Terms of Use

Effective: 1 April 2026 | Version: 1.0

These terms are a contract between you and Onsen AI Limited. We've written them in plain language because we think you should actually be able to read and understand them.

By creating an account or using Onsen, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the app. When we say "Onsen" in these terms, we mean the Onsen app, website, and any related services we provide.

The important bits: Onsen is not therapy. You own your content. We do not sell your personal data. You can delete everything at any time.

What Onsen is (and isn't)

This is the most important section, so we're putting it first.

Onsen is an AI-powered wellbeing companion. It's designed to support your everyday mental health through journaling, AI conversations, guided experiences, mood tracking, mindfulness exercises, and other features we may introduce over time. It can be a genuinely helpful tool for self-reflection and emotional awareness.

But Onsen is not:

A therapist, counsellor, or healthcare provider
A substitute for professional medical or mental health treatment
A crisis service or emergency resource
A diagnostic tool — it cannot diagnose or treat any condition

No healthcare provider-patient relationship is created by using Onsen. If you are struggling with serious mental health concerns, please work with a qualified professional. Onsen works best alongside professional care, not instead of it.

If you're in crisis or immediate danger, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline:

UK: Call 999 or Samaritans at 116 123
US: Call 911 or the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
Anywhere: https://findahelpline.com/i/iasp

AI limitations

Onsen's AI generates responses based on what you share and the context of your conversation. It can be insightful and supportive, but it is not perfect. AI responses may sometimes be:

Inaccurate or factually wrong
Incomplete or missing important context
Inappropriate for your specific situation

Always use your own judgement, especially for important decisions about your health, relationships, finances, or anything else that matters. The AI is a thinking partner, not an authority.

The AI is genuinely helpful for everyday reflection, but it's software, not a professional. Treat its responses as food for thought, not as advice to follow blindly.

Your account

To use Onsen, you need to create an account. Here's what that involves:

You must be at least 18 years old
You can sign up with your email, Google account, Apple ID, or other sign-in methods we may offer
You need to provide accurate information (your name, email, and date of birth)
You're responsible for keeping your login credentials secure
One account per person — don't create multiple accounts

If we find that you've provided false information (especially about your age), or that your account is being used in a way that violates these terms, we may suspend or close it.

Keep your login details safe. If you think someone else has accessed your account, change your password immediately and email support@onsenapp.com.

Your content

When you use Onsen, you create content — chat messages, freeform journal entries, and voice input (which is transcribed and immediately discarded). This is your content. You own it.

Onsen's AI also generates a lot of content based on what you share — AI responses, journal entries written from your conversations, images, mood analysis, themes, summaries, and knowledge items. Most of what you see in Onsen is actually created by the AI, not typed by you.

We assign to you all of our right, title, and interest, if any, in AI-generated content created for your account. To the extent AI-generated content (like mood analysis, themes, summaries, and artwork) is created by software, it may not be eligible for copyright protection in all jurisdictions. Your own writing — journal entries, chat messages, and voice input — remains your copyrighted work.

Regardless of who created it, here's what matters:

It's all private to you. No one else can see it.
It's all deleted when you leave. Delete your content or your account, and it's gone within 30 days.
We do not sell your personal data. We do not share identifiable content with third parties beyond what's needed to run the service.

By using Onsen, you grant us a license to process, store, and transmit all of this content to provide and operate the service. This includes sending it to AI providers (OpenAI, Google) to generate responses, insights, and images, and extracting themes, moods, and patterns to personalise your experience.

You also agree that we may use anonymised and de-identified data derived from your use of Onsen to improve, develop, and enhance our products, services, and AI systems. This may include using anonymised data to train and improve our own AI models, conduct research, develop new features, and improve the quality of AI responses. When we do this, your data is stripped of anything that could identify you. Anonymised data may be retained after you delete your account, because it is no longer linked to you.

Your content is private, deleted when you ask, and we do not sell your personal data. We use anonymised data to make Onsen better — but nothing identifiable leaves your account.

AI features and limitations

Onsen uses AI from third-party providers (currently OpenAI and Google Gemini, though we may add or change providers over time) to power conversations, journaling, guided experiences, notifications, insights, and other features. Here's what you should know:

AI responses are generated by software, not written by humans
The AI adapts to what you share over time, drawing on your journal entries and conversation history to personalise responses
Under the API terms of our current AI providers, your data is not used to train their models. Your data may be retained by these providers for up to 30 days for safety and abuse monitoring, after which it is deleted. We will maintain equivalent protections if we change providers.
We log prompts and responses to debug issues and improve the service. These logs are deleted when you delete your account.

Safety system

Onsen runs an automated safety system that checks messages for signs of self-harm, violence, or other serious concerns. If triggered, the AI responds with a supportive safety message — including crisis resources — instead of a normal response. Flagged content may be reviewed by our team to protect users at risk.

The safety system is there to help, not to judge. But it is not a substitute for professional crisis support. If you are in danger, please contact emergency services.

We'd rather the safety system activate once too often than miss someone who needs help.

Plans and pricing

Onsen is currently free during our Early Supporter period. Every user has full Premium access at no cost. There is no trial, no payment required, and no credit card needed.

This will change in the future. We may introduce free and paid plans, change what features are included in each plan, offer trials, add-ons, or other ways to access the service. When we do:

We will notify you in advance via the app and email
Subscriptions will be managed through the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android)
You will need to actively choose to subscribe — nothing happens automatically
You can cancel anytime from your device's subscription settings
Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period

When we introduce paid plans, you will have a 14-day cooling-off period as required by UK consumer protection law. If you change your mind within 14 days of subscribing, you can cancel for a full refund.

We reserve the right to change pricing, plan structures, features included in each plan, and usage limits at any time with reasonable notice. Free features may become paid, and paid features may change between plans.

Right now, everything is free. You will never be charged without actively choosing to subscribe. If pricing or plans change, we'll let you know in advance.

Usage limits

All plans have usage limits which may apply across messages, voice input, read aloud, images, AI insights, and other features we may introduce. These limits operate on rolling time windows and reset automatically. Hitting a limit temporarily pauses that specific action — everything else in the app continues to work.

We may adjust usage limits, add new types of limits, change the actions that are limited, and modify reset windows at any time. You can check your current usage in Settings > Usage.

Acceptable use

Onsen is a personal wellbeing tool. When you use it, you agree not to:

Misuse the service:

Use Onsen for purposes unrelated to personal wellbeing — it's not a general-purpose AI tool, coding assistant, or content generator
Use Onsen to harm, harass, abuse, or threaten anyone
Share content that promotes violence, self-harm methods, or illegal activity
Use Onsen to generate content that is hateful, discriminatory, or sexually explicit
Attempt to manipulate or "jailbreak" the AI to bypass its safety guidelines
Rely on Onsen as a substitute for professional medical, legal, or financial advice
Use Onsen on behalf of someone else without their knowledge

Compromise security:

Attempt to access other users' accounts or data
Reverse engineer, decompile, or extract the app's source code
Use automated tools, bots, or scrapers to access the service
Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the service
Interfere with or disrupt the service's infrastructure

Game the system:

Circumvent usage limits or safety systems
Create multiple accounts to evade restrictions or abuse free access
Misrepresent your identity or age
Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit access to Onsen
Use Onsen for any illegal purpose

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules, with or without notice depending on the severity.

Termination

You can leave at any time

You can delete your account whenever you want from Settings > Data & Privacy in the app. When you do:

Your access stops immediately
Your login identity is deleted immediately
All your personal data is erased within 30 days

This is permanent and irreversible.

We can terminate accounts

We may suspend or terminate your account if:

You violate these terms
Your use of the service poses a safety risk to yourself or others
We are required to do so by law
We discontinue the service or any part of it

Where possible, we will give you notice before terminating your account. If we terminate your account, the same deletion process applies — your data is erased within 30 days.

You're always free to leave. Delete your account in Settings and everything is erased within 30 days.

Disclaimers

Onsen is provided "as is" and "as available." We work hard to make it reliable and useful, but we can't guarantee that:

The service will always be available or uninterrupted
AI responses will be accurate, complete, or appropriate for your situation
The service will meet your specific needs or expectations
Any particular health or wellbeing outcome will result from using Onsen

We do not provide medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment recommendations. Nothing in the app should be interpreted as such.

Limitation of liability

Onsen is a wellbeing tool, not a medical service. Because of the nature of what we provide — AI-generated responses, insights, and guided experiences — we need to be clear about the limits of our responsibility.

What our liability is capped at: If something goes wrong with the service, the most we can be held liable for is the greater of (a) what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or (b) £100.

What we're not liable for: We are not liable for indirect or consequential damages — meaning things that happen as a result of using Onsen, rather than the service itself. For example, if you make a decision based on something the AI said and it doesn't work out, that's not something we can be held responsible for. This includes loss of data, loss of profits, or emotional distress.

What we can never exclude: English law does not allow us to limit liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for any other liability that the law says cannot be excluded. We don't try to. Your statutory rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 are fully preserved.

We stand behind Onsen, but it's a tool for self-reflection, not a guarantee of any particular outcome. Our liability is limited to what the law allows — and your consumer rights are always protected.

If Onsen is acquired

If Onsen AI Limited is acquired, merged, or sold, your account and data may be transferred to the new owner as part of that transaction. We will notify you via the app and email before any transfer. The new owner will be bound by these terms until they are updated through the normal process described below.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. If we make significant changes, we will:

Display a notice in the Onsen app
Send an email to the address on your account

Your continued use of Onsen after changes are published means you accept the updated terms. If you disagree with a change, you can delete your account at any time.

You can see a full history of changes on our changelog.

You won't miss important changes — we'll notify you in the app and by email.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes will be handled by the courts of England and Wales.

If you have a complaint, please contact us first at support@onsenapp.com so we can try to resolve it. If we cannot resolve it to your satisfaction, you may be able to use an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service. We are not obliged to participate in ADR, but we will let you know if a relevant ADR scheme is available.

Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

Contact us

General support: support@onsenapp.com

Privacy enquiries: privacy@onsenapp.com

Mail: Onsen AI Limited 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden London, WC2H 9JQ United Kingdom

Onsen AI Limited is a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15735784).

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