Effective date: 16 June 2026 Last updated: 16 June 2026 Version: 1.0

Refund Policy

The verified-or-refunded promise, the mechanism behind it, and how to raise a dispute when something goes wrong.

§ 01 The default — automatic non-billing

Our refund mechanism is built into the API itself. There is no "refund request" for the normal failure mode.

When a response does not meet the verified criteria defined in our Terms § 05 — for example, a multi-block output, a non-Python response, a streaming response, or a response that fails any of the five ATLAS gates — the request is not counted against your monthly quota and does not incur an overage charge.

In other words: if you do not receive a signed AetherProof receipt, you do not pay for that request. There is nothing to claim, dispute, or process — the billing meter simply does not advance.

How to verify this yourself. Every verified response includes an x-aetherproof-receipt header containing a signed JWS receipt. Responses without that header are not billed. You can audit your RapidAPI usage page against your own count of receipts received.

§ 02 When you might still want a manual refund

The automatic mechanism handles the technical failure case. The following situations require a manual refund and are handled through RapidAPI's billing-dispute process:

RapidAPI billed you despite the response being unverified (rare; possible during platform incidents).
You were charged for a subscription period during which the service was completely unavailable (an extended outage).
Duplicate billing or other billing system error.
You subscribed within the 14-day EU consumer cooling-off window and qualify under § 04 below.

§ 03 How to raise a manual refund

RapidAPI dispute path first. Open a ticket through the RapidAPI billing support: rapidapi.com/support. Include your API key prefix (first 8 characters only — never the full key), the date and approximate time of the disputed charge, and a brief description.
Notify us in parallel. Email support@nous-lang.org with the same details and your RapidAPI ticket reference. We will cooperate with RapidAPI's investigation in good faith and confirm or correct usage records from our side.
Resolution timeline. RapidAPI typically responds within 5–7 business days. We acknowledge our part within 2 business days and aim to provide our usage-record confirmation within 5.

Refunds, when granted, are issued by RapidAPI to your original payment method. We do not issue refunds directly because we do not process your payment.

§ 04 EU consumer cooling-off

The AetherCode API is designed and marketed for professional use (developers, compliance teams, security researchers, enterprises). Most subscribers act in a B2B capacity, in which case EU consumer-protection law does not apply.

However, if you subscribed as a consumer (a natural person acting outside your trade, business, craft, or profession) and you are located in the EU, you have a right to withdraw from the contract within 14 days of subscription start, under Directive 2011/83/EU.

Withdrawal window	14 calendar days from subscription start
How to exercise	Email support@nous-lang.org with subject "Consumer withdrawal" before the window closes
Refund amount	Subscription fee paid, less the prorated value of API calls already made (per Art. 14(4) of the Directive)
Refund issued by	RapidAPI, to the original payment method

Implicit consent to immediate performance. By making your first API call before the 14 days elapse, you consent to the immediate commencement of the service and acknowledge that, per Art. 14(4)(a), the consumed portion is non-refundable. The unconsumed portion remains refundable on request within the window.

§ 05 What we will not refund

Verified responses you did not like. A signed AetherProof receipt is proof of delivery against the verified-response specification. The receipt does not warrant the business correctness of the generated code; that is your responsibility to validate before use.
Quota you chose not to use. Monthly tiers do not roll over. Unused quota at the end of a billing period is not credited.
Overage charges you accepted. If you exceeded your tier limit and were billed at the overage rate, those charges are non-refundable unless they fall under § 02.
Issues caused by your environment. Network failures on your end, misconfigured clients, or misuse of the API are not grounds for refund.

§ 06 Chargebacks

Initiating a credit-card chargeback against RapidAPI for an Aether charge bypasses the dispute process described above. Chargebacks may result in immediate suspension of your API access pending resolution. If you have a billing concern, please use § 03 first — we have not yet failed to resolve a legitimate dispute through that path.

§ 07 Contact

Refund-related inquiries: support@nous-lang.org. We respond within 2 business days.

RapidAPI billing support (for the actual money movement): rapidapi.com/support.

Last reviewed 16 June 2026 by the operator. This policy is part of the contract — see Terms § 11.