These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the material.codes platform, the website at material.codes, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoint, the REST API, and any related services (collectively, the "Service"). By creating an account, joining the waitlist, or using the Service you agree to be bound by these Terms.
1. The Service
material.codes is a computational materials science platform that combines literature search, curated materials datasets, density-functional-theory (DFT) compute, and AI-assisted synthesis into a single workflow. Features available to you depend on your subscription plan and any administrator-managed bundles ("Suites") you belong to.
2. Accounts
You must provide accurate registration information and keep it current. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and API keys, and for all activity that occurs under your account. Please notify us promptly at info@material.codes should you suspect unauthorised use.
Accounts are provisioned for an individual researcher. Sharing a single account between multiple people is not permitted; site licences and team plans, where available, are negotiated separately.
3. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Use the Service to violate any applicable law, export control, or third-party right;
- Attempt to bypass rate limits, access controls, or per-plan feature gates, including by creating multiple accounts to evade usage caps;
- Resell, sublicense, or otherwise commercialise raw output from the Service in a way that substitutes for the underlying data providers we redistribute from (e.g. bulk re-export of Materials Project records);
- Use automated scraping or load-generating tooling beyond the public API and documented MCP surface;
- Submit content that is unlawful, defamatory, infringing, malicious, or that you do not have the right to upload;
- Probe, scan, or attempt to compromise the security or integrity of the Service.
4. Subscriptions, billing and renewals
Paid plans are sold and billed by our Merchant of Record, Paddle.com Market Limited and its affiliates ("Paddle"). Paddle handles payment processing, tax collection and remittance, invoice issuance, and chargeback handling on our behalf. Your billing relationship is between you and Paddle, and Paddle's Buyer Terms apply to the payment portion of the transaction.
Unless explicitly described as a one-time purchase, plans renew automatically at the end of each billing period at the then-current price for that plan. You can cancel renewal at any time from your account; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period and you retain access until then. Compute credits, API call quotas, and any other usage-based allowances reset on each renewal and do not roll over unless the plan explicitly says so.
We may change pricing or plan composition with at least 30 days' notice before the next renewal. Continued use after a price change constitutes acceptance; if you do not accept, cancel before the next renewal.
5. Refunds
Refunds are governed by our Refund Policy, which forms part of these Terms.
6. Your content and data
You retain all rights in documents, datasets, prompts, and other material you upload ("Your Content"). You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide licence to host, process, index, embed, and display Your Content solely as needed to operate the Service for you and the users you authorise.
We do not use Your Content to train foundation models. We do use anonymised, aggregated usage signals (e.g. query latencies, error rates) to operate and improve the Service.
7. Third-party data and AI output
The Service retrieves and synthesises information from third-party sources including Materials Project, OpenAlex, Citrination/PIF datasets, and large language model providers. AI-generated summaries can be incomplete, out of date, or wrong; you are responsible for validating any result before relying on it for research, publication, safety-critical, or commercial purposes. Citations are provided so you can verify against primary sources.
8. Intellectual property
The Service, including its software, design, and documentation, is owned by material.codes and its licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Service in accordance with these Terms and your active plan.
9. Termination
You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these Terms, abuse the Service, or create undue risk for other users or for our infrastructure. On termination we will, on request and within a reasonable window, provide an export of Your Content in a portable format (.cxport archive where applicable).
10. Disclaimers
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any specific result will be obtained.
11. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred euros (€100). We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill.
12. Changes to the Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be announced on this page and, for active subscribers, via email at least 14 days before they take effect. The "Effective date" at the top of the page reflects the current version.
13. Contact
Questions about these Terms: info@material.codes.