The short version. You get an API key and may call the API within your plan's limits. Keep the key to yourself, do not abuse the service, and pay for the plan you choose. Results come from open-source engines and public datum and geoid grids: they are excellent for engineering and GIS work but are not a licensed survey, and you check anything that matters. Paid plans renew monthly and you can cancel at any time. We can suspend keys that break these rules. Our liability is capped at what you paid us in the last twelve months. The full text below is what counts.
1.Who we are and what you agree to
The GeoidLife API ("the API", "the service") is operated by GeoidLife, Los Angeles, California ("GeoidLife", "we", "us"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a contract between you and GeoidLife. You accept them when you request an API key, call the API, start a paid plan, or use the pages under geoidlife.com/api/. If you use the API on behalf of a company or another organisation, you confirm that you may bind it to these Terms, and "you" then means that organisation as well.
Our Privacy Policy explains what we store and why; it is part of these Terms. The browser tools on geoidlife.com (the converter, transformer, georeferencing and analysis pages) are separate from the API and are not covered here.
2.The service
The API gives programmatic access over HTTPS to coordinate transformation between coordinate reference systems, geoid undulation and orthometric heights, CRS metadata, and geospatial file conversion, as described on the documentation page and in the OpenAPI specification. The documentation describes the current behaviour of the API; where it and these Terms differ, these Terms govern your rights and obligations and the documentation governs how the API works.
Each plan carries a request quota and a rate limit, listed on the documentation page. Requests over the limit are rejected with an error and are not queued. We may raise limits at any time and may lower them for the Free plan; for paid plans we give at least 30 days' notice of a reduction, and you may cancel before it takes effect.
3.Keys and accounts
- A key is issued to one email address and is for one person, team or project. Request a separate key for a separate project rather than sharing one across unrelated products.
- You are responsible for keeping your key confidential and for every request made with it, whether or not you authorised the request. Do not embed the key in public client-side code, public repositories or published documents. If you believe a key has leaked, email us and we will rotate it.
- You must give a working email address: it is how we deliver the key, how we reach you about billing and about changes to the API, and the only way we can identify you if you ask us to change or delete something.
- We may rotate, suspend or revoke a key as described in section 12.
4.Acceptable use
You may use the API for any lawful purpose, including inside commercial products and services. You agree not to:
- circumvent quotas or rate limits, for example by requesting several keys for the same project or by automating key requests;
- resell, sublicense or offer the API itself as a service, as opposed to building a product that uses it;
- probe, scan, overload or attempt to disrupt the service or the infrastructure behind it, or attempt to access data that is not yours;
- send content that you have no right to process, or that is unlawful, infringing or malicious;
- use the API where a failure or error of the service could lead to death, personal injury or severe environmental damage, such as aircraft navigation, life-support or weapons systems, or as the sole basis for a legal boundary or a safety-critical design;
- remove, obscure or misrepresent notices about the origin of the data the API returns.
5.Plans, payment and cancellation
- Billing. Paid plans are monthly subscriptions billed in advance in US dollars through Stripe, our payment processor. Stripe collects and stores your card and billing details under its own terms and privacy policy; we never see your full card number. Prices are shown before tax; where we are registered to collect sales tax or VAT, it is added at checkout.
- Renewal and cancellation. A plan renews each month until you cancel. You can change or cancel your plan at any time from the Manage subscription link on the documentation page, which emails you a link to Stripe's customer portal. A cancelled plan stays active until the end of the period you have paid for, after which the key returns to the Free plan's limits.
- Upgrades and downgrades. Changing plan mid-period is prorated by Stripe. The new quota applies within seconds of the change.
- Refunds. Fees already paid are not refundable, except where the law requires it or where we failed to provide the service for a substantial part of a billing period through our own fault. In that case email us within 30 days and we will refund or credit the affected period.
- Failed payments. If a renewal payment fails, Stripe retries it. If it keeps failing, the subscription is cancelled and the key drops to the Free plan.
- Price changes. We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice by email. The new price applies from your next renewal after the notice period; you may cancel before then.
- Quotas are hard limits. There is no automatic overage charge today. If we introduce metered overage, it will be opt-in and announced in advance.
6.The Free plan
The Free plan exists so you can evaluate the API and run small workloads. It is provided as-is and we may change its limits, suspend it or withdraw it at any time. Free keys that have not been used for twelve months may be deleted.
7.Your data
The coordinates, heights, files and other content you send to the API ("your input") remain yours, and the results the API returns to you ("your output") are yours to use without restriction, including commercially. You give us only the licence we need to run the service: to receive, process and return your input and output, and to keep operational logs as described in the Privacy Policy. We do not use your input or output to build datasets, train models or for any purpose other than serving your requests and keeping the service running.
Files sent to the conversion endpoint are processed and the result is kept for up to seven days so you can download it, then deleted. Coordinates sent to the transformation and geoid endpoints are not stored.
8.Accuracy and fitness for purpose
Transformations and heights are computed with the open-source PROJ and GDAL libraries, the EPSG geodetic parameter dataset, and public grids such as NADCON5, NTv2, HPGN, GEOID18, GEOID12B, EGM2008 and EGM96 published by NOAA's National Geodetic Survey, the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and other national agencies. The API tells you which operation and grid it used and the published accuracy where the dataset provides one.
You understand and agree that:
- the results are only as good as the operation available for your inputs and area; a request outside a grid's extent falls back to a less accurate method, and the response reports the operation, grids and accuracy actually used;
- results depend on the correctness of the coordinate reference systems you specify, including axis order, epoch and vertical datum;
- the API is not a licensed survey and is not a substitute for one. Legal boundaries, construction control, cadastral work and anything that carries professional liability must be verified by a qualified professional using the methods your jurisdiction requires;
- you are responsible for validating results before relying on them.
9.Availability and changes
We aim to keep the API available at all times, but we do not promise any particular uptime or response time and there is no service-level agreement on any plan today. The service may be unavailable during maintenance, during incidents at our hosting providers, or when upstream data sources are unreachable.
Version 1 of the API (/v1) will not change in ways that break existing requests without at least 30 days' notice by email, except where a change is needed for security or to comply with the law. We may add endpoints, fields and models at any time. New major versions may be released under a new path and the previous version supported for a published period.
10.Open-source engines and public data
PROJ, GDAL and the EPSG dataset are licensed by their respective authors; the datum and geoid grids served through cdn.proj.org are distributed under the terms of the agencies that publish them, most of them public domain or permissive. Nothing in these Terms limits the rights those licences give you, and nothing in these Terms grants you rights in those works beyond what their licences allow. If your use of a particular grid or dataset is subject to attribution or other conditions, you are responsible for meeting them.
11.Intellectual property
The service, its software, documentation, design and the GeoidLife name and logo belong to GeoidLife or its licensors and are protected by copyright and trademark law. These Terms do not transfer any of that to you. You may describe your product as "built with the GeoidLife API"; you may not use our name or logo in a way that suggests we endorse or made your product without our written permission. Feedback you send us may be used to improve the service without obligation to you.
12.Suspension and termination
You may stop using the API at any time; cancel any paid plan first so it does not renew, and email us if you want the key and your record deleted.
We may suspend or revoke a key, with notice where practical, if it is used in breach of these Terms, if its use threatens the security or stability of the service or other customers, if a payment is overdue, or if the law requires it. Where the breach can be cured we will usually warn you first. We may also end the service or any part of it with at least 60 days' notice; fees paid for a period after the end date are refunded pro rata.
Sections 7, 8, 10, 11 and 13 to 18 survive termination.
13.Disclaimer of warranties
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, GEOIDLIFE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY AND UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM US CREATES A WARRANTY NOT STATED IN THESE TERMS.
14.Limitation of liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, GEOIDLIFE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF WE WERE ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
GEOIDLIFE'S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM AND (B) ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS (US$100).
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.
15.Indemnity
If you use the API in breach of these Terms or of the law, or if content you send through the API infringes someone else's rights, you will defend and indemnify GeoidLife against third-party claims, and the resulting damages, costs and reasonable legal fees, that arise from that breach or content. We will notify you promptly of any such claim and cooperate with you in defending it.
16.Changes to these terms
We may update these Terms. For changes that materially reduce your rights we will email the address on your key at least 30 days before they take effect; other changes take effect when posted here, with the version and date updated at the top. Continuing to use the API after a change takes effect means you accept it; if you do not, stop using the API and cancel any paid plan before the effective date.
17.Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. Before starting any formal proceeding, you agree to email us a description of the dispute and to try in good faith to resolve it with us for 30 days. Any dispute that is not resolved that way will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Los Angeles County, California, and both of us consent to their jurisdiction, except that either of us may seek an injunction in any competent court to protect intellectual property or confidential information, and you may bring a claim in small-claims court if it qualifies. If you are a consumer in a jurisdiction whose law gives you mandatory protections, nothing here takes them away.
If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in force. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them to a successor of the service. These Terms, with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between us about the API.
18.Contact
Questions about these Terms, requests to rotate or delete a key, and notices under these Terms go to geoidlife@gmail.com. We answer from the same address.