PagerDuty’s Terms of Service are an online agreement between the customer and PagerDuty, Inc. that governs the customer’s access to or use of PagerDuty Services, with an effective date of 2023-12-21.[1] The Terms state that subscription terms entered before that date remain governed by the applicable legacy agreements until the end of the term.[1] PagerDuty’s legal index groups the Terms with the Standard Service Level Agreement, the Product-Specific Terms, a One-Time Reseller Agreement, the Support Policy, the Data Processing Addendum, Information Security Practices and Trial Terms.[6] This article reviews what these documents say that matters to a licence manager.
Structure and definitions
The Terms define three kinds of Service: Hosted Services (PagerDuty’s cloud-based products purchased under an Order Form or online ordering portal), On Prem Services (PagerDuty’s software provided for the customer’s on-site installation) and Professional Services.[1] The customer is the person or company accepting the Terms and any then-current Affiliates that use or purchase Services under an Order Form.[1] PagerDuty may refuse an Order Form with an Affiliate that fails a background check or financial history audit in its reasonable judgment.[1]
An Order Form is the ordering document or online order that specifies the Services.[1] Some Services are subject to additional Product-Specific Terms, which PagerDuty may update from time to time in its sole discretion.[1] The current Product-Specific Terms, effective 2026-09-22, state that they form part of the Terms of Service or the master agreement, and that PagerDuty may update them under the modification terms of the agreement.[2] The consequence is that the licence rules for the Platform, AI Actions and AIOps sit in a document that can change without a new signature; the version in force at signature and at each renewal should be archived. The PD Reliability Platform article describes the metrics in those terms.
Grant and restrictions
PagerDuty grants a world-wide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to use the Services in accordance with the Documentation and Order Forms, solely for the customer’s internal purposes.[1] Restrictions include altering or creating derivative works, renting, leasing or sublicensing the Services, including for timesharing or as a service bureau, reverse engineering, bypassing security, and use by anyone in a U.S.-embargoed country or a prohibited end user.[1] The Terms also prohibit using the Services for benchmarking or to analyze their workings for competitive purposes, or in a manner that imposes unusual demands outside normal operation.[1] On breach of these restrictions PagerDuty may suspend the Services on notice until the breach is corrected.[1]
Users and usage limits
Access is limited to the specified number of Users, each with a unique email address and username; subscriptions may not be shared by more than one User without consent but may be reassigned to replacements, and added subscriptions are coterminous and prorated.[1] Use may be subject to limits including the number and types of Users, email, phone call and SMS alerts, and Instances of installed On Prem Services, as well as disk storage, the rate of incoming email requests, the number of API calls in a period and the number of alerts the Services send to a Contact Person.[1] Failure to comply may cause malfunction, accrue additional usage fees, or result in suspension of the Services until compliance occurs.[1] The Terms define an Instance as one running copy of On Prem Services installed on a physical or virtual server in customer-controlled infrastructure, and multiple Instances may form a Cluster around common resources.[1] As published, the Terms contain no software audit clause: the only reference to an audit in the text reviewed is the background check of Affiliates. They do allow PagerDuty to suspend the Services and to charge additional usage fees when limits are exceeded.[1]
Fees, renewal and termination
Fees are as set in the Order Form. Unless it says otherwise, Service fees are invoiced annually in advance, the first invoice coincides with the Order Form start date, payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date, and each Order Form is non-cancellable and non-refundable except as the agreement or the Order Form provides.[1] Unpaid invoices attract a finance charge of one percent per month or the legal maximum, plus collection costs, and PagerDuty may suspend performance of the Services for overdue amounts.[1]
For renewal, the Terms distinguish hosted from on-premises and reseller purchases.
| Purchase | Renewal rule |
|---|---|
| Hosted Services | Renew automatically for the same term as the preceding term, at the prices communicated at least 60 days before term end (the same price if no increase is notified); minimum twelve months, except month-to-month self-serve customers; 30 days’ notice before the renewal date is required to downgrade or not renew |
| On Prem Services | No automatic renewal; access ends on expiry unless renewed by mutual agreement |
| Reseller purchases | No automatic renewal; renewal pricing is communicated by the reseller and a new order is placed |
All three rows are from the Terms of Service.[1] For a customer buying through a reseller, the customer pays the reseller, PagerDuty may suspend or terminate use if it does not receive its fees from the reseller, the reseller may not modify the agreement or make commitments for PagerDuty, and amounts paid by the reseller count as the amount paid for the liability cap.[1] The billing documentation adds that downgrades of a pricing plan are arranged through the Sales team and that annual plans may offer savings over monthly plans.[7]
The agreement continues for the Term in the Order Form or until all User subscriptions have expired or terminated, whichever is longer.[1] Either party may terminate for uncured material breach after 30 days’ notice or for insolvency. On termination for cause by PagerDuty the customer pays any unpaid fees for the remainder of the term, whereas on termination for cause by the customer PagerDuty refunds prepaid fees for the rest of the term.[1] On termination PagerDuty ends access, and the customer pays fees due within 15 days.[1]
Transfer, disputes and confidentiality
Neither party may assign without consent, except that either may assign to an Affiliate or to an entity merging with, consolidating with or purchasing substantially all of its assets or stock, provided the assignee assumes the obligations.[1] California law governs, with the state and federal courts in San Francisco having exclusive jurisdiction, and disputes are to be settled by binding arbitration before JAMS in San Francisco under its optional expedited procedures, although PagerDuty may seek injunctive relief from courts to protect its data security and intellectual property.[1] Before formal proceedings the parties attempt informal resolution for at least 30 days.[1]
The confidentiality section provides that neither party discloses the terms of the agreement or any Order Form to a third party other than its Affiliates, legal counsel or accountants without the other’s prior written consent.[1] That limit applies to sharing pricing with consultants or benchmarking services, so an organization needs written consent before passing its Order Form to anyone outside the permitted groups.
Trials, the Free Plan and pre-release technology
A trial lasts 14 days, or as the order states, for evaluation only, after which Hosted Services stop functioning unless the customer buys a subscription, elects the Free Plan or PagerDuty extends the trial.[1] PagerDuty can end Free Plan use for any reason or none without notice, and in the trial and Free Plan it has no obligation to continue providing the Services.[1] Pre-Release Technology (beta and similar) is provided free of charge, without support, as is, and without indemnification or warranty, with an aggregate liability of USD 1,000.[1] The Trial Terms say that a customer who enables a product trial is subject to the Terms of Service.[5] PD Labs are early-stage products provided to each individual Labs User, each Labs licence is personal and may not be shared, and PagerDuty may limit or end Labs at any time.[2]
Service level agreement
The Standard Service Level Agreement, effective 2026-09-14, applies separately to each account using the Hosted Services purchased by the customer. It does not apply to services provided at no charge, including trials, the Free Plan and Pre-Release Technology.[3] PagerDuty commits, on a commercially reasonable efforts basis, to the following.[3]
| Commitment | Level |
|---|---|
| Notification delivery: first responder notification within five minutes | 99.9 percent of notifications in a calendar month |
| Web application acknowledgement and resolution | 99.9 percent available in a calendar month |
| Runbook Automation (authenticate and trigger a job) | 99.5 percent available |
| Jeli Service | 99.9 percent available |
| Workflow Automation (previously Catalytic) | 99.9 percent available |
If PagerDuty misses a commitment, the customer may receive a service credit toward future fees equal to 10 percent of the fees attributable to the month of the breach for each SLA, requested in writing within 15 days of month end with reasonable evidence. Credits are not cumulative for a single cause, are computed per subdomain for some commitments, are capped at 30 percent of the fees for the month, are not available to customers past due, and are not exchangeable for cash.[3] The SLA is stated to be the customer’s sole and exclusive remedy for failures of service availability.[3]
Support and success packages
The Support and Success Policy states that Tech Touch and Standard Success packages are automatically included at no extra charge based on annual recurring revenue, while Silver Services, Gold Services, Premium Support and a la carte add-ons are available for purchase by contacting PagerDuty.[4] The policy lists these features.[4]
| Feature | Tech Touch | Standard Success | Premium Support, Silver, Gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge base and community | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email support | Not available | Business hours | 24x7x365, with 24x5 availability and P1 and P2 only outside that window |
| Phone and chat support | Not available | Not available | Yes |
| Initial response | Not stated | Not stated | P1 1 hour; P2 2 hours; P3 8 business hours; P4 24 business hours |
| Designated customer success manager | Not stated | Yes | Yes |
The Silver and Gold packages add on-site quarterly business reviews and different quantities of on-demand professional services, according to the policy.[4]
Other product terms
The Product-Specific Terms also set expiry rules for services purchased in advance. PagerDuty University virtual training expires and becomes invalid if not used within six months of the Order Form effective date, and Professional Services On-Demand hours expire if not used within 90 days, in both cases without refunds, extensions or credits.[2] Under the Terms, the customer retains ownership of Contact Information, PagerDuty retains ownership of its intellectual property and of any works resulting from Professional Services, and PagerDuty may compile aggregate, non-personally-identifiable statistics about use.[1]
Out of scope
This article does not cover the data processing addendum, security practices, acceptable use policy or privacy documents, nor negotiated master agreements, which replace the online Terms when executed. The Product-Specific Terms point to a master agreement executed between PagerDuty and the customer as an alternative to the online Terms of Service.[2]