FlowAi Terms of Service

Version: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: October 10, 2026

The Forecast Disclaimer is part of these Terms.

Applies to: everyone who uses the FlowAi website, apps, alerts, exports and API, on any plan (Free, Pro, or Commercial, with or without the Data Integration package) and under any custom contract.
Data Integration package customers invoiced under a contract, and custom-contract customers, also sign a Data Integration Agreement (order form and master terms), which sits on top of these Terms and wins if the two conflict.

Key terms, in short. Please read these before using FlowAi; the full text follows.

• Forecasts are model estimates for information only. They will differ from what rivers actually do. You use them at your own risk. (section 3)
• We are not responsible for the consequences of inaccurate, late or missing forecasts or alerts, including where caused by our negligence, to the extent the law allows. (sections 3 and 15)
• Our total liability is limited to the fees you paid in the last 12 months, or C$50 if you paid nothing, and we are not liable for indirect losses. (section 15)
• Not for life-safety decisions. No alert does not mean you are safe. Always follow official flood messages. (sections 3 and 9)
• Forecasts need a free account, so you accept these terms before you see one. Observations are public. These Terms apply whenever you use FlowAi, with or without an account. (section 2)

1. Who we are

FlowAi is a sole proprietorship based in Washington State, USA, at 12550 120th Ave NE, Kirkland WA, 98034. "FlowAi", "we" and "us" mean the operator and, for the disclaimers and limits in sections 3, 9 and 15, also anyone who works on FlowAi for us (employees, contractors and service providers); those disclaimers and limits protect each of them as they protect us. Contact us at [email protected].

FlowAi publishes river flow forecasts, and observed river flows and levels, for Canadian streamflow gauges. Prices are in Canadian dollars (CAD).

2. Agreeing to these Terms

• Forecasts are shown only to signed-in users on a paid plan. Free accounts and signed-out visitors see observations and basin weather, and no river forecast. An account is free, and you accept these Terms and the Forecast Disclaimer by ticking the box when you sign up.
• Without an account you can view public observations (measured data). By using FlowAi that way you agree to these Terms; a link to them is on every page. If you don't agree, don't use FlowAi.
• You also agree to a changed version by using FlowAi after we tell you about the change (section 16).
• When you sign up we record the version of the Terms you accepted and the time. We keep that record as proof of what you agreed to.
• You must be old enough to form a contract where you live, or have a parent or guardian do it for you. If you sign up for an organisation, you confirm you have authority to bind it. If your organisation has a signed Data Integration Agreement, you accept these Terms on its behalf, and that agreement governs where it differs.
• You must also accept the Forecast Disclaimer. It is part of these Terms.

3. Important: forecasts are for information only

Please read this section carefully.

• FlowAi forecasts are computer-model estimates. They are for information only.
• Forecasts can be wrong. FlowAi is not responsible for the consequences of inaccurate forecasts.
• Do not use FlowAi as the basis for life-safety decisions (for example evacuation, rescue, or the operation of a dam where people could be harmed). FlowAi is not an emergency warning system.
• You use forecasts at your own risk and are responsible for how you interpret and use them. No alert, or a low forecast, does not mean you are safe.
• Follow the official flood messages from the flood forecasting or emergency management authority for your area (such as your conservation authority, municipality or provincial government). If an official message and FlowAi disagree, the official message wins.
• We show every modelled gauge's validation status and skill (how well the model did when tested against past observations). Check them before you use a gauge's forecasts. Weak lead days are shown, not hidden. Past skill does not guarantee future results.

The full wording is in the Forecast Disclaimer.

Public agencies. If your organisation is a public body responsible for flood messages, emergency management or water control (for example a conservation authority, a municipality, a ministry or a First Nation government), its account is flagged as a Public Agency and the Public Agency version of the Forecast Disclaimer (section 7) applies to its users instead of the general version. In short: forecasts are model guidance for your qualified staff, a qualified person reviews them before they inform a warning or operation, they are never the sole basis for one, and your organisation's official messages and decisions are its own responsibility. Data Integration Agreements and custom contracts add the Public Agency Addendum (Schedule D). Tell us if your organisation should be flagged.

