Terms of service

hide.st gives you access to AI models from many companies through a web chat and an API that works with OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible clients, and sells residential proxy data and virtual servers. We don’t build the models or run the proxy network and servers ourselves: we pass your requests to third-party providers and return their responses. You pay from a prepaid balance that you top up with cryptocurrency.

You must be at least 18 years old to use the service. By using it, you confirm that you are, and that the laws that apply to you allow you to use it. If you use the service on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you’re authorised to accept these terms for it. You may not use the service if you’re subject to sanctions, or from or on behalf of a country under comprehensive sanctions.

There’s no sign-up form. Your account is created the moment you first use the service, and it’s identified by an account key that starts with HIDE-.

• Your account key is how you sign back in on another device or after clearing your browser. Store it somewhere safe, such as a password manager.
• We only keep a scrambled (hashed) version of the key, so we can’t show it again or recover it. If you lose it and aren’t signed in anywhere, you lose access to the account and its balance for good.
• You can add an email address and password in Settings as another way to sign in. This is optional.
• Anyone who has your account key can use your account and spend your balance, and you’re responsible for what they do. If you think someone else has it, generate a new key in Settings straight away.

• The service is prepaid. Your balance is held in US dollars.
• Each request is charged at the price of the model you use, as shown on the Models and Pricing pages when you make it. Prices include our margin.
• We can change prices at any time. A new price applies to requests made after the change, never to earlier ones.
• Your balance is credit for using the service. It isn’t a bank deposit, doesn’t earn interest, and can’t be withdrawn or moved to another account, except as described in the Refund policy.

• When you send a request, we pre-authorise it by placing a temporary hold on your balance for its estimated maximum cost. Held money can’t be spent on other requests while the request runs.
• When the request finishes, we charge its cost and release the rest of the hold. Some costs are estimates at first: within 24 hours, we may adjust the charge up or down so it reflects the provider’s actual cost for that request, plus our margin.
• If a request ends up costing more than its hold, your balance can go slightly negative. The shortfall is taken from your next top-up.
• Failed requests aren’t charged, and interrupted requests are charged only for what was used. The Refund policy has the details.

• Top-ups are handled by third-party payment processors. Once the processor confirms the payment, we add the amount of the top-up to your balance. A processing fee may be added on top; it’s shown before you pay and isn’t added to your balance.
• If you pay by card, a card provider on the processor’s checkout charges the card and may ask you to verify who you are. If a payment is reversed or charged back after we credited it, we may deduct it from your balance or close the account.
• You’re responsible for sending the right coin, on the right network, in the right amount, to the address shown, before the payment expires. Crypto sent with the wrong coin or network, to the wrong address, or after expiry may be lost for good. We’ll try to help, but we can’t promise to recover it.
• You pay any network or exchange fees for sending the payment.

Your balance doesn’t expire. However, if an account has had no activity (no sign-ins, requests or top-ups) for 12 months or more, we may close it, and any remaining balance is forfeited. We’ll give notice before doing so where we can, for example by email if your account has one.

Your requests are processed by third-party AI model providers. When you use a model, its provider’s usage policies and terms apply to you in addition to these terms, and you agree to follow them. Where a provider’s rules are stricter than ours, theirs apply to that model.

Providers may refuse, filter or moderate requests, and may change or withdraw models without notice. We don’t control how they run their models or handle data; the Privacy policy explains what this means for yours.

• You keep any rights you have in the prompts and files you send and in the output generated for you, subject to the providers’ terms. You let us handle them only as needed to provide the service.
• You must have the right to send us anything you send.
• AI output can be wrong, incomplete or offensive. Check it before relying on it, especially for medical, legal, financial or safety decisions. You’re responsible for how you use it.

