Terms of Service
Last updated: April 23, 2026
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the service offered at zcouncil.com (the "Service"). By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, you may not use the Service.
1. The provider
The Service is operated by Stephen Shkeda, an individual based in Maryland, United States, doing business as "zcouncil" ("we", "us", "our"). You may contact us at [email protected].
2. The Service
The Service accepts a user prompt and routes it to multiple AI models in parallel (a "council run"), returning each model's response together with a synthesis. Current model providers include OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI, accessed via OpenRouter. The set of available models, providers, and features may change at our discretion. You agree that it is your responsibility to evaluate the synthesis alongside individual model responses, as it is generated dynamically by an AI model and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or biased. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of the Service complies with the laws and regulations applicable to you, including any jurisdiction-specific rules governing artificial intelligence.
3. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years of age (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction) to use the Service. By creating an account, you represent that you meet this requirement. If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms.
4. Your account
You are responsible for:
- Maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and API tokens
- All activity that occurs under your account
- Providing accurate registration information and keeping it current
We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms. Where feasible and legally permitted, we will provide prior notice and an opportunity to cure before suspension or termination, except in cases where immediate action is required to prevent harm, protect users, or comply with law.
To protect the Service and its users, and to comply with the policies of our underlying providers, we may at our discretion: review prompts and outputs for signs of abuse or policy violation; refuse, block, or remove prompts or outputs; apply rate limits; remove or disable access to content that we believe violates these Terms or applicable law; and report unlawful conduct or content to the appropriate authorities.
5. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Use the Service to generate, transmit, or store content that violates applicable law, including (without limitation) child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate imagery, sexual content involving minors, content that incites violence, content that provides instructions, encouragement, or facilitation of self-harm, malware, phishing or spam, or content that infringes intellectual-property rights.
- Use the Service or its outputs for biometric identification or profiling, social scoring, political manipulation or election interference, or to deceive others about whether content was generated or assisted by AI.
- Use the Service to make consequential decisions about individuals (medical, legal, financial, employment, housing, insurance, or similar) without a qualified human in the loop who reviews the output before action is taken.
- Attempt to circumvent, jailbreak, or disable any content safeguards or safety filters in the Service or its underlying model providers.
- Submit protected health information (PHI), payment-card data, social security numbers or other government identifiers, account credentials, or other information subject to HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GLBA, FERPA, or similar regulatory frameworks. The Service is not configured to receive, process, or store such information, and doing so is a violation of these Terms regardless of whether you are otherwise authorized to disclose the information.
- Rely on Service outputs for medical, legal, financial, safety-critical, or other professional decisions without independent verification from a qualified expert.
- Circumvent usage limits, create multiple accounts to evade quotas, or attempt to extract model weights, embeddings, or other proprietary information from the underlying providers.
- Reverse engineer, scrape, or automate the Service beyond ordinary human interaction, except through our documented command-line interface, APIs, or other integrations we authorize in writing.
- Resell or sublicense access to the Service, or use outputs generated through the Service to train, develop, or fine-tune a competing AI model or service.
You must also comply with the usage policies of our underlying service providers, which are incorporated into these Terms by reference. These include (without limitation) the OpenAI Usage Policies, the Anthropic Acceptable Use Policy, Google's Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy, the xAI Acceptable Use Policy, and the OpenRouter Terms. You are responsible for reviewing and complying with these policies as they apply to your prompts, outputs, and conduct. A violation of these underlying policies is a violation of these Terms.
6. Your content and model outputs
Your submissions. You retain all right, title, and interest in and to the prompts and files you submit, and represent that you have all necessary rights to submit them. By submitting, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, process, transmit, and otherwise use your submissions solely as necessary to provide and maintain the Service. We do not use your submissions to train our own AI models. Training, retention, and use of your submissions by our upstream model and gateway providers are governed by their own terms and are described further in our Privacy Policy.
Model outputs. As between you and us, we assign to you all our right, title, and interest (if any) in and to the outputs returned to you by the Service, including the synthesis of those outputs. We claim no ownership over them. Your rights to use outputs are subject to the usage and output policies of the underlying model providers, and you are responsible for reviewing those policies before relying on or publishing any output. Because the models are statistical, other users may receive similar or identical outputs in response to similar prompts; the Service does not guarantee uniqueness.
Outputs are not professional advice. Responses generated by the Service may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or harmful. They are produced by statistical models, not verified experts. Do not rely on them for medical, legal, financial, safety-critical, or other consequential decisions without verification from a qualified professional. We make no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness, or safety of any output.
Not for emergencies or life-safety use. The Service is not designed or intended for use in emergency situations or for the operation of life-safety, medical, industrial control, or critical infrastructure systems. Do not use the Service when the accuracy or availability of a response is critical to safety. If you are in crisis or emergency, contact your local emergency services.
7. Paid plans
The Service offers a free tier and one or more paid plans. Current plans, quotas, reset cadence, and pricing are shown at checkout and in your account settings. We may revise plan details prospectively with at least 30 days' notice by email or in-product notification; continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.
Billing. Paid plans are billed on a recurring basis through our payment processor. All fees are exclusive of applicable taxes, levies, or duties, and you are responsible for payment of all such taxes. You may cancel at any time from your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and no partial refunds are issued except where required by law.
Right of withdrawal (EU/UK consumers). If you reside in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you have a statutory right to cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase without giving any reason. At checkout, we ask you to (a) expressly request that we begin supplying the digital service immediately and (b) acknowledge that you lose your right of withdrawal once the supply of the digital service has begun. If the right has not yet been lost under applicable law and you wish to exercise your right of withdrawal within the 14-day window, contact [email protected]. You may use the model withdrawal form set out in Annex I(B) of the EU Consumer Rights Directive, but you are not required to.