4. Your account

• Give us a real email address and keep your details correct. We send account, security and alert emails to it.
• Keep your password secret. Tell us straight away at [email protected] if you think someone else has access.
• You are responsible for activity on your account, unless it happened because of our fault.
• Free and Pro accounts (including the free Pro access during the free period) are for one person. Do not share a login. Commercial plans allow unlimited users, but only the organisation's own authorised users (section 7), and unlimited rivers (section 5).
• Commercial organisations are invite-only. An organisation's administrators can invite only people with an email address on the organisation's own email domains. To add someone on another domain, such as a contractor or consultant working for you, ask us at [email protected]. We approve it if that person is one of your authorised users.
• We may ask you to confirm a login from a new device with an emailed code. Organisation administrators on Commercial must do this.
• You can delete your account at any time (see section 14 and the Privacy Policy).

5. Plans and prices

Free period until July 1, 2027

Nothing is charged before July 1, 2027. Until then:

• Pro is free for every signed-in account. You get the Pro features in the table below on all gauges, with no payment and no card.
• Commercial is free for approved organisations. An organisation signs up with a work email as usual, and FlowAi approves each organisation before it gets Commercial access. An approved organisation gets all gauges and the full web product (10-day forecast, rivers, organisation thresholds, manual CSV download).
• The Data Integration package (API keys, FEWS feed, scheduled reports) is not sold during the free period; we expect to sell it from summer 2027. In the meantime an organisation can ask to test the API and FEWS feed by emailing [email protected]. Testing access is free, on request, and we turn it on for your organisation for a limited time. The same disclaimer applies, you may not resell or publicly mirror the API, and redistribution stays time-limited as described here. We may withdraw testing access at any time.
• The free access ends on July 1, 2027. On that date a Pro account drops to Free unless it has a paid Pro subscription, and an organisation either subscribes to Commercial or drops to Free. There is no bridge agreement or automatic charge: you are never billed unless you choose a paid plan and see the price at checkout.
• We will email you before the free period ends. The free period is not a trial and does not start a subscription.

Prices will be set based on adoption during the free trial, which runs through the 2027 freshet. We will publish them, and email you, before the free period ends; you are never billed unless you choose a paid plan and see the price at checkout.

Data Integration package (Commercial organisations; sold from summer 2027, testing access on request during the free period): price to be set (see above), billed annually by invoice or EFT. It includes the REST API and API keys, the FEWS PI-REST feed and adapter kit, scheduled HTML and CSV reports to distribution lists, bulk history and the issued-forecast archive through the API, and about 2 hours of FEWS setup help (anything beyond that is quoted). A 30-day trial is available once per organisation, on request and with our approval; during the trial the API gives about 90 days of history, and the keys expire when it ends.

• Forecast horizons count today as day 1. A 5-day forecast covers today and the next 4 days; a 10-day forecast covers today and the next 9 days. Today's forecast is issued early in the day, so part of it may already have passed. Forecast days are UTC days; each forecast shows its issue time. When a newer forecast is not yet available, fewer days may be shown (section 9).
• Pro gauges: Pro includes 3 unlocked gauges; extra gauges can be added.
• Forecast alerts are information only. They never use the names of official flood messages and are not one. They link to the official flood messages of the flood forecasting or emergency management authority for your area (such as your conservation authority, municipality or provincial government), and the official message always wins.
• Gauge swaps: on Pro and Commercial you may swap one unlocked gauge for another once per week, at no charge.
• Rivers: a river is a group of gauges you define for day-to-day monitoring and reports. You can delete and recreate rivers as often as you like. Deleting or recreating a river never changes what you are billed. Commercial allows unlimited rivers.
• No day passes and no one-off gauge purchases.
• Custom contracts have no list price. They are for hydro utilities, custom models, single sign-on and invoiced contracts. Contact us.
• Custom pricing: hydro utilities and custom models for an organisation's own gauges are priced by contract.
• The plan you see at checkout, with its price, is the plan you get. Features listed for a plan may grow over time; we won't remove a listed feature from a plan mid-term without telling you first (see section 16).

