CostLatch Terms of Service

Effective date: 16 Oct 2026 · Last updated: 19 Oct 2026

1. Who we are

1.1 CostLatch is operated by Dennis Yates, a sole trader trading as CostLatch (ABN 52 137 373 213), of Anna Bay, New South Wales, Australia ("we", "us", "CostLatch").

1.2 Contact: support@costlatch.com. Legal notices: legal@costlatch.com or 17 Morna Point Rd, Anna Bay NSW 2316.

1.3 Payments, and who sells the subscription. We sell subscriptions through Stripe's Managed Payments service. For your payment, Stripe acts as the merchant of record (reseller): Stripe processes your payment, calculates and collects applicable taxes, issues your receipts and invoices, and handles payment disputes. Your payment statement may show "LINK.COM*" followed by our name. Stripe's own payment terms, shown at checkout, apply to the payment transaction. We provide the Service, and these Terms govern your use of it. We remain responsible to you for the Service, including under the Australian Consumer Law.

2. Agreeing to these Terms

2.1 These Terms form a contract between us and the person or organisation that creates an account ("you"). If you accept them for an organisation, you confirm you have authority to bind it.

2.2 The Service is designed for developers and businesses. Nothing in these Terms removes rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law or other law that cannot be excluded (see clause 12).

2.3 You must be at least 18.

3. The Service

3.1 CostLatch is a hosted proxy. You point your OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible client at it. Before forwarding each request to the provider using your own provider API key, it:

• estimates the cost of the request;
• reserves budget against the daily, monthly and (optionally) per-run limits you set;
• refuses requests that would exceed a limit, or that match loop-detection rules.

3.2 What the Service is. CostLatch is a best-efforts spend-control tool that is designed to reduce the risk of unexpected AI API spend. It is not a guarantee that your provider charges will never exceed your limit, and it is not insurance.

3.3 Known limits. You acknowledge that spend can exceed a limit you set, including because of:

• (a) requests already in progress (including streaming responses) when a limit is reached;
• (b) concurrent requests processed close together;
• (c) differences between our cost estimates and the provider's final charges, for example caching, batch or discount pricing, new or changed models, provider price changes, rounding, taxes and currency;
• (d) delays in provider usage reporting or billing;
• (e) outages, errors or slowdowns affecting CostLatch, our hosting providers, or OpenAI or Anthropic;
• (f) requests sent to the provider directly or through any route other than CostLatch, including other keys on your provider account;
• (g) incorrect or missing configuration by you (for example limits set too high, wrong key, or loop rules disabled);
• (h) suspension or failure of our service, including for non-payment.

3.4 If your budget can't be checked. CostLatch is designed to fail closed. If our systems cannot check your budget for a request (for example during an outage or error), we refuse the request rather than forward it to the provider. Your applications may therefore stop receiving AI responses until service is restored. You are responsible for planning for this, for example by having a fallback for critical workloads. CostLatch does not control requests you choose to send to the provider directly while it is unavailable.

3.5 You must keep provider-side limits. You must set and maintain the spend limits and alerts offered by OpenAI, Anthropic and any other provider you use. CostLatch is a second safeguard and does not replace them.

3.6 Features and limits for each plan are described on our pricing page. We may improve or change the Service. If a change materially reduces core functionality of your paid plan, we will tell you in advance where practical, and you may cancel and receive a pro-rata refund of prepaid fees for the unused period.

4. Your provider accounts and keys

4.1 Own keys only. You may only connect API keys for provider accounts that you (or your organisation) own and are authorised to use. Usage is billed to you by the provider under your own agreement with it.

4.2 No consumer credentials. You must not connect ChatGPT, Claude.ai or other consumer subscription credentials, session tokens or OAuth tokens. Only provider API keys are accepted.

4.3 Provider terms. Your use of each provider's models through the Service is billed to you directly by that provider under your own account; CostLatch does not buy, resell or pool provider usage. You remain bound by, and responsible for complying with, your agreements and policies with each provider, including the OpenAI Services Agreement and Usage Policies and the Anthropic Commercial Terms, Usage Policy and Supported Regions Policy. That includes their geographic restrictions. We do not grant you any right to use any provider's services.

4.4 Your responsibility for usage. You are responsible for all usage made with your keys, and with CostLatch proxy keys issued to you. The provider may suspend your provider account under its terms, and we are not responsible for that.

4.5 Recommended key setup. We recommend that you create a dedicated, project-scoped provider key for CostLatch with its own provider spend limit, and that you rotate it if you suspect compromise.

4.6 No affiliation. CostLatch is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by OpenAI or Anthropic. "OpenAI" and "Anthropic" are used only to describe compatibility.

5. Acceptable use

You must not:

• (a) resell, sublicense, share or pool access to the Service, or to any provider through the Service, or let third parties use your CostLatch proxy keys outside your organisation;
• (b) publish or expose proxy keys;
• (c) use the Service to break any law or any provider's terms, or to circumvent provider rate limits, safety systems or usage limits;
• (d) misrepresent the client or product making a request;
• (e) attack, probe, overload or reverse engineer the Service, except where the law permits;
• (f) use the Service from a country or region where a provider does not support access, or where sanctions apply.

6. Accounts and security

6.1 Keep your login and proxy keys secure, and tell us promptly at security@costlatch.com if you suspect unauthorised use.

6.2 We protect provider keys as described in our Privacy Policy, including encryption at rest. No system is perfectly secure, and we do not promise uninterrupted or error-free operation.

7. Plans, free trial, fees and auto-renewal

7.1 Plans. Prices exclude tax:

• Solo: US$19 per month, up to 3 proxy keys. Each key can be used with OpenAI or Anthropic.
• Pro: US$39 per month, up to 20 proxy keys. Each key can be used with OpenAI or Anthropic.
• Other features are as described on our pricing page. Prices are set in US dollars. At checkout, Stripe may show and charge the price converted into your local currency; the amount shown at checkout is the amount charged.

7.2 Taxes. Prices exclude applicable taxes such as GST, VAT or sales tax. Where required, these are calculated and added at checkout by Stripe, which acts as merchant of record for your payment. The total including tax is shown before you pay.

7.3 Free trial of Solo.

• (a) New customers may start a free 7-day trial of the Solo plan. A valid payment card is required to start it. You are not charged during the trial.
• (b) Unless you cancel before the trial ends, your subscription automatically converts to Solo at US$19 per month plus applicable tax. The first charge is made on the date the trial ends, which is shown at checkout and in your confirmation email, and then monthly on that date.
• (c) We (CostLatch, not Stripe) will email you a reminder 2 days before your trial ends (on day 5), showing the date and amount of the first charge and how to cancel. This is the only trial-ending reminder you will receive. If it does not reach you for any reason, your subscription still converts unless you cancel, but you remain entitled to a full refund of your first charge under our 7-day money-back guarantee (clause 8.3).
• (d) You can cancel at any time during the trial in the dashboard (Manage billing → Stripe customer portal) or through Link. If you cancel during the trial, you will not be charged and the trial ends at its scheduled end date.
• (e) The trial is limited to one per customer and per payment card. We can only check this after you complete checkout. If we find that the customer or card has already had a trial, we may cancel the new trial subscription. You will not be charged, and we will email you to explain. You can then subscribe without a trial if you wish.

7.4 Automatic renewal. Paid subscriptions renew automatically each month, and are charged to your payment method at the start of each billing period, until you cancel. At checkout you'll be asked to agree to this before you start, and you'll receive an email confirming the price, the renewal frequency, the first charge date and how to cancel.

7.5 Price changes. We will give you at least 30 days' notice by email before a price increase takes effect. If you do not agree, you can cancel before it applies.

7.6 Failed payments. If payment fails, we may suspend the Service after telling you. While suspended, requests are refused and spend control is not provided. See clause 3.3(h).

7.7 Your provider charges (OpenAI or Anthropic usage) are separate and are billed by the provider, not by us or Stripe.

8. Cancellation and refunds

8.1 You can cancel at any time, online, in the dashboard via Manage billing (Stripe customer portal), through your Link account, or by emailing support@costlatch.com. Cancelling online is at least as easy as signing up.

8.2 If you cancel during a free trial, you are not charged. If you cancel a paid subscription, cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep access until then.

8.3 Refunds, including our 7-day money-back guarantee, are set out in our Refund & Cancellation Policy, which forms part of these Terms. Refunds are paid by Stripe to your original payment method, including any tax you paid. Stripe may also issue refunds under its own payment terms. Nothing in these Terms or that Policy limits refunds you are entitled to under the Australian Consumer Law or other law.

9. Suspension and termination

9.1 We may suspend or terminate your access, with notice where reasonably practicable, if:

• you materially breach these Terms (including clauses 4 and 5);
• your use creates a security risk or risk to a provider relationship;
• we are required to by law.

9.2 If we stop providing the Service other than for your breach, we will give at least 30 days' notice where practicable and refund prepaid fees for the unused period.

9.3 On termination, we delete stored provider keys as described in the Privacy Policy.

10. Your data and intellectual property

10.1 You own your prompts, outputs and data. We do not store prompt or completion content. Requests are processed in memory only to forward them and to calculate cost and loop-detection fingerprints, as described in the Privacy Policy.

10.2 You grant us the rights needed to process your data to provide the Service.

10.3 Where we process personal data on your behalf, our Data Processing Addendum applies. It is available on request by emailing privacy@costlatch.com.

10.4 We own the Service and its software. Feedback you give us may be used without obligation.

11. Warranties and disclaimers

11.1 We will provide the Service with due care and skill.

11.2 Except as stated in these Terms, and subject to clause 12, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent permitted by law, we exclude implied warranties, including fitness for a particular purpose and uninterrupted availability.

12. Australian Consumer Law

12.1 Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy, or any guarantee, warranty or other term or condition, implied or imposed by the ACL or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

12.2 If the services are not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption, then, to the extent permitted by section 64A of the ACL, our liability for failure to comply with a consumer guarantee is limited, at our option, to:

• (a) supplying the services again; or
• (b) paying the cost of having the services supplied again.

12.3 If you are a consumer in another country, you may have similar non-excludable rights, and these Terms do not affect them.

13. Limitation of liability

13.1 Excluded loss. Subject to clause 12, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss. We are also not liable for any of the following, whether direct or indirect:

• loss of profit, revenue, data or goodwill;
• amounts charged to you by OpenAI, Anthropic or any other provider, including charges in excess of a limit you configured.

13.2 Cap. Subject to clause 12, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service, however arising (including negligence), is limited to the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the liability.

13.3 What the limits don't cover. Clauses 13.1 and 13.2 do not limit liability for our fraud, wilful misconduct, or personal injury or death caused by negligence, or any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

13.4 Your share. Our liability is reduced to the extent you or a third party (including a provider) caused or contributed to the loss. That includes failing to maintain provider-side limits under clause 3.5.

14. Indemnity

14.1 You indemnify us against third-party claims, and reasonable resulting costs, to the extent they arise from:

• (a) your breach of clause 4 or 5;
• (b) your prompts, data or use of outputs in breach of law or third-party rights.

14.2 This indemnity is reduced to the extent the claim was caused or contributed to by our breach of these Terms or our negligence.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. We will give at least 30 days' notice by email of material changes that are adverse to you. If you don't agree, you may cancel before they take effect and receive a pro-rata refund of any prepaid fees for the unused period. Other changes take effect on posting.

16. Disputes, governing law and general

16.1 Please contact us first, and both parties will try in good faith to resolve the dispute within 30 days.

16.2 These Terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. Each party submits to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of its courts. This does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory laws of your country of residence.

16.3 Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control. This includes provider or hosting outages, but does not cover payment obligations.

16.4 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them to a successor of the business, with notice to you.

16.5 Severability. If any part is unenforceable, it is read down or severed, and the rest continues.

16.6 Entire agreement. These Terms, the Refund & Cancellation Policy, the Privacy Policy and the DPA are the entire agreement.