# Terms of service

> The terms for using the Deference dashboard, API and docs.

Effective October 20, 2026 · Version 1.5

## At a glance

- **Price:** Requests are paid from credit, at OpenRouter's price plus OpenRouter's 5% platform fee. Deference adds no markup.
- **Activation:** Activating INFERENCE burns it and adds credit after any activation fee. Activation is final.
- **Withdrawal:** Credit cannot be withdrawn or sent. INFERENCE you have not activated can be sold on Uniswap or the order book.
- **Free credit:** Free credit has no cash value and expires after 30 days, or 60 for the top-up grant.
- **Deletion:** Deleting your account gives up all of its credit.
- **API keys:** You answer for every request made with your API keys.

## 1. Who can use Deference

You can use Deference if you are at least 18 and can enter a binding contract. If you use it for an organization, you accept these terms for that organization and confirm you may do so.

You cannot use Deference if you are on a UN, EU, UK or US sanctions list, or in a country under comprehensive sanctions.

These terms include the [acceptable use policy](https://deference.si/acceptable-use). The [privacy policy](https://deference.si/privacy) explains what we do with your data.

## 2. Your account follows your sign-in

You sign in with email, Google, a wallet or a passkey; Privy runs sign-in for us. One sign-in identity opens one account, and credit activated or claimed from any wallet you link to it lands there.

A session lasts 7 days. **Sign out everywhere** in Settings ends every session at once, this device included.

Keep your sign-in methods and wallets safe. We cannot recover an external wallet you lose.

## 3. Your keys, your responsibility

An API key starts with `sk-df-` and is shown once; we store only its hash. You can give a key a spending limit and an expiry, and disable or delete it at any time.

Every request sent with your key is charged to your account and counts as your use. If a key leaks, disable it in [API keys](https://deference.si/keys) and create a new one.

## 4. OpenRouter serves every request

Deference forwards each request to OpenRouter, which sends it to a provider that runs the model. Models and prices follow OpenRouter, and providers retire models; the [Models page](https://deference.si/models) shows what is available now.

We make no uptime commitment. The [Status page](https://deference.si/status) shows what is working.

## 5. Prices carry no markup

A request costs OpenRouter's price for the tokens it used, plus OpenRouter's 5% platform fee. Deference adds no markup.

**Holds.** Before a request runs, we hold its largest possible cost from your credit. Image requests hold $0.20 per image unless the model's listed price is higher.

**Settlement.** When the request ends, we charge an estimate and release the rest of the hold, then correct the charge to the final cost OpenRouter reports.

**Failures.** A request that fails before the model starts costs nothing; one that fails partway costs what OpenRouter reports. If your connection drops mid-stream, the model keeps generating and you pay for the tokens it produced.

**Questions about a charge.** Write to [support@deference.so](mailto:support@deference.so) with the request ID from Activity.

## 6. Credit stays on your account

Credit is a balance in our records that pays for requests. You get it by activating INFERENCE, by buying INFERENCE and activating it in one step, by claiming rewards as credit, or as free credit (§7).

Credit cannot be withdrawn, sent to another account, sold or refunded. Credit from INFERENCE does not expire; free credit does (§7). When you delete your account, its credit is gone for good.

## 7. Free credit expires

New accounts can receive free credit for finishing setup tasks:

- Confirm an email address or a Google account: $0.25
- Create your first API key: $0.25
- Send your first request: $0.50
- Send 3 successful requests from a supported coding tool, across 2 sessions: $0.50
- Buy or activate at least $5 of INFERENCE for the first time: $1

One account receives at most $2.50. Each grant expires 30 days after it is given, and the top-up grant after 60.

Free credit pays only for open-weight text models whose output price is at most $2 per million tokens, and only for requests estimated at $0.05 or less. Until an account first adds credit, it can send 20 requests a minute.

Free credit has no cash value. Each person receives it once, checked by sign-in identity, email and Google account; disposable email addresses never qualify. Grants pause when the month's $2,000 budget runs out. We can change the program for future grants and remove grants collected with extra accounts.

## 8. Activation is final

INFERENCE is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum with 6 decimals. Authorized minters create it. Through the sale, you can buy INFERENCE with USDC or ETH; ETH is first swapped to USDC, a purchase fee of at most 10% is taken from that USDC, and you receive one INFERENCE for each USDC left. Activating burns INFERENCE from your wallet and adds credit after any activation fee to the selected Deference account. Activation cannot be undone.

