WhatRock

WhatRock Terms of Use

Effective date: 24 September 2026

What WhatRock is

WhatRock identifies rocks, minerals and fossils from a photo and shows an educational best guess with a confidence level and field notes. It is a learning and field-reference tool for your own curiosity, not a laboratory analysis, an appraisal, or a certification of any kind.

Identifications are educational, not laboratory results

WhatRock does not appraise, certify or authenticate anything. Every identification is a best-effort guess from an automated vision model, shown with a confidence level (High, Medium or Low) so you know how much to trust it. A low-confidence result shows up to three possible candidates instead of a single confident-sounding guess it is not actually sure of.

Accuracy depends on your photo — lighting, focus, and how much of the specimen is visible — and on the specimen itself; some material genuinely cannot be told apart from a photo alone. Gem-grade material (for example diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald, gold or meteorite) is always shown at Low confidence with a caution, because only a qualified gem lab or geologist can confirm those. WhatRock is not a substitute for a professional geologist, gemologist or accredited testing lab, and nothing in the app is a guarantee of identity, authenticity or composition.

You are responsible for decisions you make using WhatRock, including whether to rely on an identification for any purpose. We are not liable for losses or injuries resulting from decisions you make using the app, including a specimen identified incorrectly. For any decision that matters — buying, selling, insuring, or academic use — consult a qualified geologist, gemologist or accredited laboratory.

Collecting responsibly

WhatRock does not encourage or endorse collecting anywhere it is prohibited. You are solely responsible for knowing and following the law and the land rules that apply to you — for example, collecting rocks, minerals and fossils is prohibited in United States national parks and restricted in many other public and private areas. Field tips shown in the app are general education, not a recommendation to collect on any specific site.

Safety

Any field test suggested in the app (for example a scratch test, a streak test, a magnet test, or a household-vinegar test for carbonates) is performed at your own risk. Never taste, lick or ingest a specimen. Never use acids other than what is explicitly described, and never heat or forcibly break a specimen to test it. WhatRock is not liable for any injury, property damage, or loss arising from a field test or from collecting activity.

Subscriptions

Identifying a rock, mineral or fossil requires an active WhatRock Premium subscription, started with the free trial when one is being offered. Without Premium (and without the grandfathered allowance described below), you can still browse the starter Field Guide entries, Settings and these legal pages, but the camera and library identification flow opens the subscription offer instead of running a scan.

People who installed WhatRock before this version keep 3 free identifications per local calendar day, with full, readable results and no ads — this allowance was recognized automatically the first time this version launched on a device that had already used WhatRock, and does not require a new install or any action to keep it. 8 starter entries in the Field Guide are available to everyone, Premium or not.

WhatRock offers the following auto-renewable subscriptions through WhatRock Premium:

Which of these plans is offered to you, and whether a free trial applies, depends on where you are in the app and your own eligibility. The plan, trial length and price actually shown to you in the App Store at the time of purchase control — this document does not promise a particular plan or trial will be shown to you. Premium unlocks unlimited identifications, your full collection, the complete offline field guide, and collection notes.

This agreement is in addition to, and does not replace, Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement, which applies to your use of the app and is available at https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/.

We may apply reasonable fair-use limits to automated or abusive usage patterns so the service stays available and affordable for everyone; this does not affect ordinary use of the app.

Acceptable use

Do not use WhatRock to break the law, to scrape or resell the content we provide, to reverse-engineer the service, or to submit content you have no right to submit. We can suspend access that damages the service for other people.

Not affiliated

WhatRock is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any gem laboratory, geological survey, museum, or grading or certification service. Public sources cited in the app's field guide (for example the USGS, the National Park Service, or a state geological survey) are used only to describe the specimens the app identifies.

Service changes

We may change or discontinue features. The field guide and its sources depend on public references that can change or become unavailable.

Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, WhatRock is provided "as is" without warranties, and our total liability is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

Contact

support@whatrock.app