Sentinel is monthly, cancel any time. Forge runs month to month after a short build period. If either is not working for you, we refund the unused time. No retention calls, no waiting periods, no awkward forms.
Cancel anytime. One click in your dashboard, on Sentinel or Forge. No questions, no hold music, no notice period.
Automatic pro-rata refund. We calculate the unused portion of your current month to the day and refund it to your original payment method.
A real reply, fast. Email billing@fortitudemedia.ai and a human responds, usually the same business day.
Our promise
You can cancel any paid Fortitude subscription at any time, for any reason, and we will refund the unused portion of what you paid. This covers all three of our products: Fortitude Sentinel (self-serve software, billed monthly), Forge (managed service, monthly after a three-month build period), and Discovery (one-off sprint). The rest of this page explains exactly how it works for each so there are no surprises.
We also go one step further with Sentinel. If nobody on your team signs in during a calendar month, we will email you and offer that month back, even if you never asked. That is our Usage Promise, and you can read the detail on its own page.
How payments and refunds are processed
Fortitude Sentinel is sold through one of our payment partners. Where that partner acts as Merchant of Record, they run the checkout, take payment, collect any sales tax or VAT due in your country, and process refunds on our instruction. Your card or bank statement may show Fortitude Media Limited or the name of the payment partner shown at checkout, so it is worth checking both before you query a charge. Refunds are returned to your original payment method once we approve them, which we do quickly and without fuss.
Forge and Discovery are usually invoiced directly by Fortitude Media Limited. Where you choose to pay by card or direct debit, one of our payment partners may act as Merchant of Record in the same way.
Sentinel: self-serve plans
Sentinel runs on monthly billing with no minimum term across Basic (£199/mo), Standard (£499/mo) and Pro (£999/mo). The Free tier is always free, so there is nothing to refund.
Open your dashboard, choose Billing, and click Cancel subscription. The cancellation is effective immediately and we refund the unused days of your current month, calculated to the day, with no admin charge.
Worked example. You are on Sentinel Standard at £499/mo and cancel on day 10 of a 30-day cycle. We refund £333 for the remaining 20 days, to the original payment method. Refunds typically arrive in 5 to 10 business days depending on your bank or card issuer. If the refund works out to under £5 we round up to £5.
Your Vault history, prompts and competitor setup stay live on the Free tier, so you keep watching your category even after you downgrade. Nothing is deleted.
The Usage Promise: did not use it, did not pay for it
We built Sentinel to be used, and we are confident enough in it to put our money where our mouth is.
If nobody on your team logs in at all during a calendar month on a paid Sentinel plan, we will email your account admin within five business days of the month ending and offer to refund that month in full. You do not have to spot it, chase it, or fill anything in. We watch our own usage data, and if you did not use the product, we reach out to you.
Say yes and the full month goes back to your original payment method through our payment partner. The Usage Promise sits on top of everything else on this page, so it does not replace your right to cancel and claim a pro-rata refund whenever you like. Full detail, including what counts and the short list of fair-use limits, is on the Usage Promise page.
Forge: managed service
Forge plans (Growth £3,950/mo, Scale £6,950/mo, Enterprise from £11,950/mo) have a three-month build period. That window is the only commitment, and it exists because moving the needle on AI authority is compounding work that needs a fair runway.
During months 1 to 3. Cancel any time. You pay for the months already delivered, prorated to the day in the current month, and we refund the rest, including any months you prepaid. If a sprint is going badly, tell us first. We would rather fix it than refund you, but if we cannot, we refund without argument.
From month 4 onward. Straight monthly billing, cancel any time, pro-rata refund to the day. Unused delivery hours in your cancellation month are refunded at the pro-rata day rate of your plan. We do not invoice them separately and we do not roll them forward as a fee.
Stepping down from Forge to Sentinel. Every Forge plan includes Sentinel Pro. If you cancel Forge and want to keep Sentinel on a paid tier, we apply the new tier's price from the cancellation date. No setup fee, no service gap, no re-onboarding.
Discovery: one-off sprint
Discovery is a fixed-scope £1,500 audit and implementation blueprint. Before kickoff, you get a full refund, no questions asked. After kickoff, we charge only for the phase already delivered (Discovery is typically billed in two phases: research, then report) and refund the rest. If you proceed with any Forge plan within 90 days, the full £1,500 is credited back to your first Forge invoice, even if you have already taken the refund.
Service interruption credits
If Fortitude Sentinel is unavailable for more than 8 consecutive hours within a billing month, we automatically credit you one full day of service per incident, applied to your next invoice. You do not need to ask. We post all incidents on our status page and email anyone affected. This sits alongside the uptime commitment in your Sentinel subscription terms.
What we cannot refund
To keep the policy honest and generous for everyone, there is a short list of pass-through costs we cannot return because we have already paid them out on your behalf:
- Sponsored placement or syndication fees paid to third-party publications as part of a Forge programme.
- Vendor invoices we have already settled on your instruction (for example a guest contribution fee or a wire-service distribution).
- AI engine or data-provider API costs already consumed in the current billing period on your behalf.
Everything else, including Fortitude time, Sentinel software fees, and Forge retainers, is refundable on a pro-rata basis.
How to request a refund
You have two routes and both are fine.
- Self-serve. Cancel in the dashboard. The pro-rata refund is calculated and queued automatically.
- Email us. Write to billing@fortitudemedia.ai. We reply within one business day, usually sooner.
If you are not happy with the outcome, ask for it to be reviewed by the founders directly. Email the same address with Escalation in the subject and a director will personally read your case and reply within two business days.
Your statutory rights
If you are buying as a consumer rather than for business purposes, you have rights under UK consumer law, including, in many cases, a 14-day right to cancel a distance purchase. Where you ask us to start a digital service straight away, that statutory cancellation right can end once the service has begun, but the generous refund terms on this page still apply and go beyond the legal minimum. Nothing in this policy reduces any statutory right you have as a consumer.
Chargebacks
Please talk to us first. We would rather refund you in full than fight a chargeback. Where a payment partner is acting as Merchant of Record, a chargeback is raised against them and creates paperwork on both sides. A one-line email to billing@fortitudemedia.ai gets you the same result faster.
Governing law
This policy is governed by the laws of England and Wales. It does not affect any statutory rights you have as a consumer under UK law.
Refund and billing contact. Email billing@fortitudemedia.ai or write to Fortitude Media Limited, 5 Missenden Road, Chesham, England, HP5 1JL. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17191927.