Hugging Face Terms of Service are the binding agreement between Hugging Face, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and each user or customer of the Hugging Face website and services. The page is marked with an effective date of September 15, 2022, and states that the Terms, together with Supplemental Terms, notices and policies on the website, and any other binding document that is signed, apply when a user uses or purchases the services.[1] The Content Policy, effective April 10, 2025, is incorporated into the Terms of Service.[2]
Editions
The contract documents form a stack rather than editions. The Terms define “Agreement” to include the Terms, Supplemental Terms, notices and policies, and any other binding document such as an Order Form, a Scope of Work or a Master Services Agreement.[1] In a conflict the order of precedence is the applicable Order Form, the Scope of Work, any other binding document signed between the parties, the Supplemental Terms, the Terms of Service and then other incorporated documents.[1] See Order Form and signed documents outrank the Terms of Service. Customers who buy a custom plan have the fees and payment terms set in a Services Agreement, Order Form or other signed document.[1]
The services listed in the Terms are the open-source libraries, the public Hub, the private Hub, Inference Providers, AutoTrain, Enterprise Support, Infinity, the Hardware Partner Program and Inference Endpoints.[1] The Terms state that “purchases” and “sales” mean a limited right to access and use a service and not a transfer of ownership.[1]
Metrics
The Terms contain no licence metric. They govern how fees for the seat, personal-account, storage and compute metrics described in the other articles are invoiced. Plans and fees are available on the pricing page, and a custom plan is subject to further agreement.[1][4]
Counting / floors
Accounts
To create an account for oneself or an organization, one must be a natural person of at least 13 years of age or a duly registered legal entity. A person who creates an account for an organization represents that they have authority to bind it, and all information must be accurate and valid.[1] The account holder is responsible for password security and for any action taken with the account.[1] See An account needs a natural person aged 13 or a registered legal entity.
Payment
The plan is billed in advance on a monthly basis and usage-based fees, which apply if the allotted usage is exceeded, are billed as they go.[1] Fees are non-refundable and exclusive of taxes, which the customer must pay.[1] Hugging Face may adjust pricing at its sole discretion, but prices remain fixed during the term of the initial subscription and adjusted fees apply only after the term of the new subscription.[1] Payment is processed through a third-party payment or credit card processor, and the customer authorizes Hugging Face to invoice the account for fees due without further notice.[1] The operational detail, such as renewal on the 1st of each month and proration, is in the billing documentation.[3] See Plans are billed monthly in advance and usage fees as they go and Price changes apply after the current subscription term.
Changes to the Terms
Hugging Face may change or update the Terms from time to time. Changes are effective 10 days after posting on the website, and continued use after that time means the user accepts them.[1] Supplemental Terms for specific services also apply.[1] The Content Policy has the same 10-day mechanism.[2] A contract manager relying on the standard terms therefore has no notice period beyond the posting date. See Terms changes take effect 10 days after posting.
Services may change
Hugging Face may modify, suspend or discontinue the services, or any part, temporarily or permanently, with or without notice, and says it will not be liable for the change.[1] It may also suspend or terminate access at any time with or without cause.[1]
Content and licences
Users are solely responsible for the content they post and must have the right to post it. The Terms say that users own the content they create, that Hugging Face will not sell it, and that the user grants Hugging Face a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to use, display, publish, reproduce, distribute and make derivative works of it to provide the services and as permitted under the Terms and the Privacy Policy.[1] See Users own their content and grant Hugging Face a licence to provide the services.
Visibility changes the licence position. A public repository grants each user a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to use, display, publish, reproduce, distribute and make derivative works of the content through the services. A private repository is protected by reasonable and appropriate measures designed to keep it confidential, but Hugging Face may access or share private information under the Privacy Policy.[1] Where content contains notice of a reasonable and customary licence, for example an open source licence, it remains under that licence when accessed, distributed or used, and neither party may remove the reference to the licence.[1] See A public repository grants each user a licence to the content and An open source licence notice on content continues to apply.
On the other side, content that a user downloads or uses from Hugging Face or another user is at the user’s own risk and subject to the Terms and the terms accompanying the content.[1] The Terms say that Hugging Face disclaims warranties about the accuracy, reliability or benefits of any services, artificial intelligence, models or other technology or content.[1]
Hugging Face keeps ownership of the website and the services, may use feedback commercially under a perpetual licence the user grants, and may aggregate, anonymize or learn from data about use of the services to improve them, subject to the Privacy Policy.[1] Open source items provided with the services stay under their own licences, and nothing in the Terms limits rights under an applicable open source licence.[1]
Content Policy
The Content Policy defines the repository states used elsewhere in the wiki. A public repository can be seen by anyone, and only the owner or organization members can change it. A private repository can be seen and changed only by the owner or organization members. A gated repository and its community content are visible to everyone, but access to the data or model weights requires accepting conditions in a click-through form or approval by the maintainers. A disabled repository has its access blocked for everyone except its owner.[2] See A gated repository is visible to all but its artifacts need acceptance or approval.
The policy lists restricted content, including unlawful content, fraud and malicious activity, harmful or abusive content, content that violates privacy or infringes third-party intellectual property, and platform abuse such as cryptomining, spam, hosting excessive or irrelevant data and using proxies to bypass restrictions.[2] Hugging Face may unrank content, add a “Not for All Audiences” tag, remove or disable access, restrict interactions, or suspend or terminate an account.[2] Repository owners can gate access to review and approve or reject access to their artifacts.[2] Copyright complaints follow a takedown and counter-notification process, in which the claimant has 14 U.S. business days to take legal action after a counter-notification.[2] The Terms separately provide for a DMCA complaint process.[1]
Audit
The Terms of Service contain no software licence audit clause and no right for Hugging Face to inspect a customer’s deployment, because the services are hosted. The documented controls are account-based: seats follow organization membership at renewal.[3] Organization-level controls are covered in enterprise security and access controls.
Term and termination
A customer may cancel an account at any time. Hugging Face may suspend or terminate with or without cause, with or without notice. On cancellation it will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete the user’s information and the content of their own repositories, public or private, within 90 days, but not content contributed to other users’ repositories or copies made by others, and it may retain information for legal or regulatory compliance.[1] For certain services the service term and termination causes may be in Supplemental Terms or an Order Form.[1] See Hugging Face may suspend or terminate without cause.
Warranty, liability and general terms
Each party’s aggregate liability will not exceed the amount paid to Hugging Face in the 12 months before the last claim, or $50 for a free service. The cap does not apply to fraud, gross negligence, recklessness or wilful or criminal misconduct, the customer’s liability for infringing Hugging Face intellectual property, breach of confidentiality, or amounts owed for services.[1] The user indemnifies Hugging Face for claims arising from the user’s use of the services, including violations and content, except where arising directly from Hugging Face’s fraud, gross negligence, recklessness or wilful or criminal misconduct.[1] The Terms are governed by the law of the State of New York, actions must be brought in state or federal courts in New York City, and a claim must be brought within one year of the event.[1] Hugging Face may assign the Terms to an affiliate or successor without consent, while the user may not.[1] Services may be subject to U.S. and other export control and sanctions laws.[1] See Liability is capped at fees paid in 12 months, or $50 for free services and New York law and New York courts govern, with a one-year claim limit.
Virtualization & partitioning
Not applicable. The Terms do not define processor, core or virtualization rules.
Cloud / BYOL
Not applicable to the Terms of Service. Marketplace billing and bring-your-own provider keys are billing mechanics in the Hub documentation, not Terms provisions, and are described in Hugging Face compute billing.
Programs
The Terms mention the Hardware Partner Program, Enterprise Support and Premium Support, without publishing separate terms for them on the Terms page. Fees and payment terms for certain services may be specified in Supplemental Terms or a signed document.[1]
Out of scope
This article does not reproduce the Privacy Policy, the Code of Conduct, or any Supplemental Terms, which the standard Terms page references but does not include. It does not cover the Digital Services Act process for European users beyond noting that the Content Policy provides a contest route, and it does not assess enforceability. A review of whether the standard 10-day change mechanism, the 12-month liability cap or the one-year claim limit are acceptable for a particular organization is practitioner commentary and is not a Hugging Face statement.