Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

• Calculator inputs. When you generate a rate report, we receive the skill, country, experience level, optional income goal, project description, costs, and team size you enter.
• IP address. We log your IP address solely to enforce the daily limit of 5 reports per IP per day. The IP is stored as part of a counter keyed by IP + day, not linked to your name or the report content.
• Generated reports. The report we produce for you — including the itemized breakdown, market context, and client note — is stored in our database so it can be retrieved via its shareable link.
• Owner key. Each report is assigned a secret owner key. The key is shown only to you, once, at generation time, and is never emailed or re-transmitted.

2. How your inputs are processed

To generate your report, your calculator inputs are sent to OpenAI(the AI provider), which performs a live web search for current market rates and produces the structured report. OpenAI processes this data under its own terms to return the result; we do not control OpenAI's retention of API request data — see OpenAI's privacy policy.

3. Where data is stored and for how long

• Reports are stored in a hosted SQLite database (Turso / libSQL). Each report is kept for 90 days, after which it is automatically deleted.
• Market-rate search results are cached for up to 7 days (keyed by skill + country + experience) to avoid repeat search costs. The cache contains no personal data.
• Rate-limit counters (IP + day) are overwritten daily and contain no report content.

4. Shareable report links

Every report gets a public link of the form therateforge.com/r/{id}. Anyone with this link can view the client version of your report — it is not password-protected. The freelancer-only view (pricing tiers, negotiation tip, refine box) is accessible only with the secret owner key. Do not share the owner key. If a report link is leaked, you can request deletion (see below).

5. Advertising — Google AdSense

RateForge displays ads via Google AdSense. Google and its third-party vendors may use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.

• You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
• Third-party vendors and ad networks serving ads on RateForge are subject to their own privacy policies. We do not control their cookie practices.
• The tool is fully usable without clicking any ad. Ads keep RateForge free.

6. Cookies

RateForge itself does not set first-party tracking cookies. AdSense and its vendors may set cookies as described above. Your browser's settings allow you to block or delete cookies at any time; note that doing so does not affect the calculator's functionality.

7. Your choices — deletion requests

You can request deletion of any report at any time. Email contact@therateforge.com with the report ID (from the shareable link) and we will remove it from the database within 5 business days, regardless of the 90-day retention window.

8. Children's privacy

RateForge is not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a minor has submitted data, contact us and we will delete it.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the "last updated" date below and, where appropriate, highlighting the change on the homepage.

10. Contact

Questions or deletion requests? Email contact@therateforge.com.

Last updated: July 2026