Terms of Service

1. Services Provided

GutOk (developed by MonaruTech) provides users with a mobile application and website offering AI-powered food ingredients analysis, gut health scoring, custom additive watchlist alerts, and pantry-based recipe generation. The services utilize advanced natural language processing, computer vision, and multimodal AI models (specifically Google Gemini AI via Google Cloud Vertex AI) to parse label text, photo scans, and dietary preferences.

2. Credit Wallet System and Billing Tiers

To facilitate access to our AI ingredient-parsing services while keeping costs sustainable, GutOk utilizes a credit-based wallet system. Your account balance is deducted across three tiers, prioritizing free and earned credits before paid credits:

• A. Trial Credits Tier: New registered users are granted a flat 5-scan lifetime trial (equivalent to 5 trial credits). These trial credits do not reset or expire daily and are non-refundable. The Trial Credits Tier ends permanently once the 5 trial scans are completed, or immediately if the user purchases any paid credit package. After the trial is exhausted, users can still perform standard global catalog searches for free (`GET /scanner/search`).
• B. Earned Credits Tier: Users can earn points toward their credit balance by engaging with partner and social check-in features inside the application:
  • Rewarded Video Ads: Watching a full Google AdMob Rewarded Ad grants +100 points. Enforces a 60-second cooldown between ad plays.
  • Product Surveys: Completing a feedback survey on scanned items grants +100 points (triggered randomly on scans).
  • Daily Login Streak: Logging into the app consecutively grants daily check-in points (Day 1: +10 pts, Day 2: +20 pts, Day 3: +30 pts, Day 4: +40 pts, Day 5: +50 pts, Day 6: +60 pts). Reaching a consecutive Day 7 streak grants a milestone reward of +1,000 points (which automatically converts to +1 earned credit) and resets the streak. Missed days reset the streak progress back to Day 1.
  • Conversion: Points are automatically converted to credits at a rate of 1000 points = 1 earned credit. The wallet is capped at a maximum of 10 earned credits at any given time.
• C. Paid Credits Tier (One-Time Refills): Users can purchase credit packages securely through Razorpay. Paid credits have no expiration date, remain active indefinitely until consumed, and automatically upgrade the user profile to Premium status.
• D. Referral Program (Invite-a-Friend):Users can generate and share a unique referral code (prefixed with "GK-"). New users (referees) can claim a friend's code exactly once, and only during their initial onboarding flow. To prevent abuse, rewards are subject to a scan gate:
  • The 3-Scan Gate: Referee rewards and referrer credits are released only after the referee completes at least three (3) label scans within the application. If the referee has already completed 3 or more scans at the time of claiming, rewards release immediately.
  • Rewards: Upon meeting the scan gate, both the referee and the referrer are awarded +1 earned credit, deposited directly into their earned credits wallet (subject to the standard 10 earned credits cap).
  • Program Cap: Referrers can earn rewards for a maximum of 5 successful referrals (up to +5 earned credits in total lifetime). Subsequent referrals beyond the cap will increment their referral count for tracking but will not grant additional free credits.

Paid packages scale dynamically to offer discounts and bonus credits based on the volume purchased:

• Starter Bundle (10 credits): Base cost of $2.99 / ₹249 (0 bonus credits).
• Standard Bundle (50 credits): Cost of $13.99 / ₹1,149 (includes +5 bonus credits).
• Value Bundle (100 credits): Cost of $24.90 / ₹2,090 (includes +15 bonus credits).
• Pro Bundle (500 credits): Cost of $119.99 / ₹9,999 (includes +100 bonus credits).
• Max Bundle (1000 credits): Cost of $219.00 / ₹17,900 (includes +250 bonus credits).

Note: Pricing and marketing bonuses scale continuously between bundles based on quantity, with a flat 25% bonus credit rate applied to any custom reloads above 1000 credits. Credit card, UPI, and online transactions are processed securely through Razorpay. Credit packages are strictly one-time, non-recurring purchases.

3. Credit Usage, Cost Structure & Two-Phase Billing

Credits are consumed according to the resource load and AI execution requirements of each submitted request:

• Global Catalog Search & Barcode Lookup: FREE (0.0 credits) — Searching the global catalog (`GET /scanner/search`) incurs zero credit charge.
• Cached or Fuzzy Matched Label Scan: 0.5 credits — Charged when a scan resolves via local database cache or fuzzy duplicate matcher without requiring full Gemini AI processing.
• Full Gemini AI Label Analysis: 1.0 credit total — Includes the 0.5 upfront gate fee plus an additional 0.5 credit charged only when full Gemini AI multimodal analysis executes.
• Easy AI Recipe Generation: 1.0 credit per request.
• Advanced AI Recipe Generation: 3.0 credits per request (custom cook-times, location-based kitchen filters, or complex allergen requirements).

4. Full-Screen Interstitial Ads

To cover Google AI Studio API infrastructure costs, users on the Free/Trial tiers who have not purchased credits will be shown a full-screen interstitial ad before viewing their scan results. Users who have purchased any Paid Credit package (Premium status) or designated Developer Test accounts bypass all fullscreen interstitial ads and scan results display immediately.

5. Refund Policy Guidelines

6. Google Gemini AI Disclaimers, Standards & Limitations of Liability

A. AI Model Standards & Transparency: GutOk incorporates Google Gemini AI models operating on Google AI Studio Tier 1 Paid Service infrastructure. All AI operations comply with global AI transparency standards (including EU AI Act disclosure guidelines). The AI features provide automated decision support and ingredient interpretation, NOT medical diagnoses or certified clinical dietetics.

B. Paid Tier Privacy & Non-Retention Defaults: Under Google AI Studio Tier 1 Paid Service terms, submitted scan photos, ingredient texts, and custom prompts are NOT used to train or refine Google AI foundation models. Standard label scan calls (`GenerateContent`) run with request storage toggled OFF (non-stored), while stateful interaction requests utilize rolling retention with per-request opt-out (`store: false`). All personal identifiers (PII) are scrubbed before payload transmission.

C. Derivative Outputs & Inaccuracy Risk: Cleanliness scores (0–10.0), ingredient flags (e.g., seed oils, color dyes, preservatives), non-food classifications (`noFoodDetected`), and recipes are derivative suggestions. AI models may occasionally hallucinate or misread blurry packaging text (OCR errors). Users assume all risks for independently verifying physical packaging labels for severe food allergies or medical dietary requirements.

D. Limitation of Liability: MonaruTech and its developers shall not be liable for any health issues, allergic reactions, medical emergencies, or damages arising from the use of, or reliance on, AI-generated insights or recipes. Always consult a qualified physician or registered dietitian for medical dietary decisions.

7. Acceptable Use and Prompt Gating Safeguards

To maintain backend performance, prevent vertex API cost abuse, and protect our infrastructure, we enforce a strict context-gating system.

A. Off-Topic Prohibitions: Users are prohibited from sending prompts, queries, or photographs unrelated to food ingredients, recipes, and dietary planning. This includes attempts to jailbreak the model, inject scripts, or execute arbitrary code.

B. Violation Gating System: All scan and recipe queries are checked by an interceptor. Off-topic inputs will trigger the following automatic lockouts:

• Violations 1 - 5: Request is blocked with an in-app error warning.
• Violation 6: Account is automatically locked with a 30-second cooling cooldown.
• Violations 7 - 11: The lockout duration is multiplied by 10x per violation (e.g., 300 seconds, 3000 seconds).
• Violation 12+: The account is flagged as permanently suspended (`isSuspended = true`).

If your account has been suspended and you believe it was an error, you may file a ticket through our Support Center.

8. Intellectual Property

All brand elements, logos, designs, source code, and assets relating to GutOk and NourishAI are the exclusive property of MonaruTech. You may not copy, reverse-engineer, or redistribute any part of our service.

9. Governing Law

These Terms of Service shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction of MonaruTech's incorporation, without regard to conflict of law principles.

10. Contact Information

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact support:

• Developer: MonaruTech
• Email: support@monarutech.com