Terms of Use

1. Acceptance

These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) are a binding contract between you and TidePilot LLC, a Washington limited liability company (“TidePilot,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). By creating a TidePilot account, signing in, or otherwise using the Service at tidepilot.ai and related surfaces (the “Service”), you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree, do not create an account, do not use the Service, and do not view shared trips or post comments on them.

If you post a comment on a public trip share page without creating an account, you agree to the relevant provisions of these Terms by posting, including §10 and §8.

2. Eligibility

You may use the Service only if all of the following are true:

• You are at least 18 years old;
• You are a resident of the United States or Canada;
• You have full legal capacity to enter into a binding contract;
• You are not barred from using the Service under applicable law; and
• You have not previously been suspended or removed from the Service.

One human, one account. You may not create or operate an account for anyone else or share account credentials.

3. The Service: planning advisor, not navigation

TidePilot is a marine passage-planning advisor. The Service fuses weather, sea state, tide, current, your boat profile, and your stated preferences to produce captain briefs, recommended departure windows, and conditions summaries before you depart.

TidePilot is a planning advisor, not a navigation system. Always confirm conditions with current observations and use a marine chartplotter for navigation underway.

This boundary is not marketing language. It is a defining property of the Service and the foundation of these Terms. TidePilot does not replace a marine chartplotter, a paper chart, the captain’s judgment, or any obligation imposed on the captain or vessel operator by US or Canadian navigation laws and regulations (including the US Coast Guard Navigation Rules, International — COLREGS, and equivalent Canadian rules), which assign responsibility for the safety of a vessel and its crew to the master.

4. Account and security

Account authentication is provided by Clerk on our behalf. You are responsible for:

• The accuracy of the information you provide;
• Keeping your credentials secure;
• All activity that occurs under your account, whether or not authorized by you;
• Notifying us promptly at security@tidepilot.ai if you suspect unauthorized use.

We may suspend or terminate your account at any time for the reasons stated in §23.

5. Subscriptions, trial, and metered billing

Paid features are sold on a subscription basis, billed and processed by Stripe. A subscription may include:

• A recurring base fee at the interval shown at checkout (monthly or annual);
• Metered usage charges based on the number of AI-generated briefs or other metered actions, billed in arrears at the rate shown at checkout;
• A free trial period that converts automatically into a paid subscription unless you cancel before the trial ends.

All fees are quoted and charged in US dollars unless a different currency is shown at checkout. You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your purchase. Fees are non-refundable except where required by applicable law.

We may change pricing on at least 30 days’ notice. Continued use after the new price takes effect is your acceptance of the new price. If you do not accept it, cancel before the effective date as described in §23.

6. Automatic renewal

Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing cycle (monthly or annual, as you selected) until you cancel. By starting a subscription or a free trial, you authorize TidePilot, through Stripe, to charge your payment method:

• The recurring base fee at the start of each renewal cycle, and
• Any metered usage charges accrued during the prior cycle.

You may cancel at any time from your account billing settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period; you keep access until then. We do not provide refunds for partial billing periods except where required by applicable law (including Washington RCW 19.230, California Business & Professions Code §17602, and other applicable automatic-renewal statutes).

We will send a renewal reminder email before annual renewals and before any price increase takes effect.

7. Referral program

The referral program lets you earn credits or other rewards for bringing new captains to TidePilot. Rewards are issued at our discretion under the program terms posted in the Service and may be revoked or adjusted in cases of fraud, abuse, or self-referral.

Cashable rewards may be taxable income to you. You are responsible for any taxes that apply. If we are required to issue a tax form (such as a US Form 1099) we will do so based on the information you provide.

8. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service in violation of any applicable law or regulation;
• Use the Service for actual underway navigation as your primary navigation system;
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive the source code of the Service except where this restriction is prohibited by law;
• Scrape, harvest, mirror, or otherwise extract bulk data from the Service, including third-party marine data accessed through the Service, which we license from providers including NOAA, Windy, Open-Meteo, the National Weather Service, and MSC Canada;
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute the Service or its outputs;
• Use Service outputs to train, fine-tune, evaluate, or build a competing model or product;
• Interfere with the integrity, security, or performance of the Service or with another user’s use of it;
• Impersonate anyone or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone;
• Post or transmit content that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, threatening, infringing, obscene, or otherwise objectionable; or
• Encourage or assist anyone else to do any of the above.

9. Your content and license to TidePilot

You retain ownership of the route plans, boat profile information, routing conversations, share-page comments, and other content you submit to the Service (your “Content”).

You grant TidePilot a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable license to host, copy, transmit, display, modify (for technical purposes such as formatting and caching), and otherwise use your Content to operate and provide the Service to you and any people you share a trip with.

You also grant TidePilot a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use de-identified versions of your Content to evaluate, improve, and develop the Service, our routing intelligence, and related products, as described in §7 of our Privacy Policy. You cannot opt out of de-identified use.

You represent that you have the right to grant the licenses above and that your Content does not infringe anyone else’s rights.

10. Trip sharing and public comments

You may create a public share link for a trip. When you do, the route plan and a snapshot of the boat profile become viewable by anyone who has the link, and people who have the link may post comments on the share page.

You are responsible for any trip you choose to share. We may remove a share link or any comment at any time, with or without notice, for any reason or no reason. We have no obligation to monitor share pages or comments, and we are not the speaker of any user-submitted comment.

Anonymous commenters: by posting a comment on a public share page, you agree to §8 (Acceptable Use), §19 (Release), §21 (Dispute Resolution), and §22 (Governing Law) of these Terms.

11. Marine safety and assumption of risk

Marine activities are inherently dangerous. Weather and sea conditions can change without warning. Equipment can fail. Other vessels can act unpredictably. By using the Service you expressly acknowledge and assume all risk of any marine activity you plan with or undertake based on TidePilot, including the risk of property damage, personal injury, and death.

You agree that the captain or master of a vessel is solely responsible for the safety of the vessel, crew, passengers, and other parties on or around the water, and for compliance with all applicable navigation laws and regulations. TidePilot does not replace, and you may not treat it as a replacement for, any of the following:

• A marine chartplotter for navigation underway;
• Direct, current observation of weather, sea state, and your surroundings;
• Independent verification of conditions and forecasts from authoritative sources;
• A qualified captain, pilot, or licensed maritime professional where one is required.

You must independently verify any information surfaced by TidePilot before relying on it, and you must use a marine chartplotter for navigation underway.

12. No recommendations or course of action

TidePilot provides information and computational outputs. It does not provide recommendations, instructions, advice, or a course of action.

Outputs labeled “favorable,” “caution,” “no-go,” “recommended departure window,” or any similar term are computational summaries of the information available to TidePilot at the time of generation. They are decision-support inputs only. They are not professional advice, not maritime services, and not a substitute for your own evaluation of the conditions.

You alone decide whether to depart, when to depart, which route to follow, and whether and how to continue or change course. You alone bear the consequences of those decisions.

13. AI output disclaimer

Parts of the Service use generative AI (currently Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6) to draft briefs. AI output:

• May be inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, or fabricated (“hallucinated”);
• May misinterpret your boat profile, preferences, or the data sources behind a brief;
• Is not a substitute for professional maritime advice or for direct observation of conditions;
• Must be independently verified before being relied upon.

You agree that you will not rely on any AI-generated output without that independent verification, and you accept all risk associated with such reliance.

14. Third-party data disclaimer

TidePilot displays and analyzes data provided by third parties, including NOAA CO-OPS (tides and currents), Windy (wind and swell), Open-Meteo (currents and weather), the US National Weather Service (advisories), MSC Canada (Canadian marine forecasts), and mapping tile providers. That data is provided “AS IS” and may be unavailable, delayed, inaccurate, or incomplete. Outages, latency, and errors of third-party data sources are not the responsibility of TidePilot.

15. Chartplotter export disclaimer

TidePilot can export route data to formats used by Raymarine, Garmin, Furuno, B&G, and other marine chartplotters. Exports are a convenience. You are solely responsible for:

• Verifying that the exported route loaded correctly into your chartplotter before any use underway;
• Confirming waypoints, headings, depths, and hazards against your authoritative charts;
• Following the navigation guidance produced by your chartplotter, which is the authoritative navigation tool.

16. Trip watch and alerts disclaimer

Trip watch alerts (in-app, email, SMS) are best-effort and may be delayed, undelivered, or missed because of carrier conditions, provider outages, deliverability issues, or other causes outside our control. You agree not to rely on alerts as a safety system or as a substitute for direct, current observation of conditions.

17. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE, INCLUDING ALL CONTENT, OUTPUTS, DATA, BRIEFS, ROUTES, RECOMMENDATIONS, ALERTS, AND EXPORTS, IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, TIDEPILOT AND THE TIDEPILOT PARTIES (AS DEFINED IN §19) DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE (INCLUDING ANY MARINE, NAVIGATION, OR SAFETY PURPOSE), NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, UNINTERRUPTED AVAILABILITY, AND TITLE.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties. To the extent the law of such a jurisdiction applies to you, the disclaimers above apply to the maximum extent permitted by that law.

18. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL THE TIDEPILOT PARTIES (AS DEFINED IN §19) BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST DATA, LOSS OF GOODWILL, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, PERSONAL INJURY, PROPERTY DAMAGE, OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

IN NO EVENT WILL THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE TIDEPILOT PARTIES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU ACTUALLY PAID TIDEPILOT IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS (US$100). THIS AGGREGATE CAP APPLIES TO THE TIDEPILOT PARTIES COLLECTIVELY, NOT PER PARTY, AND APPLIES TO ALL CLAIMS IN THE AGGREGATE, NOT PER CLAIM.

The limitations in this section will not apply to liability that, under applicable law, cannot be excluded or limited, including liability for gross negligence, willful misconduct, fraud, or in the case of a Washington resident, the unwaivable rights under the Washington Consumer Protection Act (RCW 19.86). Some jurisdictions do not allow exclusion or limitation of certain damages; to the extent the law of such a jurisdiction applies to you, the limits in this section apply to the maximum extent permitted by that law.

You and TidePilot agree that the limitations in this section are an essential element of the bargain between you and TidePilot and that, without them, the Service would not be offered at its current price (or for free).

19. Released parties and release

In this section and throughout these Terms, “TidePilot Parties” means TidePilot LLC and its parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, and each of their respective members, managers, officers, directors, employees, agents, contractors, service providers, licensors, successors, and assigns, and the heirs, executors, administrators, successors, and assigns of each of the foregoing individuals.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you release the TidePilot Parties from any and all claims, demands, losses, damages, costs, and liabilities (whether known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected) of every kind and nature arising out of or relating to:

• Your use of the Service;
• Any marine activity you plan, undertake, or experience using the Service;
• Your reliance on any brief, recommendation, route, alert, or other output of the Service;
• Third-party data accessed through the Service;
• AI-generated outputs;
• Any content (including comments) posted by you or another user on a public share page; and
• Any act or omission of another user.

You expressly waive the protections of any law that would otherwise preserve unknown claims, including, if you are a California resident, California Civil Code §1542, which reads: “A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party.”

This release does not apply to claims that, under applicable law, cannot be waived (such as those for gross negligence or willful misconduct), and applies to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

20. Indemnification by you

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the TidePilot Parties from and against any third-party claim, demand, action, loss, damage, cost, or liability (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to:

• Your breach of these Terms;
• Your Content, including comments you post on a public share page;
• Your violation of any law or the rights of any third party;
• Any marine activity you plan, undertake, or experience using the Service, including any claim by a passenger or another vessel or party; and
• Your reliance on any output of the Service.

We will give you prompt notice of any claim subject to indemnification and reasonable cooperation, at your expense, in the defense. We may participate in the defense with counsel of our choice at our expense, and you will not settle any claim that imposes any obligation or liability on any TidePilot Party without our prior written consent. This indemnity does not require you to indemnify the TidePilot Parties for claims arising from a TidePilot Party’s own gross negligence or willful misconduct.

21. Dispute resolution and arbitration

Please read this section carefully. It requires you and TidePilot to resolve most disputes by individual binding arbitration and waives your right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action. You have 30 days to opt out as described in §21.6.

21.1 Informal resolution first

Before starting an arbitration or any other formal proceeding, you and TidePilot agree to try in good faith to resolve any dispute by sending a written notice describing the dispute and the relief sought to legal@tidepilot.ai (if you are giving notice to us) or to the email address on file for your account (if we are giving notice to you), and to engage in a 60-day informal discussion to resolve it.

