Terms revision: August 26, 2026 · Last verified: October 4, 2026 (homepage, Terms and Privacy Policy re-read at instinct.com) · We re-check this page when the terms change.

How to Use Instinct AI

Updated Oct 4, 2026 · 9 min read · A walkthrough of the documents, not the interface

Instinct is invite-based and ships without a manual. This page is the closest thing we could build without an account: every step below is something the company’s own documents state — the URLs, the settings, what happens when you disconnect, and what the terms say you’re responsible for configuring yourself.

Both documents were last revised on August 26, 2026, and every claim on this page is dated to that revision.

What you need before you start

Three things, in this order.

The one decision you can’t walk back is the first one: whichever inbox or calendar you connect sets the size of the blast radius. That’s Step 0 on our safety page →.

Terms of Service → 1. Who may use the services / 2. User accounts / 12. SMS/text messaging — rev. Aug 26, 2026 · instinct.com (homepage) — accessed Oct 4, 2026

Getting in: invites, and what we could actually verify

Instinct is invite-based, and we could not find any official page that issues invite codes.

What we can measure: search demand for an Instinct invite code is small and very new — the term first registers on Google Trends on September 27, 2026, with a 12-month peak of just 3 on the 0–100 index. That’s the shape of an invite wall most people haven’t reached yet, not a code being handed out publicly.

If you don’t have an invite, the honest position is: watch the official site, and be careful with anything that offers codes. We found no official code generator — any page promising one isn’t run by us, and as far as we could verify, isn’t run by them either.

Google Trends, “instinct ai invite code”, 12 months to Oct 4, 2026 · instinct.com (homepage) — accessed Oct 4, 2026

The first conversation

Your first session is a text. What we’d do in it — this part is our advice, not their instruction:

One definition worth internalising: your Input is everything you “provide or otherwise make available to us” — the parenthetical matters, because “connecting third-party services” counts as making data available:

“…you provide or otherwise make available to us (including by connecting third-party services to the Services), actively or passively, prompts, text, documents or other materials and data for processing…” Terms of Service → 3. Using the services → Input — rev. Aug 26, 2026

The conversation is the data.

Terms of Service → 3. Using the services → Input — rev. Aug 26, 2026 · Privacy Policy → Information collected through your use of the Services — rev. Aug 26, 2026

Connecting accounts

Two connection paths are documented, and they are not equally protective.

Google Workspace is the exception. The privacy policy commits that information received from Google Workspace APIs is not used “to evaluate, fine-tune, train, or improve AI models, or for serving ads,” and that the company does not “disclose raw or derived Workspace or Photos API user data to third party AI services, including third-party AI model providers, for model training or secondary purposes.” Linking Workspace gives it Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Tasks.

Everything else runs on the general clause — usable for training “subject to your opt-out rights,” which is the next section.

Two more things the Terms say out loud about life after you connect:

“You hereby appoint the Services as your agent to enter into agreements, commitments or transactions on your behalf… Any such agreements or commitments shall be binding on you as if entered into directly by you.” Terms of Service → 3. Using the services → Actions — rev. Aug 26, 2026

“Actions may not always be reversible.” Terms of Service → 3. Using the services → Actions — rev. Aug 26, 2026

Privacy Policy → Information collected from Google Workspace — rev. Aug 26, 2026 · Terms of Service → 3. Using the services → Connected services / Actions — rev. Aug 26, 2026

The settings that matter

One URL: app.instinct.com/settings. Both documents send you there to opt out of training.

“If you do not want us to use your Materials to train AI models, you can opt out by visiting app.instinct.com/settings.” Terms of Service → 3. Using the services → Materials — rev. Aug 26, 2026

“If you do not want us to use your information to train AI models, you can opt out by visiting app.instinct.com/settings.” Privacy Policy → Information collected through your use of the Services — rev. Aug 26, 2026

Same address, two vocabularies — the policy says information, the Terms say Materials (which the Terms separately define). Worth knowing if you’re reading both.

What opting out does and does not cover — four limits, all from the documents:

Because of the second limit, do it the day you connect, not the week you get around to it.

One counterpoint we’ll give them credit for, since it’s also in the document:

“We do not sell your information or disclose your information to registered data brokers or third parties who resell your information to others.” Privacy Policy — rev. Aug 26, 2026

Vault: what the terms say

Vault is the one feature with its own clause-level promise, and it is stronger than the global opt-out:

“However, for Materials that you add to our feature of the Service known as the “Vault” (or its successor name), we will only use such Materials to provide the Services to you and will not use such Materials to train AI models.” Terms of Service → 3. Using the services → Materials — rev. Aug 26, 2026

Note what this is and isn’t: it’s a promise about materials you put in Vault, and it carries no safety-review carve-out — the one the opt-out has. That, not popularity, is why it’s the stronger of the two.

It’s a terms-level commitment. We’re not describing where the button is or how the feature behaves, because we haven’t used it. If you see a post claiming “Vault replaces the opt-out,” that’s someone’s reading, not a document quote.

How to disconnect — and why it isn’t deleting

This is the part most people get wrong, and the documents are unusually clear about it.

The policy says the same thing about other integrations: “Please note that disconnecting a third-party integration does not automatically delete data collected from that integration. You can delete all data indexed from external sources by visiting app.instinct.com/workspace.”

And, separately, for Workspace specifically: “You may also delete the information we previously collected from Google Workspace by deleting your account within Instinct’s Workspace.”

So the sequence is revoke → request deletion → (optionally) delete the account — three distinct actions, not one toggle. Disconnecting is not deleting, which is risk ⑤ on our safety page →.

Terms of Service → 3. Using the services → Connected services — rev. Aug 26, 2026 · Privacy Policy → Information collected from Google Workspace / Information collected from other sources — rev. Aug 26, 2026

Before you connect a real inbox

A checklist, in the order that limits damage fastest:

• Pick the email account on purpose. — It sets what the agent can reach, and it’s the item you can’t undo.
• Prefer Google Workspace over other integrations. — It’s the one path with a no-training commitment written into the policy.
• Turn training off the day you connect. — At app.instinct.com/settings, before you’ve sent it anything you’d mind losing.
• Log in and check the settings page yourself. — We’ve given you the documented URLs; we can’t tell you what the interface looks like, because we don’t have an account.
• Don’t hand it spending authority. — The policy contemplates giving it payment information “so it can book rides on your behalf”; the Terms make what it does binding on you.
• Configure your own safeguards. — The Terms put this on you: “you remain responsible for configuring any additional safeguards or restrictions on Actions, including appropriate security settings, permissions, and sharing settings on each Connected Service.”
• Verify before you trust. — “Records of Actions available through the Services may not always be accurate.”

Terms of Service → 3. Using the services → Responsibilities and acknowledgment of risks — rev. Aug 26, 2026 · Privacy Policy → Information collected through your use of the Services — rev. Aug 26, 2026

What this page can and can’t tell you

A page that shows you screenshots and click-by-click steps is either written by someone with an account, or invented. We’re not going to invent one.

What we can do — and did above — is quote the paths the documents themselves name: app.instinct.com/settings, app.instinct.com/workspace, the Workspace no-training commitment, the agent clause. Every claim on this page is dated to the revision we read: August 26, 2026.

What we can’t do: tell you what any screen looks like, how many taps something takes, or whether the behaviour matches the words. If you have an account and something here is wrong, tell us and we’ll correct it — with the date.

Terms of Service / Privacy Policy — rev. Aug 26, 2026