Neither side can be held responsible for indirect or consequential damages like lost profits or lost data. Total liability is capped at what the customer paid Anthropic in the last 12 months.
This analysis describes what Anthropic's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
The liability cap at 12 months of fees and the exclusion of consequential damages, including lost profits and lost data, limits the financial recovery available to business customers if the Services fail or cause harm; this cap does not apply to indemnification obligations.
Interpretive note: Enforceability of the consequential damage exclusion and liability cap may be limited by applicable mandatory law in EEA, UK, or other jurisdictions, and depends on whether the exclusion is considered unreasonable under applicable commercial law.
Business customers cannot recover lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, or other consequential damages from Anthropic under these terms; any recoverable direct damages are capped at the fees paid in the prior 12 months, which may be significantly less than actual business losses in the event of a service failure.
How other platforms handle this
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER WHATNOT NOR ITS SERVICE PROVIDERS INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING, OR DELIVERING THE SERVICES WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUES, LOST SAVINGS, LOST BUSINESS OPPORT...
In no event will either party's aggregate liability arising out of or related to this Agreement exceed the total fees paid or payable by Customer in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim. In no event will either party be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive d...
BY AGREEING TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU ARE ALSO AGREEING TO CONTRACTUAL TERMS THAT WILL LIMIT SOME OF YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING A DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY, AN EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN KINDS OF DAMAGES, AND A LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.
Monitoring
Anthropic has changed this document before.
Receive same-day alerts, structured change summaries, and monitoring for up to 10 platforms.
"Except as stated in Section L.3.b, the liability of each party, and its affiliates and licensors, for any damages arising out of or related to these Terms (i) excludes damages that are consequential, incidental, special, indirect, or exemplary damages, including lost profits, business, contracts, revenue, goodwill, production, anticipated savings, or data, and costs of procurement of substitute goods or services and (ii) is limited to Fees paid by Customer for the Services in the previous 12 months.— Excerpt from Anthropic's Anthropic Commercial Terms
REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: Liability limitation clauses in commercial B2B contracts are governed by applicable contract law; in the UK and EEA, the Unfair Contract Terms Act and applicable national implementing legislation may constrain the enforceability of liability caps and exclusions in certain contexts. In the US, UCC provisions and state commercial law govern enforceability; California courts have periodically scrutinized broad consequential damage exclusions in technology contracts. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. The cap at 12 months of fees is a common commercial structure, but the complete exclusion of lost profits, lost data, and lost revenue means customers with high-value downstream dependencies on the API have limited contractual recourse for consequential failures. The cap does not apply to indemnification obligations under Section K. JURISDICTION FLAGS: EEA and UK customers should evaluate whether applicable mandatory law limits the enforceability of consequential damage exclusions, particularly where the exclusion would effectively remove meaningful recourse for a material service failure. The enforceability of liability caps may also vary in regulated industries such as financial services or healthcare. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Enterprise procurement teams should assess whether the 12-month fee cap is adequate given the potential downstream business impact of an API failure. The carve-out for indemnification obligations is notable and means that IP claims under Section K are not subject to the cap, which may represent significant exposure for both parties. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should assess whether the liability cap and consequential damage exclusion are compatible with their own downstream contractual obligations to customers. Organizations in regulated industries should evaluate whether mandatory law overrides the contractual exclusion in their jurisdiction.
Full compliance analysis
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Free: track 1 platform + weekly digest. Watcher: 10 platforms + same-day alerts. No credit card required.
Professional Governance Intelligence
Need to monitor specific governance provisions?
Professional includes provision-level monitoring, governance timelines, regulatory mapping, and audit-ready analysis.
Built from archived source documents, structured governance mappings, and historical version tracking.
The liability cap at 12 months of fees and the exclusion of consequential damages, including lost profits and lost data, limits the financial recovery available to business customers if the Services fail or cause harm; this cap does not apply to indemnification obligations.
Business customers cannot recover lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, or other consequential damages from Anthropic under these terms; any recoverable direct damages are capped at the fees paid in the prior 12 months, which may be significantly less than actual business losses in the event of a service failure.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 14 platforms. See the full comparison.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic.