Apple, is responsible for any claims relating to the iOS application, including product-liability, regulatory-conformance, and consumer-protection claims.

Intellectual Property. CostMe, not Apple, is responsible for investigation and defence of any third-party IP infringement claim.

Legal Compliance. You represent that (i) you are not in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as “terrorist supporting,” and (ii) you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

Third-Party Beneficiary. Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and EULA, constitute the entire agreement between you and CostMe regarding the Service and supersede all prior or contemporaneous understandings.

For questions about these Terms, to submit an arbitration opt-out, or to raise a dispute, contact us at support@costme.io.

See also: Privacy Policy · EULA · Legal index