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Matrix.org Homeserver Terms

Effective date of 4 August 2025

These Homeserver Terms ('Homeserver Terms') govern your use and access of the Service (as defined below). Please read this document carefully before accessing or using the Service. By accessing or using the Service in any way, whether you have created a Matrix account on the Matrix.org homeserver, or whether you are accessing content federated from the Matrix.org homeserver to another Matrix homeserver, you agree to and are bound by these Homeserver Terms.

When you read the ‘Service' or ‘the Matrix.org homeserver’, it refers to the access and use of the public Matrix.org homeserver and the services made available at Matrix.org by the Matrix Foundation which store your account and personal conversation history, providing services such as bots and bridges, and communicating via the open Matrix decentralised communication protocol with the public Matrix Network.

If you do not agree to all of the terms and conditions contained in this document, please use a Matrix server provided by someone else and refrain from accessing content federated from this server.

Our Contact Information:

Email: [email protected]

Postal address: The Matrix.org Foundation (the ‘Foundation’), 14 Turnham Green Terrace Mews, London, United Kingdom, W4 1QU

🔗1. Introduction

🔗1.1 Definition of terms

Where you read The Matrix.org Foundation C.I.C., The Matrix.org Foundation, The Matrix Foundation, or the Foundation, it refers to the Community Interest Company incorporated on 29 October 2018 to be the neutral custodian of the Matrix protocol: The Matrix.org Foundation C.I.C., and their agents.

These Homeserver Terms do not apply to Matrix servers run by anyone else - Matrix is an open network like the Web and these Homeserver Terms only apply to the homeserver provided by the Foundation.

🔗1.2 This is a living document

This is a living document. With your help, we want to continuously improve it.

If you read something that rubs you the wrong way, or if you think of something that should be added, please get in touch! We're all ears! Email [email protected] and we'll chat.

We don't amend the Homeserver Terms for any specific users or use case, but if your proposed changes apply more broadly, we'll be happy to update them for everyone.

We will likely improve the Homeserver Terms over time. Your access and use of the homeserver is always subject to the most current version of the Homeserver Terms. We may make changes to these Homeserver Terms from time to time on reasonable advance notice to you of no less than fourteen (14) days, except where such changes are insignificant or do not have a material adverse effect on your use of the Service, in which case we shall be entitled to make such changes without giving you notice. In the event that you object to such changes on the grounds that such change has a material adverse effect on your use of the Service, your sole remedy shall be the termination of this Agreement.

🔗1.3 Breach of Terms

If you breach any of these Homeserver Terms, your authorisation to access or use the Service may be automatically terminated. In the event of such a breach, we may also block, restrict, disable, suspend or terminate your access to all or part of the Service at any time in our sole discretion, without prior notice or liability to you.

You may appeal these actions by emailing [email protected]. We cannot guarantee that your use of the Service will be reinstated.

🔗2. Use of the service

🔗2.1 Service use

The Service is provided for lawful purposes only, and you agree not to use the Service in any way that violates local, national, or international law or regulation. This includes refraining from sending, knowingly receiving, uploading, downloading, using, or reusing any material that does not comply with these Homeserver Terms.

In order to use the Service, you must be 18 years of age or older and have a valid, verified email address linked to your account.

🔗2.2 Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account information, including usernames and passwords, and for any and all activities that occur under your account. If you become aware of any unauthorised use of your account or any other breach of security, please reach out to [email protected] where we will do our best to support you with this issue. Please be aware our ability to help in these situations is limited - this is for your own protection. We do not reset passwords or reactivate accounts.

🔗2.3 Modification of Service

We may change or modify the Service from time to time. We shall only be required to provide you with reasonable notice of a change or modification to the Service in advance if the change or modification is material (and does not extend or enhance the functionality or architecture of the Service) or may substantially adversely affect your use of the Service. This may include circumstances such as maintenance, security, legal compliance, technical limitations, or to protect the stability or integrity of the Service.

If you are on a Usage Plan and a material change, suspension, or discontinuation of the Service occurs through no fault of your own, and you choose to terminate your Usage Plan as a result, you may be entitled to a pro-rata refund of any pre-paid fees for the period from the effective date of the change to the end of your current billing cycle.

🔗2.4 Support

Support for the Matrix.org homeserver is provided on a reasonable efforts basis - however, support is often available from the wider Matrix Community in the public Matrix Support rooms.

Queries sent to [email protected] will be addressed on a reasonable efforts basis by the team. Phone support is not provided.

We love Matrix and will support our users as much as we can, but we are also a small team and value our work/life balance. This means that although we'll try our best, we do not provide 24/7 support.

🔗3. Intellectual Property Rights

🔗3.1 Who owns the IP of my messages and files?

We do not claim intellectual property rights over rooms, message content or files uploaded to the Service.

You acknowledge and agree that we have no liability of any kind should anyone you grant access to your messages or files modify, destroy, corrupt, copy or distribute them, or violate the Homeserver Terms or other limitations that you may impose on the use of your shared content.

We may pre-screen user messages or files to prevent spam and other abuse, and we may remove any messages or files (including entire rooms) from the Matrix.org homeserver that breach these Homeserver Terms, in particular and without limitation clause 7. By posting or uploading your messages or files, you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the intellectual property rights and other rights to your user materials as described in these Homeserver Terms, including all the rights necessary for you to post or upload said messages or files. You hereby grant us the right to use such user materials for the purpose of providing the Service to you.

You are solely and entirely responsible for all of your messages and files that you post or otherwise submit via the Service. You shall assume all risks associated with the use of said content including any reliance on its accuracy, completeness or usefulness. The Foundation does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of your messages or files.

For further details on our approach to IP and copyright, please refer to our copyright notice.

🔗3.2 User Content

The Foundation does not accept liability for any user-uploaded content. When we become aware of any illegal content, we remove or disable access to it, and apply sanctions such as suspension or deactivation.

We use proactive technologies on the Matrix.org server to detect illegal content. These include:

To appeal action taken against your account by these measures, email us at [email protected].

🔗4. Reliability

🔗4.1 Do you guarantee that the Service will be accessible at all times?

In short, we do not. Like all other cloud-based applications, we are vulnerable to the inherent unreliability of the Internet. We do not offer contracted SLA for availability of the Service and your data.

We monitor the Service closely and have set up automated alarms to be notified (via email, push notifications and phone calls) when the Matrix.org homeserver is under stress, so that we can deal with the issue before it becomes a problem that might impact your access.

Subject to the paragraph below, you acknowledge and agree that the Foundation shall not be liable for any failure to store your materials on the Matrix.org homeserver at any time.

We shall use reasonable skill and care to provide the Service substantially free of material defects. Your sole and exclusive remedy (and our sole and exclusive obligation) in the event of such a material defect arising will be for us to rectify the defect within a reasonable period of time. If you are on a Usage Plan and we are unable to rectify a material defect within a reasonable period, you may be entitled to a pro-rata refund of any pre-paid fees for the period during which the defect materially impaired your use of the Service.

🔗5. Indemnity and Liability

You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation and its officers, co-branders, other partners and employees harmless from and against any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of:

  1. your user materials and any other content (e.g. computer viruses) that you may submit, post to or transmit through the Service, including (without limitation) a third party's use of such user materials or content (including without limitation relating to their reliance on the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of your user materials);
  2. your access to or use of the Service (including any use by your employees, contractors or agents and all uses of your usernames and passwords, whether or not actually or expressly authorised by you, in connection with the Service);
  3. your connection to the Service;
  4. your violation of these Homeserver Terms;
  5. your infringement of any third party's intellectual property rights when using any of the software made available on the Service;
  6. your violation of any rights of any third party;
  7. your access to or use of linked sites and your connections thereto; or
  8. any dealings between you and any third parties advertising or promoting via the Service.

🔗5.1 Limitation of liability

In no event shall the Foundation, its officers, directors, employees, partners or suppliers be liable to you or any third party for (and in any case on any theory of liability, including breach of contract or warranty, negligence or other tortious action):

  1. any special, punitive, incidental, indirect or consequential damages or losses of any kind (whether or not the Foundation has been advised of the possibility of such damages or losses), or
  2. any damages or losses whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits (whether direct or indirect), or
  3. the statements or actions of any third party on or via the Service; or
  4. any dealings with vendors or other third parties via the Service; or
  5. any web site referenced or linked to from the Service; or
  6. your access to or use of or inability to access or use any linked site.

