Terms of Service

1. About these Terms

1.1. Who we are. Node Lodge (https://nodelodge.com) is operated by Vision Digitale TI Inc. (“VDTI”, “Node Lodge”, “we”, “us”), a corporation incorporated under the laws of Québec, Canada.

1.2. What these Terms cover. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Node Lodge website, console, API, command-line tool, SDKs, MCP server, GitHub Action and related services (together, the “Service”).

1.3. Who “you” are. “You” means the person who accepts these Terms or, when that person acts for an organization, the organization named in the Account. If you accept for an organization, you confirm that you have authority to bind it.

1.4. Acceptance. You accept these Terms by checking the acceptance box when you sign up, or by accepting a new version in the console. You must have accepted the current version to launch a Session, buy Credit or pair a Host Machine.

1.5. Documents that form the contract. These Terms include, by reference:

• the Acceptable Use Policy;
• the Secure Service Terms, for Sessions on Secure;
• the Community Service Terms, for Sessions on Community;
• the Host Agreement, if you pair a machine or list an offer;
• the Data Processing Addendum, when you process personal data on the Service as a business.

The Privacy Policy and the Cookie Policy explain how we handle personal information; they are not contractual terms.

1.6. Order of precedence. If documents conflict: the Data Processing Addendum prevails on the processing of Customer Personal Data; the Secure Service Terms, the Community Service Terms and the Host Agreement prevail for their own subject; these Terms prevail over everything else. A protection that the law gives a Consumer always prevails (section 21).

2. Definitions

• Account: the user account you sign in with.
• Organization: the customer entity an Account belongs to. Credit, Sessions, API keys, machines and history belong to the Organization.
• Business Customer: an Organization or person using the Service for a trade, business, craft or profession.
• Consumer: an individual using the Service for personal, family or household purposes, outside any trade, business, craft or profession.
• Machine: a computer with one or more GPUs, or CPU only, offered through the Service.
• Secure: Machines in datacenters of our infrastructure partners, provided under the Node Lodge brand.
• Community: Machines owned and operated by independent hosts (“Hosts”) who pair them with the Service.
• Session: the use of a Machine from launch to stop, in a virtual machine dedicated to it.
• Budget: the maximum amount a Session may cost, set by you at launch and held on your Credit.
• Credit: the prepaid balance of an Organization, in US dollars.
• Customer Content: the data, code, models, files and other material you or your users put on a Machine, send through the Service, or attach to a support request.
• Limits: the account limits (number of GPUs, GPU classes, daily Credit purchases) that apply to your Organization, shown in the console.

3. Eligibility

3.1. The Service is offered to Business Customers and to Consumers. If you are a Consumer, section 21 applies to you in addition to these Terms.

3.2. You must be at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter into a contract.

3.3. Access may be by invitation or on request. We may accept or decline a request to open an Account, including to comply with law or to protect the Service.

3.4. You may not use the Service if you, your Organization, or any person who owns or controls it is a Restricted Person under section 20.

4. Accounts, Organizations and security

4.1. Accurate information. Give accurate information and keep it up to date, including your billing address and, if you have one, your business tax number.

4.2. Email confirmation. You must confirm your email address before you can pair a machine, publish an offer, launch a Session or manage API keys.

4.3. Credentials. Keep your password, two-factor recovery codes, SSH private keys and API keys confidential. Each person needs their own Account. You are responsible for all activity under your Accounts, API keys and Sessions, including by anyone you let use them.

4.4. Roles. Each Account belongs to an Organization with a role. Owners and admins manage billing, API keys, machines, offers and the activity log. Every member can launch Sessions and spend the Organization’s Credit. The Organization is responsible for the roles it grants and for removing access when someone leaves.

4.5. Compromise. Tell us at once at security@nodelodge.com if you suspect that an Account, an API key, an SSH key or a Session is compromised. You can sign out every device and revoke API keys from the console at any time.

4.6. Two-factor authentication. We may require two-factor authentication for some actions, such as creating API keys or changing security settings.

5. The Service

5.1. Catalog. The console lists Machines with their tier, GPU, resources, country and city or declared country, and hourly rate. Rates and availability change. The rate of a Session is the one shown and recorded when you launch it, and it does not change during that Session.

5.2. Tiers. Secure and Community differ in who controls the hardware, as described on our Security page and in the Secure Service Terms and Community Service Terms. You choose the tier for each Session. Choose Secure for confidential or regulated data.

5.3. Smart Launch and estimates. Smart Launch, the GPU calculator and the “fits your workload” filter give estimates from the information you enter and published model characteristics. They are guidance, not a guarantee that a workload will run, fit in memory or reach a given speed.

5.4. Environments. Ready-to-run environments (such as JupyterLab, PyTorch, vLLM, Ollama or ComfyUI) are third-party open-source software provided for your convenience. Their licences apply to you. When a model or image requires you to accept a licence before launch, you accept it with the licence holder, not with us.

5.5. Developer tools. The API, the command-line tool, the SDKs, the MCP server and the GitHub Action act on behalf of your Organization with the API key you give them. Actions taken by an AI agent or an automated workflow with your key are your actions.

5.6. Changes to the Service. We may add, change or remove features. If a change materially reduces a feature you pay for, we tell you in advance when we reasonably can.

5.7. No service level. The Service is provided without a numeric availability commitment unless we agree otherwise in a signed document. The Budget Guard guarantee in section 7.4 is a firm commitment.

6. Limits and account review

6.1. Account limits. Each Organization has Limits that depend on its account tier. Tiers rise automatically with the age of the Organization and its successful payments, as described in the documentation, and an Organization can ask for higher Limits through Support.

6.2. Verification. An Organization must save a valid card, or complete a successful payment, before it can launch a Session. We may ask for additional information to verify an Organization, its activity or its compliance with section 20.

6.3. Disputes. If a payment is disputed with your bank, your Organization returns to the lowest tier while the dispute is open or if it is lost (section 8.7).

6.4. Platform limits. We may set limits on capacity, launches or API requests to protect the Service. A launch that exceeds a limit is refused before anything is charged.

7. Sessions and budgets

7.1. Launch. To launch a Session, you choose a Machine, an environment and a Budget. The Budget is mandatory. A launch is refused if your available Credit does not cover the Budget, if it exceeds your Limits, or if it exceeds a cap set on the API key used.

7.2. Hold. The Budget is held on your Credit when the Session launches. A hold is not a charge. You can raise the Budget of a running Session if your available Credit covers the increase.

7.3. Charges. A Session is charged for the time the Machine runs for you, from the moment it is handed over to you until it stops, at the rate recorded at launch. Time is measured continuously; any rounding is in your favor. Time spent creating the Machine is not charged. A Session that fails to start is not charged.

7.4. Budget Guard. We stop each Session before its Budget is reached, with a safety margin. You are never charged more than the Budget of a Session. If a Machine keeps running after the moment its Budget is reached, that time is on us and is never billed to you. When a Session stops, the unused part of its Budget returns to your available Credit.

7.5. End of a Session. A Session ends when you stop it, when its Budget or optional maximum duration is reached, when the Machine is lost or reclaimed, or when we stop it under sections 8.7 or 15. When a Session ends, its Machine and disks are deleted, with everything on them. We do not back up Machines or Sessions. Copy your results off the Machine before the end.

7.6. Interruptions. A Machine can fail, lose its network, be reclaimed when the offer is marked interruptible, or be stopped by its Host or partner. You pay only for the time the Machine ran for you. We do not replace a Machine automatically. Design long jobs to save checkpoints.

8. Credit, payments and taxes

8.1. Prepaid only. Sessions are paid from Credit only. You buy Credit by card in the console. You can turn on automatic top-up: your saved card then buys the amount you choose when available Credit falls below the threshold you set. You authorize those purchases until you turn automatic top-up off.

8.2. Credit. Credit:

• belongs to the Organization and is shared by its members;
• covers Secure and Community;
• never expires;
• has no cash value, earns no interest, and cannot be transferred to another Organization or exchanged for money, except as provided in section 8.4.