6. Paying, renewing and cancelling

The full rules are in the Refund and Cancellation Policy. In short:

• Nothing is charged before July 1, 2027 (section 5). The rules below apply to paid plans from that date.
• Paid plans renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or yearly) until you cancel. Before you buy, we show you the price, the billing period, when it renews, and how to cancel. After you buy, we email you a confirmation.
• Cancel any time from your account settings (a "Cancel subscription" button that takes effect without needing to contact us). You keep your paid access until the end of the period you already paid for.
• Adding and removing gauges. On a monthly plan, a gauge you add partway through a month unlocks now and is billed from your next renewal. On a yearly plan, a gauge you add is charged right away for its share of the yearly price for the time left until your renewal, then renews with the rest of your plan. On any plan, removing a gauge takes effect at your next renewal, with no partial refund.
• Payments are handled by Stripe (see the Privacy Policy). We never see or store your full card number.
• If a payment fails, we retry it and email you. If it is still unpaid after a grace period of 7 days, your account drops to Free until you pay.
• We may change prices. A new price only applies from your next renewal, and we email you at least 30 days before a new price applies to you.
• Prices are in CAD and do not include tax. Where we must collect GST/HST or other sales tax, checkout shows it and the total before you pay, and your receipt lists it.

7. What you may do with forecasts (licence)

We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use FlowAi for the plan you have, on these terms.

Using forecasts in your own decisions is allowed on every plan. You don't need a higher plan to use forecasts for personal or business purposes. How you use them, and the risk of doing so, is yours (section 3). The plans differ in what you may share with others, below.

Authorised users. Your "authorised users" are your organisation's own employees, and contractors and consultants acting for your organisation. A separate legal body is not an authorised user, even if it works closely with you or belongs to the same government or group: for example another conservation authority, a municipality, another ministry or agency, or another company in a utility's group. A separate body is an authorised user only if it is named in your order form or contract. A Commercial organisation's account access is for its authorised users only. That includes logins, the app, exports and, with the Data Integration package, the API and feed.

Redistribution needs Commercial (with or without the Data Integration package) or a custom contract, or, during the free period, an approved organisation (see below). "Redistribute" means making forecast values, charts or files available to people outside your own account. Examples:

• publishing forecast values or charts on a website, in social media or in an app;
• including them in a client report, a public bulletin or a newsletter;
• embedding them in another site;
• sending them to third parties through a feed, file or API;
• sharing screenshots or exports of them.

Under Commercial (and under a custom contract) you may redistribute forecasts, and you do not have to credit FlowAi. (You may credit us if you like.) This includes sharing them with the public, for example:

• on your website;
• in news releases;
• in flood messages and public notices;
• on social media;
• in answers to media enquiries;
• in briefings to elected officials and the public.

The service-bureau rule below still applies. The Data Integration package and custom contracts also give the feed and API rights described in the package or the agreement. You may not resell the API, or mirror it publicly (for example, by republishing the feed as your own API). Passing forecast values on as described above stays allowed.

No service-bureau use. You may not provide forecasts, charts, files, feeds, API output or account access to another organisation for that organisation's own operational use (for example its monitoring, flood forecasting, operations or its own messages), unless that organisation is named in your order form or contract. An organisation that uses FlowAi for its own operations needs its own account and its own gauge unlocks.

Your own emergency response is different. Sending forecasts to a partner agency in the course of your own emergency response is allowed. That is your own public-safety communication, not a supply to the partner's operations. Examples:

• Allowed: a conservation authority includes forecast charts in its own flood message and sends it to the municipalities in its watershed and to local media.
• Allowed: a conservation authority shows forecasts to a joint emergency operations centre that it staffs during a flood.
• Not allowed: a ministry unlocks gauges and sends forecast values, charts or a daily file to conservation authorities and municipalities for their own monitoring or flood messages.
• Not allowed: an organisation gives another organisation's staff a login, or passes on its API key or feed, so that organisation can watch its own gauges.

Confirming who uses FlowAi. If you are invoiced under a Data Integration Agreement or a custom contract, we may ask for a reasonable confirmation of who uses the service through your account (for example the organisations your users work for). You will give it within 30 days.

Redistribution during the free period is time-limited. An organisation that has been approved for free Commercial access (section 5) may redistribute forecasts, on the same terms as a Commercial customer, until July 1, 2027. After that date the right ends unless the organisation subscribes to Commercial (or signs a custom contract). Material the organisation has already published before then does not need to be taken down, but it may not publish new forecast values, charts or files, or update what it has published with new forecasts, without a paid plan. Free Pro access during the free period gives no redistribution right.

