Terms of Service

Last updated: October 7, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Elsewhere Labs, LLC ("Elsewhere Labs", "we", "us"), the operator of CircuitSim. By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy.

1. Eligibility and Accounts

You must be at least 13 years old to create a CircuitSim account. Younger students may use CircuitSim only through anonymous student seats managed by a teacher or institution (see Section 6). You are responsible for activity on your account and for keeping your credentials secure. You agree to use the service in compliance with applicable laws and not to misuse or interfere with the platform, its data, or other users.

2. The Service and Plans

CircuitSim is a browser-based circuit simulation platform. We offer a free Basic plan and paid personal subscription plans, as well as group licenses for teams and classrooms. Features and limits of each plan are described on our pricing page and may change over time; changes to paid-plan features that materially reduce what you purchased will take effect no earlier than your next renewal.

3. Subscriptions, Billing, and Auto-Renewal

Paid personal subscriptions are billed in advance on a monthly or annual basis, in U.S. dollars, at the price shown at checkout, plus any applicable taxes. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period, and your payment method is charged at the start of each new period, until you cancel. You can cancel at any time in your billing settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep paid features until then. Upgrades take effect immediately; downgrades take effect at the end of the current period. If a renewal payment fails, we may retry it and may downgrade your account to the free plan if it cannot be collected. We send a reminder before annual plans renew, and we will give you advance notice of price or term changes, which apply from your next renewal. Payments are processed by our payment processor; we do not store full card numbers.

4. Group and Educational Licenses

Group licenses are purchased for a fixed term and a fixed number of seats and do not auto-renew. When a term ends, seat holders lose paid entitlements after any grace period we provide. Invoice (NET-30) payment is available subject to our approval; invoices are due within 30 days and unpaid licenses may be suspended. The organization purchasing a license is responsible for how its seats are assigned and used.

5. Refunds

Except where required by law, fees are non-refundable. That said, we review refund requests case by case and may issue a refund or credit at our discretion — if something isn't right, contact us at hello@circuitsim.com and we'll do our best to make it fair.

6. Anonymous Student Seats

Educational group licenses include private student seats: access links managed by a teacher or institution that need no student account, email address or password. Seat labels are chosen by the teacher; the institution decides whether they contain student names. The purchasing institution and its administrators are responsible for having the authority to provide these seats to their students, including any consent the law requires, and for how seats are labeled, assigned, reset, and revoked. For seat sessions we turn off product analytics and advertising measurement, and we do not use data from those sessions to profile or track students. What we collect for seats, and how seat data is retained and deleted, is described in our Privacy Policy.

7. Your Content

You retain ownership of the circuits, components, and other content you create. You grant us a limited license to host, display, and process your content as needed to operate and improve the service. If you choose to make content public or share it with a group, you additionally grant: (a) other users the right to view it and, where the product provides for it, to copy it into their own workspace; and (b) Elsewhere Labs a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, display, and distribute that content — including in excerpted or modified form such as screenshots, thumbnails, and embedded demos — in connection with operating, featuring, and promoting the service (for example in galleries, on our homepage, and in documentation and marketing materials), with attribution where practical. This license for public content continues for copies already made or featured even if you later make the content private or delete it, but we will stop creating new promotional uses of it on request. Content you keep private is never used for promotion. You are responsible for the content you upload and for having the rights to share it.

8. Copyright Complaints (DMCA)

We respect intellectual-property rights and expect users to do the same. If you believe content on CircuitSim infringes your copyright, send a notice to hello@circuitsim.com with: (a) identification of the copyrighted work; (b) the URL or location of the allegedly infringing content; (c) your contact information; (d) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; (e) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner; and (f) your physical or electronic signature. We will remove or disable access to content in response to valid notices, notify the user who posted it (who may submit a counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)), and terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

9. Simulation Results Disclaimer

CircuitSim is a design and education aid. Simulation results are approximations produced by software models and may differ from the behavior of physical circuits. They are not a substitute for review by a qualified engineer, physical prototyping, or compliance testing. Do not rely on CircuitSim as the sole basis for the design of any circuit whose failure could cause injury, death, or property damage (including medical, automotive, aviation, or other safety-critical applications).

10. Intellectual Property

The service, including its software, design, component library, and branding, is the property of Elsewhere Labs and its licensors. CircuitSim® is a registered trademark of Elsewhere Labs, LLC, and the CircuitSim logo is a trademark of Elsewhere Labs, LLC; you may not use them without our prior written permission. All other trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without obligation to you.

11. Open-Source Software and Acknowledgements

CircuitSim's simulation engine incorporates ngspice (ngspice.sourceforge.io), © 1985–1994 The Regents of the University of California and © ngspice contributors, including its XSPICE extensions and code models, used and redistributed under the Modified BSD (3-Clause) license. Redistribution and use are permitted under the conditions of that license; the software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors "as is", without express or implied warranties, and without liability for any damages arising from its use. The full license text is available in the ngspice distribution.

Our component library additionally includes device models from the SkyWater Open Source PDK (© 2020 The SkyWater PDK Authors, Apache License 2.0), FreePDK (© 2007–2009 North Carolina State University, Apache License 2.0), and the Predictive Technology Model (PTM) family published by Arizona State University (ptm.asu.edu). Interface icons include the Solar icon set by 480 Design (CC BY 4.0) along with other Iconify collections under their respective open licenses, and our typefaces (Public Sans, Barlow) are used under the SIL Open Font License. CircuitSim is also built with open-source libraries — including React, MUI, Monaco Editor, and others — made available under permissive licenses by their respective authors, whose work we gratefully acknowledge.

12. Termination

You may stop using the service at any time, and delete your account from your account settings or by emailing us. We may suspend or terminate access for breach of these Terms, unlawful use, or risk to the service or other users. Downgrading or termination of a paid plan does not delete your content, though content exceeding free-plan limits may become inaccessible for editing until you are within limits again.

13. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

The service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Elsewhere Labs will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, or business, and our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim and fifty U.S. dollars. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

14. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Elsewhere Labs and its members, managers, employees, and agents from and against claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of your content, your use of the service in violation of these Terms or applicable law, your infringement of another party's rights, or any real-world design, product, or device you create or validate using the service. This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim arises from our own breach of these Terms.

15. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts with jurisdiction over Wyoming, and you and Elsewhere Labs consent to their jurisdiction. Nothing in this section limits rights you may have under the consumer-protection laws of the place where you live.

16. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If a change is material, we will give notice — for example by email or an in-product message — before it takes effect. Continued use of the service after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms: hello@circuitsim.com. Elsewhere Labs, LLC — elsewherelabs.io.

Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 7, 2026

Who we are

CircuitSim is operated by Elsewhere Labs, LLC ("we", "us"), which is responsible for the personal data described here. When a school, college or district uses a group license, we process its staff and student data on its behalf and follow its instructions, including any data processing agreement we have signed with it. Contact: hello@circuitsim.com.

What we collect

• Account details: name, email address, and your Google or GitHub account identifier if you sign in with one. Passwords are stored as hashes by our sign-in provider.
• Content you create: circuits, components, simulation settings, forum posts, comments and ideas, and images you upload.
• Groups and licenses: the groups you belong to, your role, invitations, and license and seat records.
• Billing: name, billing address, tax details and payment history. Card details go directly to Stripe; we never receive full card numbers.
• Messages: emails, help-chat conversations, quote requests and feedback you send us.
• Technical data: IP address, browser and device details, the pages you request, and error reports.
• Usage data: the pages and features you use, if you accept performance cookies, and counts of the circuits you create and save, tied to your account ID.
• Advertising data: if you arrive by clicking an ad, the click identifier in the link, and later whether you signed up or bought a plan.
• Email engagement: whether you opened an email we sent and which links in it you clicked.

How we use it

For people in the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland, the legal basis for each use is in brackets.

• To provide CircuitSim: run your account, save and simulate your circuits, run groups and licenses, and send account, group and forum emails (performance of our contract with you).
• To bill you and keep accounting and tax records (contract; legal obligation).
• To keep CircuitSim secure: bot protection, rate limits, error monitoring and investigating abuse (legitimate interests).
• To improve CircuitSim: product analytics in your browser (consent), and counts of circuits created and saved (legitimate interests).
• To measure our advertising: telling an ad platform when a visitor who clicked its ad signs up or buys (consent where it is required; otherwise legitimate interests, until you decline marketing cookies).
• To answer your questions and support requests (contract; legitimate interests).
• To comply with the law and enforce our Terms (legal obligation; legitimate interests).

We do not use your circuits or other content to train AI models, and CircuitSim does not send your data to AI services.

Cookies and similar technologies

• Essential: sign-in, security, your theme, and remembering your cookie choices. Always on.
• Performance: product analytics in your browser (PostHog). Off until you accept.
• Functional: optional features. Off until you accept.
• Marketing: Google advertising tags and storing ad click identifiers.

