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Terms of Service

Last updated: October 7, 2026

Lanternaut is a sole-proprietor business operating under the brand name Lanternaut ("Lanternaut", "we", "us", "our"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") apply to your use of the Lanternaut website at https://lanternaut.com, our dashboard, our API, and related services (together, the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms.

1. Contact

For general, sales, and support questions, email [email protected].

2. The Service

Lanternaut is video and image hosting and streaming infrastructure for businesses and developers, provided as software as a service (SaaS). You upload your own videos and images through our API or web dashboard. We process and encode them, store them, and deliver them to your own viewers on your own websites and apps. You bring your own content; we do not provide content.

The Service includes:

  • Uploading videos and images through the API or dashboard.
  • Adaptive streaming (HLS) encoding up to 4K (2160p), or a lower-cost single-quality option.
  • Storage of your encoded videos and images, and delivery to your viewers.
  • Signed, expiring playback links and allowed-domain restrictions, to help stop others reusing your videos.
  • An embeddable video player, an API, and webhooks.
  • Captions through automatic transcription, as a paid add-on.

The Service is currently in beta. We may add, change, or improve features over time.

3. Accounts

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. The Service is intended for business and professional use.

You must give accurate account information and keep it up to date. Keep your password and API keys secret. API keys must only be used on your servers, never in public or client-side code. You are responsible for all activity on your account and for all use of your API keys. Tell us immediately at [email protected] if you believe your account or API keys have been used without permission.

4. Plans, pricing, and payment

Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders. Paddle provides all customer service inquiries and handles returns.

4.1 Prices and taxes

Current prices, plan allowances, and usage rates are shown at https://lanternaut.com/pricing. The price shown at the time of purchase applies.

Prices exclude taxes. Paddle adds any applicable sales tax or VAT at checkout.

4.2 Sandbox and production use

A paid plan is required for production use. The free sandbox is for testing only. Sandbox test clips can be up to 30 seconds long, are watermarked, and are automatically deleted after 24 hours. You may only have one sandbox account.

4.3 Subscriptions and cancellation

Plans are billed monthly and renew automatically each month until you cancel. You can cancel at any time. Your plan stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for, then stops renewing.

4.4 Storage

Each plan includes a storage allowance. When your storage is full, new uploads pause until you upgrade your plan or delete content. On the Scale and Enterprise plans, storage beyond your allowance is charged from your wallet daily. We never delete your content just because your account is over its storage allowance.

4.5 Delivery

Each plan includes a monthly delivery allowance, plus an extra 20% free on top of it. Delivery beyond that is charged from your wallet.

4.6 Encoding and captions

Each plan includes encoding minutes each month. Encoding beyond your included minutes, and captions, are charged from your wallet. Encoding is billed per second, with a 60-second minimum per video.

2K (1440p) and 4K (2160p) encoding are available where included in your plan. They are charged at 2× and 3× the standard encoding rate, and use included encoding minutes at the same multiples. You are only charged for the highest quality actually produced, and we never upscale a video above its original resolution.

4.7 Wallet credit

Your wallet holds prepaid credit for usage beyond your plan and for paid add-ons.

  • You can top up $10, $25, $50, $100, or any amount from $10.
  • Credit is valid for 12 months from your most recent top-up. Any new top-up renews your whole balance for another 12 months.
  • Credit is not cash. It cannot be transferred, earns no interest, and can only be used on Lanternaut.
  • If your wallet is empty, your videos keep playing. Delivery beyond your plan slows to 10% speed, and new encodes wait until you top up.

4.8 Failed payments

If a subscription payment fails, Paddle retries it. Your videos keep playing for 7 days after the failed payment. If the payment is still outstanding after 7 days, playback is suspended, but your content is kept and you can still log in and pay. If the account is still unpaid 60 days after the failed payment, its content is permanently deleted. Paying at any point before then restores full service. We send warning emails when the payment fails, when playback is suspended, and 7 days before deletion.

4.9 Price changes

We may change our prices. Existing subscribers receive at least 30 days' email notice before a price increase applies to them. New prices apply to new purchases from the time they are published.

4.10 Enterprise

Enterprise agreements, including annual terms, renewal, and refunds, are set out in the individual order form or agreement signed with that customer. Where an Enterprise agreement conflicts with these Terms, the Enterprise agreement applies.

5. Refunds

An unused top-up can be refunded within 14 days of purchase. Credit that has been spent cannot be refunded. Subscription payments are not refunded for partial months; cancelling stops future renewals. See our Refund Policy at https://lanternaut.com/refunds for how to request a refund.

Nothing in these Terms limits any rights you have under applicable consumer law or under Paddle's Buyer Terms.

6. Your content

You own the content you upload. You give us a limited, non-exclusive licence to store, copy, process, encode, and deliver your content only as needed to provide the Service to you. This licence ends when your content is deleted.

We do not sell your content, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models. Captions are generated within our own processing infrastructure, and we do not send your content to third-party AI services.

How long we keep your content:

  • Original uploaded files are deleted 7 days after encoding, unless you select "Keep original". Kept originals stay until you delete them.
  • Encoded videos and images are kept until you delete them or close your account, subject to the non-payment and termination rules in these Terms.
  • After you close your account, its content is deleted within 30 days.
  • Sandbox clips are deleted automatically after 24 hours.

You are responsible for keeping your own backup copies of your content. The Service is not a backup service.

7. Your responsibilities

You confirm that you have all the rights, licences, and permissions needed to upload your content and to let us provide the Service with it.

You are responsible for your viewers and for how you use the Service on your websites and apps. This includes giving your own viewers any privacy notices required by law. For personal data contained in your content, you are the controller and we process it on your behalf, as described in our Privacy Policy. A Data Processing Agreement is available on request at [email protected].

You must use the Service in line with all laws that apply to you.

8. Acceptable use

You must follow our Acceptable Use Policy at https://lanternaut.com/acceptable-use. In short: adult content is not allowed at all. Child sexual abuse material, and anything sexualising minors, has zero tolerance: we remove it immediately, terminate the account, and report it to the relevant authorities. You must not upload infringing or illegal content, or use the Service for abuse, fraud, or attacks.

Report abusive or illegal content to [email protected].

9. Copyright

Only upload content you have the rights to use. Rights holders can report infringement to [email protected]. We review notices, remove or disable access to infringing content, and notify the customer. Accounts with repeated valid complaints are terminated. Our Copyright and Takedown Policy at https://lanternaut.com/copyright explains how notices and counter-notices work.

10. Suspension and termination

We may remove content, or suspend or terminate your account, if you break these Terms or our Acceptable Use Policy, if required by law, or to protect the Service or other users. Where reasonable, we will tell you why. When content breaks our rules, the violating content is removed immediately. Any remaining content is deleted within 30 days after termination, except where we are legally required to keep it longer, for example preserving reported illegal content for the authorities. We do not give refunds when an account is terminated for breaking our rules, unless the law requires it.

Non-payment is handled as described in section 4.8.

You can close your account at any time from your dashboard or by emailing [email protected]. Closing your account is different from cancelling your plan: cancelling stops future renewals, while closing removes the account and deletes its content within 30 days.

11. Beta and service availability

The Service is in beta. It is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not guarantee any particular uptime. We make reasonable efforts to keep the Service running, and to tell customers in advance about planned maintenance that may affect it.

12. Disclaimer

To the extent permitted by law, we make no warranties about the Service beyond those stated in these Terms, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

13. Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or business opportunities. Our total liability for any claim related to the Service is limited to the amount you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the claim.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law.

14. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to cover us for any claims, losses, and costs (including reasonable legal fees) caused by your content, your use of the Service, or your breach of these Terms. This does not affect any mandatory consumer protection rights.

15. Changes to the Service and to these Terms

We may update the Service and these Terms. We announce material changes to these Terms by email at least 30 days before they take effect. If you keep using the Service after a change takes effect, the updated Terms apply. If you do not agree, you can cancel your plan or close your account.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which Lanternaut's operator is established, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before starting any formal dispute, contact [email protected] so we can try to resolve it informally. Nothing in these Terms removes mandatory consumer protection rights you have under the laws of the country where you live.

17. General

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, Refund Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, and Copyright and Takedown Policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service. If any part of these Terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a right straight away, we have not given it up. You may not transfer your account or these Terms to someone else without our written permission.

18. Contact