Refund Policy

Last Updated: September 10, 2026

This Refund Policy forms part of our Terms of Service and explains when we refund payments for a paid subscription to The Art of CTO. It is written to be the document you can hand to a procurement or finance team. If anything here differs from Section 4 of the Terms of Service, the Terms of Service prevail.

1. The policy in one paragraph

That is the whole commitment. The sections below say precisely how it is applied, so there are no surprises either way.

2. What is covered

• Self-serve paid subscriptions purchased through the Platform and billed by Stripe, on either monthly or annual billing.
• The first payment on that subscription — the charge taken when you first upgrade from the free tier to a paid plan.

The free tier costs nothing, so nothing is refundable on it. Team and enterprise arrangements are agreed separately in writing; where a signed order form or agreement applies, its refund and termination terms govern instead of this policy.

3. The 14-day window

• The window opens on the date your first paid subscription payment is taken and closes 14 calendar days later.
• You must email us within that window. The date we receive your email is what counts, not the date we process the refund.
• You do not need to give a reason. We may ask what did not work for you, but an answer is not a condition of the refund.
• The refund is of the first payment in full, including any tax we collected on it.
• We refund to the original payment method via Stripe, normally within 10 business days of confirming the request. How quickly the money appears after that is up to your card issuer or bank.
• Refunding your first payment ends the paid subscription immediately. Your account reverts to the free tier and premium features stop being available. Your data is not deleted; see Section 8.

4. After the first 14 days

• Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until cancelled.
• Cancelling from your billing page stops the next renewal. You keep access for the remainder of the period you have already paid for.
• We do not refund unused time within a billing period, and renewal payments are not covered by the 14-day refund. The 14-day refund applies once, to your first payment.
• Annual plans are treated the same way: the 14-day refund applies to the first annual payment; after that the plan runs to the end of the year you have paid for.
• Upgrades, downgrades and any proration are handled by the Stripe customer portal at the time you make the change.

5. Refunds we make outside this policy

Independently of the 14-day window, we will refund you where:

• We billed you in error — for example a duplicate charge, a charge after a valid cancellation, or a charge at the wrong amount. Tell us and we correct it in full, whenever it happened.
• We withdraw the Platform or a paid plan during a period you have paid for. In that case we refund the unused portion on a pro-rata basis.
• The law requires it — see Section 6.

We may decline a refund, or refuse further service, where an account has breached the Terms of Service — for example fraudulent payment, credential sharing, or repeat sign-ups made to claim the 14-day refund more than once.

6. Your statutory rights

This policy is offered in addition to your legal rights. It does not replace them and nothing in it excludes, restricts or modifies a right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Australia

Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. Where the Australian Consumer Law applies to you, you are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and to compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the service remedied if it is not of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure. These rights apply regardless of the 14-day window and regardless of how long you have been a customer.

European Union and United Kingdom

If you are a consumer resident in the EU or UK, you have a statutory right to withdraw from a contract for digital services within 14 days of entering it, without giving a reason. Because our subscriptions start immediately, strict application of that right would allow us to charge you for the part of the service already supplied before you withdrew. We do not do that: we refund the first payment in full, which is at least as favourable as the statutory right. To withdraw, email support@theartofcto.com within 14 days — any clear statement of your decision is enough, and no particular form of words is required.

Elsewhere

You retain the benefit of any mandatory consumer protection provisions of the law of the country in which you reside.

7. How to request a refund

1. Email support@theartofcto.com from the address on your account.
2. Tell us that you want a refund. Including the date of the charge helps us find it faster, but is not required.
3. We acknowledge within 1 business day and confirm the outcome within 5 business days.
4. Approved refunds are issued through Stripe to the original payment method, normally within 10 business days of confirmation.

Please contact us before raising a chargeback with your bank — it is faster for you and we can almost always resolve it directly.

8. What happens to your data

A refund ends the paid subscription; it is not an account deletion. Your account, your saved work and your Command Center, Foundry, SplitCause and 1:1 data remain in place under the free tier, and you can export or delete them at any time. To delete your account and its data entirely, use Dashboard → Settings, or email privacy@theartofcto.com. Retention periods are set out in our Privacy Policy.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. Changes apply to payments taken after the updated policy is published; they do not reduce the refund rights attached to a payment you have already made. Material changes are reflected in the "Last Updated" date above.

10. Contact

• Refunds and billing: support@theartofcto.com
• Legal inquiries: legal@theartofcto.com