Subject to the warranty set out in clause 4.1, in no event shall the Foundation, its officers, directors, employees, partners or suppliers be liable to you or any third party for any other claim arising out of or in connection with (and in any case on any theory of liability, including breach of contract or warranty, negligence or other tortious action):

  1. any unauthorised access to or alteration of your transmissions, user materials or other data;
  2. any information that is sent or received or not sent or received;
  3. any failure to store or loss of data, files, materials or other content; or
  4. any services available that are delayed or interrupted.

Some jurisdictions prohibit the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages. Accordingly, the limitations and exclusions set forth above may not apply to you. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Foundation’s total aggregate liability in contract, tort (including negligence or breach of statutory duty), misrepresentation, restitution or otherwise, arising in connection with the performance or contemplated performance of these Homeserver Terms shall be limited to the total amount of fees paid by you to the Foundation during the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the date on which the claim arose.

🔗6. Payment

6.1 Access to paid Usage Plans and services is subject to the payment of fees in accordance with the pricing published at the time of purchase or as otherwise communicated to you here.

6.2 Fees are payable in advance for the term of the selected Usage Plan and are non-refundable. The subscription to the selected Usage Plan will automatically renew for successive rolling periods equal to the original term. You may cancel your subscription at any time by submitting the online cancellation form. Cancellation will prevent automatic renewal, but your Usage Plan will remain active up to the end of the prepaid term.

6.3 Payment may be made via authorised third-party payment processors (each a “Payment Provider”), using the payment methods they support. You authorise the Foundation or its Payment Provider to collect all fees using the payment method you provide.

6.4 If payment is not received when due, or if a payment method is declined or otherwise fails, we may suspend access to the relevant paid features or to the Service in its entirety in accordance with clause 1.3 of these Terms until full payment is received and processed.

6.5 The Foundation reserves the right to update pricing, payment mechanisms, or supported Payment Providers from time to time, subject to reasonable prior notice. If you do not accept a change in pricing, you may choose to terminate your Usage Plan before the change takes effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of any pricing change will constitute your acceptance of the updated fees.

6.6 Except as expressly provided in these Homeserver Terms, all amounts and fees stated or referred to in these Homeserver Terms are non-cancellable and non-refundable once paid. Fees are inclusive of any applicable taxes (including VAT or equivalent taxes) charged at the applicable rate where required by law. You are responsible for any other taxes, duties, or charges that may apply in your local jurisdiction outside the UK or EU in connection with your subscription.

🔗7. Play Nice Clauses

🔗7.1 Use of the Service

You agree that you shall not:

Materials and services provided by third parties are governed by separate agreements accompanying such materials and services. The Foundation offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type with respect to the third-party services, including any liability resulting from incompatibility between a third-party service, the Matrix.org service or another third-party service. You agree that you will not hold the Foundation responsible or liable with respect to the third-party services.

🔗7.2. Data Limits

Your use of the Service is subject to the usage limits associated with your assigned or selected (as applicable) Usage Plan, as updated from time to time here. These limits include, but are not limited to individual transfer size limits, and cumulative data usage. The Foundation may make changes to usage limits or other material aspects of a Usage Plan from time to time. Where such changes are material and may adversely affect your use of the Service, we will give you reasonable prior notice specifying the effective date of the change. If you do not agree to the change, you may terminate your Usage Plan with effect from the date the change takes effect. Continued use of the Service after that date will constitute your acceptance of the updated terms.

Where your usage exceeds the applicable limits, further uploads, transfers, or other usage may be restricted, blocked, or otherwise fail until usage returns within the permitted thresholds of your Usage Plan, or your Usage Plan is upgraded.

🔗7.3 Illegal and Regulated Content

Content containing or promoting indecent images or depictions of children is illegal. There is no place for it on this Service and it is utterly prohibited. When we become aware of such content, we refer the details to the relevant authorities. You can report this content to us by email to [email protected].

We proactively monitor the Service for illegal content, including but not limited to the following categories:

Any forms of illegal content are strictly prohibited in the Service. Distribution of illegal content will result in immediate account sanctions (including immediate suspension or termination). If you encounter this type of content, please share the details in an email to [email protected].

🔗8. Encryption

The Service may allow you to encrypt your communications end-to-end between devices. There may be restrictions and limitations on the import, possession, use, transfer and/or export of strong encryption technology under the laws of the country in which you intend to use the Service. It is your sole obligation and responsibility to check such restrictions and limitations before using the Service and to comply with them. We reserve the right to suspend the Service immediately and without notice if we determine, in our sole judgment, that the Service is being used in violation of local regulations governing the use of cryptographic technologies (even though we have no responsibility to make such determination).

