Legal intake software costs $89 to $130 per user per month where the vendor publishes a price and includes intake, or $150 to $2,100 per month when it is priced per call. Re-checked on 10 August 2026, MyCase includes client intake from $100 per user per month on annual billing and PracticePanther from $89, while Clio now publishes only that plans start at $49 per user per month and gives no price for Clio Grow at all. Smith.ai starts at $300 per month for 30 calls. Most legal intake specialists publish nothing.
Last updated August 2026. Vendor pricing re-verified from each vendor's own pricing page on 10 August 2026. Clio has restructured its plans since our July check and withdrawn the figures this article previously carried, so those have been replaced rather than kept.
That is the honest state of the market. Most legal intake vendors treat price as something you have to earn a demo to hear, which makes budgeting for intake harder than it should be. Below is every number we could verify from a vendor's own live page on 10 August 2026, plus a clear label on everything that is quote-only. Where a vendor does not publish, we say so instead of guessing.
How much does legal intake software cost? The real numbers
Legal intake software falls into three price bands. Practice management suites with an intake module charge per user per month, and where they publish, intake sits on a middle tier: $100 per user on MyCase Pro and $89 on PracticePanther Business, both at annual rates. Answering and receptionist services charge per call ($150 to $2,100 per month at Smith.ai, depending on volume and whether the calls are handled by a human or by AI). Purpose-built legal intake platforms (Lawmatics, Intaker, Captorra, Lead Docket) do not publish pricing at all and route you to a demo, and Clio has moved most of the way into that camp. Here is the full picture as of 10 August 2026.
| Vendor | What it is | Pricing model | Verified price (10 August 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clio Manage | Practice management | Per user, per month (annual) | Starter, Core, Signature, Elite. No tier priced. Published figure: plans start at $49 per user per month |
| Clio Grow | Legal CRM and intake | Per user, per month add-on | Not published. Listed as an add-on included in Elite and Elite Work |
| Lawmatics | Legal CRM, intake, marketing automation | Subscription tiers, 3 user minimum | Not publicly listed (Essential / Premium / Enterprise, quote only) |
| Lawmatics Merlin Qualify | AI lead scoring add-on | Metered credits (1 per lead evaluated) | Not published. As QualifyAI on 24 July 2026 it published 50 credits $150 up to 500 $750 |
| Smith.ai (human receptionists) | Live virtual receptionist and intake | Per call, month to month | 30 calls $300, 90 calls $810, 300 calls $2,100 per month |
| Smith.ai (AI Receptionist) | AI call answering | Per call, month to month | 25 calls free, 75 calls $150, 150 calls $270, 300 calls $500, 500 calls $800 |
| Intaker | Website chat and intake | Demo gated | Not publicly listed |
| Captorra | High volume intake (mass tort, PI) | Quote only, two editions | Not publicly listed |
| Lead Docket (Filevine) | Legal lead management | "Get a custom quote" form | Not publicly listed |
How does per user, per month pricing work?
Per user, per month pricing charges by lawyer, not by lead. MyCase and PracticePanther are now the clearest examples, because they still publish. MyCase runs $60 per user per month for Basic, $120 for Pro and $150 for Advanced, or $50, $100 and $130 on annual billing, with Client Intake Forms and Legal CRM starting on Pro. PracticePanther runs $59 Solo, $79 Essential, $99 Business and $124 Business Pro monthly, or $49, $69, $89 and $114 annual, with Intake Forms starting on Business. In both cases intake sits on a middle tier at roughly double the advertised entry price. Our dated breakdown of MyCase pricing plans and tiers goes through what each tier turns on, and why a lot of the MyCase figures published elsewhere are a price card behind.
Run the arithmetic for a real firm. MyCase Pro, the cheapest MyCase tier that includes intake, is $100 per user per month on annual billing. For a four-attorney firm that is $400 per month, or $4,800 a year, before you add a paralegal or an intake coordinator as seats. On PracticePanther Business at $89 annual the same firm pays $356 a month. The structural point is that this cost scales with headcount, not with inquiries. A firm that hires two associates pays more for intake even if lead volume never moves, and a firm that doubles its marketing spend pays nothing extra. Whether that helps or hurts depends on which direction your firm is growing.
How does per call pricing work?
Per call pricing charges for each conversation, and the published base price is only a floor. Smith.ai is the most transparent vendor in the category, which is exactly why it is the best illustration of how the real bill forms. Its human receptionist plans, month to month with no setup fee and no contract, are Starter at $300 per month for 30 calls, Basic at $810 for 90 calls, and Pro at $2,100 for 300 calls. Overage runs $11.50, $10.50 and $8.50 per call respectively, so the per call rate falls as volume rises.
The catch is what a "call" includes. Intake on the base plan is capped at five short-answer questions. Anything a law firm actually needs is billed on top, per call.
| Smith.ai per call add-on | Price per call (July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Book an appointment | +$1.50 |
| Conflict check | +$0.50 |
| Extended intake (6 additional questions) | +$1.50, then +$0.25 per further question |
| Accept payment | +$1.00 |
| SMS notification | +$0.50 |
| Call recording and transcription | +$0.25 |
Stack those the way a real intake needs them (book the consult, run a conflict check, ask more than five questions, take a payment) and you are adding roughly $4.50 to $5.00 per call to the base rate. On the 90 call Basic plan at $810, that is another $405 or so per month. Smith.ai also sells an AI Receptionist at lower prices: 25 calls free, then $150 for 75 calls, $270 for 150, $500 for 300 and $800 for 500, which is a genuinely different cost curve if your calls do not need a human. Compare that against how an always-on AI receptionist handles the same work before you assume a human is required.
Why do four of six vendors refuse to publish a price?
Four of the six legal intake vendors we checked in July 2026 publish no price at all: Lawmatics base plans, Intaker, Captorra and Lead Docket. That is not an oversight. Quote-only pricing lets a vendor price against your firm's size, practice area and perceived budget rather than against a public list, and it forces a sales conversation before you can compare anything.
Here is what each one does publish. Lawmatics states a three user minimum, 500 contacts on Essential and 10,000 on Premium, and a first month free, but no dollar figure for any tier. Its QualifyAI add-on is the exception: lead scoring is metered in credits at one credit per lead evaluated, priced at $150 for 50 credits per month, $250 for 100, $400 for 200, $600 for 350 and $750 for 500. Credits do not roll over, and overage on the smallest tier is $4.00 per credit, falling to $1.50 per credit at the 500 credit tier. Intaker is demo gated; an $80 starter plan appeared in Intaker's own blog post in January 2023, but it is on no live pricing page today, so treat it as stale and unverified rather than current. Smokeball lists intake as a paid add-on on Boost and Grow and includes it on Prosper+, and publishes no price for the plans or the add-on; we keep the dated record of what its page showed and when on our Smokeball pricing page. Captorra, owned by Martindale-Avvo, sells two editions (Captorra Ready, capped at five users, and Captorra Enterprise, unlimited users with real-time intake dialog scripting) and lists no price for either. Lead Docket's pricing page is a "Get a Custom Quote" form; its real strength is marketing ROI attribution and native Filevine sync.
If you are shortlisting any of those four, ask for the fully loaded monthly cost at your actual lead volume, in writing.
What drives the price up?
The sticker price of legal intake software is rarely the price you pay. Five things move it, and all five are predictable.
- Headcount. On per user pricing, every seat you add costs the full rate. At Clio's published floor of $49 per user per month that is $588 a year for one person and $2,940 for five, and a plan that includes Clio Grow intake costs more than the floor by an amount Clio does not publish. Our dated breakdown of Clio pricing plans and tiers sets out exactly what Clio does and does not disclose, and the wider legal software pricing comparison does the same across nine vendors.
- Call volume. On per call pricing, growth is a tax. Smith.ai overage on the Starter plan is $11.50 per call, so 20 unexpected calls in a busy month adds $230.
- Depth of the intake. Five short-answer questions is not intake, it is a message pad. Real screening (facts of the matter, dates, opposing party, damages, prior counsel) is where the extended intake fees bite at $1.50 plus $0.25 per additional question.
- Conflict checks and payments. Both are separately billed at Smith.ai ($0.50 and $1.00 per call) even though most firms consider both non-optional.
- Annual versus monthly terms. Where vendors publish both, the gap is real and consistent: MyCase runs $60, $120 and $150 per user monthly against $50, $100 and $130 annual, and PracticePanther $59, $79, $99 and $124 against $49, $69, $89 and $114. Roughly a sixth of the bill rides on the commitment. Clio publishes neither rate, so ask which one you are being quoted.
