Terms of Service

Last modified: 21 April 2026

These terms govern your use of PRIVATEBYTE services. By creating an account, purchasing a service, or using anything we provide, you agree to be bound by this document. If you do not agree, do not use our services.

We have tried to write these terms as plainly as possible. If anything is unclear, email us at [email protected] and we will explain.

1. About these terms

• Parties. "PRIVATEBYTE", "we", "us" and "our" mean PRIVATEBYTE, a company registered in England and Wales with its registered office at 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom. "You" means the individual or organisation holding a PRIVATEBYTE account.
• Scope. These terms apply to all our services: virtual private servers (VPS), OpenClaw AI-agent hosting, residential and datacentre proxy services, any paid add-ons, and our client portal, management tools, and Telegram bot.
• Related documents. These terms must be read together with our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Refund Policy, and Service Level Agreement. Where those documents set specific terms that conflict with this one, the specific document prevails for its subject matter.
• Order of precedence. If terms conflict, the order is: (1) a bespoke written agreement signed by both parties, (2) this document, (3) the supporting policies listed above, (4) any information on our public website.

2. Our services

We currently provide the following categories of service. Specific features, pricing, and limits are described on each product's page in the client portal at the time of purchase.

2.1 Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

Linux and Windows cloud servers on shared compute infrastructure. Each VPS is provisioned on a plan (Flare, Orbit, Comet, Pulsar, Quasar, Nebula) with specified CPU, RAM, storage, and bandwidth allocations.

2.2 OpenClaw

Hosted environments purpose-built for running AI agents, with dedicated compute and optional add-ons such as AI credits, web-scraping quotas, and agent email.

2.3 Proxy services

Residential and datacentre proxy services on a balance-based billing model. Customers load credit and spend it as bandwidth is consumed, selecting the exit network per request.

2.4 Add-ons

Additional services such as extra IPv4 addresses, the Cross-Node VM Backup service, managed support, and others described in the portal.

We reserve the right to introduce new services, modify existing ones, retire products with notice, and change prices. Where we change prices on an active service you hold, we give you at least 30 days' notice before the next renewal and you can cancel before the change takes effect.

3. Your account

• You must be at least 18 years old to hold a PRIVATEBYTE account.
• You must provide accurate information at signup and keep it up to date.
• Every account has a primary account holder — either an individual or a legal entity (company, partnership, or similar) — who is contractually responsible to us for everything that happens on the account.
• You are responsible for keeping account credentials, API keys, tokens, and SSH keys private and for everything that happens on your account, whether or not you authorised it, except where the activity results from our breach of security.
• Contacts and shared access. You may add contacts to your account for billing, technical, and support correspondence, and — where team or multi-user features are enabled on your plan — invite additional users with defined roles and permissions. Contacts and invited users act under the authority of the primary account holder, who remains responsible for their actions on the account.
• No resale without agreement. You must not resell access to your account, offer sub-hosting or white-labelled services, or otherwise monetise access to our services as a reseller without a separate written reseller agreement with us. Use by your own staff, contractors, or team members is not resale.

4. Acceptable use

Your use of our services must comply in full with our Acceptable Use Policy, which is incorporated into these terms by reference. Highlights that frequently catch people out:

• Port 25 (outbound SMTP) is restricted by default on all VPS and OpenClaw services. If you need to send email from your server, request an unlock through the portal — we will review your use case, DNS, and domain reputation.
• Cryptocurrency mining is not permitted on VPS or OpenClaw plans. Mining is permitted on dedicated servers.
• Proxy services must not be used for ad fraud, click fraud, evading content platform bans for TOS-violating activity, scraping content behind authentication walls in violation of the source site's terms, or any automated harassment.
• The AUP also prohibits spam, malware hosting, phishing, child-exploitation content, violent-extremist content, and any other use unlawful under UK or applicable local law.

If we reasonably believe you are in breach of the AUP, we may suspend or terminate your services without notice (see Section 9).

5. Billing and payment

• Services are charged either monthly in advance or annually in advance at your chosen cycle, except for balance-based services (such as proxies) which deduct from a pre-loaded balance as you consume them.
• Invoices are issued automatically by our billing system. Payment is due on the invoice date.
• We accept card payments and cryptocurrency payments. Crypto payments are final once settled on-chain; overpayments are credited to your account balance.
• Failed auto-payments will be retried automatically. If payment is not received within 5 days of the due date, services may be suspended. Data is preserved during suspension.
• All prices are quoted exclusive of VAT unless stated. VAT is added at the applicable UK rate where required.
• Currency: invoices are issued in USD ($) by default; GBP (£) invoicing is available on request.
• You can view invoices, billing history, and manage payment methods at my.privatebyte.com/billing.

6. Green Credits program

Green Credits is a feature that rewards you for leaving eligible services powered off — reducing our energy footprint and passing part of the saving back to you.

• Earning. When you stop an eligible VPS or OpenClaw instance for more than one continuous hour, credit accrues at a pro-rated rate against that service's plan price, capped at 50% of the monthly plan value per billing cycle.
• Redemption. Credits apply automatically to your next invoice. You do not need to do anything.
• Non-withdrawable. Green Credits cannot be withdrawn to cash, crypto, or any external wallet. They can only offset invoices on your PRIVATEBYTE account.
• Non-transferable. Credits are specific to the account that earned them.
• Reversal on refund. If you refund a service that generated Green Credits, the credits earned from that service are reversed. See the Refund Policy for detail.
• Abuse. Manipulating stop/start patterns to inflate credit earnings — for example, automation that repeatedly starts and stops a VM — is a breach of these terms and may result in credit clawback and account suspension.

7. Service level

Our commitments on uptime, support response, and scheduled maintenance are set out in the Service Level Agreement. Summary:

• Network and infrastructure uptime: 99.95% measured monthly, excluding scheduled maintenance and customer-caused downtime.
• Support response targets: P1 (service down) within 1 hour, P2 (severe degradation) within 4 hours, P3 (general support) next business day.
• Downtime remedies are provided as account credit, calculated per the SLA, applied automatically once an incident is formally closed.

8. Cross-Node VM Backup

Cross-Node VM Backup is included on all VPS plans at no additional cost.

• We take automated snapshots of your VM's primary disk on a rolling 7-day schedule and replicate them to a geographically separate node.
• Backups are provided best-effort and are not a substitute for your own backup strategy. You remain responsible for backing up critical data outside our infrastructure.
• Backups are retained for 7 days unless you pay for an extended retention add-on.
• On service cancellation or termination, backups are retained for 7 days as a recovery grace window, then permanently deleted.

9. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate any or all of your services without notice if any of the following is true:

• you are materially in breach of these terms or the AUP
• your services are being used to harm or threaten the security, availability, or integrity of other PRIVATEBYTE customers, staff, or infrastructure
• a competent authority (UK or relevant overseas law enforcement, a court, or a regulator with jurisdiction over us) requires us to
• payment on your account is more than 14 days overdue and has not been paid after reasonable reminders
• you become insolvent, enter administration, or file for bankruptcy

Where circumstances reasonably allow, we will notify you before suspension and give you an opportunity to cure the issue. In some cases — ongoing abuse, active attack, legal order — we are obliged to act without notice.

Suspension preserves your data. Termination for cause may include deletion of data and resources. Where we terminate without cause, we give you at least 30 days' notice and provide a reasonable window to migrate data off.

10. Cancellation and refunds

• You can cancel any service from the client portal at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period unless you select immediate cancellation.
• We offer a 7-day money-back guarantee on first-time purchases of new VPS and OpenClaw services, subject to our Refund Policy.
• Crypto payments can be refunded in the original cryptocurrency at the exchange rate on the day of refund, with network/gas fees deducted from the refund amount. Alternatively, we will refund to your account balance as credit with no fees.
• Green Credits earned from a refunded service are reversed as part of the refund calculation. See the Refund Policy for examples.
• Balance-based services (proxies, AI credits) are refundable in proportion to unused balance at our discretion.

