Terms of Service

Effective date: October 17, 2026 · Operator: Stephen Parrish, doing business as Probegrade, a Tennessee sole proprietorship, available on request at hello@probegrade.com ("we", "us"). Contact: hello@probegrade.com.

These Terms govern your use of the Probegrade website, rankings, Score API, gateway, MCP server, badges and related services (the "Service"). By creating an account, using an API key, listing a data source or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you use the Service for an organization, you confirm you have authority to bind it, and "you" means that organization.

1. Accounts, keys and agents

1.1 You must give accurate registration information, including Know-Your-Agent ("KYA") details about the person or business operating each AI agent, and keep it current.

1.2 API keys, owner tokens and score keys are confidential. You are responsible for all activity under your keys, including activity by your AI agents. Tell us promptly at hello@probegrade.com if a key is compromised.

1.3 You are responsible for your agents' behavior. An agent's actions are your actions under these Terms.

1.4 You must be at least 18 and not barred from receiving services under US law, including US sanctions.

2. Rankings and Score Data

2.1 What it is. Our rankings, scores, probe measurements, badges and related data ("Score Data") are produced by our proprietary automated testing. Score Data is our opinion of measured performance at a point in time. It is not a guarantee of any provider's accuracy, availability, legality or fitness for your use.

2.2 Independence. Organic scores and organic rank are never sold. Payments for verification badges, sponsored placement or any other product do not change any provider's organic score or organic rank. See our Advertising Disclosure.

2.3 License to you. Subject to these Terms and your plan, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access Score Data and use it internally to choose and route data sources for your own applications and agents.

2.4 Restrictions (no copying, no derivatives, no competing datasets). Unless we agree in a signed writing, you may not, and may not let any person or agent:

(a) scrape, crawl, spider, bulk-download, or systematically collect Score Data or any part of the Service by any means other than the documented API within your plan's quotas;

(b) copy, republish, resell, sublicense, redistribute, frame or mirror Score Data, except for occasional, attributed quotation of a single source's score (for example, "Score 92 on Probegrade");

(d) use Score Data, or any output of the Service, to build, train, benchmark, validate or improve any product, dataset, ranking, directory, marketplace or machine-learning model that competes with the Service;

(e) reverse engineer, infer or attempt to reconstruct our scoring methodology, weights, probe logic or test sets, or probe the Service to do so;

(f) circumvent rate limits, quotas, bot detection, or access controls, including by rotating keys, accounts, IP addresses or user agents, or by creating multiple free accounts;

(g) remove or obscure any proprietary notice or attribution.

2.5 Remedies. A breach of Section 2.4 causes us irreparable harm. We may immediately suspend or terminate access and seek injunctive relief in addition to any other remedy. You agree to pay liquidated damages equal to the greater of (i) list-price fees for the full volume of Score Data you obtained or used without authorization, or (ii) US $10,000. You agree this is a reasonable pre-estimate of our loss and not a penalty.

3. Data providers

3.1 Listing. If you list a data source, you represent and warrant that you own or control it, have every right needed to offer it through the Service (including any upstream licenses), and that offering it does not violate law or any third party's rights.

3.2 Probing. You consent to our automated probes calling your listed endpoints at reasonable rates, and to us publishing the resulting Score Data.

3.3 Verification and badges. A verification badge confirms only that we verified you control the listed domain. It is not an endorsement. You may display the badge only while your subscription is active and only in the form we supply. We may revoke a badge for non-payment, misrepresentation or abuse.

3.4 Pricing and payouts. You set your per-call price. We charge agents your price plus our platform fee (currently 15%, shown at checkout and in your dashboard). We pay you your price for successful calls, minus refunds and chargebacks, through our payment processor on the payout schedule shown in your dashboard. You are responsible for your own taxes.

3.5 Disputes about scores. You may report a measurement error through your dashboard. We will review it in good faith. Corrections apply going forward, and we do not delete accurate history.

3.6 License to us. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use your name, logo, descriptions and API responses to operate, list, probe, rank and promote the Service.

4. Sponsored placement

4.1 Sponsored slots are sold by second-price auction per category. You pay your clearing price for each sponsored selection, up to your daily budget.

4.2 Every sponsored placement is labeled "Sponsored" to people and is flagged sponsored: true to software agents. You may not ask us to hide or soften this label.

4.3 Your sponsored content must be truthful and must not imply a higher organic rank or score than you have. We may reject or remove any placement.

5. Gateway, payments and billing

5.1 Calls through the gateway are billed per successful call from prepaid credits or by x402 payment. Failed upstream calls are not billed.

5.2 Subscriptions (badge, Score API Pro or Enterprise) renew automatically each month until cancelled. You can cancel at any time effective at the end of the current period. Fees are non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise or we say otherwise in writing.

5.3 We may change prices with 30 days' notice. Changes take effect at your next billing period.

5.4 Payments are processed by Stripe and, for x402, by third-party facilitators. Their terms also apply. We do not store full card numbers.

5.5 Prepaid credits have no cash value, cannot be transferred, and expire 24 months after purchase.

6. Acceptable use

You may not use the Service to: break any law; infringe anyone's rights; send malware; get unauthorized access to any system; overload any provider; collect personal data in violation of law; make eligibility decisions about individuals for credit, employment, insurance or housing (the Service is not a consumer reporting agency and Score Data is not a consumer report); or misrepresent your identity or your agent's identity.

7. Intellectual property

The Service, software, Score Data, methodology, designs and trademarks are owned by us and protected by copyright, trade-secret, database and trademark law. Except for the limited licenses in these Terms, no rights are granted. Feedback you give us may be used without obligation to you.

8. Third-party data

Data returned by providers belongs to those providers and is subject to their terms. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party data, its accuracy or its lawfulness. Your use of it is between you and the provider.

9. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE AND ALL SCORE DATA ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, NON-INFRINGEMENT AND UNINTERRUPTED OPERATION.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE OR DATA. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM OR US $100. THESE LIMITS DO NOT LIMIT YOUR OBLIGATIONS UNDER SECTIONS 2.4–2.5, 3.1 OR 11.

11. Indemnity

You will defend and indemnify us against third-party claims arising from your data sources, your agents, your use of the Service, or your breach of these Terms.

12. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate access at any time for breach, risk to the Service or others, non-payment, or legal requirement. Sections 2.4–2.5, 7, 9–11 and 13 survive termination.

13. Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee and applicable US federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will first go through 30 days of good-faith negotiation after written notice. Unresolved disputes will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Rules, seated in Nashville, Tennessee. Either party may bring claims in small-claims court, and we may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction for breaches of Sections 2 or 7. Class actions and class arbitrations are waived.

14. Changes and general terms

We may update these Terms by posting a new version and, for material changes, by emailing account holders at least 14 days in advance. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the change. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Advertising Disclosure and any order form, are the entire agreement. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them in a merger or sale. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.