What is Lay The Terms?▼
Lay The Terms is a plain-English consumer risk scanner for terms, policies, subscriptions, refunds, data sharing, and scam-style signals. It helps you understand risk before you agree, pay, or sign up.
Scan Terms, Policies & Scam Signals in Plain English
Lay The Terms
Scan the fine print. Spot the traps. Understand the terms.
Lay The Terms helps you understand the fine print before you agree, pay, sign up, or upload your data.
Check terms of service, privacy policies, refund rules, subscriptions, data sharing, and scam-style risk indicators in one clear report.
Upload supports PDF, Word (.docx), plain text, and public URLs. No account needed for a quick try.
Try example agreement types
Sample scan
Verdict: Caution
Soul Scale (all tiers)
Tier 5: Grey zone
Score band: tier 5 (Grey zone)
Example score
5.2/10Grey zone
Higher scores usually indicate more one-sided, unclear, restrictive, or user-unfriendly terms. Full reports use the matching Soul Scale band.
Score breakdown
Fairness
42/100
Higher is fairer to you.
Transparency
55/100
How clear the language is.
Who it favours
Leans company
Top issue: Broad license to your content
Recommendation: Read carefully before accepting
Illustrative example. Not a real scan.
Explore public scans of famous company policies
See Soul Scale scores, red flags, key quoted clauses, and plain-English takeaways before scanning your own agreement.
More than a score - a full plain-English risk report
Lay The Terms gives you more than a simple yes-or-no result. Every scan can include the Soul Scale score, a plain-English Deep Report, and a Trust & Scam Scan for payment, refund, subscription, data, and dark-pattern signals.
Soul Scale
Get a clear 1-10 risk score showing whether the terms look balanced, company-favouring, restrictive, or risky.
Clause severityWho terms favourRefund limitsData rights
The Soul Scale also considers liability, account control, dispute terms, service changes, and other practical risks.
Deep Report
Turn the official scan into a plain-English explanation.
Main risksUser protectionsPractical consequencesWhat to check
Designed to help you understand the result without reading a wall of legal language.
Trust & Scam Scan
Check for scam-style risk indicators in the text.
Suspicious paymentsRefund trapsSubscription frictionDark patterns
Text-based indicators only. Not a verified fraud investigation.
How it works
Three steps from file or paste to a clear signal on signing.
1
Add the agreement
Upload a file, paste text, or import a public terms URL.
2
Review the map
We identify fairness, transparency, risk level, and who the terms appear to favour, then tie key callouts back to quoted passages from the agreement.
3
Decide next steps
Leave with a clearer signal on whether to sign, negotiate, compare options, or walk away - without a wall of opaque legalese.
What we detect
Eight risk categories checked in every scan.
Ownership & IP
Who owns your work and what they can reuse.
Data & privacy
Collection, sharing, cookies, profiling, and retention.
Auto-renewal
Billing traps, renewals, and notice periods.
Refunds & cancellation
How hard it is to leave and get money back.
Liability limits
What happens when something goes wrong.
Termination
When they can cut you off and what you lose.
Arbitration & disputes
Forced arbitration and class-action waivers.
One-sided changes
Can they rewrite terms without real notice?
Trust & Scam Scan
Some risky pages are not just one-sided - they may use payment pressure, refund friction, dark patterns, or confusing claims to push you into a bad decision.
Lay The Terms checks the text you provide for scam-style indicators, including irreversible payment pressure, no-refund language, subscription traps, fake urgency, broad data sharing, marketing mismatches, and dispute terms that make recovery harder.
This scan flags indicators in the provided text. It does not verify business registration, ownership, reviews, domain age, or external complaints.
Why Lay The Terms is different
- Evidence-forward: key callouts quote the agreement so you can verify
- Built for everyday decisions, not only enterprise procurement
- Structured scores for fairness, transparency, and who the terms favour
- Plain-English reports for terms, privacy notices, leases, subscriptions, and service agreements
- Trust and scam-style indicators are shown separately from contract unfairness
Lay The Terms FAQ
What does Lay The Terms check for?▼
Lay The Terms scans for risky clauses, hidden fees, data-sharing language, refund traps, auto-renewal terms, cancellation friction, dark patterns, and scam-style payment or identity indicators.
What is the Deep Report?▼
The Deep Report is an AI-powered plain-English explanation built on top of the official scan. It summarizes the main risks, user protections, practical impact, and questions to check before accepting. It is educational and does not replace legal advice.
What is the Trust & Scam Scan?▼
The Trust & Scam Scan checks the provided text for scam-style risk indicators, including suspicious payment methods, refund traps, subscription friction, dark patterns, data-sharing language, and marketing mismatches. It is a text-based indicator scan, not a verified fraud investigation.
Does Lay The Terms prove something is a scam?▼
No. Lay The Terms can flag scam-style signals in the terms, policy, checkout text, or other content you provide. It does not prove fraud or verify external facts such as business registration, ownership, domain age, reviews, or government records.
Why can a company have a low Trust & Scam Score but a higher Soul Scale score?▼
Because the two scans measure different things. The Soul Scale checks whether the terms are one-sided or risky. The Trust & Scam Scan checks for scam-style indicators. A legitimate company can have company-favouring terms without looking like a scam.
Does Lay The Terms provide legal advice?▼
No. Lay The Terms provides general educational contract analysis. For important decisions, consult a qualified lawyer.
Want the full interactive report?
The demo uses sample data with the same layout as a real scan: sections, evidence, and navigation. No upload required.
Private document analysis. See our privacy policy for retention details. Outputs cite clause text where possible. Not legal advice.