Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated: May 17, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of Drift, including the Drift desktop IDE, the Drift Cloud account service at account.drift-ide.com, and any related software, updates, and websites (together, the "Service"). By downloading, installing, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. The Service

Drift is a desktop integrated development environment built on the open-source VSCode OSS project. It includes optional integrations with third-party AI providers (such as Anthropic Claude, OpenAI Codex, and Google Gemini) which you connect using your own credentials.

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to download and use the Service for your internal development purposes, subject to these Terms.

2. Bring your own keys

AI features require credentials that you obtain directly from the respective provider. You are solely responsible for:

  • Complying with each provider's terms of service and acceptable use policies
  • All charges, quotas, and rate limits associated with your API usage
  • Keeping your credentials secure and revoking them if compromised

Drift does not resell provider capacity, does not proxy your requests through its own servers, and is not a party to your contract with any provider.

3. AI output

The Service can generate code, commands, and other content by sending your inputs to AI providers. Output may be inaccurate, incomplete, insecure, or otherwise unsuitable. You are responsible for reviewing all output before applying it to your code, executing it, or relying on it. You should treat agent-generated commands and edits with the same scrutiny you would apply to changes from any untrusted source.

Drift provides safeguards — such as diff previews, approval prompts, and permission modes — to help you review proposed actions. These safeguards are aids, not substitutes for your own judgment.

4. Drift Cloud account

Some features require a Drift Cloud account. By creating an account, you represent that the information you provide is accurate and that you are at least 13 years old (or the minimum age of digital consent in your jurisdiction, if higher).

You are responsible for safeguarding your credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly at [email protected] if you believe your account has been compromised.

We may suspend or terminate an account that violates these Terms, abuses the Service, or creates risk for other users or for the platform.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to:

  • Violate applicable law or the rights of others
  • Develop or deploy malware, surveillance tools, or other malicious software
  • Generate or distribute content that is illegal, harassing, or that infringes third-party rights
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Service except where permitted by applicable law or by the underlying open-source license
  • Interfere with the integrity or performance of the Service, attempt to circumvent its security mechanisms, or access it through unauthorized means
  • Resell or sublicense the Service, or use it to provide a competing hosted product

6. Your content

You retain all rights to the source code, files, prompts, and other content you create or open with the Service ("Your Content"). The Service operates on Your Content locally on your device or, when you connect to a remote machine, on that machine. We do not claim ownership of Your Content and do not store it on our servers, except for limited diagnostic data you choose to send us (such as an attached bug report).

7. Open source

Drift is built on VSCode OSS, which is distributed under the MIT License. Portions of the Service are released under open-source licenses; those components are governed by their respective licenses, which take precedence over these Terms with respect to those components.

8. Updates

The Service may check for and install updates automatically. Updates may add, modify, or remove features. We may discontinue features or the Service itself at any time, with reasonable notice where practical.

9. Fees

The Drift desktop IDE is currently provided at no charge. Some Drift Cloud features may require a paid subscription; pricing, billing terms, and refund policy for those features are presented at the point of purchase and are incorporated into these Terms by reference. AI provider usage is billed by the respective provider, not by us.

10. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of harmful components, that defects will be corrected, or that AI output will meet your requirements.

11. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL DRIFT, ITS AFFILIATES, OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) US $100.

12. Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Drift and its affiliates from any claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your use of the Service, your content, or your violation of these Terms or of any third-party rights.

13. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service or to specific features if you breach these Terms or if continued provision is not commercially viable. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination (including sections 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, and 14) will survive.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which Drift operates, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms will be resolved in the courts of that jurisdiction, unless required otherwise by mandatory local law.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be announced through the application or, for Drift Cloud users, via email. Your continued use of the Service after the changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to [email protected].