Developer Policy
Effective Date: April 19, 2026
This Developer Policy ("Policy") provides additional rules and guidelines that govern access to and use by our developers (“you” or “your”) of the APIs, SDKs, websites (“Site”), dashboards, related tools, and other products or services (collectively, the "Services") provided by Plaid Inc. and its subsidiaries, including Plaid Consumer Reporting Agency, Inc., Plaid Financial Ltd., and Plaid, B.V. (“Plaid”, “we”, “our”, and “us”), and is incorporated into any agreement between you and Plaid governing your use of such Services. Any violation of this Policy may result in suspension or termination of your access to the Services and/or access to end users’ personal or financial information made available via the Services ("End User Data").
By accessing and using the Services, you agree to comply with all the terms of this Policy. This Policy will apply each time you access or use the Services. If you are agreeing to the terms of this Policy on behalf of an organization or entity, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to do so, and all references to “you” and “your” in this Policy (aside from those in this sentence) will be deemed to refer to such organization or entity. This Policy is important; please read it carefully.
We may update or change this Policy at any time at our discretion. If we make any changes to this Policy that we deem to be material, we will make a reasonable effort to inform you of such change. If you object to a change, your exclusive remedy is to cease any and all access to and use of the Services.
Jump to section:
Responsibility for Account Use and Access
Compliance with Applicable Law
Registration
To sign up for the Services, you must create a Plaid Dashboard account ("Account") by registering on our Site and providing true, accurate, and complete information about yourself and your use of the Services. You agree not to misrepresent your identity or any information that you provide for your Account, and to keep your Account information up to date at all times.
Responsibility for Account Use and Access
You are solely responsible for all activities that occur via your Account. If you allow any of your employees, contractors, or other agents (collectively, “Authorized Users”) to access your Account, you must ensure that each such Authorized User uses the Services and any End User Data solely for your benefit and approved use case, as authorized by you, and in compliance with this Policy and any other applicable agreements between you and Plaid. Such access must only be granted pursuant to a legitimate business need and you are solely responsible for managing your Authorized Users’ access permissions. This includes ensuring that only appropriate and authorized personnel are granted access to specific tools, data, or permissions, and that all Plaid Dashboard configurations, access controls, and team management features are correctly implemented and reviewed regularly. This also includes promptly terminating Account access for any Authorized User who: (i) is no longer employed by, affiliated with, or contracted by you; (ii) is reassigned to duties that do not require access; or (iii) is reasonably suspected of improper access to or use of the Services or End User Data. We will not be liable for any loss, damage, or unauthorized access arising from your failure to: (a) properly manage or restrict user access; (b) implement appropriate role-based permissions; or (c) monitor activity within your Account.
We may rely on all actions taken and instructions provided through your Account, unless and until you notify us of unauthorized use. We will not be liable for any acts or omissions taken in accordance with such actions or instructions.
Compliance with Applicable Law
When using the Services, you agree to abide by all applicable local, state, national, and international laws. You also confirm that you, your business, your employees, your service providers, and any others acting on your behalf adhere to all applicable laws, especially those pertaining to financial data, data protection, privacy and data security.
In addition, you certify that you, your officers, directors, shareholders, direct and indirect parent entities, subsidiaries, and affiliates:
- are and will remain in compliance with all applicable import, re-import, sanctions, anti-boycott, export, and re-export control laws and regulations (including all such laws and regulations that apply to a U.S. company, such as the Export Administration Regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the Department of Justice’s Data Security Program Rule (DSP Rule), and economic sanctions programs implemented by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC));
- are not subject to, or owned by parties that are subject to, sanctions or otherwise identified on any sanctions-related list, including but not limited to lists maintained by the United States government (such as the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, maintained by OFAC, the Entity List maintained by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, and the CAATSA section 231(d) list maintained by the U.S. State Department), the United Nations Security Council, the United Kingdom, the European Union or its Member States, or other applicable government authority;
- will not, and will not permit any third party to, access or use the Services in, or export the Services to, any country or territory that is subject to a United States embargo (for clarity, such certification does not limit the generality of the foregoing certifications); and
- are not engaging, and will not engage, in activities which may require or permit any applicable government authority to pursue an enforcement action against, or impose economic sanctions on you or us.
The certifications immediately above are not sought, and are not provided, if and to the extent such request or certification would constitute a violation of the EU Blocking Statute, of laws or regulations implementing the EU Blocking Statute in the EU Member States or in the United Kingdom, or any similar anti-boycott, non-discrimination, or blocking provisions foreseen in applicable local laws.
You are solely responsible for ensuring that your and your Authorized Users’ use of the Services and End User Data is in compliance with all laws applicable to you, including without limitation, the rules and guidelines of any system or network that facilitates payments and any security requirements, including under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS), as may be applicable to you.
Security
You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of: (i) your Account credentials, including Account credentials for Authorized Users who access the Plaid Dashboard; (ii) your Plaid API authentication credentials, including your Plaid API Client Identification Number (“Client ID”) and Plaid API secret; and (iii) any End User Data or other sensitive or personal data accessible via your Account. You agree to notify us promptly at security@plaid.com in the event of any breach of security or unauthorized use of your Account or any End User Data. You must never publish, distribute, or share your Account credentials, Client ID or Plaid API secret (collectively, “Account Information”) with any third parties, provided that you may share Account Information with Authorized Users as needed based on a legitimate business need and subject to the terms of this Policy. You must ensure that Authorized Users use Account Information solely for your benefit and approved use case, and maintain the confidentiality of any Account Information they have access to. You will remain solely responsible for Authorized Users’ use of any Account Information and your Account. You must also ensure that Account Information is encrypted in storage and during transit. Plaid will not be liable for any loss, damage, or unauthorized access arising from your failure, or an Authorized User’s failure, to safeguard credentials or otherwise safeguard your Account.
Your systems and application(s) must handle End User Data securely. With respect to End User Data, you should follow industry best practices but, at a minimum, must perform the following:
- Maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that are designed to ensure the security, privacy, and confidentiality of End User Data.
- Use modern and industry standard cryptography when storing or transmitting any End User Data.
- Maintain reasonable access controls to ensure that only authorized individuals that have a business need have access to any End User Data.
- Monitor your systems for any unauthorized access.
- Patch vulnerabilities in a timely fashion.
- Log and review any events suggesting unauthorized access.
- Plan for and respond to security incidents.
- Comply with relevant rules and regulations with regard to the type of data you are handling, such as the Safeguards Rule under the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act.
Data Storage and Usage
Any End User Data in your possession must be stored securely and in accordance with applicable laws. To the extent applicable, if you use End User Data in an anonymized form then your use of such anonymized data must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed to the applicable end user including a description of how you use such anonymized End User Data.
Session Replay and Activity Monitoring
For security, compliance, support, and analytics purposes, Plaid may monitor, log, record, and analyze your Plaid Dashboard access and use. This may include the use of tools that capture technical and behavioral data such as mouse movements, clicks, navigation flows, and usage patterns to help improve user experience, detect abuse or fraud, investigate incidents, and support Authorized Users. Such tools may enable Plaid to view a visual reconstruction or replay of your Plaid Dashboard session.
You are responsible for informing your Authorized Users who access the Plaid Dashboard of this monitoring and recording. By accessing or permitting access to the Plaid Dashboard, you and your Authorized Users acknowledge and consent to such monitoring and recording, to the extent permitted under applicable law.
Account Deactivation
Once you stop using the Services in accordance with any applicable agreement you may have with us, you may deactivate your Account by following the instructions on the Site. Without limiting our rights under any other agreements we have with you or our other rights under this Policy, we may also deactivate your Account if: (i) you have ceased using the Services for three months; (ii) your applicable agreement with us terminates or expires; or (iii) reasonably necessary under applicable law. After your Account deactivation, we will deprovision your access to all End User Data associated with your integration.
