Last updated: September 24, 2026
By creating an account, using sync, or installing the Marginalia browser extension, you agree to these Terms of Service and to the Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, you can still use Marginalia entirely offline, without an account, without agreeing to anything here.
Marginalia is a reading, highlighting, and personal-notebook application. It works entirely on your own device by default. Creating an account adds optional features: syncing your library across devices, a browser extension for saving and highlighting pages, and an RSS reader — all built by, and currently operated by, an individual developer, not a registered company. "We," "us," and "Marginalia" refer to that developer.
You must be able to form a legally binding agreement in your jurisdiction to create an account. Marginalia isn't directed at children, and if you're under the minimum age required by your local law to consent to this kind of agreement on your own, you need a parent or guardian's permission to create an account.
You're responsible for keeping your password secure and for anything that happens under your account. Tell us if you believe your account has been compromised. You agree to give us an accurate email address so account recovery and security notices reach you.
Everything you write, highlight, save, or upload — journal entries, highlights, insights, saved articles, canvas boards — belongs to you. Using sync just gives us a limited license to store, transmit, and display that content back to you, and only to you, so it can move between your devices. We do not claim ownership of it, we do not use it to train any AI model, and we do not read it beyond what's needed to run the service or respond to a support request you send us.
The browser extension lets you save pages, articles, and highlights from other websites for your own personal reading and reference. You're responsible for using that feature lawfully — for your own personal use, consistent with the terms of the sites you're saving from. Marginalia is a personal note-taking tool, not a publisher or redistributor of that content, and saved content stays private to your own account.
Don't use Marginalia to store or transmit illegal content, to attack or overload our infrastructure (including the article-fetching and feed-fetching functions), to attempt to bypass account security or another user's data protections, or to reverse-engineer the service in order to harm it or other users. We may suspend or terminate accounts that do this.
Marginalia is free today, and local, offline use will always remain free with no account required. We may introduce a paid tier later for advanced sync or extension features. If we do, we'll clearly tell you what's changing and what it costs before you're ever charged anything — nothing here authorizes a surprise charge.
You can stop using Marginalia and delete your account at any time by contacting us (see the Privacy Policy for the contact address). We may suspend or terminate an account that violates section 7. Ending your account ends your access to sync — it has no effect on any copy of your data already stored locally on your own devices.
Marginalia is provided "as is," without warranties of any kind, express or implied — including, without limitation, any warranty that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that your synced data will never be lost. Please keep your own backups (export, or a local copy) of anything you can't afford to lose. This isn't a hedge — it's a genuine limitation of a project run by one person, and you should plan accordingly.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Marginalia and its operator won't be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, arising from your use of the service. Where liability can't be fully excluded, it's limited to the amount you've paid us in the twelve months before the claim — which, for the free service, is $0.
You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claim arising from your misuse of the service or from content you save, store, or transmit through it in violation of these terms.
These terms are governed by the laws of Canada, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, regardless of where you access Marginalia from. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
We may update these terms as the service changes. If we make a material change, we'll update the date at the top of this page and, where practical, let signed-in users know inside the app before it takes effect.
Questions about these terms: privacy@[to be finalized], or open an issue on Marginalia's GitHub repository.