Terms of Service

Last updated: July 17, 2026

These terms govern your use of the smol machines hosted platform — the cloud service at smolmachines.com, its API, registry, and the machines it runs for you ("the service"). The service is operated by smol machines, inc. ("we", "us"). By creating an account or using the service you agree to these terms. The open-source smolvm engine is licensed separately under Apache-2.0 and is not covered by these terms; running it yourself needs no agreement with us.

1. The service

The service runs isolated micro virtual machines on our infrastructure on your behalf: you create, start, stop, connect to, publish, export, and delete machines through the CLI, SDKs, console, and API. The service is currently in beta: features may change, and we do not yet offer a formal uptime SLA. We publish live availability at smolmachines.com/status.

2. Your account

  • You must provide accurate account information and keep your credentials secure. Actions taken with your credentials or API tokens are your responsibility.
  • You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live, to use the service.
  • New accounts may be placed on a waitlist and activated in batches during the beta.

3. Your content

  • Everything you run and store in your machines — code, data, images, exported .smolmachine artifacts — is yours. We claim no ownership of it.
  • You grant us only the limited rights needed to operate the service: to store, execute, transmit, and back your content on our infrastructure at your direction.
  • You are responsible for the content you run and publish, including anything you expose through a public app URL or anonymous share link. Sharing a link makes the app reachable by anyone who has it, until you revoke it.
  • You are responsible for complying with licenses of software you run, including container images you pull.

4. Acceptable use

Use of the service is subject to the Acceptable Use Policy, which is part of these terms. We may suspend or limit machines or accounts that violate it, and may suspend first and notify after where the violation risks harm to the platform or others.

5. Fees, credits, and billing

The service is usage-based, billed per the rates on smolmachines.com/pricing and the Billing, Credits & Refunds policy, which is part of these terms. In short: you prepay usage credits or accrue metered usage; prepaid credits are non-refundable, non-transferable, usable only for the service, and expire 12 months after purchase; promotional credits may expire sooner. We may change pricing with reasonable advance notice.

6. Availability, limits, and data

  • We meter and cap resources (CPU, memory, disk, network egress, machine counts) per plan; limits are shown on the pricing page.
  • Idle machines with published services may be automatically stopped and transparently woken on the next request.
  • Machines and their data are deleted when you delete them and when your account closes. Keep your own copies of anything important — exporting a machine as a .smolmachine artifact is built for exactly that.
  • The beta service is not designed for storing the sole copy of irreplaceable data, and must not be used for protected health information or for workloads where failure could cause death, personal injury, or severe damage (e.g. life support, weapons, air traffic control).

7. Suspension and termination

  • You may stop using the service and delete your account at any time.
  • We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms or the AUP, present a security or legal risk, or have unpaid amounts due.
  • On termination we will, on request made within 30 days, make reasonable efforts to let you export your machine data unless we are legally prevented from doing so or the account was terminated for abuse.

8. Disclaimers

The service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, 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 secure, and beta features in particular may change or break.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or lost profits, revenue, or data. Our total aggregate liability arising out of the service is limited to the greater of $50 or the amounts you paid us in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

10. Indemnity

You will defend and indemnify us against third-party claims arising from your content, your use of the service in violation of these terms or the AUP, or your violation of law.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For material changes we will give notice (for example by email or a notice in the console) at least 14 days before they take effect. Continuing to use the service after the effective date means you accept the updated terms.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, excluding its conflict of law rules, and any dispute will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, unless the law where you live requires otherwise.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected].