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Terms of Service

Effective date: August 27, 2026 Last updated: August 27, 2026

Welcome to Discern. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Discern Chrome extension, the discern landing page, and the byzanx.com website (collectively, the “Service”), provided by the developer of Discern (“we”, “us”, or “our”).

By installing the extension or using any part of the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. The Service

Discern is a Chrome browser extension that analyzes articles as you browse and helps you decide whether they are worth reading. It allows you to:

  • See an automatic, glanceable verdict on the article you’re reading (substance score, verdict, and the quote that supports it)
  • Detect AI-generated filler, recycled advice, and padded content
  • Distinguish first-hand experiments from second-hand citations
  • Spot articles with a commercial or sponsored angle
  • Label articles as tutorial, analysis, opinion, or news
  • Score how relevant an article is to your role and marketing sub-domains
  • Review your recent analyses and reading stats (stored locally)

Free vs. Pro

Discern’s judgment features are free forever: 10 AI analyses per day (doubled to 20 per day for the first 48 hours after install), unlimited heuristic checks when the AI quota is exhausted, and every signal — substance score, evidence quote, and all labels — is fully available on the free tier.

Discern Pro is an optional paid subscription that unlocks:

  • Unlimited AI analyses per day
  • A strong-model deep pass on gray-zone articles (200 per month; beyond that, analyses automatically fall back to the standard model rather than being refused)
  • Analysis history extended from 7 days to 90 days
  • License activation across up to 3 browsers

Pro subscription pricing is shown at checkout. Referral rewards (inviting a friend adds 5 analyses per day for 30 days) and Bring Your Own Key (“BYOK”) mode are free and are not part of any paid plan.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old (or 16 in jurisdictions where that is the threshold for digital consent) to use the Service. By using the Service, you represent that you meet this requirement.

You also represent that you are not legally barred from using the Service under the laws of your jurisdiction.

3. Your License

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the extension for your own personal or professional use.

You may not:

  • Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the extension, except to the extent applicable law expressly prohibits this restriction
  • Redistribute, resell, or sublicense the extension
  • Share, transfer, or sell your Pro license key to other users
  • Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
  • Attempt to disrupt or overload the Service or its backend infrastructure
  • Circumvent the daily AI quota limits, the welcome-period rules, or Pro subscription requirements (including creating new identities to reset quotas)
  • Attempt to extract our API keys, payment credentials, or other secrets

4. Your Content and Analyzed Articles

Discern analyzes article content that is already publicly viewable in your browser. When an AI analysis runs, a sample of the article body (plus the title) and an anonymous device identifier are sent to our edge server and forwarded to an AI model for judgment. We do not retain your article content after processing.

Your profile (role, sub-domains, level, focus) is stored only in your browser’s local storage and is never uploaded.

Your browsing history is not read by default. The sole exception is the optional “personalization boost” offered after install: a one-time, on-device scan of your last 30 days of visits that immediately returns the permission. See our Privacy Policy for details.

You are solely responsible for how you use Discern’s judgments, and for complying with the terms of any website you visit.

5. AI-Generated Output

Discern’s verdicts, scores, and labels are generated with the assistance of third-party large language models (currently accessed via OpenRouter, default model GPT-4o mini). AI-generated output:

  • May contain inaccuracies or misjudgments
  • Is an opinion aid, not an authoritative rating of any author or publisher
  • Is not a substitute for your own professional judgment

We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or fitness of any analysis for a particular purpose.

6. Third-Party Services

The Service integrates with:

  • Cloudflare Workers: for AI analysis relay, quota counting, and license verification
  • OpenRouter / LLM providers: for the AI judgment engine (including BYOK mode, where your own key is used)
  • Waffo Pancake (Merchant of Record): processes Pro subscription payments; our backend issues license keys automatically on subscription activation and receives subscription lifecycle events from Waffo via signed webhooks
  • Google (Chrome Web Store): distributes the extension

We are not responsible for the practices of these third-party services. Your use of their services is subject to their respective terms and privacy policies.

7. Subscriptions & Payments

7.1 Subscription Plans

Discern Pro is available as a monthly or annual subscription:

  • Pro Monthly: $12/month
  • Pro Annual: $84/year (equivalent to $7/month)

Prices are listed in USD. Local taxes (VAT/GST) may apply and are collected by Waffo at checkout based on your billing country.

7.2 Automatic Renewal

Subscriptions auto-renew at the end of each billing cycle (monthly or annually) until you cancel. You can cancel anytime via the Waffo customer portal (link available in the extension’s Pro settings; Magic-Link login with your purchase email).

  • Cancellation stops future renewals but does not refund the current billing period
  • After cancellation, Pro features remain active until the end of the current billing period, then revert to the free tier

7.3 License Key & Device Limit

When you purchase Pro through the extension, Pro activates automatically on the purchasing device right after checkout — your anonymous device ID is bound at checkout, no manual entry needed. If you purchase from the landing page instead, paste the license key (prefix DSRN-) in the extension to activate.

  • Each license key may be activated on up to 3 browsers total
  • Activating on a 4th device requires deactivating a previous one (email hello@byzanx.com to request a device reset)
  • License keys are non-transferable between users

7.4 Refunds

See our Refund Policy for details. In summary: 14-day money-back guarantee on all Pro subscriptions, subject to a limited exception for disproportionate AI usage.

8. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. We do not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure.

AI-generated analysis is for informational purposes only and may be inaccurate. You should not rely on it to make decisions about interacting with, endorsing, or citing any author, publisher, or publication.

The free tier’s daily quota, welcome-period bonus, and referral rewards are offered at our discretion and may be adjusted in ways that only increase what the free tier includes (see §9).

9. Changes to the Service and Terms

We may modify or discontinue parts of the Service at any time. Commitment on the free tier: features that are free today stay free, and the free quota only grows. If we ever change the free tier in a way that reduces it, active users keep the more generous terms.

We may update these Terms from time to time; changes will be reflected in the “Last updated” date above. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

If we materially change the Pro subscription terms (pricing, features, or device limits), we will notify active Pro subscribers by email (sent to the checkout email address associated with their Waffo account) at least 30 days before the change takes effect.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the Service.

Our total liability for any claim arising from the Service shall not exceed the amount you paid us in the past 12 months. For free users (who have paid nothing), this amount is zero.

11. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of your jurisdiction of residence, without regard to conflict of law principles.

12. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, please email hello@byzanx.com.

For users in the EU: under GDPR Article 27, our representative for matters relating to GDPR can be reached at the same address.