Terms of Service
How Thelemail's encrypted email hosting works, what you agree to, and the limits of what we promise.
Last updated: 6 September 2026
Effective date: 1 September 2026 for new accounts and subscriptions; 1 October 2026 for direct-web subscriptions already active before 1 September 2026
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of Thelemail, an encrypted email hosting service operated by Thelemail, based in Portugal at Praça de Bocage 67, 2900-277 Setúbal (“we”, “us”). By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these Terms.
If you do not agree, do not use the service.
Transition for existing direct-web subscribers: These Terms apply from 1 September 2026 to accounts created and subscriptions first purchased on or after that date, including App Store and Google Play purchases. For a direct-web subscription already active before 1 September 2026, the prior terms govern that subscription until 1 October 2026. Any more favourable direct-web refund eligibility or rate-lock right granted under the prior terms remains in force according to the promise under which it was granted; these Terms do not shorten or revoke that existing right.
1. The service
Thelemail provides encrypted email hosting. A Personal account may start with an @thelemail.com mailbox. Free Family works with up to six @thelemail.com accounts without a custom domain. Paid Family and Business member mailboxes use a connected custom domain. The service provides zero-access encryption at rest, end-to-end encryption between Thelemail accounts, and encryption to external recipients who publish a compatible OpenPGP key through WKD. Our threat model describes the protected surfaces and technical boundaries. Guarantees remain limited to these Terms.
2. Accounts and eligibility
You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide, for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and recovery material, and for all activity under your account. Thelemail uses OPAQUE password authentication, which allows your device to prove knowledge of your password without sending the password to us; we store an OPAQUE registration record instead.
Important (zero-access consequence): OPAQUE lets your device use your password to unlock the wrapped account key without sending the password to us. We do not hold your password or a readable copy of that key. If you lose your password and your recovery phrase, we cannot decrypt or restore your stored mail. This behavior is a deliberate design property of the service. We are not liable for data loss resulting from lost credentials.
3. Plans, billing and payment
- The Free plan provides one mailbox, one @thelemail.com address and 1 GB of storage for one person without a payment method. It has no expiry date and is not a subscription. Free Family includes up to six private @thelemail.com mailboxes with 1 GB each and one shared @thelemail.com alias, without a payment method or expiry date. Custom domains, more storage and additional aliases require a paid plan.
- Paid plans include unlimited aliases. A workspace anti-abuse guardrail may restrict excessive, automated or abusive alias creation.
- Paid plans are billed monthly or annually in advance, depending on the term you choose at checkout. Monthly billing is available for subscriptions purchased directly on the Thelemail website; App Store and Google Play subscriptions are annual. Current plans, direct website prices and capacity limits are listed at thelemail.com/pricing.
- Subscriptions purchased directly on the Thelemail website are paid by card and processed by Stripe. The listed euro prices for direct website purchases by consumers are final totals and include any VAT Thelemail is required to collect; no tax is added to those totals at checkout. We do not store full payment card details.
- Subscriptions purchased in the iOS app are auto-renewable subscriptions processed by Apple and charged to your Apple Account. Android app subscriptions are processed by Google Play. The applicable store displays its localized price and billing terms before confirmation; store prices may differ from direct website prices. Apple or Google controls the payment method, renewal transaction and billing process for its purchases.
- For direct website per-mailbox plans, adding or removing mailboxes mid-term is prorated against the remaining term. Changes to a mobile subscription follow the applicable store rules.
- Founder rate-lock: where expressly offered for a direct website annual subscription, your signup price remains fixed for as long as the subscription stays continuously active. It does not apply to monthly subscriptions. A lapse ends the rate-lock. Store subscriptions are governed by the price and price-change rules of the applicable store.
- Prices for new terms may change. We or the applicable store will provide any notice or request any consent required before renewal at a changed price.
4. Refunds and the 30-day guarantee
Thelemail’s 30-day money-back guarantee applies only to a new subscription purchased directly on the Thelemail website: if you are not satisfied, contact us within 30 days of your first direct payment for a full refund. After 30 days, direct-purchase fees for the current term are non-refundable except where required by law.
Refund requests for App Store purchases are handled by Apple under Apple’s applicable terms and refund process. Refund requests for Google Play purchases are handled under Google Play’s applicable terms and refund process. Thelemail cannot promise or issue a store refund outside that store’s process. This does not affect rights that cannot be excluded under applicable law.
