How ClearTerm Works
Here is exactly how a contract is processed, how the safety score is calculated, and what happens to your data.
How does ClearTerm analyze a contract?
ClearTerm extracts text from uploaded contract PDFs, classifies clause-level risk across payment, IP, liability and termination, and returns a safety score with plain-language findings and negotiation guidance.
Does ClearTerm store my full contract files?
ClearTerm processes contract files (PDF) and extracted text server-side for analysis. Raw files and raw extracted text are not stored long-term (best effort). Contract content is still sent to Google Gemini for analysis, and provider logging or retention follows Google's current API terms and project settings.
Two Ways to Analyze
Choose the mode that fits your needs: analyze a single contract or compare two versions.
Shield Mode
Single Contract Analysis
Upload a single contract and get instant risk analysis with a safety score, risk breakdown, and actionable negotiation suggestions.
How It Works
PDF upload
A PDF with selectable text, up to 4 MB and 300 pages, and about 100,000 characters of text on free (1 million characters on pro). Scanned contracts will not work — there is no OCR step.
Secure Text Extraction
Server-side PDF parsing extracts embedded text without intentionally storing raw uploads in ClearTerm storage
AI Analysis
Our AI scans for payment terms, IP clauses, liability, and termination risks
Results Generation
You receive a safety score, category breakdown, and negotiation suggestions
Diff Mode
Contract Comparison
Compare two versions of a contract to see exactly what changed and whether those edits increase or reduce your risk.
How It Works
Upload Two PDFs
Upload the original and revised contract versions
Text Extraction
We securely extract text from both PDFs
Semantic Diff Analysis
We identify meaningful changes using diff-match-patch algorithm
Change Classification
Each change is classified by severity with risk assessment and recommendations
How the Safety Score is Calculated
The Safety Score is a 0-100 metric where 100 = perfectly safe and 0 = extremely risky.
Fair Terms
Standard freelancer-friendly contract
Needs Discussion
Contains clauses that should be discussed or edited
High Risk
Significant risks identified — seek legal review
Risk Factor Weight System
Each category starts at 100. Every risk we find deducts from the score of the category it belongs to:
Category floor. No category falls below 30, however many risks land in it — one badly-drafted section should not read as a total loss.
Overall score. The average of the category scores, rounded. Categories where we found nothing stay at 100 and pull the average up, which is intended: a contract with one problem area is genuinely better than one with four.
High-severity ceiling. If any risk is High severity, the overall score is capped at 79 — one point below “Fair Terms”. Without this, averaging could dilute a single serious finding into a reassuring number: an uncapped-liability clause scored 93 and the gauge read “Fair Terms” directly above a High-severity risk.
Four Risk Categories
Your overall score is built from these four areas. A fifth, “Other Terms”, is added only when a risk falls outside all four — when it appears, it counts toward the average too:
💰 Payment Terms
Net terms (Net-30, Net-60+), late fees, milestone structures, kill fee provisions
📜 IP & Ownership
Work-for-hire clauses, license scope, reuse rights, portfolio permissions
⚖️ Liability & Indemnity
Indemnification clauses, limitation of liability, warranty terms, insurance requirements
🚪 Termination & Scope
Termination rights, scope change provisions, auto-renewals, notice periods
What We Flag as High Risk
| Category | High Risk Examples |
|---|---|
| Payment | Net-60+ terms, no late fee provisions, vague milestone definitions |
| IP Rights | Full IP assignment without fair compensation, work-for-hire without scope limits |
| Liability | Unlimited indemnity, no limitation of liability caps, broad warranties |
| Termination | One-sided termination rights, auto-renewal without notice, no kill fee |
Powered by Google Gemini
Advanced AI for accurate contract analysis
What Our AI Does
- Validates that uploaded documents are actually legal contracts
- Identifies contract type (NDA, MSA, Employment Agreement, etc.)
- Analyzes from a freelancer's perspective, not a generic legal view
- Provides plain-English explanations (no confusing legal jargon)
Technical Details
- Uses Google’s gemini-3.5-flash model, with chunked analysis for longer contracts
- Automatic retry with exponential backoff for reliability
- Prompt injection protection via input sanitization
- Typed timeout and retry handling, with a merge pass for long multi-section analyses
Privacy & security
What we store, what we don’t, and for how long.
AI Handling
ClearTerm does not reuse your contracts to train its own models. Gemini API handling still follows Google's current API terms, safety systems, and any logging settings configured for the project.
Encrypted in transit
Every request to ClearTerm is served over HTTPS, and the connection to Google’s API is encrypted in transit as well.
Transient Processing
ClearTerm does not intentionally store raw PDFs in its own database or file storage. Contract content is still sent to Gemini to generate the analysis, and third-party logging or retention follows Google's current API terms and project settings.
No Raw Storage
Avoid storing raw PDFs in ClearTerm databases or app storage
Minimal Metadata
Store only minimal metadata or saved results you explicitly keep
User control
Export or permanently delete your data at any time from your profile.
How long we keep things
| Data | Retained for |
|---|---|
| Uploaded PDFs and extracted text | Not retained in ClearTerm storage — processed in memory |
| Saved analyses in your archive | Until you delete them, or until account deletion |
| Account record (email, user id) | Until you delete your account |
| Billing and subscription metadata | As long as tax and accounting obligations require |
| Scan telemetry (mode, document count — no content) | About 90 days |
| Payment idempotency markers | About 90 days |
| Abuse-prevention counters (incl. IP-derived) | About 60 days |
| One-time login codes | About 10 minutes |
| Deletion record (email + Stripe refs, so an interrupted deletion can finish) | About 120 days after account deletion |
| Deletion marker (user id only, prevents the account being recreated) | About 90 days after account deletion |
| Unprocessed billing events (Stripe references, no contract content) | About 30 days |
Expiry is enforced automatically and usually completes within about a day of the deadline. Contract text is still sent to Google Gemini to produce the analysis; Google’s own retention follows their current API terms.
Important Disclaimer
ClearTerm is not a substitute for legal advice. Our analysis is meant to help you identify potential issues and guide discussions with clients. For high-stakes contracts or complex legal matters, we strongly recommend consulting with a qualified attorney.
What ClearTerm IS:
- ✓ A discussion aid to help you spot potential risks
- ✓ A tool to generate starting points for negotiation
- ✓ A way to understand legal language in plain English
What ClearTerm is NOT:
- ✗ Legal advice
- ✗ A guarantee that a contract is safe to sign
- ✗ A replacement for professional legal review