11. Data and privacy

Our handling of your personal data is governed by our Privacy Policy. Summary:

• We do not inspect the content of your VMs, your proxy traffic, or your OpenClaw agents.
• Personal data you give us during signup and billing is processed under UK-GDPR.
• On account closure we delete your personal data and retain only pseudonymised transaction records for 6 years as required by UK tax law.

12. Content and intellectual property

• Your content. You own everything you store on, process through, or create using our services. We do not claim any ownership, licence, or right to use your content beyond what is strictly necessary to operate the service you have bought (for example, transferring packets across our network).
• Our platform. Our software, dashboards, APIs, documentation, brand, trademarks, and designs remain our exclusive property. We grant you a revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use them for the purpose of using the services during your subscription.
• Feedback. If you send us suggestions or feature requests, we may use them without obligation or compensation to you.

13. Third-party technologies

Some features rely on third-party technologies, platforms, or networks we integrate with (such as the Telegram bot, upstream proxy networks we relay through, or payment processors). Your use of those integrated third-party services is also subject to their own terms. We are not responsible for the availability, security, or behaviour of third-party systems beyond our reasonable control.

14. Your indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold PRIVATEBYTE, our directors, employees, and contractors harmless against any claim, loss, liability, damage, and reasonable legal cost arising from:

• your use of our services in breach of these terms, the AUP, or any applicable law
• content you publish, transmit, or store on or through our services
• any third-party claim that your use of our services infringes their rights

This indemnity survives termination of these terms.

15. Our liability

• We provide services on an "as is" and "as available" basis and make no warranties beyond those set out in these terms and the SLA.
• To the maximum extent permitted by English law, we exclude implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
• Our total aggregate liability to you under or in connection with these terms — whether in contract, tort (including negligence), misrepresentation, or otherwise — is capped at the greater of (a) £100 or (b) the total fees you paid us in the three months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.
• We are not liable for indirect, consequential, special, or incidental damages, including loss of profits, loss of business, loss of goodwill, loss of data, or interruption of business.
• Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded under English law.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. For material changes, we give at least 14 days' notice by email to the address on your account before the change takes effect. Non-material changes (typos, clarifications, structural re-ordering) may be made without notice. The "last modified" date at the top of this page always reflects the most recent version. Previous versions are available on request.

If you do not accept a material change, you may cancel your affected services before the change takes effect and request a pro-rated refund of any pre-paid fees for the period after termination.

17. Force majeure

Neither party is liable for failure or delay in performing these terms where caused by events beyond reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, pandemic, government action, upstream network failures, cable cuts, fire, or sustained infrastructure outage at a third-party dependency. We will use reasonable efforts to mitigate and resume service as quickly as practicable.

18. Governing law and disputes

• These terms and any dispute arising from them are governed by the laws of England and Wales.
• The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that we may bring proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights or our right to payment in any competent jurisdiction.
• Before issuing proceedings, both parties agree to attempt in good faith to resolve disputes by escalation between designated representatives for at least 30 days.

19. General

• Entire agreement. These terms together with the referenced policies are the entire agreement between you and us and replace any prior understanding on the same subject.
• No partnership. Nothing in these terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship.
• Assignment. You may not assign these terms without our written consent. We may assign them to a successor in a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all our assets.
• No waiver. Failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of that provision or any other.
• Severability. If any part of these terms is held unenforceable, the rest remain in effect.
• Notices. Notices to you will be sent to the email on your account. Notices to us must be sent to [email protected] and copied by post to 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom.

20. Contact

• Support: [email protected]
• Privacy: [email protected]
• Post: PRIVATEBYTE, 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom