Provider Agreement

Last updated: September 14, 2026  ·  Effective September 22, 2026

What changes on September 22, 2026: Section 3 now sets out what happens to your earnings when your node goes offline during a rental; new Section 7(j) (Access logging); and matching changes to the summary and Sections 6 and 7(g). Until then the previous wording applies; ask support@gridshare.in for a copy.

1. Independent-Contractor Status

Providers are independent individuals or entities, not employees, agents, or partners of GridShare. You make your privately owned GPU hardware available to GridShare, through the GridShare node software, to help fulfil compute demand on the Platform. GridShare purchases the compute capacity your node delivers and resells it to Buyers under its own name as principal; your commercial counterparty for that capacity is GridShare, not the Buyer. GridShare does not own the hardware and is not responsible for the acts, omissions, hardware reliability, or data-security practices of any Provider. GridShare may decline a registration, or suspend or restrict an account, where it has reasonable cause — including suspected fraud, breach of these terms, a legal or regulatory requirement, failure of identity, PAN, or payout verification, or a credible risk to the Platform or its users — giving notice where practicable, and acting immediately and without prior notice only for serious violations.

2. Listing and Hardware

As a Provider, you represent and warrant that you own, or have the full legal right to share and commercialise, all hardware you list on GridShare. You are solely responsible for:

• The physical security, maintenance, and condition of your hardware
• Electricity costs, cooling, and all operating expenses for your node
• Maintaining a stable internet connection — GridShare is not responsible for revenue losses caused by your connectivity
• Ensuring your hardware listing does not violate any third-party rights, licences, or agreements (including OEM terms)

3. Availability and Reliability

You may pause or disconnect your node at any time. If your node goes offline while a Buyer is using it, your reliability score may be reduced, and you are not paid for time your node did not serve, as set out below.

When a rental stops because of your node. From September 22, 2026:

• Node drops. If your node stops responding during a rental, GridShare refunds the Buyer for the time after the last heartbeat it received from your node. That time was not delivered. Where GridShare’s records show that the drop was on your side — for example your machine shut down, slept or restarted, or lost power or its internet connection — while GridShare’s systems were working normally and other Providers’ nodes stayed connected, you are not paid your share of that refunded time.
• GridShare’s side, or unclear. Where the drop was caused on GridShare’s side — for example a restart, stall or outage of GridShare’s servers or relay, a fault in GridShare’s software, an update to the node software that GridShare sent or released, a download that GridShare pushed to your node, a move or stop that GridShare started, or many nodes dropping at the same time — or where GridShare cannot tell whose side caused it, you are paid your normal share of that time.
• Other refunds caused on your side. Where GridShare refunds a Buyer for a rental after finding that the cause was on your side — for example someone at your machine stopped the Buyer’s workload, or your node’s hardware did not match its listing — GridShare may withhold your share of the amount refunded.
• Limits. GridShare never withholds more than your share of what the Buyer was refunded, and only from your earnings for that rental that are not yet part of a payout. Money already paid to you is not recovered. If another Provider referred you, their referral bonus on the withheld amount is reversed too, but only from bonus not yet paid to them. Nothing else is deducted for the same refund. This is not a penalty: it reflects compute that was not delivered as agreed.
• Questions and disputes. GridShare decides reasonably and in good faith from the records it keeps. You can ask support@gridshare.in whether any of your earnings were withheld under this Section, and why. If you think a refund was not caused on your side, write to us, ideally within 30 days so that the records can still be checked; a person will review it and, if GridShare agrees, add the amount to your next payout.

4. Earnings and Payouts

Provider earnings are calculated based on verified compute time delivered to Buyers, and on verified time your node is held ready to serve a Buyer's serverless endpoint (see Keep-warm capacity below). The Platform fee charged by GridShare, and the Provider's share of compute revenue, are as displayed on your Provider dashboard at the time of each session. GridShare reserves the right to adjust Platform fees with 30 days' prior notice.

• Payouts are processed by bank transfer to the account registered and verified on your account. UPI payouts are coming soon; until then a verified bank account is required to be paid
• Payout fees, minimum thresholds, and processing frequency are as shown in your dashboard settings, which is also where you choose your payout cadence. Payouts then run automatically on that schedule — there is no per-payout confirmation step, and none is required of you
• GridShare does not guarantee any level of earnings. Earnings depend entirely on Buyer demand, your node's reliability score, hardware tier, and market conditions. We make no representation that your node will generate any revenue.
• GridShare reserves the right to withhold payout if fraud, Terms violation, or unresolved Buyer disputes are suspected, pending investigation

Payment for delivered and held capacity: Providers are paid for compute time actually delivered, measured up to the last verified heartbeat or checkpoint recorded by the Platform, and for keep-warm time as described below. Intentional disconnection or termination of an active Buyer session by the Provider forfeits earnings from that moment onward. Session failures caused by a Buyer's own code are not the Provider's fault and are not refundable to the Buyer.

Keep-warm capacity (serverless). When your node serves a Buyer's serverless endpoint, the worker is held ready between requests so the Buyer's next request does not pay a cold start. That held time is billed to the Buyer at a reduced rate even though no request is running, and you earn your normal revenue share of it — the same share shown on your Provider dashboard for served compute. Keep-warm earnings stop when the worker is shut down for inactivity, when the Buyer pauses, deletes or scales the endpoint to zero, when your node goes offline, or when the Buyer's balance is exhausted. Because keep-warm is paid for readiness rather than delivered work, disconnecting your node ends it immediately.

5. Tax Deducted at Source (TDS)

GridShare deducts tax at source (TDS) on its payments to Providers as required under the Income-tax Act, 1961. GridShare will deduct TDS at the applicable rate for your payment and tax status, deposit it with the Income Tax Department on your behalf, and make a TDS certificate (Form 16A) available. To avoid a higher rate of deduction under Section 206AA, you must furnish a valid PAN. The exact applicable section and rate are determined in accordance with the law as it applies to payments of this kind and are shown or notified through your dashboard. TDS deducted by GridShare does not discharge your full income-tax liability; you remain responsible for filing your own return.

6. Data on Provider Hardware

GridShare does not inspect or control what Buyers run on Provider hardware. It does not log it either, apart from the access record described in Section 7(j). Providers must not attempt to access, copy, intercept, or interfere with any Buyer's data or workloads. Violation will result in immediate permanent account termination and may be reported to law enforcement.

7. Provider Obligations

As a Provider, you agree that you will:

• (a) Connectivity and downtime: Use reasonable efforts to maintain node connectivity, and notify GridShare in advance of any planned downtime expected to exceed one (1) hour
• (b) No access to Buyer data: Not access, inspect, log, copy, or persist any Buyer data, files, environment variables, SSH keys, or execution logs, whether during or after a session
• (c) No retained backups: Not retain any backups, snapshots, or copies of Buyer data after an instance is terminated
• (d) Breach disclosure: Disclose any suspected or actual data breach affecting Buyer data on your node to GridShare within 24 hours of becoming aware of it
• (e) Valid PAN: Furnish a valid PAN to receive payouts; TDS is deducted as described in Section 5
• (f) Withholding and forfeiture: Acknowledge that GridShare may withhold or forfeit your payout for the affected period where fraud or a violation of these terms is verified
• (g) Abuse monitoring: Acknowledge that GridShare performs metadata-only abuse monitoring (e.g., resource usage patterns and network metadata) — never the contents of Buyer workloads; Section 7(j) describes a separate record of entry into Buyer containers
• (h) Law enforcement: Cooperate with GridShare and law enforcement authorities in connection with any lawful investigation involving your node
• (i) Accuracy of tax and payout information: You are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the PAN, GST registration status, and bank account or UPI payout details you provide to GridShare, and for promptly updating them if they change. You agree to indemnify and hold GridShare harmless from any tax, TDS, GST, interest, penalty, or related cost or expense that GridShare incurs as a result of any inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated tax or payout information you furnish.
• (j) Access logging: Acknowledge that, where your node runs Buyer workloads in Docker containers, the GridShare node software keeps a record of certain entry into those containers, on these terms:
  • What is recorded. The node software reads the Docker daemon’s own event stream for the containers it creates for Buyers (instances, serverless workers and jobs). It records each time anyone, through any tool that talks to the Docker daemon (for example the docker command, Docker Desktop or Portainer), runs a command or opens a shell inside such a container, attaches to it, copies files into or out of it, exports it, or saves it as an image. For each such action it sends GridShare a report containing: the type of action; for a command, its first 200 characters (never its output) and Docker’s reference for it; the container and the Buyer workload it belongs to; the time; and the node software version. GridShare links the report to your node and account and, for a rented instance, to the Buyer account that rented it. A copy of each report is also written to a log file on your machine. A command is recorded as typed, so it can include a file name or, if one was typed, a password or key.
  • Not reported. The node software’s own automated operations (such as the commands it runs to start, check, save or stop a workload) are recognised and not reported. On node software released since September 10, 2026, health checks that Docker runs by itself on a container’s regular schedule are not reported either, and a health check that runs outside that schedule is reported and marked as a health check. No report contains the contents of a file or the output of a command.
  • What the record cannot see. The record is not complete. Reading a container’s logs, listing its processes, inspecting it or viewing its resource use through Docker produces no report; nor does reading a Buyer’s files directly from your disk, reaching into a container or its memory with tools that bypass the Docker daemon, or anything done while the node software or Docker is stopped or your node is offline. Workloads that do not run in Docker are not covered; nor is a node still running older node software that does not keep this record, until it updates; and a report can be lost before it reaches GridShare. A method not being recorded does not make it permitted: Sections 6 and 7(b) apply to every form of access, recorded or not.
  • Your own rentals. Entry into a container you rented yourself, or one running on a node private to your own organisation, is still recorded but is not treated as a breach.
  • No interference. You must not disable, alter or interfere with the access log or its reports, or use any method intended to enter a Buyer’s container without it being recorded. Pausing or disconnecting your node as permitted by Section 3 is not interference.
  • Nothing is automatic. A report is a record of what the Docker daemon saw, not a finding against you. No node is delisted, no earnings are held and no account action is taken because of a report until a member of GridShare’s team has reviewed it. If a report has an innocent explanation (for example, a health check built into the container image), GridShare closes it and nothing further happens. Otherwise, as an interim step while it investigates, GridShare may remove your nodes from the marketplace and hold your unpaid earnings (Section 4). Before a final decision, GridShare will tell you what was recorded and give you a chance to explain, except where Section 1 allows immediate action for a serious violation. Where GridShare concludes that you breached Section 6 or Section 7(b) or (c), it may stop any Buyer workloads still running on your nodes, revoke your node software’s access, terminate your account under Section 6, and withhold earnings as allowed by Section 7(f) and Section 12 of the Terms of Service.
  • Use and retention. GridShare uses reports only to protect Buyer data, to enforce this Agreement, to resolve disputes and to meet legal obligations, including notifying an affected Buyer or an authority where the law requires it, reporting a suspected offence under Section 6, and co-operating under Section 7(h). GridShare keeps reports for three years from the date of the report, including after your account is closed. It keeps a report longer while a related dispute, investigation or legal claim is open and, where a report supports a decision to withhold or recover money, for as long as the related financial records are kept (Section 3.1 of the Privacy Policy). The copy on your machine is kept until the log file passes about 1 MB, when it is cleared and started again.

8. General

This Agreement is governed by the laws of India, with jurisdiction in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It incorporates by reference the GridShare Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Acceptable Use Policy; in the event of a conflict on a Provider-specific matter, this Provider Agreement prevails. GridShare may amend this Agreement with notice; continued use of the Platform after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

9. Survival

Termination, expiry, or suspension of this Agreement — for any reason, and including termination of a Provider's account for a violation under Section 6 — does not extinguish any obligation that by its nature is intended to continue. Without limitation, Section 5 (TDS and accrued tax obligations), Section 6 (Data on Provider Hardware), Section 7(b)-(d) (no access to Buyer data, no retained backups, and breach disclosure), and Section 8 (General, including Governing Law and Jurisdiction), together with any accrued payment, confidentiality, indemnity, and liability obligations, survive termination and remain enforceable. The confidentiality, data-protection, and breach-disclosure obligations in Sections 6 and 7(b)-(d) survive indefinitely, notwithstanding that the event of termination may itself arise from a breach of those Sections.