The Service may include links that will take you to other sites outside of the Service. The linked sites are provided as a convenience and the inclusion of the links do not imply any endorsement by us of any linked site. We have no control of the linked sites and you therefore acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for the content of any linked site, any link contained in a linked site or any changes or updates to a linked site. You further acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for any form of transmission (e.g. webcasting) received from any linked site.

🔗10. Warranties and Disclaimers

The Matrix.org service is provided by Element under these Homeserver Terms "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of title, non-infringement, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Without limiting the foregoing, Element makes no warranty that:

  1. the Service will meet your requirements;

  2. the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free;

  3. the quality of the Service will meet your expectations; and

  4. any errors or defects in the Service will be corrected.

You acknowledge and agree that:

  1. The Foundation does not control, endorse, or accept responsibility for any materials or services offered by third parties (except where stated otherwise), including third-party vendors and third parties accessible through linked sites;

  2. The Foundation makes no representations or warranties whatsoever about any such third parties, their materials or services;

  3. any dealings you may have with such third parties are at your own risk; and

  4. The Foundation shall not be liable or responsible for any materials or services offered by third parties.

The Matrix.org Foundation does not control or endorse the materials or message content found in any rooms or communities. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Foundation will have no liability related to user materials arising under intellectual property rights, libel, privacy, publicity, obscenity or other laws. The Foundation also disclaims all liability with respect to the misuse, loss, modification or unavailability of any user messages or files, except to the extent such issues arise directly from our failure to exercise reasonable skill and care in providing the Service.

Subject to the warranty set out in clause 4.1, the use of the Service is at your own discretion and risk and with your agreement that you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system, loss of data or other harm that results from such activities. The Foundation assumes no liability for any computer virus or other similar software code that is downloaded to your computer from the site or in connection with any services or materials. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from the Foundation or via the Service or materials shall be subject to any warranty not expressly stated in these Homeserver Terms. The Foundation will not be liable for any loss that you may incur as a result of someone else using your password or account with respect to the Service or materials, either with or without your knowledge.

Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or limitations on how long an implied warranty may last, so the above limitations may not apply to you. To the extent permissible, any implied warranties are limited to ninety days. Access to certain features - including paid Usage Plans - may be unavailable in some regions as a result of applicable laws and/or sanctions. We make no representations or warranties that the availability of the Service (or any part thereof) is available for use in all jurisdictions.

🔗11. Emergency Service Calls

The Service does not and is not intended to support or carry emergency calls to any emergency services (e.g. 911 or 112 numbers). We are not liable for any claims, damages or loss which arise from this limitation.

🔗12. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Homeserver Terms and any dispute (including non-contractual disputes) arising out of them or their subject matter shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales, excluding its conflict of law provisions. Unless contrary to the law where you reside, these Homeserver Terms and all disputes (including non-contractual disputes) arising out of them or their subject matter are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales and you expressly consent to the exercise of personal jurisdiction in the courts of England and Wales in connection with any such dispute. These Homeserver Terms shall not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

🔗13. General

The Service is licensed, not sold, to you by the Foundation for use strictly in accordance with these Homeserver Terms. Ownership of the Service shall at all times remain with the Foundation. Access to the Service is provided to you only to allow you to exercise your rights under these Homeserver Terms.

🔗13.1 Grant of Licence

Subject to your acceptance of, and compliance with, these Homeserver Terms and any payment requirements for the Service (if applicable), the Foundation hereby grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable, non-sublicensable licence, in and under our intellectual property rights, to access and use the Service, solely in accordance with these Homeserver Terms. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features provided by us that augment or enhance the current Service shall also constitute "Service" and shall be subject to these Homeserver Terms. All rights not expressly granted under these Homeserver Terms are retained by the Matrix.org Foundation.

You may also be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when you use other Matrix services, third party content or third party software. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of the Homeserver Terms, or any portion thereof, to be unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to effect the intent of the parties as reflected by that provision, and the remainder of the Homeserver Terms shall continue in full force and effect. Any failure by the Foundation to enforce or exercise any provision of the Homeserver Terms or related right shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision. The section titles used in the Homeserver Terms are purely for convenience and carry with them no legal or contractual effect.

🔗14. Document History