Methodology: AI vendor and AI tool terms tracker
AI vendor and AI tool terms tracker
- Conditions
What we track. Public terms documents of AI vendors and AI tools: terms of service, usage policies, service terms, privacy policies, data-usage pages and model licences. For each document, five questions: does it restrict publishing benchmarks or competitive analysis; does the vendor use customer inputs to train models (by plan); does the free tier allow commercial use; is automated access to the web app prohibited; and when was the document last updated.
What counts as a value. An answer — yes, no, no clause found, or depends on plan (a date for the last question) — with the clause quoted word for word, its section heading as printed, the page address and the date we read it. The answer follows the clause's own words; where several clauses match, all are listed. The last-updated date is taken from the document's own text only.
What it is not. Not legal advice: a dated record of what the published text says. "No clause found" does not mean "allowed" — other documents, such as order forms or product-specific terms, may still apply. Read the full document before relying on it.
When a value is Unknown. When the document cannot be read, or the clause an earlier answer rested on has changed or disappeared: the answer becomes Unknown until the document is read again, instead of repeating an old answer.
How often. Every document is read once a day; any change to its text shows up in the history.
AI Terms Watch. The share of tracked documents with a clause restricting benchmarks or competitive analysis on the date, with the number of documents (N); a second series gives the share stating that customer data is used for training by default, among documents with a clear yes or no.
Version. Version 1 of this method, in effect since 29 September 2026; description revised 15 October 2026.
- Coverage
- On : 40 terms documents from 28 AI vendors.
- Region
- the United States