Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Caleb Lee, the operator of Matter (“Matter,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). By accessing or using Matter, connecting a Gmail account, texting with Matter, or purchasing a subscription, you agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use Matter.

You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering a contract to use Matter. Matter is currently offered only to users in the United States. You may use Matter only for your own authorized Gmail accounts and in compliance with these Terms and applicable law.

Matter is a text-first, read-only Gmail monitor. After you authorize a Gmail inbox, Matter periodically reviews messages, uses automated systems and artificial intelligence to estimate what may need attention, and may send you an alert or digest by text. Matter also provides a secure web portal for connection, settings, and billing tasks.

Matter does not send, reply to, delete, label, archive, or otherwise change email in your Gmail account. Features, models, polling frequency, plan limits, and service availability may change over time.

Your normalized phone number is the primary identifier for your Matter account. You are responsible for maintaining control of that number, your Google account, and access to your authenticated settings portal. You must provide accurate information and promptly notify us if you believe your account or connected inbox has been compromised.

By connecting Gmail, you represent that you own or are authorized to use the account and authorize Matter to use Google’s read-only Gmail API on your behalf for the features described in these Terms and our Privacy Policy. You may disconnect Gmail through the settings portal or revoke access through Google at any time.

By initiating a conversation with Matter and using the service, you request and consent to receive service-related texts at the number you use, including onboarding messages, account help, email alerts, digests, billing links, and security or operational notices. Message frequency varies based on your inbox activity, settings, and use. Message and data rates may apply. Carriers are not responsible for delayed or undelivered messages.

Reply STOP to opt out. After an opt-out, Matter will not send AI replies or alerts to that number. Because text delivery is a core part of Matter, opting out prevents the service from functioning as intended. You may need to contact us or follow carrier-supported instructions to resume messages.

Paid Starter and Pro plans are monthly subscriptions that renew automatically until canceled. The price, included features, plan limits, any introductory discount, and taxes are disclosed at checkout. By subscribing, you authorize Polar and its payment processors to charge the payment method you provide at the start of each billing period.

We may change plan pricing or features prospectively. We will provide notice when required by law, and a price change will apply no earlier than a future renewal. Taxes, carrier charges, and third-party charges may apply.

You may cancel through the Polar billing portal linked from Matter’s settings portal. Cancellation stops future renewals and normally takes effect at the end of the current paid billing period. Deleting Matter does not itself guarantee cancellation of an external billing subscription, so cancel billing before deleting your account.

Payments are non-refundable and we do not provide credits or prorated refunds for partial billing periods, unused service, plan changes, or an account you stop using, except where required by law. We may issue a refund or credit at our discretion without creating an obligation to do so in the future.

Matter uses probabilistic systems. It may misunderstand an email, miss an important message, send an unnecessary alert, summarize something incorrectly, experience delays, or fail to deliver a text. Gmail, mobile carriers, model providers, and other third-party services can also be delayed or unavailable. You remain responsible for checking your inbox and acting on your messages.

Matter is not an emergency service, security-monitoring service, or source of legal, medical, financial, tax, or other professional advice. Do not rely on Matter to detect emergencies, threats, account compromises, deadlines, bills, travel changes, health information, government notices, or any other time-sensitive or consequential message.

You may not:

• connect or access an inbox you do not own or have permission to use;
• use Matter for unlawful, fraudulent, abusive, harassing, or harmful activity;
• attempt to bypass plan limits, rate limits, authentication, security, or provider restrictions;
• probe, scan, reverse engineer, disrupt, overload, or interfere with Matter or its providers;
• introduce malware or use automated means to scrape or extract Matter content or data;
• resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the service without our written permission; or
• use Matter in a way that violates Google, carrier, messaging, payment, or other third-party terms.

Matter and its software, design, branding, documentation, and other service materials are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use Matter for its intended purpose.

You retain your rights in your email, messages, and other content. You grant us the limited rights needed to host, process, transmit, and display that content solely to operate, secure, and support Matter as described in the Privacy Policy. If you voluntarily provide feedback, you permit us to use it without restriction or compensation, provided we do not publicly identify you without permission.

Matter depends on services provided by Google, OpenAI, Sendblue, Auth0, Polar, Mem0, Convex, PostHog, hosting providers, carriers, and others. Their services and handling of information are governed by their own terms and policies. We are not responsible for third-party products, outages, acts, or omissions, except to the extent the law does not allow that responsibility to be excluded.

You may stop using Matter, disconnect Gmail, or request account deletion at any time. We may suspend or terminate access if you violate these Terms, create risk for Matter or others, fail to pay, abuse the service, or if needed to comply with law or provider requirements. When reasonably possible, we will provide notice and an opportunity to address the issue.

Terms that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including payment obligations, ownership, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnity, and dispute provisions.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, MATTER IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” WE DISCLAIM ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED, AND STATUTORY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT MATTER WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY EMAIL WILL BE CORRECTLY CLASSIFIED OR DELIVERED AS AN ALERT.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain disclaimers, so some of the above may not apply to you.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, MATTER AND ITS OPERATOR, AFFILIATES, LICENSORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, OR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, EVEN IF ADVISED THAT SUCH DAMAGES ARE POSSIBLE.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF MATTER AND ITS OPERATOR FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) $100 OR (B) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO MATTER DURING THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

These limitations do not limit liability that cannot legally be limited, and they do not affect non-waivable consumer rights.

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Matter, its operator, and their affiliates and service providers from claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and reasonable costs arising from your unlawful use of Matter, your violation of these Terms, or your infringement of another person’s rights. This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim results from our own unlawful conduct.

We are not responsible for delay or failure caused by events reasonably outside our control, including provider outages, carrier failures, internet or utility failures, labor disputes, natural disasters, government actions, cyberattacks, war, civil unrest, or changes to third-party APIs or policies.

Illinois law governs these Terms and any dispute relating to Matter, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. You and Matter consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Illinois, except that either party may bring an eligible individual claim in small-claims court. These Terms do not require arbitration and do not waive any right to participate in a class action that applicable law provides.

We may update Matter and these Terms. If a change is material, we will provide reasonable notice through the service, by text, on the website, or by another appropriate method. The updated Terms will state their effective date. Continuing to use Matter after the updated Terms take effect means you accept them. If you do not agree, you must stop using Matter and cancel your subscription.

These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Matter regarding the service. If a provision is unenforceable, it will be modified only as much as necessary and the remaining provisions will stay in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a reorganization, financing, merger, acquisition, or sale of the service. Headings are for convenience only. Notices may be delivered electronically.

Matter is operated by Caleb Lee. Questions about these Terms or the service can be sent to contact@usematter.app.