8.3. Non-refundable. Credit you buy is non-refundable, except as provided in section 8.4.

8.4. Refunds. We refund unused purchased Credit, to the original payment method or by another means if that is no longer possible:

• when the law that applies to you requires it, including under section 21;
• for a billing error or a duplicate payment;
• when we close your Account for a reason other than your breach of these Terms or of the Acceptable Use Policy;
• when we stop providing the Service.

Charges for time already provided are final, except for a billing error.

8.5. Promotional Credit. Credit we grant free of charge is not refundable, has no cash value, and is used before purchased Credit. We may set an expiry date for it, stated when it is granted.

8.6. Prices, currency and taxes. Prices are in US dollars and exclude taxes. Taxes (such as GST/HST, QST, VAT or US sales tax) are calculated at the purchase of Credit from your billing address and, if you give one, your business tax number, and are shown on the receipt or invoice. Reverse charge applies where the law allows. A Session produces a usage receipt, not a tax invoice: tax is charged once, at the purchase of Credit.

8.7. Refused payments, refunds and disputes. If a Credit purchase is refused, no Credit is added and running Sessions continue only within the Credit already held. If a payment is refunded by your bank or disputed (chargeback):

• the Credit that payment added is taken back from your balance;
• your Account is blocked: running Sessions stop at once and their Machines are deleted, and no Session can start;
• your Organization returns to the lowest tier under section 6.3;
• amounts you owe remain payable.

We reopen the Account when the dispute is closed in our favor or the amount due is paid. If you believe a charge is wrong, write to Support first: we answer billing questions before any dispute is needed.

8.8. Ledger. Every purchase, hold, charge and adjustment is recorded in an append-only ledger shown in the console. We correct an error by adding an entry, never by editing or deleting one.

8.9. Card data. Card numbers are collected and stored by our payment processor on its own pages. We keep only the card brand, its last four digits and its expiry date.

9. Customer Content

9.1. Ownership. You keep all rights in your Customer Content. We claim no ownership of it, and of any model, output or result you produce with the Service.

9.2. Licence to us. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide licence to host, copy, transmit and process Customer Content only as needed to provide the Service, to comply with law and to enforce these Terms.

9.3. No access by us. We do not sign in to a Machine you use, and we do not open, read or analyze Customer Content on it, except at your written request for support or when the law requires it. Support attachments are read only to answer your request.

9.4. Your responsibilities. You are responsible for: having the rights needed for your Customer Content and workloads; choosing a tier and a country suited to your data; encrypting what needs to be encrypted; and keeping your own copies.

9.5. Personal data. When Customer Content includes personal data you control, the Data Processing Addendum applies, and you must not place sensitive or regulated personal data on Community (see the Community Service Terms).

10. Acceptable use

10.1. You must follow the Acceptable Use Policy.

10.2. We may act on a breach as described in that policy, from a warning to closing the Account. When we close an Account for a breach, we may set off against unused Credit the amounts you owe us and the damages the breach caused us, to the extent the law allows.

11. API keys and automation

11.1. Owners and admins can create API keys with scopes, an expiry, and optional caps on spending (per Session, per calendar month and in total) and on concurrent Sessions. We enforce those caps at launch.

11.2. Keep keys secret. Revoke a key at once if it may be exposed. We may suspend or revoke a key that is misused, exposed or used to get around a limit.

11.3. Do not exceed rate limits or try to get around them.

12. Support and notices

12.1. Support is available in the console and at support@nodelodge.com, in English and French. We answer requests in order of urgency. We may ask you to confirm your identity before acting on an Account.

12.2. We send email for money, security and actions only you can take, and show everything else in the console. Keep the email address of your Account working.

13. Our intellectual property

13.1. We and our licensors own the Service, its software, design, documentation and brand. You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service under these Terms.

13.2. You may not copy, modify, decompile or reverse engineer the Service, or use it to build a competing service, except where the law expressly allows it. Open-source components are governed by their own licences.

13.3. Feedback. You may send suggestions. We may use them freely and without obligation to you.

14. Third parties

14.1. Secure Machines are supplied by infrastructure partners, and Community Machines by Hosts. They are not our agents and you have no contract with them through the Service.

14.2. Software, images and models from third parties are governed by their own licences and terms. You are responsible for complying with them.

14.3. Payments are processed by our payment processor under its own terms.

15. Suspension and termination

15.1. By you. You may stop using the Service at any time. To close your Account, write to support@nodelodge.com. Closing ends running Sessions.

15.2. Suspension by us. We may suspend an Account, an Organization, an API key or a Session, without prior notice when the situation requires it, if we reasonably believe that:

• you breached these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy;
• your use creates a security risk or may harm the Service, a partner, a Host or other users;
• we must do so to comply with law or with an order of a competent authority;
• a payment was refunded or disputed under section 8.7.

We tell you the reason and how to resolve it, unless the law or an investigation prevents it.

15.3. Termination by us. We may terminate these Terms immediately for a serious or repeated breach, or for any other reason with 30 days’ notice.

15.4. Effect. On termination, running Sessions end and their Machines are deleted. Unused purchased Credit is refunded under section 8.4 or set off under section 10.2. Amounts due remain payable. Sections 8.4, 9.1, 13, 16 to 22 and 24 survive.

16. Confidentiality

16.1. Each party keeps confidential the non-public information it receives from the other in connection with the Service, uses it only for that purpose and protects it with reasonable care.

16.2. This does not cover information that is public, already known, independently developed or lawfully received from a third party, nor disclosure required by law, after notice to the other party where the law allows.

17. Disclaimers

17.1. To the extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, and we make no warranty, express or implied, including of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or uninterrupted or error-free operation.

17.2. We do not warrant that a Machine will be available when you want it, that a Session will run to its end, that an estimate will be accurate, or that data on a Machine will be preserved.

17.3. Nothing in these Terms excludes a warranty that cannot be excluded under the law that applies to you.

18. Limitation of liability

18.1. To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for: loss of data, work or results; loss of profits, revenue, business or goodwill; or indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages; even if we were told they were possible.

18.2. To the extent permitted by law, our total liability arising from these Terms or the Service is limited to the greater of: the amounts you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim; and 100 US dollars. Promotional Credit does not count as an amount paid.

18.3. Sections 18.1 and 18.2 do not limit liability for bodily or moral injury, for damage caused intentionally or through gross fault, or for anything else the law does not allow to be limited, including under the law that protects Consumers.

19. Indemnity

19.1. If you are a Business Customer, you will defend and indemnify VDTI, its directors, employees and partners against third-party claims, and the resulting losses and reasonable costs, arising from your Customer Content or workloads, your breach of these Terms or of the Acceptable Use Policy, or your breach of law or of a third party’s rights.

19.2. We will tell you promptly of any such claim, let you control its defence, and cooperate at your cost. You may not settle a claim in a way that admits fault on our part without our consent.

20. Sanctions and export control

20.1. Laws that apply. The Service gives access to advanced computing hardware. Its use is subject to the export control and sanctions laws of Canada, the United States (including the Export Administration Regulations and the sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control), the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries that apply (“Trade Laws”). You will comply with them.

20.2. Restricted Persons. You represent that neither you, your Organization, any person who owns or controls it, nor any person who uses the Service through your Account:

• is located in, ordinarily resident in, or organized under the laws of a country or region subject to comprehensive sanctions under the Trade Laws;
• is named on, or owned 50 percent or more by persons named on, a sanctions or restricted-party list under the Trade Laws;
• acts for or on behalf of such a person.

20.3. Prohibited end uses. You will not use the Service, or let anyone use it, for the design, development, production or use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or the missiles that deliver them, for a military or military-intelligence end use or end user prohibited by the Trade Laws, or for any other end use the Trade Laws prohibit. You will not use the Service to provide compute, models or results to a Restricted Person.

20.4. Compliance measures. We may check your identity and location, refuse or end access from certain countries, ask for information about your activity, and refuse, suspend or end access without liability when we reasonably believe it is needed to comply with the Trade Laws. You will tell us at once if a representation in this section stops being true.

21. Consumers

21.1. Mandatory protections. If you are a Consumer, the mandatory protections of the law of your place of residence apply in addition to these Terms and prevail over them. A clause of these Terms that the law makes inapplicable to Consumers does not apply to you; the rest of these Terms remains in force.

21.2. Québec. If you are a Consumer residing in Québec, the Consumer Protection Act (Québec) applies. In particular: sections 18.1 and 18.2 do not apply to the extent they exclude or limit our liability for our own acts or those of our representatives; section 19 does not apply; nothing in these Terms prevents you from going to court, including to a class action; and we change these Terms only under section 22.3.

21.3. European Union, United Kingdom and Switzerland. If you are a Consumer residing in the European Union, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you may withdraw from a purchase of Credit within 14 days after it, without giving a reason, by writing to support@nodelodge.com. We refund the unused part of that Credit within 14 days of your request. When you launch a Session, you expressly ask us to provide the Service at once and acknowledge that you lose the right of withdrawal for the time already provided.

21.4. Courts. If you are a Consumer, you may bring proceedings in the courts of your place of residence, and we may bring proceedings against you only there.

21.5. No arbitration. No clause of these Terms requires a Consumer to go to arbitration or waives a Consumer’s right to a class action.

22. Changes to these Terms

22.1. New versions. We may change these Terms and the documents listed in section 1.5. Each version has a number, a publication date and an effective date. Previous versions stay available on our legal page.

22.2. Notice. For a material change, we tell you by email and in the console at least 30 days before it takes effect, unless the change is required by law or addresses a security risk, and we ask you to accept the new version before your next launch or purchase. If you do not accept it, you may close your Account before the effective date and your unused purchased Credit is refunded.

22.3. Québec Consumers. If you are a Consumer residing in Québec, a change applies to you only if we send you, at least 30 days before it takes effect, a written notice in clear and legible terms that sets out the new clause alone or with the former clause, the date it takes effect and your right to refuse it and cancel the contract without cost or penalty within 30 days after it takes effect. If you cancel, your unused purchased Credit is refunded.

23. Notices and copyright complaints

23.1. We send notices to the email address of your Account or show them in the console. You send notices to support@nodelodge.com, or to the address given in the document concerned.

23.2. Copyright, abuse and other complaints follow the notice and action procedure of the Acceptable Use Policy.

24. Governing law and courts

24.1. These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Québec and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

24.2. Subject to section 21, the courts of the judicial district of Québec, Province of Québec, have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from these Terms or the Service.

24.3. Either party may seek urgent injunctive relief before any competent court to protect its rights or its confidential information.

24.4. This section does not deprive a Consumer of the protection of the mandatory rules of the law of the place where the Consumer resides.

25. Language

25.1. These Terms and the documents they refer to are published in French and in English. The French version is available at /fr/legal.

25.2. The French version was made available to you before you accepted. By accepting the English version, you confirm that you expressly chose to be bound by it. En acceptant la version anglaise, vous confirmez que la version française vous a été remise au préalable et que vous avez expressément choisi d’être lié par la version anglaise.

25.3. Both versions have the same value. If they conflict, the interpretation more favorable to the Consumer applies to Consumers; for Business Customers in Québec the French version prevails, and for other Business Customers the English version prevails.

26. General

26.1. Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them to an affiliate or to a successor in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, with notice to you.

26.2. Force majeure. Neither party is liable for a delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including the failure of a partner or a Host, a power or network outage, or an act of a public authority. This does not apply to payment obligations, and it does not affect the Budget Guard guarantee.

26.3. Entire agreement. These Terms and the documents they refer to are the entire agreement between the parties on the Service and replace any earlier version you accepted.

26.4. Severability. If a provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the rest remains in force, and the provision is replaced by a valid one as close as possible to its purpose.

26.5. No waiver. Not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it.

26.6. Independent parties. The parties are independent. Nothing here creates a partnership, agency, franchise or employment relationship.

27. Contact

• Account, Credit, billing and these Terms: support@nodelodge.com
• Personal information: privacy@nodelodge.com
• Security reports: security@nodelodge.com
• Abuse and copyright complaints: abuse@nodelodge.com