Terms of Service

01Scope and who we are

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of Surge, including the website search, answer and indexing APIs, the React SDK, the dashboard and related services (together, the “Service”). The Service is provided by ceed digital innovation GmbH, Martinstraße 25/4, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria (“Surge”, “we”, “us”).

The Service is offered exclusively to businesses within the meaning of § 1 of the Austrian Consumer Protection Act (KSchG), i.e. persons acting in the course of their business. It is not offered to consumers. By creating an account you confirm that you act as a business.

Your own general terms do not apply, even if we do not expressly object to them.

02Account and contract

A contract is formed when you create an account or claim a trial workspace. You must provide accurate information and keep your login credentials and API keys secret. You are responsible for all activity under your account and keys. Tell us immediately at hello@surge-search.com if you suspect misuse.

Publishable keys (pk_) are meant for browsers. Secret keys (sk_) must only be used server-side. Activity with a leaked key counts as your usage until you revoke the key.

03Free trial

New workspaces get a free 14-day trial. No payment details are needed and nothing is charged automatically. When the trial ends, search and answer requests are paused until you choose a paid plan. Your index is kept for at least 30 days after the trial ends so you can reactivate it, after which we may delete it. Trial features and limits may change at any time.

04Plans, fees and payment

Paid plans are billed monthly in advance through our payment provider Stripe. Prices are listed on our website and are net prices; VAT is added where applicable (reverse charge may apply for EU businesses with a valid VAT ID). Each plan includes the limits shown on the pricing page (sites, pages per site and queries per month). A search request and an answer request each count as one query.

Plans without overage stop serving requests once the monthly query limit is reached, until the next billing period or an upgrade. On plans with overage, additional queries are charged at the published rate and billed in arrears.

Subscriptions renew automatically every month. We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice by email; the new price applies from your next billing period after the notice period, and you may cancel before it takes effect. If a payment fails, we may suspend the Service after a reminder until the outstanding amount is paid.

05Cancellation and termination

You can cancel at any time in the dashboard (Billing → Manage in Stripe). Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; fees already paid are not refunded, except where required by law. We may terminate with 30 days' notice by email, or without notice for good cause, in particular serious or repeated breaches of these Terms.

After termination your workspace is deactivated. You can request an export of your account data within 30 days. We then delete your indexed content, keys and analytics, except where we must retain data by law (for example invoices).

06Acceptable use

You may only index websites that you own or are authorised to index. You must not:

• index or process unlawful content, or content that infringes third-party rights;
• use the Service to build a competing product, or scrape, resell or benchmark it for that purpose without our consent;
• circumvent rate limits, quotas or security measures, or share accounts to avoid plan limits;
• send malware, overload our infrastructure or attempt to access other customers' data;
• use AI answers for decisions with legal or similarly significant effects on individuals without human review.

We may temporarily suspend access where there are concrete indications of a breach or a security risk, and will inform you without undue delay.

07Your content

“Customer Content” means the websites and pages you ask us to index, the resulting index, and the queries and analytics generated through your integration. You keep all rights to Customer Content. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide licence to host, copy, process and display Customer Content solely to provide, secure and improve the Service for you.

We do not use Customer Content to train AI models, and we do not share it with other customers. Each workspace has its own isolated index.

08AI-generated answers

Answers are generated automatically by large language models from your indexed content. Although they are grounded in your pages and cite sources, they may be incomplete or inaccurate. You are responsible for your content, for how answers are presented to your visitors, and for reviewing answers before relying on them for important decisions. We recommend telling your visitors that answers are AI-generated.

09Customer references and logo use

You allow us to name you as a customer and to display your company name and logo on our website, in sales and marketing materials and in investor presentations. We will follow brand guidelines you share with us and will not suggest an endorsement beyond the fact that you use Surge.

You can withdraw this permission at any time by emailing hello@surge-search.com; we will remove the reference from our website within 30 days and from new materials going forward. Case studies, quotes or press releases about you always require your separate prior approval.

10Data protection

When your visitors use a search bar powered by Surge, we process their queries and technical data (such as IP addresses for rate limiting) on your behalf as a processor under Art. 28 GDPR. You are the controller for that processing and are responsible for informing your visitors, for example in your privacy policy.

For that processing, we: act only on your documented instructions (these Terms and your configuration); ensure staff are bound to confidentiality; implement appropriate technical and organisational measures; use the sub-processors listed in our Privacy Policy and inform you of changes, giving you the right to object; assist you with data-subject requests and security obligations; notify you of personal data breaches without undue delay; delete or return the data at the end of the contract; and make information available to demonstrate compliance. A separate signed data processing agreement is available on request at hello@surge-search.com.

For data we process as controller (e.g. your account and billing data), our Privacy Policy applies.

11Availability and changes

We aim for high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted service unless agreed in a separate service level agreement. Maintenance, updates and events beyond our control may cause interruptions. We may develop and change the Service, provided core functionality of your paid plan is not materially reduced. We will announce material changes in advance by email or in the dashboard.

12Our intellectual property

The Service, software, documentation and branding remain our property (open-source components remain subject to their own licences, e.g. the React SDK). You receive a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service for your business during the term. If you send us feedback, we may use it freely without obligation to you.

13Confidentiality

Each party will keep the other's non-public business information confidential and use it only for this contract. This does not apply to information that is public, already known, independently developed, or that must be disclosed by law.

14Liability

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under the Austrian Product Liability Act (PHG), and where we have given a guarantee.

For slight negligence, we are only liable for breach of an essential contractual obligation (an obligation whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible and on which you may regularly rely), and limited to the damage typically foreseeable at the time the contract was concluded. In that case, our total liability per contract year is limited to the fees you paid in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim.

We are not liable for loss of data to the extent the damage would have been avoided by reasonable backups on your part, or for the accuracy of AI-generated answers beyond the above. Any further liability is excluded. These limitations also apply to our staff and agents.

15Indemnity

You will indemnify us against third-party claims arising from Customer Content you had no right to have indexed, or from your use of the Service in breach of these Terms, including reasonable legal costs, unless you are not responsible for the breach.

16Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms for valid reasons, such as legal changes or new features. We will email you the changes at least 30 days before they take effect. If you do not object within that period, the changes are deemed accepted; we will point this out in the notice. If you object, either party may terminate the contract at the time the changes would take effect.

17Governing law and final provisions

Austrian law applies, excluding its conflict-of-law rules and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The exclusive place of jurisdiction is the court with subject-matter jurisdiction for Klosterneuburg, Austria.

Should individual provisions be invalid, the remaining provisions remain unaffected. Amendments must be in text form (email suffices). Questions? Contact us at hello@surge-search.com.