You must not use the service, or help anyone else use it, to:

• create, request or share anything that’s illegal where you are or where it’s received
• create, request or share sexual content involving minors, in any form, including fictional content
• create sexual or intimate images of real, identifiable people without their consent
• write or spread malware, or break into, disrupt or probe systems, networks or accounts without permission
• harass, threaten, bully or intimidate anyone, or encourage violence
• send spam, commit fraud, run scams or phishing, or impersonate people or organisations to deceive
• get help making or using biological, chemical, nuclear or radiological weapons, or any other weapon capable of mass casualties
• get around rate limits, spend limits or other restrictions, including by opening extra accounts
• resell, rent or share access to the service or your API keys, for example by running a proxy that passes other people’s requests through to us, without our written permission (building your own app or product on top of the API is fine)
• try to access other users’ accounts or data, or extract information about them from the service
• break export control or sanctions laws, including by using the service in, from or for a sanctioned country, region or person

If you see the service being misused, report it to us on Session.

You can create API keys in Developers to use the service from your own software. Keep them secret: you’re responsible for every request and charge made with your keys, including by anyone you share them with or who gets them because they were exposed. Don’t put keys in public code, websites or apps. If a key leaks, revoke it straight away. A spend limit on each key reduces what a leaked key can cost you.

Hide Proxy sells residential proxy data, measured in GB, from your balance. Data is added to your proxy account as soon as you buy it and doesn’t expire. Because it’s delivered immediately, proxy data can’t be refunded or turned back into balance.

Traffic leaves through other people’s internet connections, so the rules are strict. Don’t use it for:

• fraud, carding, account takeover or credential stuffing
• spam, bulk account creation or click and ad fraud
• attacks, scanning or anything that disrupts other networks
• accessing content that is illegal where you or the target are

We act on abuse reports. Proxy accounts used this way are closed without a refund. Your proxy login is like an API key: keep it private, and create a new one on the Proxies page if it leaks.

Hide VPS rents you virtual servers by the month, paid from your balance. The first month is charged when you order. Each following month is charged three days before the paid month ends; if your balance is too low by then, the server keeps running until the end of the paid month and is then deleted with everything on it. You can turn renewal off at any time. Deleting a plan server erases it right away; a custom-size server is switched off and erased when the paid month ends. Servers aren’t refunded for unused days, including when you delete one early.

You control your server and are responsible for what runs on it, for keeping it secure and for your own backups. We don’t look at what’s on it, but we can switch it off, reinstall it or delete it when these terms require it. Servers run on hardware we rent from hosting providers, whose rules also apply and who may suspend a server on their own after abuse reports or legal orders.

Don’t use a server for:

• spam, bulk email or open mail relays
• attacks, port scanning or anything that disrupts other networks
• malware, botnet control, phishing or fraud
• crypto mining or other workloads that slow down the host for other customers
• content that’s illegal where you are or where the server is, including copyright infringement and any sexual content involving minors

Abuse reports come with short deadlines. We may suspend or delete a server used this way without notice or refund, and close the account behind it.

• We may limit, suspend or close your account, or refuse requests, if we reasonably believe you’ve broken these terms or a provider’s policies, if the law requires it, or to protect the service, other users or providers.
• If we close an account because it broke these terms, we don’t have to refund its balance.
• We cooperate with law enforcement and respond to valid legal requests. We may share information about an account when the law requires it, or when we believe in good faith that it’s needed to prevent serious harm.
• You can stop using the service at any time and delete your account in Settings. Any remaining balance is forfeited when you do.

We may add, change or remove models, features and prices at any time, and we may pause requests for maintenance or when providers are unavailable. We don’t promise that the service, or any particular model, will always be available.

The service and all output are provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement. We don’t promise that the service will be uninterrupted, secure or free of errors.

To the fullest extent the law allows:

• we aren’t liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data or goodwill, even if we were told they were possible
• our total liability for all claims relating to the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose, or US$100

Some places don’t allow these limits, so they may not fully apply to you.

We may update these terms. When we do, we’ll change the date at the top of this page. For significant changes, we’ll also give notice in the app, or by email if your account has one, before they take effect. If you keep using the service after that, you accept the updated terms. If you don’t accept them, stop using the service.

These terms, the Privacy policy and the Refund policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the service. If a court finds any part of them unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don’t enforce a right straight away, we haven’t given it up. You can’t transfer your account or these terms to anyone else without our permission.

Questions about these terms? See Help & contact.