Not redistribution, on any plan: describing a forecast in your own words ("river levels look fine this weekend"), or telling a colleague or family member what you saw, without sharing the values, charts or files themselves.

A screenshot counts as redistribution. On Free and Pro, please do not post screenshots of forecasts publicly or hand them to clients. Sending one to a colleague inside your own organisation for an internal decision is fine.

Observations (measured data from Water Survey of Canada and others) are open data under their own licences. See Data Sources and Attribution. Different rules can apply to redistributing data that comes from a provider other than us; check the note there.

Redistributing means you take on the responsibility. If you pass forecasts on, you must (a) not misrepresent them as official government forecasts or warnings, (b) keep or pass on the forecast disclaimer wording in a reasonable form (a short line such as "Forecasts are for information only and may be inaccurate; follow official flood messages" is enough), and (c) not change the numbers and present them as ours. Your own additions must be clearly your own.

If you redistribute on a Commercial plan or a custom contract, or use FlowAi for a business, you are responsible to the people you share with. You will cover us (defend and indemnify us) against claims by anyone who received FlowAi forecasts from you, or who relied on your messages, reports or products that use them, to the extent the claim arises from your failure to pass on the disclaimer, your breach of these Terms, or what you added or said. This paragraph does not apply to individuals using FlowAi for personal, family or household purposes.

8. Rules of use

You may not:

• pass off FlowAi forecasts as official government forecasts, flood warnings or emergency messages;
• use FlowAi as the basis for a life-safety decision (section 3; public agencies see the Public Agency version);
• share a Free or Pro login, or resell or sublicense your access;
• give account access, or provide forecasts, charts, files, feeds or API output, to another organisation for its own operational use, unless it is named in your order form or contract (section 7);
• redistribute forecasts on a plan that does not allow it;
• scrape, or use bots to pull data at volume, or try to bypass rate limits, quotas or tier limits (use an API key from the Data Integration package if you need automated access);
• attack, probe or overload the service, or try to get at other users' data;
• upload unlawful content, or content you don't have the right to upload;
• use the service to break the law.

We may limit or suspend access to stop abuse or protect the service.

9. Forecast quality and availability

• Quality is disclosed. Each modelled gauge shows its validation status and skill measures, including skill at each lead day. Gauges that don't pass validation can still be unlocked, and we show the skill first so you can decide.
• Forecasts are automatic. They are not reviewed by a person before publication. They depend on weather-model inputs, observed data and our models, and any of these may be late, missing or wrong.
• Stale forecasts. If a forecast is out of date, we show a notice. Don't rely on it.
• We don't fill gaps quietly. If data is missing we say so.
• Availability. We work to keep FlowAi running, but no plan or contract has an uptime guarantee.
• Alerts are best effort. We don't guarantee that an alert will be sent, sent on time, or delivered: forecasts can miss a rise, and email can be delayed, filtered as spam or lost. No alert, or a low forecast, does not mean you are safe. Don't depend on FlowAi alerts as your only warning.

10. Third-party data and maps

Some data comes from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Water Survey of Canada, and other sources, under their licences. Their required attribution statements are in Data Sources and Attribution. Map data is © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and Protomaps. Third-party data may contain errors or gaps, and we do not guarantee it.

11. Your content

You may give us things like organisation names, logos, contact details, alert thresholds, river names and messages you write in the app ("your content"). You keep ownership. You give us permission to store and process it, and to show it to the people you choose, in order to run the service for you. You promise you have the right to provide it. If you use FlowAi to write or send flood or status messages to others, you are responsible for what they say.

12. Our intellectual property

FlowAi, its models, code, calibration, design and forecasts are ours or our licensors'. Except for the rights in section 7, we don't give you ownership of anything. The underlying government data remains available from its original sources under its own licences.

13. Privacy

How we handle personal information is explained in the Privacy Policy. Our data is stored in Toronto, Canada; see the Data Residency Statement.