Sale proceeds go to a funding wallet. Its balance is not constrained by INFERENCE supply or unspent credit. Authorized administrators can change fees and upgrade the INFERENCE and sale implementations. Sale purchases can be paused; token transfers and activation remain available. Holding INFERENCE gives you no right to withdraw the funding wallet's USDC.

## 9. Selling INFERENCE

The sale contract does not buy it back. To sell INFERENCE, use an available decentralized exchange route at the market price, or list it on the on-chain order book at a price you set. Liquidity and open orders determine what you receive, and there may be no buyer at all.

Blockchain transactions are final. Check the address, amount and network before you sign. You pay network fees, and any taxes on your tokens are yours to handle.

## 10. Rewards depend on trading

Trades in the configured DEFERENCE pool pay a fee that the pool's hook collects. Each flush records on chain the fees it collected, the USDC sent to the treasury and kept for holders, and the INFERENCE bought or minted for holders, which is paid into the DEFERENCE token. The token's contract, not Deference, assigns that INFERENCE to wallets and can exclude addresses.

You can claim your share to your wallet, or as service credit after any activation fee. The token also pays a wallet what it is owed whenever that wallet sends or receives DEFERENCE, and anyone can trigger that payment to the wallet.

The amount depends on trading. Our keeper flushes only once its interval has passed and the fees reach its minimum, so a period can pay nothing. We can change or stop our keeper.

## 11. Your prompts and outputs

Your prompts and the outputs you receive are yours, as far as the model provider's terms allow. We do not store either: see [where your prompts go](https://deference.si/privacy#prompts).

Models make mistakes. Check outputs before you rely on them. How you use them is your responsibility.

## 12. Other companies' services

Deference depends on OpenRouter, the model providers, Privy for sign-in and embedded wallets, Ethereum and Uniswap. Each runs under its own terms, and we do not control them.

**Names and logos.** Model, tool and token names and logos belong to their owners. We show them only to identify their products; they do not endorse Deference.

## 13. Suspension and leaving

We disable API keys, or block an account from sending requests, when it breaks these terms or the acceptable use policy, puts other people at risk, or the law requires it. To appeal, write to [support@deference.so](mailto:support@deference.so).

You can leave at any time with **Delete account** in Settings: it deletes every key, ends every session and gives up all credit. What we keep is in the [privacy policy](https://deference.si/privacy#deleting).

[What we do not promise](https://deference.si/terms#no-promises) and [Limits on liability](https://deference.si/terms#liability) keep applying after you leave.

## 14. What we do not promise

We do not promise that:

- Deference, or any model, is available at a given moment;
- outputs are correct, complete or fit for your purpose;
- INFERENCE or DEFERENCE will have any price, or that anyone will buy it;
- any flush will pay rewards;
- smart contracts, Ethereum, Uniswap, wallets or Privy will work without faults.

Consumer law where you live may give you rights these terms cannot remove. Those rights still apply.

## 15. Limits on liability

If we are liable to you for anything connected with Deference, our total liability is limited to what you paid for credit in the 3 months before the event. We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, lost business or lost data. Nothing here limits liability for fraud, or any liability the law does not let us limit.

## 16. Changes to these terms

Each new version is published here with its effective date, never earlier than its publication, and listed in the version history. Using Deference after that date means you accept it.

## 17. Third-party notices

Lightweight Charts by [TradingView](https://www.tradingview.com/) is available under the [Apache License 2.0](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0). Its attribution notice:

```
TradingView Lightweight Charts™
Copyright (с) 2025 TradingView, Inc. https://www.tradingview.com/
```

## 18. Contact

Write to [support@deference.so](mailto:support@deference.so).

## Version history

- October 20, 2026 · 1.5 · Qualifies the purchase pricing rule as applying through the sale.
- October 20, 2026 · 1.4 · Describes holder rewards as the DEFERENCE token pays them.
- October 18, 2026 · 1.3 · Updates the terms to cover the currently available service.
- October 17, 2026 · 1.2 · Adds trading risk, creator responsibility, moderation and the third-party chart notice.
- October 15, 2026 · 1.1 · Names the three ways to pay and the purchase fee, and describes the activation fee, the funding wallet, upgradeable contracts, selling on the order book and snapshot payouts.
- October 9, 2026 · 1.0 · First published version.

Questions: support@deference.so