Acceptable Use Policy

Last updated: 2026-07-14

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") applies to all use of Star Avatars. It supplements our Terms of Service.

Permitted use

You may use the Service to:

• Hotlink and embed avatar image URLs in websites, applications, emails, and admin interfaces using <img>, CSS backgrounds, or equivalent
• Generate deterministic placeholders for users, projects, repositories, or any non-sensitive identifier
• Cache responses in browsers, CDNs, or your own infrastructure in line with our cache headers
• Link to the Service and document integration patterns in your own projects

Hotlinking in production apps

Embedding our URLs in dashboards that render avatars on every page load is allowed. Before shipping that integration, review our Terms for rate limits (currently 120 requests per minute per IP) and confirm your traffic pattern fits. We cannot verify your specific deployment from here — you are responsible for estimating request volume, handling HTTP 429 responses gracefully, and choosing self-hosting if hosted limits are insufficient.

Unlike some avatar providers, we do not prohibit hotlinking. If you previously evaluated other services and could not find their terms, pricing, or hotlinking rules, note that Star Avatars is free today, permits direct embedding, and documents limits on this site.

Prohibited use

You may not:

• Deliberately exceed rate limits or attempt to circumvent throttling (for example by distributing abusive traffic across many IPs you control)
• Use the Service to attack, probe, or overwhelm our infrastructure
• Scrape or bulk-download the entire output space without a legitimate operational need
• Put illegal content, malware payloads, or harassing material in seed strings where it would be displayed to others
• Misrepresent the Service as your own product or remove attribution where reasonably expected
• Use the Service in violation of applicable law

Sensitive data in seeds

Seed strings appear in URLs. Do not encode passwords, private tokens, national ID numbers, or other sensitive personal data in paths or query parameters.

Enforcement

We may throttle, block, or permanently deny access to IPs or traffic patterns that violate this AUP or threaten Service stability. We are not obligated to provide notice before blocking abusive traffic.

Reporting abuse

Report suspected abuse to [email protected].