Venice AI for security work: the terms say personal use

Venice AI's Terms of Service license the product "solely for your personal, non-commercial use". That sentence alone should stop a consultant from billing a client for work done on it. The same terms take a perpetual licence over what you submit, reserve the right to monitor it, and restrict inputs that OSINT depends on. It is a consumer product, and we would not use it professionally.

Data collected on 9 and 10 November 2026 from Venice's Terms of Service (updated 8 June 2026), its privacy page and privacy documentation, and from NotHoly pricing. This is a practitioner's reading. It is not legal advice, and your counsel should read the clauses.

#The clauses that apply to an engagement

Section	What it says	Why it matters on client work
7.1	Licence "solely for your personal, non-commercial use"	Paid work for a client is commercial
4	Minimum age of 13	The product is written for the general public
2	"Output is generated and provided by the third-party providers"	Venice does not stand behind the output
10.6	"worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual" licence over User Content, with the right to sublicense	Client material you submit is licensed for good
10.11	May "monitor any and all information transmitted or received"	Sits badly with a confidentiality clause
12(c)	No third party's "name, voice, image, or likeness without their consent" in Input	OSINT on people uses exactly that
12(e)	No reverse engineering of the service	Standard, noted for completeness
7.3	Keys revoked "at any time in its sole discretion, with or without notice"	A test window can lose its tool mid-week
9.3	Third-party model access can end without notice	The model in your report may be gone
19	Mandatory arbitration and class action waiver	Limits how a dispute is resolved

#What section 7.1 means for commercial use

The licence is personal and non-commercial. A pentest, a red team exercise or a retainer is commercial by definition, since someone pays for it. We are not Venice's lawyers and cannot say how it enforces the clause. A client's counsel who reads it will ask why the engagement ran on a tool licensed for personal use, and no answer to that question helps you.

Venice sells an API under the same terms (section 7.3 is about API keys), and the sentence in 7.1 is still there. Until it is removed, a professional has to treat the restriction as real.

#What happens to the content you submit

Section 10.6 gives Venice a licence over submitted User Content that is "worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual", with the right to sublicense. Most engagement contracts say the client's material stays the client's and is destroyed at the end. An irrevocable licence to a third party is the opposite commitment.

Section 10.11 says Venice "reserves the right to, and may from time to time, monitor any and all information transmitted or received" for "operational and other purposes". Venice's privacy page says it does not store content in normal inference, and section 10.2 says it does not train on it. Both statements are in force, and the terms are the contract.

The privacy documentation is blunter about some models. In Anonymous mode, used for the closed models from large labs, "Provider sees and likely saves your prompt" and "you should assume the provider is storing your content". Private mode is described as trust-based: it "relies on Venice and partners honoring contracts". Only some models run in the encrypted modes, with attestation.

Under GDPR article 28 and the LGPD, a processor handling a client's personal data needs a written contract, and 10.6 is not a clause a client would sign.

#How section 12 affects OSINT and malware work

Section 12(c) forbids "invading any third party's privacy including by using in Input any third party's name, voice, image, or likeness without their consent". People-focused OSINT, such as mapping staff for a phishing assessment the client asked for, puts third parties' names in the input. The people named did not consent, even though the client did.

Section 12(f) appears in a clause about interfering with the service and mentions disseminating "any virus, adware, spyware, worm, or other malicious code". We do not read it as a ban on malware research. An analyst should still know that key revocation under 7.3 needs no notice and no reason.

#What key revocation means for a test window

A two-week test has fixed dates and a client waiting. Section 7.3 lets Venice revoke a key "with or without notice", and 9.3 lets access to a third-party model end the same way. PTES and NIST SP 800-115 both treat tooling and data handling as things you plan before the test. A tool whose availability is at the vendor's sole discretion is hard to plan around.

#Who Venice is built for

The plan page sells chat, images, video and music, with Pro Plus "scaled for serious creators and users". The catalogue includes a role-play model. The minimum age is 13. Of about 130 text models, nine are refusal-free by ID or source. Venice is a general consumer AI product with an uncensored option, and security work is not what it was designed around.

According to the law firm Baker Donelson's summary of IBM's 2026 breach report, shadow AI appeared in 43% of breached organizations and 68% lacked AI governance. A personal-use AI account carrying client data is what those numbers count.

#What NotHoly does differently

NotHoly is sold to security teams and solo practitioners. The terms name the company, the console has organizations, roles and an audit log, and API content is not recorded, only metadata. Chat history is saved unless you choose an ephemeral chat. Most models are abliterated, all have published bases, and on three of the four shared bases they cost less, as Venice AI vs NotHoly shows.

We have no published DPA, no SOC 2 and no ISO 27001, and inference runs on partner servers. If your client needs those, ask through the enterprise page before you start.

#Where each fits

Venice fits personal, non-commercial use of a broad catalogue with chat, images, video, music and encrypted modes on some models. NotHoly fits paid work under a contract: terms that allow commercial use, a company to name, abliterated models with published bases, and an account a team can run. NotHoly generates no images, video or music, holds no published DPA, SOC 2 or ISO 27001, and runs inference on partner servers; a client who requires a DPA or a certification should ask through the enterprise page first.

#Frequently asked questions

#Can I use Venice AI for pentesting?

Technically yes. Contractually, section 7.1 licenses it for personal, non-commercial use, and paid pentesting is commercial.

#Is Venice AI allowed for commercial use?

The Terms of Service say "solely for your personal, non-commercial use". Ask Venice in writing if you need more than that.

#Does Venice AI store prompts?

Its privacy page says not in normal inference. Its terms reserve monitoring, and for third-party models its documentation says to assume the provider stores your content.

#Is Venice AI safe for client data?

Not under terms that take a perpetual, sublicensable licence over what you submit.

#Can Venice AI be used for OSINT?

Section 12(c) restricts using a third party's name or likeness in Input without consent, which covers most people-focused OSINT.

#Verdict

Venice is a consumer product with consumer terms: personal use, a perpetual licence over your input, monitoring reserved and keys revocable at will. It also charges more on three of the four base models we share. None of that is hidden, and all of it disqualifies the tool for client work. For security work with a contract behind it, start with US$ 5 on NotHoly pricing and read how to choose uncensored AI for security.