Terms of Service

Effective date: May 27, 2026

By creating an account, joining the waitlist, or using Argot in any way, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the service. These Terms form a binding contract between you and Rike Industries LLC, a Minnesota limited liability company that operates Argot ("we," "us," "Argot").

What Argot is

Argot is a search and question-answering tool that indexes publicly available YouTube transcripts and lets you query them using natural language. It is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or related to YouTube, Google, Alphabet, or any content creator whose videos may appear in the index. References to creators or channel names are descriptive only and do not imply endorsement in either direction.

Accounts

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, and at least 18 (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction) to enter into a paid subscription. You're responsible for keeping your login credentials private and for all activity on your account. One person, one account; don't share your account with others. You agree to provide accurate, current information when signing up and to keep it current. We may suspend or terminate accounts that show signs of abuse, automated scraping, shared credentials, or fraudulent activity, with or without prior notice.

Subscriptions and billing

Argot offers free and paid plans. Paid subscriptions auto-renew monthly at the then-current price until you cancel. Billing is handled by Stripe; we never see your full card details. You authorize us (through Stripe) to charge your payment method on each renewal.

Refunds: we offer a full refund within 7 days of your first payment, but only if you've used the product lightly: fewer than 3 queries since subscribing, and you haven't triggered indexing of a new channel (one not already in our catalog). Because Argot delivers its value instantly, once you've run 3 or more queries or had a new channel indexed for you, the value has been delivered and the subscription is non-refundable except where required by law. Either way, you can cancel any time and keep access until the end of your current billing period.

Plan limits: each tier has query and channel limits. Hitting your limit doesn't charge you more; it just blocks further queries until your window resets or you upgrade.

Pricing changes: we may change subscription pricing with at least 30 days' notice by email to active subscribers. Existing subscribers locked into a "founder rate" keep that rate for the life of their continuous subscription; if you cancel and re-subscribe later, you re-subscribe at the then-current standard rate.

Taxes: prices shown do not include sales tax, VAT, GST, or similar; where required, applicable taxes are added at checkout and remitted to the appropriate authority.

Failed payments and chargebacks: if a payment fails, we may suspend access until the balance is resolved. Initiating a chargeback without first contacting us for a refund may result in account termination and recovery of the disputed amount.

Free tier

The Free tier is intentionally limited (10 queries per month, 1 channel, latest 25 videos). It's a preview of the product, not an unlimited free version. Free accounts inactive for 6 months may be archived and require email verification to reactivate.

Content and copyright

All video content referenced by Argot is publicly available on YouTube. Argot stores text transcripts (not video files) for search purposes, which we believe is consistent with fair use principles. We do not reproduce full transcripts verbatim to end users; responses are summaries and short excerpts with citation links back to the original videos.

If you are a content creator and would like your channel removed from the index, contact us and we will remove it within 48 hours, no questions asked. If you believe content in our index infringes your copyright, see "DMCA / takedown" below.

The Argot name, logo, brand, software, and underlying systems are owned by us. Nothing in these Terms grants you any rights in our intellectual property other than the limited right to use the service as intended.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

We may investigate and take action against suspected violations, including suspension or termination of accounts, removal of content, and reporting to authorities where appropriate.

AI-generated content (please read)

Argot answers are generated by AI language models. AI outputs can be wrong, hallucinated, biased, incomplete, or out of date, even when accompanied by citations. You are responsible for verifying anything important against the original source video before acting on it.

Argot is not professional advice. Nothing the service produces is legal, medical, financial, tax, investment, trading, mental-health, or any other kind of professional advice. If you need professional advice, consult a qualified professional in that field. Trading, investing, and medical decisions in particular carry real-world risk; do not rely on Argot for them.

Views, opinions, and statements appearing in indexed videos belong to those creators, not to us. Their inclusion in the index does not constitute our endorsement.

Your data

Your chat history is stored privately in your account and is never shown to other users or used to train AI models. Retention windows depend on plan: 7 days on Free, 90 days on Pro/Plus/Team. You can pin individual conversations to keep them indefinitely. Full details in our Privacy Policy.

Data export: you can request a JSON export of your account data (channels, chat history, and saved citations) at any time from your account settings, or by emailing us.

Service availability

We aim for high availability but do not guarantee specific uptime, response time, or any service-level agreement. The service may be unavailable during maintenance, outages, or events beyond our control. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature, channel, or the entire service at any time, with or without notice. We are not liable for any losses caused by such modifications.

Cancellation and account deletion

You can cancel anytime. After cancellation, your account stays on the Free tier; paid features become unavailable at the end of your billing period. We do not refund unused portions of a paid period unless required by law.

If you delete your account, we keep your data for a 60-day grace period in case you change your mind, then permanently delete all account-specific data (chat history, saved citations, contact records). Channel transcripts may stay in our shared index because other users may also subscribe to those channels.

Termination by us

We may suspend or terminate your account at any time if you violate these Terms, fail to pay, abuse the service, expose us to legal liability, or for any other reason at our reasonable discretion. We will give notice where reasonably possible. On termination for cause, no refunds are owed.

No warranties

The service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, completeness, security, or uninterrupted operation. Use of the service is at your own risk.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event shall Argot or its operator, contributors, or affiliates be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, revenue, data, business opportunities, or trading losses, arising out of or related to your use of the service, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our total cumulative liability for all claims related to the service is capped at the greater of (a) the amount you actually paid us in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) USD $50.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you. In such cases, our liability is limited to the smallest extent permitted by applicable law.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Argot, its operator, contributors, and affiliates from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the service in violation of these Terms; (b) your violation of any law or third-party right; (c) any content you submit or transmit through the service; or (d) your account credentials being used by anyone you authorized or failed to keep secure.

DMCA / takedown requests

If you believe content in our index infringes your copyright, send a DMCA-style notice via the contact form. Please include: (1) identification of the copyrighted work; (2) the specific URL or channel handle where the allegedly infringing material is indexed; (3) your contact information; (4) a good-faith statement that you believe the use is not authorized; (5) a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and you are authorized to act for the rights holder; (6) your physical or electronic signature. We will respond and act within 48 hours and may remove or disable the relevant index entries pending review.

Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Minnesota, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws provisions. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the service shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Sherburne County, Minnesota (or the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota for federal matters), and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

Informal resolution first. Before filing any formal claim, you agree to contact us and try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days. Most disputes can be resolved this way.

Class action waiver. To the extent permitted by law, any claim must be brought in your individual capacity, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, or representative action.

Force majeure

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, labor disputes, internet or power outages, third-party service failures (including those of YouTube, Stripe, Cloudflare, or hosting providers), and pandemics.

Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or by operation of law, with notice to you.

Severability and waiver

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

Entire agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any plan-specific terms presented at sign-up, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the service and supersede any prior agreements or understandings.

No agency or partnership

Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, joint venture, employment, or franchise relationship between you and us.

Notices

We may give you notice via email to the address on your account, via in-app messages, or by posting to the website. Notices to us should go through the contact form.

Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms as the product evolves. Material changes will be noted by updating the effective date above and emailed to active subscribers at least 14 days in advance. Continued use of the service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you don't agree, your option is to cancel your subscription and stop using the service.

Contact

Questions? Use the contact form on the main page.