21.2 Binding individual arbitration

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms that is not resolved informally will be resolved exclusively by final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules in effect at the time the arbitration is commenced, except as modified by these Terms. The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator in Seattle, Washington, or, at your election, by telephone or video conference or based only on written submissions where the AAA rules allow.

21.3 Class action waiver

You and TidePilot agree that each may bring claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims and may not preside over any form of class or representative proceeding.

21.4 Mass arbitration protocol

If 25 or more substantially similar arbitration demands are filed against TidePilot within a 60-day window by the same or coordinated counsel, you and TidePilot agree that the demands will be administered in sequential bellwether batches as the AAA and the parties’ counsel reasonably agree, in order to manage scale fairly and avoid undue burden on either side.

21.5 Carve-outs

This arbitration agreement does not apply to:

• Claims that may be brought in a small-claims court if they remain in small-claims court and on an individual basis;
• Suits to enjoin infringement or misuse of intellectual property rights, which may be brought in court; and
• Disputes that, under applicable law, cannot be required to be arbitrated.

21.6 Opt-out right

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement and the class waiver by sending a written opt-out notice that identifies your account email and clearly states your intent to opt out, by email to legal@tidepilot.ai, within 30 days after you first accept these Terms (or within 30 days after a material change to this section, with respect to that change). Opting out will not affect any other provision of these Terms.

21.7 Severability and survival

If any provision of this §21 is held unenforceable, the unenforceable provision will be severed and the remaining provisions will remain in effect, except that if the class waiver in §21.3 is held unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) will be resolved in court consistent with §22, and the rest of §21 will continue to apply to all other claims. This §21 survives termination of these Terms and of your account.

22. Governing law and venue

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Service are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, and by applicable federal law of the United States. For any dispute not subject to arbitration under §21, you and TidePilot agree to the exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in King County, Washington, and waive any objection to that venue or to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

23. Termination

You can cancel your subscription or close your account at any time from the billing or account settings, or by emailing support@tidepilot.ai. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period. For deletion of your data, see §17 of the Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or terminate your account or access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, for any breach of these Terms, suspected fraud, non-payment, abuse, conduct presenting a risk of harm or liability, prolonged inactivity, or if we discontinue the Service.

The following provisions survive termination of these Terms or your account: §§9 (Your Content), 11 (Marine Safety), 12 (No Recommendations), 13 (AI Output), 14 (Third-Party Data), 15 (Chartplotter Export), 16 (Alerts), 17 (Warranties), 18 (Limit of Liability), 19 (Release), 20 (Indemnification), 21 (Disputes), 22 (Governing Law), 25 (Modifications), 26 (Miscellaneous), 27 (Contact and Notices).

24. Force majeure

We will not be liable for any delay or failure in performance caused by events outside our reasonable control, including acts of God, weather, marine conditions, fire, flood, earthquake, pandemic, war, civil unrest, government action, network or power outages, outages or errors of third-party data providers, or any other event of force majeure.

25. Modifications to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will provide at least 30 days’ advance notice by email to active account holders and by posting an updated version on this page with a new effective date. Continued use of the Service after the effective date is your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you may cancel your subscription and stop using the Service before the effective date. For changes to §21 (Dispute Resolution), the 30-day opt-out right in §21.6 applies to the change.

26. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any plan-level terms presented at checkout, are the entire agreement between you and TidePilot about the Service.
• Severability and reformation. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the rest of these Terms will remain in effect. The parties authorize any court of competent jurisdiction to reform an unenforceable provision to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable and to give effect to the parties’ intent.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of that or any other provision.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms or your account without our written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets.
• Headings. Headings are for convenience and do not affect interpretation.
• Language. The English-language version of these Terms controls in case of any discrepancy with a translation.
• Independent contractors. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, fiduciary, or employment relationship between you and TidePilot.
• No third-party beneficiaries. Except for the TidePilot Parties (who are intended third-party beneficiaries of §§17, 18, 19, and 20), there are no third-party beneficiaries of these Terms.

27. Contact and notices

Notices to TidePilot under these Terms must be sent by email to legal@tidepilot.ai and, where a postal address is required, to:

TidePilot LLC
240 2nd Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104, USA

Notices to you will be sent to the email address on file for your account or, for anonymous commenters, posted on the share page in question. Notice is effective when sent to a current, valid address.