BuoyAI

Buoy Money Terms of Service

Effective Date: January 29, 2026
Last Updated: October 14, 2026

1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS

By accessing or using Buoy Money (formerly BuoyAI), including the Buoy Money app and BuoyAI Cloud ("Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). The Service is operated by BuoyAI LLC, a Kansas limited liability company. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

2. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE

Buoy Money is a personal finance management application that provides:

  • Bank account aggregation and synchronization via Plaid
  • Transaction tracking and categorization
  • Budget creation and management
  • Savings goals tracking
  • AI-powered financial insights and recommendations
  • Family sharing features for household finance management

You can use Buoy Money in two ways:

  • The hosted app. We run the app for you at buoy-ai.com and in our mobile apps. Sections 1 to 7 and 10 to 20 apply to it.
  • The self-hosted edition. Free, open-source software that you install and run on your own hardware. Section 8 applies to it.

BuoyAI Cloud is a set of optional paid services that a self-hosted server can use: bank sync and AI. Instant refresh is described below but is not available yet. Section 9 applies to Cloud.

3. ELIGIBILITY

You must be at least 18 years old to create and hold a Buoy Money account, including any family or member accounts. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you meet this age requirement and have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms.

Buoy Money is intended for adults and is not directed to children. Family budgeting features (such as allowances or "child" budgets) are managed by the adult account holder; children do not hold their own accounts. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, or from children under 13 within the meaning of the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If we learn that we have collected personal information from someone under these ages, we will delete it. Do not create an account for, or invite as a family member, anyone under 18.

4. USER ACCOUNTS

4.1 Account Registration

You must create an account to use Buoy Money. You agree to:

  • Provide accurate and complete registration information
  • Maintain the security of your account credentials
  • Promptly update your information if it changes
  • Accept responsibility for all activities under your account

4.2 Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to your account.

4.3 Account Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms or engage in fraudulent or illegal activity.

5. FINANCIAL DATA AND PLAID

5.1 Third-Party Services

Buoy Money uses Plaid Inc. ("Plaid") to connect to your financial institutions. By using our bank connection features, you authorize Plaid to access your account and transaction data at your financial institutions and to send it to us (or, for BuoyAI Cloud, to the server you pair). Plaid handles that data under Plaid's End User Privacy Policy, and you agree to it.

5.2 Data Accuracy

While we strive to display accurate financial information, we rely on data from your financial institutions. We are not responsible for errors or delays in data provided by third parties.

5.3 No Financial Advice

Buoy Money provides tools and insights to help you manage your finances. We do not provide financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Any insights, recommendations, or AI-generated suggestions are for informational purposes only. Consult qualified professionals for financial decisions.

6. SUBSCRIPTION AND BILLING

6.1 Free Trial

New accounts may receive a free trial of premium features. The trial length is shown when you sign up. No payment method is required to start a trial. When the trial ends you may choose a paid subscription or continue with the limited free features.

6.2 Paid Subscriptions

  • Subscriptions are billed in advance on a monthly or yearly basis at the price shown at the time of purchase.
  • Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends.
  • Prices may change with at least 30 days' notice. A price change never applies to a period you have already paid for.

6.3 Purchases Through Apple or Google

If you subscribe inside the iOS or Android app, the purchase is made through Apple's App Store or Google Play and is subject to their terms:

  • Payment is charged to your App Store or Google Play account at confirmation of purchase.
  • Your subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period.
  • You can manage or cancel the subscription in your App Store or Google Play account settings. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.
  • Refunds for purchases made through Apple or Google are handled by Apple or Google under their refund policies. We cannot issue those refunds directly.

6.4 Purchases Through Our Website

If you subscribe on buoy-ai.com, payment is processed by Stripe, Inc. and you also agree to Stripe's terms of service. You can cancel at any time from the Billing page; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Refunds are provided at our discretion and in accordance with applicable law.

6.5 One Subscription Across Platforms

A subscription purchased on any platform applies to your Buoy Money account everywhere you sign in. You do not need to purchase separately on each platform.

6.6 Taxes

Prices are shown before any sales tax, VAT or similar tax unless the checkout page says otherwise. If a tax applies, it is added at checkout and you pay it.

6.7 Refunds

Charges are not refundable, except where the law requires a refund, where these Terms say so (for example the founding reservation in Section 9.9), or where we choose to give one. Removing a product from a Cloud plan does not earn a partial refund (Section 9.8).

7. AI FEATURES

7.1 AI-Generated Content

Buoy Money uses artificial intelligence to provide insights, categorizations, and recommendations. AI-generated content may not always be accurate or suitable for your situation.

