Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what these Terms cover

Umami Guru ("Umami Guru", "we", "us") operates the cooking platform available at https://umami.guru and the Umami Guru mobile application (together, the "Service"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and us and govern your use of the Service, including any paid plan you purchase.

By creating an account, using the Service, or completing a purchase, you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service.

Our Privacy Policy and Refund Policy are part of these Terms.

2. The Service

Umami Guru provides recipes with step-by-step photography, cooking guidance, and AI-assisted cooking tools. All recipes on the Service are free to read. Paid plans unlock optional features described on our Pricing page and in section 5.

We develop the Service continuously. We may add, change, or discontinue features. If we discontinue a feature that is material to a paid plan you are on, you may cancel and request a pro-rated refund of the unused portion under our Refund Policy.

3. Your account

You need an account to save progress, upload photos, or use paid features. You sign in through Google or Apple; we never receive or store your password.

You are responsible for activity that happens under your account. Tell us promptly at umami.guru@outlook.com if you believe someone else is using it.

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. The Service is not directed at children.

You may delete your account at any time from your profile, or by writing to us.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Copy, scrape, republish, resell, or redistribute our recipes, text, or photography, in whole or in part, whether manually or by automated means.
• Use the Service or its content to train, fine-tune, or evaluate a machine learning model.
• Share your account credentials or paid access with other people.
• Circumvent, disable, or interfere with any technical measure that limits access, meters usage, or serves advertising.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service, other users’ accounts, or our infrastructure.
• Upload content that is unlawful, infringing, hateful, sexually explicit, or that depicts anything other than food you prepared.
• Use automated systems to place unreasonable load on the Service.

We may suspend or terminate access that breaches this section. Where the breach is serious or repeated, we may do so without prior notice and without refund.

5. Paid plans, billing and auto-renewal

Current prices are shown on our Pricing page. We offer:

• Umami Guru Premium — Monthly: a subscription billed every month until cancelled.
• Umami Guru Premium — Annual: a subscription billed every twelve months until cancelled.
• Umami Guru Lifetime — Ad-Free: a single, one-time payment. Not a subscription and never renews.

Auto-renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period at the then-current price, unless you cancel before the renewal date. You can cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for, and you keep access until then.

Free trial. Where a free trial is offered, we will charge the first payment automatically at the end of the trial unless you cancel before it ends.

Payment processing. Purchases made on our website are processed by Lemon Squeezy, which acts as the merchant of record and seller of record. Lemon Squeezy handles payment, invoicing, and applicable sales tax or VAT. Your purchase is therefore also subject to Lemon Squeezy’s terms. We never receive or store your card details. Purchases made inside our iOS application are processed by Apple and are subject to Apple’s terms.

Price changes. We may change prices. For subscriptions, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice by email before a change applies to your renewal, and you may cancel before it takes effect. A price change never affects a Lifetime purchase already made.

Refunds. See our Refund Policy.

6. What "Lifetime" means

"Lifetime" means the plan does not expire and is never billed again. It grants permanent, ad-free access to the recipe library, including recipes we publish later, for as long as the Service operates.

It does not include the unlimited AI assistant. The AI features run on a metered third-party service with a real per-use cost, so they remain part of the Premium subscription. Lifetime customers keep the same free monthly AI allowance as everyone else.

If we ever cease to operate the Service entirely, we will give Lifetime customers at least 90 days' notice and make the recipes you have access to available for export.

7. AI features — important limitations

Parts of the Service use large language models to suggest ingredient substitutions, build shopping lists, and answer questions while you cook. These outputs are generated automatically and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable for your situation.

• AI output is not professional dietary, nutritional, or medical advice.
• Do not rely on AI output for allergen information. If you have a food allergy or intolerance, always verify ingredients yourself against the product packaging.
• Always follow safe food-handling practice, including safe cooking temperatures and storage times, regardless of what the Service suggests.
• Nutritional values shown on the Service are estimates.

You use AI features and follow recipes at your own risk and remain responsible for what you cook and eat.

8. Advertising

The Service may display advertising to users on the free plan. Advertising is delivered by third-party advertising networks. Where required by law, we ask for your consent before any advertising that involves tracking or profiling, and you can change or withdraw that consent at any time via "Privacy settings" in the footer.

Paid plans remove all advertising. For paid users we do not merely hide advertisements — the advertising code is not loaded at all.

We do not control the content of third-party advertisements and we are not responsible for the products or services they promote. If you see an advertisement that is inappropriate, please report it to us.

9. Our content and your licence to use it

All recipes, text, photography, illustrations, software, and branding on the Service are created by us or licensed to us, and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. We retain all of those rights.

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Service and its content for your own private, non-commercial cooking. This licence does not permit republication, redistribution, resale, commercial use, or use as training data. Every other right is reserved.

You may share a link to a recipe page freely. You may not reproduce the recipe text or photography elsewhere.

10. Content you upload

You keep ownership of the photos and notes you upload. By uploading a dish photo you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to store, reproduce, resize, and display it within the Service in connection with the relevant recipe, and to moderate or remove it.

You confirm that you own the content you upload or have permission to share it, and that it does not infringe anyone's rights.

You can delete your uploads at any time. Deleting your account removes them from public display.

11. Availability, disclaimers and liability

We work to keep the Service available and accurate but we provide it "as is" and "as available". We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any recipe or AI output will meet your expectations.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, or for lost profits or lost data. Our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) USD 100.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or your mandatory statutory rights as a consumer.

12. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time.

We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these Terms, if required by law, or if we discontinue the Service. Except where you have breached these Terms, we will refund the unused portion of any prepaid subscription.

Sections 9, 10, 11, and 13 survive termination.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Netherlands. The competent courts of the Netherlands have jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of them. If you are a consumer resident in the European Union, this choice of law does not deprive you of the protection afforded by the mandatory consumer-protection rules of your country of residence, and you may bring proceedings in the courts of your country of residence.

Before starting formal proceedings, please contact us at umami.guru@outlook.com — most issues are resolved quickly. Consumers in the European Union may also use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. If a change is material, we will notify you by email or in the Service at least 30 days before it takes effect, and we will update the effective date at the top of this page. If you do not accept a change, you may cancel your plan before it takes effect and we will refund the unused portion.

Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

15. Contact

Umami Guru — operated from the Netherlands.

Email: umami.guru@outlook.com

Website: https://umami.guru

Our servers are located in the Hetzner data centre in Germany (European Union).