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If something goes wrong with ChatGPT and you suffer losses, OpenAI's maximum financial liability to you is limited to what you paid in the last 12 months or $100, whichever is more, and OpenAI is not liable for indirect losses at all.
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
The terms cap OpenAI's aggregate liability at the amount paid in the prior 12 months or $100, which means that even paid subscribers have very limited financial recourse against OpenAI for service failures or harmful outputs.
Interpretive note: The exact liability cap figure and language were not directly extractable from the corrupted PDF; figures reflect the known limitation of liability provisions in OpenAI's publicly referenced Terms of Use and may have been updated in subsequent revisions.
This provision limits OpenAI's total financial liability to each user to the lesser of 12 months of payments or $100, and excludes all indirect, consequential, and data loss damages, regardless of the severity of the issue or reliance on AI outputs.
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A party's liability for any Liability under these Terms will be reduced proportionately to the extent the relevant Liability was caused or contributed to by the actions (or inactions) of the other party...
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"TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER OPENAI NOR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES OR LICENSORS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, OR DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, OR DATA OR OTHER LOSSES, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR OUR SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR THE SERVICE IN THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS OR ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100).Excerpt from OpenAI's Terms of Use
1. REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: Liability limitation clauses in consumer contracts are subject to statutory limits in many jurisdictions. EU consumer protection law and the Consumer Rights Directive may limit the enforceability of such caps against consumers, particularly where the limitation is disproportionate to the harm suffered. California's CLRA and other state consumer protection statutes may provide additional protections. The EU AI Act's liability provisions, once fully in force, may impose minimum liability standards on AI system providers that interact with contractual limitation clauses. 2. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: High for organizational users relying on OpenAI outputs for high-value decisions. The $100 cap means that business losses arising from AI output errors, data loss, or service outages are effectively unrecoverable from OpenAI under these terms, regardless of the scale of reliance. 3. JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU member states, UK, Australia, and other jurisdictions with consumer protection frameworks that prohibit unreasonable liability exclusions may not enforce the full scope of this limitation against local consumers. The limitation may also be subject to challenge under unconscionability doctrine in US courts depending on the circumstances. 4. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Businesses building commercial products on OpenAI's API should not assume any pass-through protection from this limitation for their own customer liability; they retain full liability to their own customers for AI output failures regardless of this clause. Enterprise customers should negotiate liability terms in the Business Terms agreement. 5. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Risk management teams should assess the financial exposure from reliance on OpenAI services for high-stakes decisions given the effective $100 liability cap, and should ensure contractual risk allocation with their own customers and insurance coverage reflect this limitation.
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Provision-level monitoring, governance timelines, and regulatory mapping built from archived source documents and historical version tracking.
The terms cap OpenAI's aggregate liability at the amount paid in the prior 12 months or $100, which means that even paid subscribers have very limited financial recourse against OpenAI for service failures or harmful outputs.
This provision limits OpenAI's total financial liability to each user to the lesser of 12 months of payments or $100, and excludes all indirect, consequential, and data loss damages, regardless of the severity of the issue or reliance on AI outputs.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 292 platforms. See the full comparison.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAI.