OpenAI · OpenAI EU Terms of Use · View original document ↗

Usage Policy Compliance and Prohibited Uses

Medium severity Low confidence Inferredfromcontext Unique · 0 of 325 platforms
Share 𝕏 Share in Share 🔒 PDF
Recent governance activity OpenAI recorded 5 documented changes in the last 30 days.
Start monitoring updates
Monitor governance changes for OpenAI Create a free account to receive the weekly governance digest and monitor one platform for governance changes.
Create free account No credit card required.
Document Record

What it is

The agreement requires users to comply with OpenAI's usage policies, which prohibit certain uses of the services including generating harmful, illegal, or deceptive content, and OpenAI may update these policies separately from the main terms.

This analysis describes what OpenAI'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

ConductAtlas Analysis

Why it matters (compliance & governance perspective)

Usage policy terms define the permitted scope of service use and are incorporated by reference into the agreement, meaning violations can trigger account termination; because these policies may be updated separately, users should monitor for changes that affect their use cases.

Interpretive note: Exact usage policy incorporation language was not available in the truncated document; this analysis is based on document structure and standard OpenAI terms framework.

Consumer impact (what this means for users)

Users are bound by OpenAI's usage policies in addition to the main terms, and changes to those policies may affect permitted uses without requiring a full terms revision; users with specific professional or creative use cases should periodically review the current usage policy to confirm their activities remain permitted.

How other platforms handle this

Adyen Medium

You agree to comply with Adyen's Acceptable Use Policy, as updated from time to time, which forms part of these Terms and Conditions. Adyen reserves the right to update the Acceptable Use Policy at any time.

Twitch Medium

You agree that you will not: post, upload, transmit, or otherwise make available through the Twitch Services any content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, harassing, threatening, hateful, objectionable with respect to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national o...

Venmo Medium

You may not use the Venmo services for any illegal purpose, to send money to any person or organization on a government sanctions list, for gambling, for purchasing or selling illegal goods or services, or for any activity that violates applicable law. You may not use Venmo for commercial transactio...

See all platforms with this clause type →

Monitoring

OpenAI has changed this document before.

Receive same-day alerts, structured change summaries, and monitoring for up to 10 platforms.

Start Watcher free trial Or create a free account →
ConductAtlas Analysis

Institutional analysis (Compliance & governance intelligence)

(1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: Usage policy provisions interact with the EU Digital Services Act's obligations around illegal content removal and systemic risk mitigation for large platforms, as well as national laws governing specific content categories (such as CSAM, terrorist content, and electoral disinformation). The EU AI Act's prohibited AI practices provisions (Article 5) may also constrain certain use cases that OpenAI's own policies address. (2) GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. The incorporation of a separately updatable usage policy by reference into the main agreement creates a moving compliance target for enterprise users, particularly those in regulated sectors where their own compliance programs must reflect the current permitted use scope. (3) JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU member states with sector-specific AI regulations or national content laws (notably Germany's NetzDG and France's Avia law successor frameworks) may impose additional obligations on users or platforms that interact with the usage policy's prohibited categories. (4) CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Enterprise customers should include contractual provisions requiring advance notice of material usage policy changes that would affect their deployed applications, rather than accepting the standard right to update without specific notice obligations. (5) COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Organizations that have built compliance programs around specific permitted uses should establish monitoring processes for usage policy updates and assess the impact of changes on their deployed OpenAI integrations.

Full compliance analysis

Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.

Track 1 platform — free Try Watcher free for 14 days

Free: track 1 platform + weekly digest. Watcher: 10 platforms + same-day alerts. No credit card required.

Applicable regulations

CFAA
United States Federal
DMCA
United States Federal
DSA
European Union
Trump Executive Order on AI Policy Framework
US

Provision details

Document information
Document
OpenAI EU Terms of Use
Entity
OpenAI
Document last updated
May 11, 2026
Tracking information
First tracked
May 11, 2026
Last verified
May 12, 2026
Record ID
CA-P-011053
Document ID
CA-D-00756
Evidence Provenance
Source URL
Wayback Machine
Content hash (SHA-256)
de276a8b3e29086fd981e998740a2283e9064e408cbd12835efb4a7406685da7
Analysis generated
May 11, 2026 11:32 UTC
Methodology
Evidence
✓ Snapshot stored   ✓ Hash verified
Citation Record
Entity: OpenAI
Document: OpenAI EU Terms of Use
Record ID: CA-P-011053
Captured: 2026-05-11 11:32:02 UTC
SHA-256: de276a8b3e29086f…
URL: https://conductatlas.com/platform/openai/openai-eu-terms-of-use/usage-policy-compliance-and-prohibited-uses/
Accessed: May 13, 2026
Permanent archival reference. Stable identifier suitable for legal filings, compliance documentation, and research citation.
Classification
Severity
Medium
Categories

Other risks in this policy

Professional Governance Intelligence

Need to monitor specific governance provisions?

Professional includes provision-level monitoring, governance timelines, regulatory mapping, and audit-ready analysis.

Arbitration clauses AI governance Data rights Indemnification Retention policies
Start Professional free trial

Or start with Watcher →

Built from archived source documents, structured governance mappings, and historical version tracking.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does OpenAI's Usage Policy Compliance and Prohibited Uses clause do?

Usage policy terms define the permitted scope of service use and are incorporated by reference into the agreement, meaning violations can trigger account termination; because these policies may be updated separately, users should monitor for changes that affect their use cases.

How does this clause affect you?

Users are bound by OpenAI's usage policies in addition to the main terms, and changes to those policies may affect permitted uses without requiring a full terms revision; users with specific professional or creative use cases should periodically review the current usage policy to confirm their activities remain permitted.

Is ConductAtlas affiliated with OpenAI?

No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAI.