What Does an AI Receptionist Cost a Law Firm in 2026?
Rates for seven intake vendors, read on 2026-09-10 from each vendor's own pricing page where one exists and from named third-party pricing trackers where it does not. See the monthly equivalent of each billing unit and how BookedBack's per-booked-appointment fee compares.
An AI receptionist for a law firm costs from $69.99 a month at the self-serve end, the rate KaiCalls publishes at kaicalls.com. At the high end, pricing trackers eesel.ai and proplaintiff.ai estimate the per-seat platform EVE near $500 per attorney a month, about $5,000 a month for a ten-attorney firm. EVE publishes no rate of its own and has not confirmed that figure. All figures read from vendor pricing pages and third-party trackers on 2026-09-10. BookedBack, an AI intake platform for personal injury firms, charges a $50 to $300 software usage fee per booked appointment instead. It also charges a $0 to $5,000 monthly platform fee depending on plan, published in full at bookedback.ai/pricing.
Per-seat and per-call pricing bills for activity, so a firm pays the same whether a call turns into a consult or not. A per-booked-appointment fee bills only when a lead books. At ten booked consults a month, BookedBack's Solo plan comes to $3,000 with no monthly fee. Those units do not convert into each other. Smith.ai's $2,100 buys 300 answered calls however few of them book, and EVE's estimated $5,000 buys ten attorney seats on a platform that runs past intake. A firm has to price each one against its own volume.
How much does an AI receptionist cost for a law firm in 2026?
An AI receptionist for a law firm costs between $69.99 a month on a self-serve plan and $2,100 a month for Smith.ai's 300-call plan. The $69.99 is the rate KaiCalls publishes at kaicalls.com; the $2,100 is read from smith.ai/pricing, both as of 2026-09-10. Firms billed per attorney seat pay more. Pricing trackers eesel.ai and proplaintiff.ai estimate EVE near $500 per attorney a month, about $5,000 a month for ten attorneys, though EVE publishes no rate of its own.
Three billing units cover almost the whole category: per seat, per call or per minute, and per booked appointment. EVE, the most heavily funded player in the market, does not publish a rate and requires a demo. Two third-party pricing write-ups, eesel.ai and proplaintiff.ai, put it near $500 per attorney a month, a figure EVE has not confirmed. Lawmatics does not publish a monthly rate either: it requires a 3-user minimum plus a $399 onboarding fee on an annual contract.
Smith.ai and the human answering services do publish theirs. Smith.ai runs $1.60 to $7.00 per call depending on whether the call is AI-only, hybrid, or human-first. Its plans start at $300 for 30 calls a month and go up to $2,100 for 300 calls, with overage priced at $8.50 to $11.50 a call (smith.ai/pricing). Human answering services such as Ruby, Nexa, LEX Reception, and Answering Legal bill $3.50 to $5.00 a minute, per the BookedBack PI intake market teardown, captured 2026-09-10. Of the seven vendors compared here, Smith.ai is the only one publishing both a free entry tier and a money-back guarantee. It offers 25 calls a month free with no expiry, and a 30-day refund of up to $1,000 on a month-to-month plan (smith.ai/pricing, read 2026-09-10). For a firm that wants to test an answering service at zero risk, that is the easiest starting point in the category.
No AI receptionist vendor in this comparison, including EVE, Smith.ai, Lawmatics, Captorra, Goodcall and the human answering services, charges for a booked appointment specifically. All of them bill per seat, per call, per agent or per minute. BookedBack's Solo plan charges $300 per booked appointment with no monthly fee, so ten booked appointments in a month comes to $3,000. Those units do not convert into each other. Smith.ai's $2,100 buys 300 answered calls however few of them book, and EVE's estimated $5,000 buys ten attorney seats on a platform that runs past intake. A firm has to price each one against its own volume.
How does a per-booked-appointment fee translate to a monthly cost?
BookedBack's software usage fee is $50 to $300 per booked appointment depending on plan, plus a monthly platform fee of $0 on Solo, $2,000 on Growth, or $5,000 on Scale. At 10 booked appointments in a month, Solo comes to 10 times $300, or $3,000, with no monthly fee added on top.
At that same volume of 10 booked appointments a month, BookedBack's Growth and Scale plans cost more than Solo. Ten appointments on Growth costs 10 times $150 plus the $2,000 monthly fee, or $3,500. Ten appointments on Scale costs 10 times $50 plus the $5,000 monthly fee, or $5,500. That is expected: Growth and Scale carry a flat monthly fee sized for higher volume, up to 300 leads a month on Growth and up to 1,000 on Scale. Both plans also add features Solo does not include. A firm booking only 10 appointments a month should stay on Solo, where the fee scales with usage and nothing is owed up front.
| Vendor | Billed per | Published rate | Volume assumed | Cost at that volume | Cost per booked appointment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodcall | Agent, metered | $79–$249 a month, plus $0.50 per customer over quota | Up to quota | $79–$249/mo | Not comparable: metered per unique customer |
| Human answering services | Receptionist minute | $3.50–$5.00 a minute | 300 receptionist minutes | $1,050–$1,500/mo | Not comparable: billed per minute |
| Smith.ai | Call | $1.60–$7.00 a call; 25 calls a month free with no expiry; plans $300 (30 calls) to $2,100 (300 calls); 30-day refund up to $1,000 | 300 calls | $2,100/mo | Not comparable: billed per call, booking is a $1.50 add-on, no booking rate published |
| EVE | Attorney seat | eesel.ai and proplaintiff.ai estimate near $500/attorney/mo; no published rate | 4 attorney seats | About $2,000/mo, estimated | Not comparable: billed per attorney seat |
| BookedBack (this site) | Booked appointment | $50–$300 per appointment, plus $0–$5,000 a month by plan | 10 booked appointments, Solo covers up to 100 leads a month | $3,000/mo, Solo | $300, Solo |
| Lawmatics | User seat, annual | 3-seat minimum, $399 onboarding fee; no published monthly rate | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Caseflood | Setup fee, plus an undisclosed recurring fee | $3,000 setup fee, waived with a launch code; recurring fee not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Rows are ordered by cost at the volume assumed for each row. Volumes are not comparable between rows, so this is not a ranking; vendors with no published rate are marked as such. Figures were captured 2026-09-10: Smith.ai, Goodcall and Lawmatics come from smith.ai/pricing, goodcall.com/pricing and lawmatics.com/pricing; EVE's figure is an estimate from the pricing trackers eesel.ai and proplaintiff.ai, not from EVE. The cost-at-volume column applies each published unit price to the stated volume; where no rate is public, we say so rather than estimate one. Only BookedBack prices per booked appointment, so the last column is the one figure no other vendor in this category publishes. Smith.ai is the only vendor here with both a free tier and a money-back guarantee.
What does an AI receptionist cost a solo attorney?
A solo attorney can pay as little as $69.99 a month for a basic self-serve AI receptionist, the rate KaiCalls publishes at kaicalls.com. A human-backed tier of the same kind of tool runs as much as $329 a month, the price on Abby's human tier; its AI-only tier is $99. Goodcall starts from $79 a month, read from goodcall.com/pricing, both captured 2026-09-10.
Those flat monthly prices are the cheaper option at low volume, and a solo attorney should know it. At 10 booked appointments a month, a firm pays a flat $69.99 on KaiCalls or a flat $79 base on Goodcall against $3,000 on BookedBack Solo. Those flat fees buy an answering agent and are charged whether or not any lead books. BookedBack's $300 is charged only when a lead books. Goodcall also meters by unique customer and charges $0.50 for each one past the plan quota; KaiCalls publishes no included-volume figure we could verify. What the flat fee does not do is scale with outcomes. It costs the same whether a lead calls once or fifty times, and whether any call turns into a booked consult. On BookedBack Solo the monthly fee is $0, and the charge of $300 lands only when a lead books. The plan covers up to 100 leads a month, month to month. That is the better trade only once a firm is booking enough consults to value them above $300 each. The first booked appointment is free on every plan.
How much does an AI receptionist cost a 10-person personal injury firm?
A 10-person personal injury firm typically pays $1,500 to $5,000 a month, depending on how many of those ten people are attorneys. The market prices this tier by seat rather than by headcount. Pricing trackers eesel.ai and proplaintiff.ai estimate EVE near $500 per attorney a month. A ten-person firm with three attorneys runs about $1,500 and one with ten attorneys about $5,000; EVE publishes no rate of its own.
Lawmatics requires at least 3 seats plus a $399 onboarding fee on an annual contract, also without a published monthly rate (lawmatics.com/pricing). What that price buys is broader than intake: Lawmatics is a full legal CRM with marketing automation, rated 4.6 on Capterra across 50 reviews. A firm replacing its CRM at the same time is not comparing like for like. Its Merlin AI add-ons are also sold on outcome-based pricing. Captorra, built for high-volume PI and mass-tort intake, quotes custom pricing and publishes no rate; a Capterra pricing digest puts its entry point near $200 a month. Smith.ai scales by call count rather than firm size: $300 for 30 calls, up to $2,100 for 300 calls a month (smith.ai/pricing). Overage runs $8.50 to $11.50 a call past the plan limit (smith.ai/pricing).
BookedBack's Growth plan covers up to 300 leads a month for a $2,000 monthly fee plus $150 per booked appointment, on a 3-month commitment. Scale costs a $5,000 monthly fee plus $50 per booked appointment for up to 1,000 leads a month, on a 6-month commitment. Those numbers buy intake and booking only. EVE's per-seat price covers a plaintiff platform that runs from intake through trial, so a firm replacing case management as well as intake is not comparing the same thing. Above Scale volume, BookedBack quotes a custom rate, the same way EVE, Lawmatics, Captorra and Lead Docket do.
What hidden fees should a law firm watch for with an AI receptionist?
Reading smith.ai/pricing, lawmatics.com/pricing and Caseflood's own site and Y Combinator launch page, three costs show up past the sticker price. They are per-call add-ons, onboarding fees, and overage once a plan's included volume runs out. A fourth is the one nobody prints: Caseflood, EVE, Lawmatics, Captorra and Lead Docket all require a quote before a firm learns its recurring rate. Smith.ai bills add-ons separately per call: $1.50 for booking, $0.25 for call recording, $1.00 for Spanish, and $3.00 for a live transfer, stacked on top of its base call rate.
Lawmatics charges a $399 onboarding fee and sells on an annual contract with a 3-seat minimum (lawmatics.com/pricing). Caseflood charges a $3,000 setup fee, waived with a launch promo code (caseflood.ai). That fee buys a done-for-you setup of a human-assisted intake team, Luna on voice and Jess on SMS, from a Y Combinator W25 company backed by Acquisition.com. Caseflood is the closest competitor to BookedBack in focus, and a PI firm that wants humans in the loop should look at it. It publishes no recurring rate. Overage pricing can be its own trap. Smith.ai charges $8.50 to $11.50 for every call past a plan's limit (smith.ai/pricing), so a busy month can run well past the plan's sticker price.
Reviewers on G2 and Capterra, read on 2026-09-10, report add-on billing surprises with Smith.ai and a decline in service quality since 2023. These are individual customer reviews, not a measured finding, and Smith.ai holds a 4.8 rating on Capterra and 4.9 on G2. Lawmatics reviewers on the same sites cite six-month setups on top of the $399 onboarding fee. BookedBack charges no setup fee, no onboarding fee, and no per-message or per-minute add-on. Solo is month to month with no monthly fee. Growth carries a $2,000 monthly platform fee on a 3-month term and Scale a $5,000 monthly fee on a 6-month term, all published at bookedback.ai/pricing.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a human receptionist?
On a per-contact basis an AI receptionist is usually cheaper. AI-first call plans like Smith.ai run $1.60 to $7.00 a call, and self-serve tools like KaiCalls start at $69.99 a month flat (kaicalls.com). Human answering services such as Ruby and Nexa bill $3.50 to $5.00 a receptionist minute, per the BookedBack PI intake market teardown, captured 2026-09-10.
A full-time human receptionist costs a firm $42,000 to $60,000 a year in salary, the figure Smith.ai and Caseflood both use to price against. What that salary buys is real. A person handles a caller in distress, follows a fact pattern no script anticipated, and escalates a bad case on judgment rather than on rules. In a scrape of 58 r/Lawyertalk intake posts from the past year, captured 2026-09-10, the most upvoted was not about AI at all. Its title: "Stop having your receptionist interrogate everyone", with 842 upvotes and 147 comments. The complaint is about gatekeeping and generic message-taking. A firm whose intake calls are complicated and low in volume may be better served by one good person than by any tool on this page. One solo attorney on r/Lawyertalk reported paying a remote assistant $22 an hour for 40 hours a week just to answer calls.
Price is one of two variables. The other is whether the service answers and books at all, which the data says is where most firms lose leads. Clio's 2025 Legal Trends report found only 40% of law firms answered the phone at all, down from 56% in 2019. Clio's 2025 Legal Trends report also found that 52% of firms said they lost business to a missed call. Hennessey Digital's 2025 research found 26% of firms never respond to a web lead at all. Which unit to compare on depends on what the firm is buying. A firm buying coverage should compare flat monthly cost; a firm buying booked consults should compare cost per answered and booked lead. BookedBack bills in the second unit, so it looks expensive on the first. A firm should ask any vendor what share of calls it answers and what share it books, and price against that.
BookedBack answers, qualifies and books a personal injury lead in under 60 seconds across AI voice and email, with iMessage on Growth and Scale. It is San Diego based and takes personal injury work only, so a firm outside that description is better served by one of the other names on this page. It charges a usage fee per booked appointment rather than per minute or per call. On Solo there is no monthly fee. On Growth and Scale a flat monthly fee applies whether or not anything books. Those are different structures from a per-minute human service and from a flat-fee AI plan, and a firm should price all three against its own call volume.
How much does an AI receptionist cost a law firm?
Is there a free AI receptionist plan for a solo attorney?
Does BookedBack charge a setup or onboarding fee?
Does an AI receptionist replace a full-time receptionist salary?
BookedBack charges a software usage fee per booked appointment, plus a monthly platform fee by plan. The full breakdown is published at /pricing, no demo required to see it.
See full pricing