What should a small firm expect to pay?
A solo or three-attorney firm should budget $150 to $600 per month for legal intake in 2026, and a firm with real inbound call volume should budget more. Three concrete scenarios, using only verified July 2026 prices:
Solo, low volume, already on a practice platform. Intake inside the tool you already run is usually the cheapest path. On MyCase that means Pro at $100 per user per month annual, or $1,200 a year for one seat. On Clio it means asking for the Elite rate, because Clio no longer publishes one.
Three attorneys, roughly 90 inbound calls a month, wants a human answering. Smith.ai Basic is $810 per month for 90 calls. Add booking ($1.50), a conflict check ($0.50) and extended intake ($1.50) on each and the real number is closer to $1,125 per month, or $13,500 a year.
Same firm, AI answering instead. Smith.ai's AI Receptionist at 150 calls is $270 per month. The tradeoff is judgment on the call, not coverage.
One structural observation worth sitting with. Nobody in this category prices on the thing a law firm actually wants, which is a qualified, booked, briefed consultation. Clio prices per lawyer. Smith.ai prices per ring. Lawmatics prices per lead evaluated by its scoring model. Four vendors price per negotiation. If your firm is weighing what to spend here, start from what a signed matter is worth to you and work backwards, rather than starting from a seat count. The legal intake software page sets out how Consultations approaches the same problem, and if the real cash squeeze at your firm is receivables rather than intake, it is usually cheaper to automate the follow-up on overdue invoices than to buy another seat of anything.
Frequently asked questions
How much does legal intake software cost?
Legal intake software costs $89 to $130 per user per month on the published plans that actually include intake, meaning PracticePanther Business at $89 annual and MyCase Pro at $100 annual, rising to $130 for MyCase Advanced (verified 10 August 2026). Per call intake through Smith.ai runs $300 to $2,100 per month for human receptionists and $150 to $800 for its AI receptionist. Clio publishes only a $49 per user starting figure and no price for Clio Grow, and Lawmatics, Intaker, Captorra and Lead Docket publish nothing at all.
Is there free legal intake software?
There is one verified free tier in this group: Smith.ai's AI Receptionist handles 25 calls a month at no cost, then charges $3.00 per additional call. Lawmatics offers a first month free but has never published what month two costs. No practice management suite in this comparison has a free plan.
How much does Clio Grow cost?
Clio does not publish a price for Clio Grow. Checked on 10 August 2026, Clio's pricing page lists Grow as an add-on included in the Elite and Elite Work plans, with a Get pricing link rather than a figure, and names four plans (Starter, Core, Signature, Elite) without pricing any individually. The only published number is that plans start at $49 per user per month. The $59 per user figure still quoted in many articles, including an earlier version of this one, is not on Clio's site today. We cover what Clio does publish in how much Clio Grow costs, and track the whole category on our legal intake software pricing page.
How much does Lawmatics cost?
Lawmatics does not publish base subscription pricing. Its site lists Essential, Premium and Enterprise tiers with no dollar figures, a three user minimum, 500 contacts on Essential and 10,000 on Premium, and a first month free. The only published Lawmatics price is the QualifyAI lead scoring add-on, which starts at $150 per month for 50 lead evaluations and reaches $750 per month for 500.
How much does Smith.ai cost per month?
Smith.ai's human receptionist plans are $300 per month for 30 calls, $810 for 90 calls and $2,100 for 300 calls, month to month with no setup fee and no contract. Extra calls are $11.50, $10.50 and $8.50 respectively. Per call add-ons (booking, conflict checks, extended intake, payments) are billed on top and typically add $3 to $5 per call for a law firm.
Is legal intake software worth it for a solo practice?
For a solo practice, the math turns on one number: what a signed matter is worth. If your average matter is $3,000, a $148 per month intake setup pays for itself if it converts one extra client every 20 months. The harder question is not cost but coverage, because a solo who is in court cannot answer the phone, and the inquiries that go unanswered are the ones that cost real money. Start with what client intake actually involves before you shop for tools.
One last thing to settle before you sign anything. Roughly half the vendors in this category publish no rate at all, so a like for like comparison depends on establishing what each quote is measured in. Our breakdown of submission intake automation pricing lists which platforms publish a figure, which quote only, and the seat minimums and feature gates that raise the real entry price above the advertised one.
See how Consultations runs intake for your field on the use cases page.