5. Cancellation and termination by you
You may cancel a direct website subscription from your Thelemail account settings. An App Store subscription must be managed or canceled in your Apple Account settings, and a Google Play subscription in Google Play. The Free plan has no renewal or charge. Cancellation stops future renewals; paid service remains available until the end of the applicable paid term. You may export your mail at any time, including after cancellation until the account is closed.
6. Acceptable use
You agree not to use Thelemail to:
- send spam, bulk unsolicited mail, or mail that violates anti-spam laws (including the ePrivacy rules and CAN-SPAM where applicable);
- conduct phishing, fraud, or distribution of malware;
- harass, threaten, or harm others, or infringe others’ rights;
- violate any applicable law;
- attempt to probe, breach, or disrupt the service or other users’ accounts;
- resell the service or operate it as your own email provider for third parties without our written agreement.
Because all customers share sending infrastructure, abuse by one account damages mail delivery for everyone. We therefore enforce sending rate limits and may suspend or terminate accounts engaged in abuse immediately and without prior notice. Where reasonably possible we will notify you. If we terminate a paid term purchased directly on the website for reasons other than abuse, we will refund its unused portion. For a store-billed term, any refund request or remedy is handled through the applicable store process, subject to the store’s rules and rights that cannot be excluded under applicable law.
7. Termination or suspension by us
We may suspend or terminate your account if you materially breach these Terms, if required by law, or if your use creates a serious risk to the service or other users. For breaches capable of remedy, we will normally give you notice and an opportunity to remedy before termination, except in cases of abuse under Section 6.
8. Service availability and support
We aim for high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted service. Planned maintenance and incidents are communicated by email or in-product notice when appropriate. Support is provided by email on a reasonable-efforts basis; plans that include priority support receive faster response targets as described on the pricing page.
9. Service changes and discontinuation
We may improve or modify the service over time. If we ever discontinue Thelemail, we commit to: a minimum of six (6) months’ advance notice, keeping the export tool available throughout the notice period, refunding the unused portion of prepaid terms purchased directly on the website, helping users seek any applicable remedy through the store process for store-billed terms, and providing reasonable migration assistance (custom-domain users can redirect their mail by changing their DNS records at any time).
10. Your content
You retain all rights to the contents of your mail. We claim no ownership of it. Due to the zero-access design, we cannot read your stored mail; we process message data only as technically necessary to provide the service (e.g. transmitting messages you send, encrypting inbound messages to your key on receipt), as described in the Privacy Policy.
You are responsible for the content you send. You warrant that your use does not infringe third-party rights or law.
11. Custom domains
You are responsible for owning and controlling any custom domain you connect, and for maintaining its DNS configuration. Loss of domain control may interrupt mail flow; we are not responsible for domains you do not maintain.
12. Intellectual property
The Thelemail service, software, and branding are our property or that of our licensors. Where we publish client application source code, its use is governed exclusively by the licence attached to that code.
13. Disclaimers
The service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties not expressly stated in these Terms, including fitness for a particular purpose. Email as a system has inherent limitations described in our threat model (for example, messages exchanged with external providers over standard SMTP are not end-to-end encrypted, and envelope metadata is visible); we do not warrant protection beyond what the service technically provides.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law, including under Portuguese and EU consumer protection law.
14. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the service in any 12-month period is limited to the amounts you paid us in that period. We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, loss of profits, or loss of data except where caused by our breach of these Terms or by our failure to exercise reasonable care, and except for liability that cannot lawfully be limited (including for intent or gross negligence, death or personal injury).
This limitation does not affect your statutory rights as a consumer.
15. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms. For material changes we will notify you (by email or in-product notice) at least 30 days before they take effect. If you do not agree to the changes, you may cancel before they take effect. For a direct website prepaid term, we will provide a pro-rata refund of the unused term. Store-billed subscriptions and refund requests remain subject to the applicable store’s cancellation and refund process and rights that cannot be excluded under applicable law.
16. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of Portugal, without prejudice to mandatory consumer protections of your country of residence within the EU. Disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of the Portuguese courts; consumers may also bring proceedings in their country of residence. EU consumers can find recognised alternative dispute-resolution bodies through the European Commission’s Consumer Redress portal.
17. Contact
Thelemail Praça de Bocage 67, 2900-277 Setúbal, Portugal Email: [email protected]
These Terms were last updated on 6 September 2026.