Terms of Service

1. The service

Sidenote is a Chrome browser extension, native desktop app and web dashboard that helps you read documents - PDFs, web articles, Confluence pages, and uploads - using AI assistance. Features include summarisation, chat with citations, plain-language explanations, and per-document glossaries.

We offer Sidenote on a software-as-a-service basis. The service evolves - features may be added, modified, or removed.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old and capable of entering into a contract under UK law. By using Sidenote you represent that you meet these requirements.

3. Your account

You sign in to Sidenote with an email address. You are responsible for maintaining access to that email address - if you lose access, you may lose access to your account.

One account per email. If you suspect unauthorised use of your account, email support@getsidenote.app.

4. Subscriptions and billing

Free tier

Sidenote offers a free tier with no time limit, subject to weekly limits, currently 2 document ingestions, 6 standard-length summaries, 6 explanation calls, 1 glossary build, and 10 chat turns in each rolling 7-day period. Limits may change with reasonable notice.

Referral programme

You can invite friends with your personal referral link ("Give a month, get a month"). A friend who creates a new account through your link gets a month of Pro (30 days), one free month per email address (an address that already got one as an invited friend, or had a free trial, gets none), with Pro-level limits for that month (currently 25 document ingestions, 75 summaries, 70 explanation calls, 15 glossary builds and 35 chat turns). No payment details are needed and nothing is charged when the month ends: the account moves to the free tier unless your friend chooses a paid plan. When your friend adds their first document, you earn one month of Pro: a credit worth one month of your plan on your next bills if you pay for a personal subscription, or a month of Pro (30 days, added to any month of Pro in progress) if you do not. You can earn at most 6 free months in any 365-day period. Administrator accounts, and Team accounts without their own personal subscription, can invite friends but do not earn rewards; anyone with an active personal subscription earns the credit on it. You may not refer yourself or another account you control, and we may withhold or reverse rewards obtained that way or through other abuse. Rewards have no cash value. We may change or end the programme at any time; rewards already earned are kept.

Pro subscription

You may upgrade to Pro at the displayed price (currently £10 per month or £96 per year, billed in advance). Subscriptions auto-renew at the end of each billing period until you cancel. Prices are in GBP and exclude VAT, where applicable.

Failed payments

If a renewal payment fails, your account will be downgraded to the free tier and you will be notified by email. You may restore Pro access by updating your payment method via the billing portal.

Cancellation

You can cancel your subscription at any time from the dashboard. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period - you retain Pro access until then, after which your account reverts to the free tier.

Refunds

We do not offer refunds for partial billing periods. If you cancel, you keep access to Pro features for the remainder of the period you have already paid for. Refunds may be issued at our discretion in exceptional circumstances - contact support@getsidenote.app.

Changes to pricing

We may change subscription pricing with at least 30 days' notice via email. Existing subscribers will be notified before any change takes effect on their billing.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use Sidenote to process documents you do not have the right to access
• Use Sidenote to process content that is illegal, infringing, or violates others' rights
• Attempt to circumvent free-tier limits, billing controls, or security measures
• Reverse-engineer, scrape, or attempt to extract our prompts, model outputs, or proprietary infrastructure for competing purposes
• Resell or sublicense Sidenote without our written permission
• Use Sidenote in any way that could damage, disable, or impair the service for others

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules.

6. Your content

You retain all rights to the documents you process through Sidenote. By submitting a document, you grant Sidenote a limited, non-exclusive licence to process that content solely to provide the service to you - including extracting text, generating embeddings, producing summaries, and answering your questions.

We do not train AI models on your content. For details, see our Privacy Policy.

7. AI output

Sidenote uses third-party language models to produce summaries, answers, and explanations. Despite our citation-first design, AI output can contain errors, omit context, or be incorrect. You should verify any decision-relevant output against the original document by clicking the citation chips, and not rely on AI output as professional advice.

8. Intellectual property

The Sidenote name, wordmark, brand assets, software, prompts, and overall service are owned by Lewis Hadden or licensed to him. Nothing in these Terms transfers any of our intellectual property to you.

9. Termination

You can terminate your account at any time. To close it, cancel your subscription (if applicable) and email us at support@getsidenote.app. We may suspend or terminate access for breach of these Terms, non-payment, or where required by law.

10. Disclaimers

Sidenote is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that AI output will be accurate.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability to you for any claim arising out of or related to Sidenote is limited to the greater of (a) the total subscription fees you paid us in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, and (b) £100.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under UK law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or fraudulent misrepresentation.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Lewis Hadden against any third-party claims arising from your misuse of Sidenote, your breach of these Terms, or your processing of content you did not have the right to process.

13. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, unless mandatory consumer protection law in your jurisdiction provides otherwise.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The “last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be communicated via email at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use of Sidenote after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms - email support@getsidenote.app.