Legal

Terms of Service

Effective date: May 8, 2026 · Last updated: May 8, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a legally binding agreement between you and PupGut ("PupGut," "we," "us," or "our"), governing your use of the PupGut mobile application and the website at pupgut.app (together, the "Service"). By creating an account, downloading the app, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

Important highlights PupGut is a wellness tool, not a veterinary diagnostic device. The Service includes a binding individual arbitration clause and class-action waiver (Section 17). If you subscribe through the App Store, your subscription auto-renews unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; you can manage subscriptions in your Apple ID Account Settings.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority where you live) to use the Service. By using the Service you represent that you meet this requirement and that you have the right to authorize the analysis of any photos you submit. The Service is intended for personal, non-commercial use by dog owners and caregivers.

2. Your account

You can create an account using a one-time email link, Sign in with Apple, or Sign in with Google. You're responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for activity that occurs under your account. Notify us promptly at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorized use.

3. The Service

PupGut lets you photograph your dog's stool to receive AI-generated wellness scores (e.g., Bristol-style consistency, color, hydration estimates), track those scores over time, and optionally share content in an in-app community feed. We may add, change, or discontinue features at any time, and we may impose reasonable usage limits to protect Service quality.

4. Medical disclaimer — not veterinary advice

PupGut is not a substitute for professional veterinary care. The Service is a wellness-tracking tool, not a diagnostic device or medical service. It provides general wellness information based on automated image analysis and is intended for informational and educational purposes only. PupGut does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, condition, illness, or injury. The scores, suggestions, and content in the Service are not veterinary advice and are not a substitute for an examination, diagnosis, or treatment plan from a licensed veterinarian who has examined your dog.

4.1 No veterinarian-client-patient relationship

Your use of the Service does not create a veterinarian-client-patient relationship between you (or your dog) and PupGut or any of its employees, contractors, or affiliates. PupGut does not employ licensed veterinarians, and no one at PupGut has examined your dog. Communications you send to us (including support emails, scan submissions, and community posts) are not protected by veterinarian-client privilege.

4.2 AI analysis is fallible

The Service uses automated image analysis powered by artificial-intelligence models. AI outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or unsuitable for any particular situation. You should not make medical, dietary, or treatment decisions for your dog based solely on a PupGut score, insight, or community post. Always confirm with a licensed veterinarian before acting on anything you see in the Service.

4.3 Emergencies — call your vet, not PupGut

If your dog is showing signs of an emergency — including but not limited to bloody, black, or tarry stool; repeated vomiting; severe or persistent diarrhea; lethargy; collapse; refusal to eat or drink for more than 24 hours; abdominal swelling or pain; suspected ingestion of a toxic substance, foreign object, or human food known to be toxic to dogs; or any sudden, severe behavioral change — stop using PupGut and contact a licensed veterinarian or an animal-emergency service immediately. In the United States you may also call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at 1-888-426-4435 (a fee may apply) for poison-related emergencies. Do not delay or disregard professional veterinary advice because of anything you saw, read, or did not see in the Service.

4.4 Your responsibility and assumption of risk

You are solely responsible for your dog's care, including all decisions about diet, exercise, medication, supplements, and veterinary treatment. By using the Service you assume all risk arising from your reliance on its outputs and acknowledge that you understand the limitations described in this Section 4. PupGut and its affiliates will not be liable for any harm to your dog, veterinary expenses, or other losses resulting from your use of, or reliance on, the Service, except as provided in Section 15 (Limitation of liability).

5. Subscriptions and payments

5.1 In-app purchases via Apple

Paid subscriptions are sold through the Apple App Store. The current title, length, content, and price of each subscription are shown in the app and on the App Store at the point of purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase.

5.2 Auto-renewal

Subscriptions automatically renew for the same period at the then-current price unless auto-renewal is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your Apple ID will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscription in Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions on your Apple device.

5.3 Free trials

If a free trial is offered, any unused portion is forfeited when you start a paid subscription. Trials may be available only to first-time subscribers and can be modified or withdrawn at our discretion.

5.4 Refunds

All purchases are final and non-refundable except where required by law. Apple is the merchant of record for App Store purchases; refund requests must be submitted to Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.

5.5 Price changes

We may change subscription prices for future billing periods. We will notify you in advance, and where required by the App Store, your continued subscription after the change requires your express consent.

6. License to use the app

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to install and use the PupGut app on devices you own or control, solely for your personal use.

6.1 Apple App Store EULA

These Terms incorporate Apple's Standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement ("Apple EULA"). You acknowledge that:

These Terms are between you and PupGut, not Apple, and PupGut (not Apple) is solely responsible for the app and its content.
The license granted is limited to use on Apple-branded devices that you own or control, as permitted by the Apple Media Services Terms.
Apple has no obligation to furnish maintenance and support services for the app.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no warranty obligation for the app, and any claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, or expenses attributable to a failure to conform to any warranty are PupGut's responsibility.
PupGut is responsible for addressing any product-liability, intellectual-property, or third-party claims relating to the app, subject to these Terms.
Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.
You represent that you are not in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

Use the Service for anything other than monitoring the wellness of dogs in your care.
Submit photos that are not of canine stool, or content that is illegal, obscene, harassing, hateful, or that infringes another person's rights.
Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the app, except as permitted by law.
Use bots, scrapers, or automated tools to access the Service or circumvent rate limits.
Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Service.
Use the Service to make veterinary diagnoses for third parties or to provide professional services to others.
Interfere with the Service's security or attempt to access another user's account.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules.

8. User content and AI training license

"User Content" means anything you submit through the Service — including stool scan photos, dog profile information, notes, posts, comments, ratings, and similar materials. You retain ownership of your User Content.

By submitting User Content, you grant PupGut and its affiliates a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable (subject to your statutory rights described in our Privacy Policy), royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, reproduce, process, modify, create derivative works from, publicly display (where you have made content public, e.g., in the community feed), and otherwise use Your User Content for the purposes of operating, maintaining, securing, promoting, and improving the Service — including, without limitation, training, fine-tuning, evaluating, benchmarking, and deploying PupGut's own and third-party AI models, classifiers, embeddings, and related machine-learning systems, and creating reference and benchmark datasets used internally for those purposes.

You represent that you have the rights to grant this license and that your User Content does not violate any law or third-party right.

We do not pre-screen content but may remove or moderate content that violates these Terms. Zero tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users: you can report content or block users in the app, and we will review reports within 24 hours and remove violating content or terminate offending accounts as appropriate.

9. AI outputs

The Service uses third-party AI models to analyze photos. AI outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable for any particular purpose. You should not rely on AI outputs as the sole basis for any decision affecting your dog's health. Do not submit photos that contain identifiable people, sensitive documents, or other content not required for stool analysis.

10. Intellectual property

The Service, including the PupGut name, logo, software, design, copy, and trained models, is owned by PupGut or its licensors and is protected by intellectual-property laws. Except for the limited license in Section 6, no rights are granted to you. Feedback you provide is non-confidential and may be used by us without restriction.

11. Copyright and DMCA notice

We respect intellectual-property rights and respond to valid notices under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). If you believe content on PupGut infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our designated agent at [email protected] with the subject "DMCA Notice" and including:

Your physical or electronic signature.
Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed.
Identification of the material to be removed and information reasonably sufficient to locate it (e.g., a link or screenshot from the in-app feed).
Your contact information (address, telephone, email).
A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf.

We will remove material that is the subject of a valid notice and may, in appropriate cases, terminate accounts of repeat infringers. If you believe your content was removed in error, you may submit a counter-notice to the same address. Sending a knowingly false notice or counter-notice may subject you to liability.

12. Third-party services

The Service relies on third-party providers (Apple, Google, Supabase, Anthropic, RevenueCat, Cloudflare, Resend). Their services are governed by their own terms; we are not responsible for their acts or omissions.

13. Termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time from Settings → Account → Delete Account in the app. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately, with or without notice, if we believe you have violated these Terms, if required by law, or to protect users or the integrity of the Service. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including 4, 8 (license to user content already posted), 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 — will survive.

14. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR THAT AI OUTPUTS WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THIS EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

15. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, PUPGUT AND ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AND LICENSORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, VETERINARY EXPENSES, OR HARM TO YOUR DOG, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICE, REGARDLESS OF THE LEGAL THEORY AND EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. PUPGUT'S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS IN ANY 12-MONTH PERIOD WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THAT PERIOD OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS, SO THESE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

16. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless PupGut and its affiliates from any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (a) your use of the Service, (b) your violation of these Terms, (c) your User Content, or (d) your violation of any law or third-party right.

17. Governing law and dispute resolution

17.1 Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

17.2 Informal resolution

Before bringing a formal claim, please email [email protected] with a description of the dispute. We will try to resolve it informally within 30 days.

17.3 Binding individual arbitration

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that is not resolved informally shall be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, in Sheridan, Wyoming, or — at your election if you reside in the U.S. — in the county where you live or by video. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

17.4 Class-action waiver

You and PupGut agree that disputes will be brought in an individual capacity only and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of representative proceeding.

17.5 Exceptions

Either party may bring an individual action in small-claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court for infringement or misuse of intellectual property.

17.6 Opt-out

You may opt out of arbitration and the class-action waiver by emailing [email protected] within 30 days of first accepting these Terms with the subject "Arbitration Opt-Out."

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes we'll notify you in-app, by email, or by updating the "Last updated" date. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using the Service.

19. Miscellaneous

Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and PupGut regarding the Service.
Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
Notices. We may give notice via the email associated with your account or by in-app message.
Force majeure. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
Export controls. You agree to comply with all applicable U.S. and international export laws.

20. Contact us

PupGut
Attn: Legal
Email: [email protected]