Even after your Account deactivation, to the extent permitted under applicable law, we may still retain any information we collected about you for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in our privacy policy/statement, or for a longer retention period if required or permitted under applicable law.
Prohibited Conduct
You agree not to, and agree not to assist or otherwise enable any third party to:
- sell or rent End User Data to marketers or any other third party;
- access or use the Services or End User Data for any unlawful, infringing, threatening, abusive, obscene, harassing, defamatory, deceptive, or fraudulent purpose;
- collect and store end users’ bank credentials and/or End User Data other than as required to access or use the Services, as authorized by the end user, as permitted by Plaid, and as permitted under applicable law;
- use, disclose, or retain any “nonpublic personal information” (as defined under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) or “personal information” (as defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act) other than in strict compliance with applicable law;
- use, disclose, or otherwise process any “personal data” (as defined in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation)) other than in strict compliance with applicable law;
- access or use the Services or access, transmit, process, or store End User Data in violation of any applicable privacy laws or in any manner that would be a breach of contract or agreement with the applicable end user;
- access or use the Services to infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other right of any person or entity;
- access or use the Services for any purpose other than for which it is provided by us, including for competitive evaluation, spying, creating a substitute or similar services to any of the Services, or other nefarious purpose;
- scan or test (manually or in an automated fashion) the vulnerability of any Plaid infrastructure without express prior written permission from Plaid;
- breach, disable, interfere with, or otherwise circumvent any security or authentication measures or any other aspect of the Service;
- overload, flood, or spam any part of the Services;
- create developer accounts for the Services by any means other than our publicly-supported interfaces (e.g., creating developer accounts in an automated fashion or otherwise in bulk);
- transfer, syndicate, or otherwise distribute the Services or End User Data without express prior written permission from Plaid;
- decipher, decompile, disassemble, copy, reverse engineer, or attempt to derive any source code or underlying ideas or algorithms of any part of the Services, except as permitted by applicable law;
- modify, translate, or otherwise create derivative works of any part of the Services;
- access or use the Services or End User Data in a manner that violates any agreement between you or the end user and Plaid; or
- access or use the Services or End User Data in a manner that violates any applicable law, statute, ordinance, or regulation.
Suspension and Termination
We reserve the right to withhold, refuse, or terminate access to the Services and/or End User Data in whole or in part where we believe the Services are being accessed or used in violation of this Policy or any other Plaid agreement, including Plaid’s agreements with any third party partners or data sources of Plaid (each, a “Partner”), or where use would pose a risk of harm, including reputational harm, to Plaid, its infrastructure, its data, the Services, an end user, or a Partner.
We will use reasonable efforts to notify you via email or other method when deciding to withhold, refuse, or terminate access to the Services and/or End User Data. We may immediately suspend or terminate access without notice if appropriate under the circumstances, such as when we become aware of activity that is a violation of any applicable law or when we determine, in our sole discretion, that harm is imminent.
Plaid will not be liable for any damages of any nature suffered by you or any third party resulting from Plaid’s exercise of its rights under this Policy or under applicable law.
Reporting Violations
If any person becomes aware of a violation of this Policy, we request that you immediately notify us via email to legalnotices@plaid.com. We may take any appropriate action -- including reporting any activity or conduct that we suspect violates the law to appropriate law enforcement officials, regulators, or other appropriate third parties -- in our sole discretion in respect to such violations.
Universal Data Access
Plaid promotes an Open Finance ecosystem in which end users own their data (e.g., financial data) and may grant access to such data to third parties. To the extent that you host any such end user data not already accessible by Plaid, upon Plaid’s reasonable request, the parties agree to cooperate in good faith to negotiate and initiate an arrangement for Plaid to access such end user data on behalf of end users.
Miscellaneous
The failure by you or Plaid to exercise in any respect any right provided for herein or in any other agreement you may have with us shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder.
If any provision of this Policy is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that this Policy shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable.