Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of ARC-Relay ("the Service"), operated at arc-relay.com. By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms.

1. Service Description

ARC-Relay is an email relay service that forwards incoming email with ARC (Authenticated Received Chain) sealing and SRS (Sender Rewriting Scheme) envelope rewriting. The Service provides:

• DMARC-compliant email forwarding for custom domains
• Email alias management and sender blocking rules
• Per-domain DKIM signing (Pro+ plans)
• Relay logging and analytics
• Email health scoring API (public, no account required)
• DNS monitoring with automated alerts (Pro+ plans)
• Webhook notifications for email events (Business+ plans)
• API keys for programmatic access
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for AI agent integration
• Third-party integrations (GitHub Action, WordPress plugin)

2. Account Registration

• You must provide a valid email address to create an account
• You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials
• You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service
• One person or entity per account — sharing account credentials is not permitted

3. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use ARC-Relay to:

• Send spam or unsolicited bulk email — the Service is for forwarding legitimate inbound mail, not outbound mass mailing
• Forward phishing, malware, or fraudulent messages
• Impersonate other individuals or organizations
• Relay email in violation of applicable laws including CAN-SPAM, GDPR, or any local anti-spam regulations
• Circumvent rate limits or plan restrictions through technical means
• Abuse the relay for email bombing or denial-of-service attacks
• Forward content that is illegal in the United States or the recipient's jurisdiction

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms without notice.

4. Plans and Billing

Free Plan

• 3 domains, 500 forwards per month, 5 aliases per domain
• 100 API requests per month
• 7-day log retention
• No credit card required
• May be subject to reduced priority during high load

Paid Plans (Pro, Business, Enterprise)

• Billed monthly via Stripe (Enterprise plans may have custom billing arrangements)
• Pro plan includes a 14-day free trial
• You may cancel at any time through the Settings page or Stripe billing portal
• Cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing period
• No refunds for partial months — you retain access until the end of your paid period
• If payment fails, your account is marked "past due" and may be downgraded to the Free plan after reasonable notice

Plan Limits

Each plan has defined limits on domains, monthly forwards, aliases per domain, API requests, and feature access. Exceeding forwarding or API limits will result in temporary rejection until the next billing cycle or a plan upgrade. We will not silently drop or delete email — senders receive a temporary rejection (451) so their mail server retries.

5. Email Processing

• ARC-Relay processes email in memory only and does not store email content
• We add ARC-Seal headers and rewrite envelope senders (SRS) as part of normal operation
• We log delivery metadata (sender, recipient, status, latency) for your dashboard — never email content
• Relay logs are automatically deleted after 90 days
• We do not read, scan, analyze, or index email content for any purpose

6. Domain Ownership

• You must own or have authorization to configure DNS for any domain you add to ARC-Relay
• Domain verification (MX + TXT records) is required before forwarding is activated
• We reserve the right to remove domains if ownership cannot be verified or if the domain is used for abuse

7. API Keys

• API keys grant programmatic access to your account and should be treated as credentials
• You are responsible for keeping your API keys secure — do not commit them to public repositories or share them in plaintext
• You may create up to 5 API keys per account and revoke them at any time from Settings
• API usage is subject to monthly quotas based on your plan. Exceeding your quota results in HTTP 429 responses until the next billing cycle
• We reserve the right to revoke API keys used in violation of these Terms or for abusive behavior

8. Webhooks

• Webhook notifications are available on Business and Enterprise plans
• You are responsible for the security and availability of your webhook endpoints
• Webhook payloads are signed with HMAC-SHA256 — you should verify signatures before processing events
• Endpoints that repeatedly fail to respond (3 consecutive failures) may be automatically disabled
• We are not liable for actions taken by your systems in response to webhook events

9. Public API and Tools

The Email Health Score API and related tools (DMARC checker, SPF validator, header analyzer) are publicly available without an account. Use of these public endpoints is subject to rate limiting. Automated bulk querying without an API key may result in temporary IP-level blocking.

10. Service Availability

• We strive for high availability but do not guarantee 100% uptime
• Email delivery depends on factors outside our control (recipient server policies, DNS propagation, network conditions)
• We will make reasonable efforts to notify users of planned maintenance
• The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis

11. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• ARC-Relay is not liable for email delivery failures, delays, or misdelivery caused by third-party mail servers, DNS issues, or factors outside our control
• ARC-Relay is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the Service
• Our total liability for any claim related to the Service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim

12. Account Termination

• By you: You may delete your account at any time from the Settings page. This permanently removes all data.
• By us: We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, engage in abuse, or fail to pay after reasonable notice. We will attempt to provide notice before termination when possible.

13. Intellectual Property

The ARC-Relay name, logo, and website content are our property. You retain full ownership of your email content and domain configurations. We claim no rights over email that passes through the relay.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold ARC-Relay harmless from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any third-party rights.

15. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, United States. Any disputes will be resolved in the courts of Clark County, Washington.

16. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

17. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact us at:
support@arc-relay.com