7.2 Limitations

  • AI features are provided "as is" without guarantee of accuracy
  • Do not rely solely on AI suggestions for important financial decisions
  • We are not liable for actions taken based on AI recommendations
  • AI answers can be wrong, out of date or incomplete, and are not financial, tax, legal or investment advice

8. THE SELF-HOSTED EDITION

8.1 Open-source license

The self-hosted edition is released under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 only (AGPL-3.0-only), which is published with the software. That license, not these Terms, governs your copying, use, changes and sharing of the software. If these Terms and that license conflict about the software itself, the license controls. These Terms apply to the self-hosted edition only where you use it with BuoyAI Cloud, or use our names and logos.

8.2 Provided as is

The self-hosted edition is provided "as is", with no warranty of any kind, and we are not liable for it to the fullest extent the law and its license allow. Sections 14 and 15 apply.

8.3 Your server, your responsibility

When you self-host, you run the server. You are responsible for its hardware, network and operating system, for keeping it secure, for installing updates, for backing up your data, and for the people you let into it. We do not host, monitor or back up your self-hosted server.

8.4 We cannot see or recover your data

Your self-hosted data lives on your server. We cannot see it and cannot recover it. If you lose your server, your backups or your keys, your data may be gone for good.

9. BUOYAI CLOUD

BuoyAI Cloud is optional. The self-hosted edition works without it.

9.1 What Cloud includes

  • Bank sync. Delivers transactions from your bank logins, through Plaid, to your paired server. Three bank logins are included. You can buy extra bank logins, sold by quantity.
  • AI. AI features for your paired server, counted against a monthly allowance. You can turn on pay-as-you-go use above the allowance (Section 9.5).
  • Instant refresh (not available yet). When offered, lets you ask for fresh bank data on demand. Eight refreshes a month are included. Instant refresh needs Bank sync.
  • Push relay. A free service that lets a paired server send notifications to your phone. You do not need a paid plan to use it.

Cloud is bought with your Buoy Money account at buoy-ai.com. The products on sale and their prices are shown at checkout.

9.2 Pairing a server

To use Cloud with a self-hosted server, you pair that server with your account. You are responsible for every server you pair. You can revoke a server at any time. The account owner must confirm a newly paired server, and Cloud sends it no bank data until that is done. If you pair a server again after revoking it, delivery pauses for a short cooling-off period. We may refuse to serve a server that runs a software version with a known security problem, or that breaks these Terms.

9.3 Bank sync

You may connect only bank accounts that you own or are authorized to access. Cloud holds the Plaid access token for each bank login you connect, in encrypted form. When your server asks for new transactions, Cloud fetches them from Plaid, encrypts them so that only your server can open them, and sends them. Cloud does not store the transactions. Once your server has them, protecting them is your job (Section 8.3).

Bank data depends on Plaid and on your bank. It can be late, incomplete or interrupted, and Section 5.2 applies. Your plan has a limit on how many bank logins can sync. If you go over it, the newest logins stop syncing.

9.4 Instant refresh

Instant refresh is not available yet. When it becomes available, this section applies. Instant refresh includes 8 refreshes a month, and there are daily limits per bank login. When we turn on charging for extra refreshes, a refresh beyond your included 8 may be charged per refresh at the price shown to you, and your invoice will list it. Until then, refreshes beyond your included count may be refused.

9.5 AI

Cloud AI is counted against a monthly allowance. The meter counts money spent, not messages, so heavier requests use more of it. We send you a notice when you reach 80 percent of the allowance and again at 100 percent. At 100 percent, AI features pause until your next billing period, unless you have turned on pay-as-you-go.

Pay-as-you-go is off unless you turn it on. When you turn it on, you set a spending cap. AI use above your allowance, up to your cap, is charged to you and billed monthly in arrears. AI stops when the cap is reached. You can turn pay-as-you-go off at any time. It ends at the end of the current period, and use up to then is still billed.

Section 7 applies to Cloud AI. AI answers can be wrong.

9.6 Billing and renewal

  • Cloud products are on one subscription with one billing date and one interval, monthly or yearly. Payments are processed by Stripe, and you also agree to Stripe's terms.
  • The subscription renews automatically each month or year until you cancel.
  • You can cancel at any time. Cancelling takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for, and you keep your plan until then.
  • Adding a product, or raising a quantity, starts right away. The prorated amount for the rest of the period is charged on your next invoice. On a yearly plan, these charges are invoiced monthly.
  • Removing a product, or lowering a quantity, takes effect at the end of the period. Removing Bank sync also removes Instant refresh and extra bank logins.
  • If a payment fails, you need to fix it before you can change your plan.

9.7 Price changes

If we change a Cloud price, people who are already subscribed keep the price they pay now. If we ever need to change the price of an existing subscription, we will give at least 30 days' notice, and the change will not apply before your next renewal. New subscribers pay the price in effect when they buy.