14. Ending your account

• You can cancel a subscription or delete your account at any time. Account deletion is finished within 30 days (some records we must keep, such as tax records, stay for the time the law requires; see the Privacy Policy).
• We may suspend or close an account if you break these Terms, don't pay, or misuse the service. We'll normally warn you first and give you a chance to fix the problem, unless the misuse is serious or urgent. If we close your account for a reason that isn't your fault, we refund the unused part of any period you prepaid.
• We may stop offering a plan or the whole service. If we end a paid plan, we give at least 30 days' notice and refund any prepaid period we can't deliver.
• After termination, or when the free period ends without a subscription, your right to redistribute forecasts ends (except for material already published in the past, which needn't be taken down).
• Sections that by their nature should survive (liability, disclaimers, governing law) do.

15. Limits on our responsibility

Forecast disclaimer. As set out in section 3 and the Forecast Disclaimer, FlowAi is not responsible for the consequences of inaccurate forecasts.

Warranty. To the extent the law allows, FlowAi is provided "as is" and "as available". We don't promise that forecasts will be accurate, complete, on time, or right for your purpose. Some laws give consumers rights that can't be waived. Nothing in these Terms takes those away.

These limits apply to every kind of claim, whether in contract, in tort (including negligence), for breach of statutory duty or otherwise, and to claims about forecasts, alerts, observations, exports, feeds and the website alike.

Cap on liability. To the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for all claims together connected with FlowAi is limited to the greater of:

• the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event that gave rise to the claim; and
• C$50 if you paid us nothing (for example on the Free plan).

No indirect losses. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for lost profits, lost revenue, business interruption, loss of data, or indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, even if we were told they were possible, and including losses from decisions made using forecasts.

Claims by others through you. FlowAi has no duty to anyone who is not a user and has not accepted these Terms, and these Terms give no rights to anyone else (for example your family, tenants, clients or the public).

Time limit for business claims. If you use FlowAi for a business, any claim against us must be started within one year after you knew or ought to have known of it. This does not shorten any limitation period that protects consumers.

Reasonable and fair. Because FlowAi forecasts cost little compared with the losses a flood can cause, and their uncertainty is disclosed, you agree that these limits are a fair allocation of risk and part of what makes the prices possible.

What is not limited. Nothing here limits liability that can't be limited by law, such as liability for fraud or wilful misconduct, or a consumer's non-waivable rights under Ontario consumer law.

Data Integration Agreement. A Data Integration Agreement has its own cap. No plan or contract has an uptime guarantee or service credits.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. For a change that matters (for example one that reduces your rights or raises prices), we email you at least 30 days before it applies, and we ask you to accept the new version when you next sign in. If you don't accept, you can cancel and get a refund of any prepaid period after the change date. We record the new version and the time when you accept it. Minor fixes (typos, contact details) can take effect when posted.

17. Consumers in Ontario

If you are an individual using FlowAi for personal, family or household purposes and live in Ontario, the Ontario Consumer Protection Act, 2002 (as it applies, or any replacing act) gives you rights that apply whatever these Terms say. In particular, nothing in these Terms requires you to give up your right to sue as a group, or to take a dispute to private arbitration. Our cancellation and refund policy is written to respect those rules.

18. Governing law and where disputes go

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. The courts of Ontario, sitting in Toronto, have jurisdiction over any dispute about FlowAi, and you and we both accept that jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, you may also have the right to bring a claim where you live, and consumer protection laws of your province that can't be waived still apply.

19. General

• Whole agreement. These Terms, the Disclaimer, the Refund and Cancellation Policy and (where one is signed) the Data Integration Agreement are the whole agreement about FlowAi.
• If part is unenforceable, the rest still applies.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce something right away, we haven't given it up.
• Assignment. You can't transfer your account. We can transfer our rights to a successor of the business; we'll tell you.
• Notices. We may notify you by email or in the app. You can reach us at [email protected] or 12550 120th Ave NE, Kirkland WA, 98034.
• Where we offer FlowAi. FlowAi is offered in English to users in Canada outside Quebec. We don't market to Quebec and paid plans can't be bought with a Quebec billing address until we can offer these Terms and our service in French. You can still view public observations from anywhere.
• Force majeure. Neither side is liable for failures caused by events outside its reasonable control, such as severe weather, power or internet outages, or failure of upstream government data services.

20. Contact

FlowAi (a Washington State sole proprietorship), 12550 120th Ave NE, Kirkland WA, 98034, [email protected].
Privacy questions: see the Privacy Policy for the privacy officer's contact.