Alchemist End User License Agreement

Last updated: September 12, 2026

This is the agreement you accept by installing or using Alchemist. It is written to be read. The short version: everything that runs on your device is free and stays on your device, everything you record and transcribe is yours, the cloud features are paid and off until you turn them on, and we do not promise the software is perfect.

1. Who this is between

This End User License Agreement (the "Agreement") is between you and Alchemist Labs LLC, a Georgia limited liability company in Watkinsville, Georgia ("Alchemist," "we," "us"). It covers the Alchemist desktop application and its bundled helpers (the "App"), and the optional account, sync, and cloud processing services we operate (the "Services"). Our Privacy Policy at https://getalchemist.app/privacy is part of this Agreement.

By installing, opening, or using the App you agree to this Agreement. If you use the App for an organization, you agree on its behalf and confirm you are able to. If you do not agree, do not install or use the App, and if you paid for it, ask for a refund under section 8 within thirty days.

2. Your license

Subject to this Agreement, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide license to install and run the App on any number of computers you own or control, for personal or commercial use.

The license is per person, not per machine. One person may use one license on every computer they own. A license may not be shared between people, resold, rented, or transferred.

Free. Everything the App can do on your device is free: recording, local transcription, the timeline, search, vocabulary, styles, export, all of it, with no account and no time limit. The App may offer a small trial allowance of cloud usage to free users; its size is shown in the App and may change or end at any time.

Pro. Alchemist Pro is a subscription that unlocks the cloud Services for as long as it is active. The App itself, and every update to it, stays free whether or not you subscribe.

The App is licensed, not sold. We keep every right we do not expressly grant here.

3. Your content is yours

Everything you create with Alchemist is yours: your recordings, transcripts, corrections, vocabulary, notes, exports, and anything derived from them. We claim no rights to it. The only license we need is the narrow one required to run a Service you turn on, such as storing an encrypted sync copy, and it ends when you delete your data or your account.

Your content is stored on your device in a database encrypted at rest with SQLCipher, keyed from your operating system's keychain. The App can export your words as plain Markdown at any time, free, so you are never locked in.

Nothing leaves your machine unless you sign in and turn on a cloud feature, choose a cloud transcription or AI option, or export it yourself. The App contacts our servers to check for updates and, if you enable it, to fetch coarse location and weather for the timeline. There is no third-party telemetry, analytics, or advertising in the App.

4. What you agree not to do

You will not:

1. Copy, redistribute, sell, sublicense, rent, or host the App for others.
2. Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the App, or bypass its license, update, or verification mechanisms, except where the law expressly allows it despite this clause.
3. Use the App or Services to build a competing product, or use Service output to train a model that competes with Alchemist.
4. Record another person where the law requires their consent and you do not have it. Recording laws vary by state and country and you are responsible for the ones that apply to you.
5. Use the App to impersonate anyone, to make it appear someone said something they did not, or to break any law.
6. Remove our copyright, trademark, or third-party notices.

Building your own tools on top of the App's exports, files, and documented integrations is fine and encouraged.

5. Cloud services

Cloud features are part of Alchemist Pro. Each is off until you turn it on, and the App shows you which are active under Settings, Privacy & Security.

Account. Running the App locally needs no account. Any cloud feature needs one, created with GitHub, Google, or an email address. You are responsible for what happens under your login. You can delete your account from the account page at any time, which deletes your cloud data and ends your subscription.

Sync. If you enable sync, your content is encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM before upload, and every byte in transit is protected by TLS 1.3. In the standard mode, we manage the encryption key so signing in on a new device just works; this means we could in principle decrypt your synced data if legally compelled. A user-managed key mode, where the key is derived from a password only you know and we cannot decrypt anything even under compulsion, is in testing and will be offered in Settings. In that mode a lost password means lost cloud data, though your local data is unaffected. Your content is never stored in plain text in the cloud. A small amount of metadata is, so that sync and metering work: your account id, timestamps, word counts, durations, which model ran and where, the device model name, and usage costs. If your subscription ends, your synced data stays on our servers for one month and is then deleted. If you delete your account, it is deleted immediately. Your local data is unaffected either way.

Cloud transcription and AI. If you choose a cloud transcription or AI option, the audio or text is sent through our servers to a provider to be processed. We route only to providers that operate under zero-data-retention terms for that request, meaning they do not store it or train on it: currently OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, Mistral, and Fireworks, and we may change providers. We keep the request only as long as it takes to return the result. Your account identity is not attached to the request the provider sees. Usage is metered and shown in the App.

Location and weather. If you enable timeline enrichment, the App looks up your city, region, and country and the weather for them. It stores that as coarse metadata alongside your content, encrypted like everything else.

Services can change, pause for maintenance, or be discontinued. If we discontinue a paid Service you have prepaid for, we refund the unused portion.

6. Third-party software

The App includes open-source components, each under its own license, which continue to apply to those components: FFmpeg (LGPL 2.1 or later, GPL where enabled), whisper.cpp (MIT), Pandoc (GPL 2 or later), Ollama (MIT), Electron and Chromium (BSD and others), and further libraries listed in the notices that ship with the App. We ship these components unmodified. Their source is published by their authors at https://ffmpeg.org/download.html, https://github.com/ggml-org/whisper.cpp, https://github.com/jgm/pandoc, and https://github.com/ollama/ollama, and we will provide the source for any GPL or LGPL component we ship on request to the contact below. Nothing in this Agreement limits the rights those licenses give you over those components.

7. Updates and changes

The App checks for updates when it starts and about once an hour, and installs them when you choose to restart. Updates may add, change, or remove features. We may change this Agreement; if you have an account we will email you, and in every case the current version is at https://getalchemist.app/terms with its date. Continuing to use the App after a change means you accept it.

8. Fees and refunds

Alchemist Pro is billed in advance for each subscription period at the price shown at checkout, through our payment processor, Stripe. Taxes are added where the law requires.

Cancelling. You can cancel at any time from the billing page. Pro stays active until the end of the period you already paid for, then does not renew.

Refunds. Any Pro payment, first or renewal, is refundable in full within seven days, no questions asked. A refund ends Pro immediately and deletes your synced data from our servers; your local data is unaffected. Request it from the billing page or by email to [email protected]; we handle it within one business day, and banks take two to ten days to post it. Outside the seven days, write to us and we will talk.

9. Accuracy

Transcription and AI output can be wrong. Names get misspelled, numbers get transposed, a model can invent a sentence. Alchemist is a tool for producing a draft you review, not a record you can rely on without reading it. Nothing the App produces is legal, medical, financial, or professional advice, and you are responsible for anything you send, publish, or act on.

10. No warranty

The App and Services are provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim every warranty, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty that the App will be error-free, uninterrupted, secure, or that your data will never be lost. Keep backups; the App's export features exist for that.

Some places do not allow these disclaimers, in which case they apply as far as that law permits.

11. Limit of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost profits, or lost business, however caused, even if we were told they were possible. Our total liability for everything arising out of this Agreement is capped at the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim or US $100. This cap does not apply to fraud or to death or personal injury caused by our negligence, and it applies as far as the law allows where the law limits it.

12. Your responsibility to us

If someone brings a claim against us because of your content, your recordings, or your breach of this Agreement, you will cover the resulting costs, including reasonable legal fees.

13. Ending this Agreement

You can end it any time by uninstalling the App and, if you have one, deleting your account. We can end it if you materially breach it and do not fix the breach within ten days of our notice. When it ends, your license ends and you must stop using the App. Your local content stays yours and stays on your machine. Sections 3, 6, 9 through 12, and 14 survive.

14. Law and disputes

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Georgia and the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be brought only in the state or federal courts serving Oconee County, Georgia, and both of us agree to that venue. Any claim must be brought within one year of when it first arose. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

You will comply with U.S. export laws and will not use the App where U.S. law prohibits it.

15. Everything else

This Agreement and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us about the App and Services. If a part of it is unenforceable, the rest stands. Our not enforcing a term is not a waiver of it. You may not assign this Agreement; we may assign it to a successor of our business. Notices to you go to your account email or are posted in the App; notices to us go to the address below. The English text governs.

16. Contact

Alchemist Labs LLC, Watkinsville, Georgia [email protected]