9.8 When a plan ends

We do not give partial refunds for a product you remove or for the unused part of a period you paid for. When your Bank sync plan ends, or you revoke a server, bank sync stops. We remove the bank logins held for that server from Plaid 14 days later, unless you subscribe again or pair the server again before then. You can ask us to remove them sooner by emailing support@buoy-ai.com. Your self-hosted server keeps working and keeps the data it already has.

9.9 Founding prices and the $1 reservation

Founding prices are lower than the list price. You qualify for them if you hold a paid, not refunded $1 reservation under your verified email address. Founding spots are limited to the first 150 paid $1 reservations. Once they are taken we stop taking new reservations. If several people complete a reservation at the same moment as the last spot is taken, each of them keeps founding prices. The countdown on our site is for the launch of self-hosting. It does not mark when founding spots end. Once you buy at a founding price, your subscription stays on founding prices for the products you hold, including products you add later. If Plaid raises what it charges us per connected bank, we may pass that increase on to founding members at cost, with no markup, and with notice.

The $1 reservation comes off your first year. You can ask for it back at any time by emailing support@buoy-ai.com, and we will refund it. A refunded reservation no longer qualifies you for founding prices.

9.10 Acceptable use of Cloud

You agree not to:

  • resell Cloud, or share your access to it with people outside your household
  • connect bank accounts you are not authorized to access
  • get around rate limits, your allowance, your caps, or billing
  • send traffic that is abusive or meant to overload Cloud, or probe or scan Cloud without our written permission
  • pair servers on behalf of other people as a business

Cloud limits how often you can call it (for example, how many times a server can pull transactions in an hour). We may change those limits.

9.11 Suspension

We may suspend or end your use of Cloud if you do not pay, if you break these Terms, or if your use puts Cloud, Plaid or other users at risk. We may also turn parts of Cloud off at once if we need to protect it, for example during a security problem. If we stop offering a Cloud product altogether, we will tell you by email first.

9.12 Plaid

Bank sync uses Plaid. By connecting a bank through Cloud, you authorize Plaid to access your account and transaction data and you agree to Plaid's End User Privacy Policy.

10. FAMILY SHARING

10.1 Family Groups

Premium users may create family groups to share financial data with household members.

10.2 Consent and Responsibility

  • The family owner is responsible for inviting appropriate members
  • By joining a family group, members consent to sharing their financial data with other family members
  • Members may leave a family group at any time

11. ACCEPTABLE USE

You agree NOT to:

  • Use the Service for illegal purposes
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems
  • Interfere with the proper functioning of the Service
  • Use automated tools to scrape or collect data
  • Impersonate others or provide false information
  • Share your account credentials with others
  • Reverse engineer or attempt to extract source code

12. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

12.1 Our Rights

Buoy Money, including its design, features, and content, is owned by us and protected by intellectual property laws. You receive a limited, non-exclusive license to use the Service for personal, non-commercial purposes.

The software license for the self-hosted edition (Section 8.1) covers the code. It does not give you the right to use the Buoy Money name (formerly BuoyAI) or our logos.

12.2 Your Data

You retain ownership of your personal data. By using the Service, you grant us a license to use your data as necessary to provide the Service, as described in our Privacy Policy.

13. PRIVACY

Your privacy is important to us. Our collection and use of personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy.

14. DISCLAIMERS

14.1 "As Is" Service

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

14.2 No Guarantee

We do not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure. We are not responsible for losses resulting from service interruptions or data inaccuracies. This includes BuoyAI Cloud, which depends on Plaid, your bank, Stripe and other providers, and data that Cloud has delivered to a server you run.

15. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, BUOYAI AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR:

  • Indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages
  • Loss of profits, data, or goodwill
  • Damages exceeding the amount you paid us in the 12 months prior to the claim

16. INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless BuoyAI LLC, the operator of Buoy Money, and its affiliates from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses arising from your use of the Service or violation of these Terms.

17. CHANGES TO TERMS

We may modify these Terms at any time. We will notify you of material changes via email or in-app notification. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the new Terms.

18. DISPUTE RESOLUTION

18.1 Informal Resolution

Before filing a legal claim, you agree to contact us to attempt informal resolution.

18.2 Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Kansas, United States, without regard to conflict of law principles.

18.3 Jurisdiction

Any disputes shall be resolved in the courts located in Kansas, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in these courts.

19. GENERAL PROVISIONS

19.1 Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and BuoyAI LLC, the operator of Buoy Money.

19.2 Severability

If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.

19.3 Waiver

Failure to enforce any right does not constitute a waiver of that right.

19.4 Assignment

You may not assign your rights under these Terms. We may assign our rights at any time.

20. CONTACT US

For questions about these Terms, contact us at:

Email: contact@buoy-ai.com
Website: https://buoy-ai.com

By using Buoy Money, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service.