Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-06-02

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Topical Authority Engine (the "Service"). By creating an Account or using the Service, you ("User", "you") agree to these Terms.

If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. About us

2. Definitions

  • "Service" means Topical Authority Engine, including the hosted dashboard at https://topicalauthority.app, the API at api.topicalauthority.app, and the official MCP server published as @topicalauthority/mcp on npm.
  • "Account" means your user account on the Service.
  • "Subscription" means a paid plan you purchase to use the Service.
  • "Project" means a verified root domain you register inside the Service.
  • "Credit" means a unit of consumption metered against your monthly quota when you call certain tools.
  • "Content" means anything you create, upload, or generate using or via the Service (topical maps, audit findings, draft posts, etc.).
  • "User" or "you" means the person or legal entity accessing the Service.

3. Account creation

To use the Service, you must create an Account. You agree to:

  • Provide accurate, current information
  • Keep your password and API tokens secure
  • Be at least 16 years old, or the age of digital consent in your country, whichever is higher
  • Be responsible for all activity under your Account, including activity via your MCP API tokens

You may not create accounts via automated means, share your password, or share API tokens with third parties.

4. Acceptable use

You agree NOT to:

  • Use the Service for unlawful purposes
  • Upload malicious code, attempt to compromise the Service, or interfere with other users' use
  • Scrape, crawl, or harvest data from the Service beyond what is permitted via the documented MCP API and your assigned quota
  • Reverse-engineer or attempt to extract the source code of the hosted portion of the Service (the npm-published MCP server is MIT-licensed and may be freely inspected)
  • Resell or redistribute access to the Service without our written permission
  • Share your API token with third parties or expose it publicly. If you do, we may suspend the token and refuse to issue replacements.
  • Use the Service to attack, denial-of-service, or violate the terms of any third-party platform (including Google Search Console, GitHub, and DataForSEO)
  • Bypass credit quotas, rate limits, or other access controls
  • Use the Service to generate content that is illegal in the Netherlands or your country of residence
  • Use the Service to build a competing product. This does not prevent you from being a user while also being a competitor; it prevents copying our methodology, dashboard, or proprietary outputs to power a competing offering.

We may suspend or terminate your Account for violations, with or without notice depending on severity. For severe violations (security exploitation, fraud, illegal content), suspension is immediate.

5. Subscription and billing

5.1 Plans and pricing

Current pricing is at https://topicalauthority.app/pricing. The launch plan is:

  • Pro: $99 per month, includes 3 Projects and a shared monthly quota of 1,500 Credits
  • Studio (post-launch): $249 per month, includes 10 Projects and a shared 1,500 Credit pool

Pricing may change with at least 30 days' notice to existing subscribers. Existing subscribers keep their current price for the remainder of their billing period.

5.2 Payment

Payments are processed by Stripe Payments Europe Ltd. By subscribing, you authorize us to charge the payment method on file for:

  • The subscription fee at the start of each billing period
  • Applicable taxes (VAT for EU customers, calculated per OSS rules)
  • Any opt-in overage fees you have enabled

5.3 Billing cycle

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly). You authorize recurring charges until you cancel.

5.4 Credit quota

Each plan includes a monthly quota of Credits. Different tools consume different amounts of Credits (see https://topicalauthority.app/docs/credits for the schedule). When you hit the quota:

  • API calls return HTTP 402 (Payment Required) until the next billing cycle
  • We email you at 80%, 100%, and (if overage is enabled) 300% of quota

5.5 Overage

Overage is OFF by default. You can opt in from your account settings. When enabled, overage Credits are billed at a published per-Credit rate and capped at a ceiling you set (default 3x your plan's included quota). You can disable overage at any time, immediately.

5.6 Failed payments

If a payment fails, Stripe Smart Retries will attempt collection per its standard schedule. We will email you. If payment remains unpaid after 14 days, we may suspend access. If unpaid after 30 days, we may terminate the Subscription and the Account.

5.7 Cancellation

You can cancel your Subscription anytime via your Account settings. Cancellation is one-click and takes effect at the end of the current billing period. You keep access until then. We do not require you to email us, call us, or justify cancellation, per the EU Digital Services Act and Consumer Rights Directive 2026.

5.8 Refunds

Subscription fees are non-refundable except where required by law (see Section 6). If you cancel mid-period, you do not receive a prorated refund.

5.9 VAT

Prices are exclusive of VAT unless stated otherwise. VAT is added at the rate applicable to your billing country, per EU OSS rules. B2B customers in the EU outside the Netherlands may provide a valid VAT number for reverse charge (we validate against VIES).

