Terms of Service
Effective Date: February 24, 2026
govchat.co.uk
"Welcome to GovChat. By using our platform, you agree to these terms. We've kept them as 'low-friction' as our pricing."
1. The Service
GovChat provides an AI-powered intelligence layer for UK Local Government data. We aggregate public records (Minutes, Agendas, Decisions) and provide tools for search, summarization, and alerting.
Independence
GovChat is a private, independent civic-tech platform. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by any UK Government body or Local Authority.
Accuracy
While our AI (Gemini) is state-of-the-art, summaries are for informational purposes. The original document provided via the Council's official portal remains the sole legal record.
2. Token Economy & Credits
Our platform operates on a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) and Subscription basis.
Tokens
One "Token" grants access to specific AI-driven actions (e.g., summarizing a meeting or running a deep research query).
Pricing
Tokens are sold at a flat rate (minimum £10 top-up).
No Expiry
Purchased PAYG tokens do not expire as long as your account remains active.
Refunds
Due to immediate compute costs (~£0.03/meeting), tokens are non-refundable once consumed.
3. Subscription Tiers
Users may opt for Citizen, Advocate, or Professional monthly plans.
Usage Caps
Subscriptions include a set monthly token allowance. Unused subscription tokens do not roll over to the next billing cycle.
Cancellation
You may cancel at any time via your dashboard. Access continues until the end of the current billing period.
4. Acceptable Use
To keep the platform performant for everyone, you agree not to:
Scrape GovChat
Automated extraction is prohibited. Use our official API for bulk data.
Misrepresent AI
Disclose AI generation and link back to the source council document.
System Abuse
Prompt-injection or circumventing costs results in an immediate ban.
5. Limitation of Liability
GovChat provides "Actionable Intelligence," but we are not legal, financial, or planning advisors.
We are not liable for any real-world decisions made based on AI summaries.
We do not guarantee 100% uptime of the ModernGov APIs we poll; if a council's site goes down, our updates for that council may be delayed.
6. Intellectual Property
Our Tech
The GovChat brand, the "intelligence layer" software, and our proprietary indexing methods are owned by GovChat.
Public Data
We claim no ownership over the original public council documents, which remain subject to the Open Government Licence (OGL) or respective council copyrights.
7. Governing Law
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the UK courts.
Co-Founder's Note
We've designed this to be "High-Margin/Low-friction." By using PAYG, we ensure that occasional users aren't subsidized by our power users, keeping the unit economics healthy from Day 1.