Chargebacks and billing disputes. If you believe a charge was made in error, contact us at [email protected] before initiating a chargeback with your bank or card issuer so we can investigate and, where appropriate, resolve the dispute directly.
Failed payments. If a scheduled payment fails and the issue is not resolved within seven (7) days, we may downgrade the account to the free tier or suspend access until the matter is resolved.
8. Command-line interface and API tokens
The Service may offer an optional command-line interface that runs on your own device. The interface may require local credentials or locally stored access tokens to function. You are responsible for securing your device and for complying with the terms of any third-party service whose credentials you use with the interface. API tokens you create through the Service cannot be recovered after they are issued; if you lose a token, you will need to issue a new one.
9. Termination
Canceling a paid subscription (available from your account settings, as described in Section 7) ends recurring billing but does not by itself delete your account. To delete your account and the associated data, contact [email protected]. We may suspend or terminate your account if:
- You violate these Terms
- Your use of the Service poses a risk to us, our users, or third parties
- We are required to do so by law or legal process
Upon termination, your account data is deleted in accordance with the retention periods set out in our Privacy Policy, except where we are required to retain specific records (such as billing records) by law or need to retain information for legal holds, fraud investigation, or the resolution of disputes.
10. Disclaimers
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT AI OUTPUTS WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR RELIABLE.
11. Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER STEPHEN SHKEDA D/B/A ZCOUNCIL NOR HIS CONTRACTORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, OR AGENTS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE.
OUR TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATED TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM OR (B) USD $100.
Some jurisdictions do not permit these limitations; they apply to the maximum extent permitted by your local law.
12. Indemnification
To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Stephen Shkeda d/b/a zcouncil, and his contractors, service providers, and agents, from any third-party claim, liability, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of your violation of these Terms, your content, your use or publication of any outputs, or your misuse of the Service.
13. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be announced in-product or by email at least 30 days before they take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of an update constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using the Service and cancel your account. For material changes to pricing, arbitration, class-action waiver, or core privacy terms, we will seek your affirmative consent (for example, through a click-through acknowledgment) where required by applicable law.
14. Disputes and arbitration
Informal resolution. Before filing a claim, each party agrees to first attempt to resolve the dispute informally by sending written notice to the other (to [email protected] in our case) describing the dispute and the relief sought. The parties will make a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute for at least 30 days after notice is received before initiating formal proceedings.
Governing law & arbitration. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. If the dispute is not resolved informally, it will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules physically in Prince George's County, Maryland, or at your option, via video, telephone, or written submissions as permitted by AAA rules. Either party may instead bring an action in small-claims court. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU AND WE WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL. YOU WAIVE THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS OR COLLECTIVE ACTIONS to the extent permitted by law.
Injunctive and equitable relief. Notwithstanding the above, either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual-property rights, prevent unauthorized access to or abuse of the Service, or stop ongoing infringement.
California public injunctive relief. If you are a California resident, nothing in this Section waives your right to seek public injunctive relief as recognized in McGill v. Citibank, N.A., 2 Cal. 5th 945 (2017). A claim for public injunctive relief may be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction; the arbitration provisions above apply to all other claims.
EU, EEA, and UK consumers. Nothing in this Section limits the mandatory consumer-protection rights available to you under the laws of your country of residence. If you reside in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you retain the right to bring proceedings in your local courts where required by law, and the arbitration and class-action waiver provisions above apply only to the extent permitted under applicable local law.
15. Export controls and sanctions
You may not access or use the Service from any country, territory, or region subject to a United States embargo, or if you are listed on any United States Government sanctions or denied-party list. You represent that your use of the Service will comply with all applicable export-control and sanctions laws, including those of the United States.
16. Copyright complaints
We respect the intellectual-property rights of others. If you believe material made available through the Service infringes your copyright, please send a notice to [email protected] that includes:
- Identification of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed.
- Identification of the allegedly infringing material, with information reasonably sufficient to let us locate it.
- Your contact information (name, email, and optionally phone).
- A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the right allegedly infringed.
- Your physical or electronic signature.
We may, in appropriate circumstances, remove or disable access to the material and terminate the accounts of users who are repeat infringers.
17. Feedback
If you send us feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the Service, you grant us a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use that feedback for any purpose, without compensation or attribution.
18. Provider policies
Your use of the Service is also subject to the usage and content policies of our underlying model and gateway providers (including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, and OpenRouter), which are incorporated into these Terms by reference. Violations of those provider policies may result in suspension or termination of your account in addition to any remedies we have under these Terms.
19. Force majeure
We are not liable for failures or delays in performance caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including upstream model- or infrastructure-provider outages, internet disruptions, acts of government, labor actions, or natural events.
20. Electronic communications
By creating an account, you consent to receive communications from us electronically — including legal notices — at the email address you provide. Electronic notices are effective when sent.
21. Survival
Sections 5 (Acceptable use), 6 (Your content and model outputs), 10 (Disclaimers), 11 (Limitation of liability), 12 (Indemnification), 14 (Disputes and arbitration), 15 (Export controls and sanctions), 16 (Copyright complaints), 17 (Feedback), 18 (Provider policies), 19 (Force majeure), and 22 (Miscellaneous) survive termination of these Terms.
22. Miscellaneous
Assignment. We may assign or transfer these Terms, together with our rights and obligations, without your consent in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, or the formation of an affiliated entity (including the formation of a limited-liability company or other entity that will operate the Service). You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent.
Severability; waiver; entire agreement. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.
No agency; third-party marks. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, agency, or joint venture between you and us. Third-party product names and marks referenced on the Service are used descriptively and do not imply endorsement or affiliation.