6. EU consumer right of withdrawal

If you are an EU consumer (not a business), you normally have a 14-day right of withdrawal for digital services under the EU Consumer Rights Directive.

By starting to use the Service immediately upon subscription, you explicitly waive this right of withdrawal as permitted under Art 16(m) of the EU Consumer Rights Directive. You confirm this waiver at checkout via an unticked checkbox you must actively tick.

If you have NOT used the Service within 14 days of subscribing (no MCP calls, no dashboard logins beyond the initial setup), you may request a full refund by emailing [email protected] within those 14 days.

7. Intellectual property

7.1 Our IP

We own the Service, including the hosted dashboard, API, methodology, and brand. You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service per these Terms.

The MCP server we publish on npm (@topicalauthority/mcp) is open-source under the MIT license. You may inspect, fork, and modify it under the MIT license terms.

7.2 Your IP

You retain ownership of:

  • Content you create using the Service (topical maps, draft posts, audit notes)
  • Your own websites and the data we fetch from them on your behalf via Google Search Console

You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, and display your Content solely to provide the Service to you.

7.3 Feedback

If you send us suggestions, feedback, bug reports, or ideas, you grant us a perpetual, royalty-free license to use them without compensation. This does not give us any rights to your Content.

8. AI features

The Service is a tool layer. AI inference happens in your IDE (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) under your own AI vendor relationship. We do not run AI models on your Content and we are not a subprocessor of those vendors on your behalf. See Section 7 of our Privacy Policy for the full architecture explanation.

Because the Service does not perform AI inference itself:

  • You retain ownership of inputs and outputs produced via your IDE
  • AI outputs may contain errors, hallucinations, or biased content. You are responsible for verifying any AI-assisted output before relying on it commercially.
  • The AI vendor's terms (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.) govern your use of their models, not ours.

9. Third-party integrations

When you connect a third-party integration (Google Search Console, GitHub, etc.):

  • You authorize us to access that third party on your behalf within the scope you grant
  • Your use of the third-party service is governed by that third party's terms, not ours
  • We are not responsible for outages, breaking changes, or policy changes from the third party

You can disconnect any integration from your account settings at any time.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the maximum extent permitted by law. We do not warrant that:

  • The Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free
  • Defects will be corrected
  • Audit findings, ranking analyses, or strategic recommendations produced by the Service will be accurate, complete, or commercially successful
  • Use of the Service will improve your search rankings or revenue

The Service helps with SEO planning. SEO outcomes depend on many factors outside our control (Google's algorithms, your content, your competition, your link profile). We make no guarantees about rankings.

This does NOT exclude any rights you have as a consumer under mandatory EU law (e.g., conformity guarantees under Dutch consumer law).

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

  • Our total liability for all claims is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose
  • We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, or special damages, including lost profits, lost data, business interruption, lost rankings, lost traffic, or harm to reputation
  • Liability for damages caused by our gross negligence or intent is not excluded

This limitation does not exclude any liability that cannot be excluded under Dutch law.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from claims arising out of:

  • Your violation of these Terms
  • Your Content infringing third-party rights
  • Your misuse of the Service or any connected third-party integration
  • Your violation of Google's, GitHub's, DataForSEO's, or any other third party's terms

13. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your Account if:

  • You materially breach these Terms
  • We are required to by law or court order
  • You exploit security vulnerabilities or attempt fraud
  • We discontinue the Service. We will provide at least 30 days' notice and a data export.

You may terminate your Account at any time via your account settings. See Section 5.7 (Cancellation) for the process.

Upon termination:

  • Your access to the Service ends
  • We delete your data per the Privacy Policy retention schedule
  • Already-paid subscription fees are not refunded except as required by law
  • Sections that by nature survive (IP, liability, indemnification, governing law) continue to apply

14. Service level

The Service is provided on a best-effort basis without a formal SLA. We target high availability through self-hosted monitoring (Uptime Kuma) and error tracking (GlitchTip), but we do not commit to a specific uptime percentage at this price tier.

If you need a formal SLA with uptime commitments, contact [email protected] to discuss a custom arrangement.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. Material changes will be notified via email at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date means you accept the updated Terms.

If you don't accept material changes, you may terminate your Account before they take effect and receive a prorated refund of any unused subscription time.

16. Privacy

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy at https://topicalauthority.app/privacy, which describes how we collect, use, and protect your personal data.

17. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by Dutch law. Any disputes arising from these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

This does NOT exclude your rights as a consumer to bring claims in your country of residence under EU consumer law.

18. Contact

For questions about these Terms:

19. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in effect, and the unenforceable provision is interpreted to most closely achieve its original intent within legal bounds.