Legal
Effective date: September 14, 2026 · Last updated: September 14, 2026
These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Debatbl ("Debatbl", "we", "us") governing your use of the website, application and services at debatbl.com (the "Service"). By visiting or using the Service you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is part of them. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the Service. By using it you represent that you are. The Service is intended for users in the United States; if you use it from elsewhere you are responsible for complying with your local laws.
Debatbl is a platform for one-on-one written debates on topics drawn from the news. Users pick a topic, take a side, and debate another user or an AI participant. Messages are moderated by an AI system before publication, each round is scored by an AI judge, and spectators can watch and rate debates. We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, and may impose limits on features or storage. The Service is in active development and may contain errors.
Participating requires an account, created with your email address or by signing in with Google. You must give accurate information and keep it current. You are responsible for everything done under your account and for keeping your sign-in links and sessions private. Tell us at hello@debatbl.com at once if you suspect unauthorised access. One person, one account; you may not create accounts for others or transfer yours. We may reclaim handles that impersonate others or are otherwise inappropriate.
You agree not to:
Debatbl exists for genuine argument. Debating in bad faith, deliberately provoking, or gaming the system to climb the leaderboard violates the spirit of these Terms, and we may act on it even where no specific rule above applies.
Every debate message is reviewed by an AI moderation system before publication and may be rejected. Moderation is automated, is not perfect, and is not reviewed by a person in real time; a rejected message is not published and does not use a turn. We may remove content, suspend or terminate accounts, void scores or results, forfeit credits, and take any other action we consider appropriate for violations of these Terms or harm to the Service or its users, with or without notice. You may appeal a moderation or enforcement decision by writing to hello@debatbl.com.
Some debates are against AI participants, and some debates shown on the Service are conducted entirely between AI participants as demonstrations; both are labelled. AI participants argue assigned positions and their statements are not the views of Debatbl and may be inaccurate. Scores, results, judge's notes, coaching suggestions and generated topics are produced by large language models. They are opinions of an automated system, may be inconsistent or wrong, and are provided for entertainment and self-improvement. We do not guarantee the accuracy, fairness or consistency of any score or result, and we may re-score debates when we change the scoring system. Scores and results are not appealable except at our discretion.
Debates are public. Your handle, the side you took, your messages, scores and results are visible to anyone, may be listed on the Debates page, topic pages, leaderboards and share images, may be indexed by search engines, and may be quoted, embedded or shared by us and by others. Finished debates remain available indefinitely. Do not post anything you would not say publicly under your handle.
You keep whatever ownership you have in the content you post ("Your Content"). By posting it you grant Debatbl a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid, transferable and sublicensable licence to host, store, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publish, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, create derivative works from, analyse and otherwise use Your Content, in any media now known or later developed, for any purpose, including operating, promoting and improving the Service, training and evaluating AI systems, research, and the data uses described in the Privacy Policy. You waive any moral rights in Your Content to the extent permitted by law. You represent that you have all rights needed to grant this licence and that Your Content does not violate section 5. This licence survives deletion of your account because debates are a shared public record; where we delete Your Content, copies may persist in backups, in the other participant's record, and where others have shared it.
If you send us ideas, suggestions or feedback about the Service, we may use them without restriction or compensation.
The Service, including its software, design, text, graphics, logos, scoring methods, prompts, personas, generated topics and all related intellectual property, is owned by Debatbl or its licensors and protected by intellectual-property laws. Except for the limited right to use the Service under these Terms, we grant you no rights in it. "Debatbl" and our logo are our trademarks; you may not use them without permission.
Starting a debate uses a credit. New accounts receive a small number of free credits, which renew periodically as described in the Service; additional credits can be bought in bundles. Payments are processed by Stripe and we do not store card details. Prices may change at any time. Credits have no cash value, are not transferable, do not earn interest, and are non-refundable except where the law requires. We may refund a credit at our discretion, for example when an opponent abandons a debate. Credits are forfeited when an account is closed for violating these Terms or at your request.
By creating an account you agree to receive transactional messages such as sign-in links, debate notifications and receipts, and marketing messages about Debatbl and partner offers. You can unsubscribe from marketing at any time; transactional messages continue while you have an account.
The Service relies on third parties, including OpenAI, Stripe, Google and Amazon Web Services, and may link to third-party sites. We are not responsible for their content, terms or practices. Your use of Google sign-in is also subject to Google's terms.
If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice to hello@debatbl.com with your contact details, a description and location of the work and the infringing material, a statement of good-faith belief, a statement under penalty of perjury that you are authorised to act, and your signature. We will respond as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires and may terminate repeat infringers.
You may close your account at any time by writing to hello@debatbl.com. We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without cause or notice. On termination your right to use the Service ends, unused credits are forfeited, and sections 8 through 10 and 16 through 22 survive.
THE SERVICE AND ALL CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY SCORE, RESULT, MODERATION DECISION OR AI-GENERATED CONTENT WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THESE EXCLUSIONS, SO SOME MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DEBATBL AND ITS OWNERS, OPERATORS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS AND SUPPLIERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL OR REPUTATION, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM OR FIFTY US DOLLARS.
You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless Debatbl and its owners, operators, employees, contractors and suppliers from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of or relating to Your Content, your use of the Service, or your breach of these Terms or of any law or third-party right.
Please read this section carefully; it affects your rights. Before filing a claim, you agree to try to resolve it informally by writing to hello@debatbl.com; we will do the same. If it is not resolved within 60 days, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court, except that either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court or seek an injunction to protect intellectual property. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. You and Debatbl each waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action or class-wide arbitration. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing us within 30 days of first accepting these Terms with the subject "Arbitration opt-out"; the rest of the Terms will still apply.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Subject to section 19, the state and federal courts located in San Francisco, California have exclusive jurisdiction, and you consent to their jurisdiction.
We may change these Terms as the Service evolves. We will post the new version here and update the dates at the top, and for material changes we will notify you by email or a notice in the Service. Using the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the new Terms.
These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Debatbl about the Service. If any provision is found unenforceable it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the rest remains in force. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them, including in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, employment or agency relationship. Notices to you may be sent to the email address on your account.
Questions about these Terms: hello@debatbl.com.