Google tags start with advertising and analytics storage denied and are updated to match your choice. In the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland, and when we cannot tell where you are, ad click identifiers are not stored until you accept marketing cookies. Elsewhere, an ad click identifier is stored when you arrive from an ad, unless you decline marketing cookies. Change your choices at any time with Manage cookies in the footer or in the Preferences section of your account. Error monitoring and bot protection do not depend on cookie choices, because they are needed to run and secure the service.

Private student seats

A school with an educational group license can give students private seats instead of accounts. A seat has no email address and no password. Each seat has a label typed by the teacher, visible only to the group's owners and admins; teachers can use roster numbers instead of names. For a seat we store the label, its status and sign-in times, the student's circuits, any posts in the group forum, and a log of seat events (created, first used, signed in, link reset, reset or revoked). Our database does not store a seat's IP address.

When a seat is signed in, we turn off product analytics in the browser and on our servers, set every Google advertising and analytics consent signal to denied, do not show the cookie prompt, and do not load the help chat. Seats never receive email and are never included in ad measurement. Error monitoring, bot protection on the seat sign-in page, and our hosting logs still run for seats; they record technical data such as IP address and browser details, which we use only to operate and secure the service.

Teachers can reset or revoke a seat from the group roster, which deletes the seat's account and circuits immediately. When a seat expires or the group license ends, the seat can no longer sign in, but its data is kept until a teacher resets or revokes it, or the school asks us to delete it. We delete a group's seat data within 30 days of a request from the group owner.

Children

You must be at least 13 to create a CircuitSim account. Younger students can use CircuitSim only through private seats provided by their school. The school provides any consent the law requires for that educational use on parents' behalf, and parents can ask the school to review or delete their child's seat data. If we learn that someone under 13 has created an account, we delete it.

Who we share data with

Service providers that process data for us under contract: Vercel (hosting), Supabase (database, sign-in and file storage), Stripe (payments and tax), Postmark (email), PostHog (product analytics, and forwarding ad conversions), Sentry (error monitoring), Cloudflare (bot protection) and tawk.to (help center and chat, loaded only when you open it).

Advertising platforms: when a visitor who clicked a Google or Meta ad signs up or buys a plan, we send that platform the click identifier, a hashed (SHA-256) copy of the email address, and the type and value of the conversion, so it can measure the ad. The platform uses this under its own terms. Under some US state laws this may count as "sharing" personal information for advertising; you can opt out by declining marketing cookies or by emailing us. We never do this for student seats. We do not sell personal data for money.

Others: Google or GitHub when you choose to sign in with them; members of your groups, who see your name and what you share with the group; everyone, for content you make public; authorities when the law requires it; and a buyer or successor if Elsewhere Labs is involved in a merger or sale, with notice to you.

Where your data is stored

Your data is stored in the United States. Where the law requires a transfer mechanism for data from the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or our providers' certifications under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

How long we keep it

• Account details and content: while your account exists. Inactive accounts are not deleted automatically.
• Deleting your account: from Account settings. Your profile and private circuits are deleted immediately, along with ad attribution records. Components that are public, shared or used in other people's circuits stay available and are shown as by “Deleted user”. If your account has billing history, email us and we delete it within 30 days.
• Deleted images: removed from storage within 24 hours.
• Unsaved editor drafts: deleted automatically when they expire.
• Payment event records from Stripe: emptied after 7 days and deleted after 90 days.
• Invoices, quotes, license and tax records: as long as accounting and tax law require.
• Group activity log: the newest 1,000 entries for each group.
• Student seats: as described in Private student seats above.
• Logs and error reports: for the retention period of the provider that holds them. Deleted data can remain in backups until those backups expire.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, object to or restrict how we use it, and withdraw consent at any time. You can edit your profile and delete your account yourself; for anything else, email hello@circuitsim.comfrom your account's email address. We reply within 30 days. If you are in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland, you can also complain to your data protection authority. If your account or seat is provided by a school, we may refer your request to the school.

Security

CircuitSim is served only over HTTPS. Our database and file storage are encrypted at rest by our hosting provider. We use access controls to limit access to private data. Passwords, private-seat sign-in links and private-seat passphrases are stored as hashes. To report a security problem, email hello@circuitsim.com.

Changes

We may update this policy. We post changes here and update the effective date, and we tell you about material changes by email or in the product before they take effect.