AI receptionists for law firms, compared on intake
We lead this page on one capability: consultations booked into a calendar at $49, with the overage published at $0.45 a call. Intake volume is unpredictable, and a firm that can price a heavy month in advance is a firm that will not be surprised by one.
Smith.ai has native Clio and MyCase integration, a client base reported to be heavily law firms, and a human team behind the assistant. At $150 a month for Pro it is priced above the SMB plans here. We have no practice-management integration at all.
Ruby staffs people first, from $250 a month for 50 minutes. Some clients can tell on the first call, and one retained matter can cover a year of it. We employ no receptionists.
Every firm should ask the disclosure question. Utah requires state-licensed occupations to disclose verbally at the start, and law is a licensed occupation. Maine requires clear notice for AI conversations in trade generally, and its definition covers spoken conversation.
How this was put together
Compared in September 2026 on what an intake call actually needs, by the team behind one of the entries.
What we compared
- Whether the assistant captures the matter type and the basics a conflict check needs.
- Native integration with practice-management software, stated honestly rather than as one word.
- What happens when a distressed caller needs a person.
- Published price and overage, since intake volume is unpredictable.
What we could not test
- How accurately each captures a caller describing a legal problem in lay terms, which is the whole job and which no demo tests fairly.
- Whether a vendor's practice-management integration writes what you need or merely creates a record.
- Confidentiality posture in practice, which needs each vendor's subprocessor list rather than their marketing.
The shortlist at a glance
Billing unit first, because it decides more of the final bill than the headline price does.
| Charges by | Entry plan | After the allowance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreetKeeper | per answered call | $49/mo for 200 answered calls | $0.45 a call on Starter, published |
| Smith.ai | per call | Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call | Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises |
| Ruby | per minute | $250/mo for 50 minutes | Not published on their pricing page |
| AnswerConnect | per minute | Does not publish pricing | Does not publish pricing |
| Rosie | per minute | Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes | Not published |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
Consultations booked at $49 with the overage printed, and no legal tooling to speak of.
Worth it for: A small firm that wants after-hours inquiries captured and consultations booked into a calendar, with the AI disclosure available for the Utah rule and a heavy intake month priced in advance.
Not for: Firms needing Clio or MyCase writes, which we do not have natively. Firms needing a vendor with references, since we have none. We claim no confidentiality certification of any kind, publish no uptime figure, and handle English only.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Smith.ai
Built for this vertical, with the integrations and the human fallback to match.
Worth it for: Any firm that runs on Clio or MyCase and wants intake captured into it, with a trained person available when the assistant cannot cope.
Not for: A solo practitioner testing whether answering software helps at all, where $150 a month is a large commitment before the evidence exists.
Charges per call. Entry plan Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call. After the allowance: Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises.
Ruby
Humans answering, which for some firms is the entire requirement.
Worth it for: A firm with a low volume of high-value matters where a person answering the first call is part of how the firm presents itself.
Not for: High-volume intake. $250 for 50 minutes disappears fast on intake calls, and the overage rate is not on their pricing page.
Charges per minute. Entry plan $250/mo for 50 minutes. After the allowance: Not published on their pricing page.
AnswerConnect
Round-the-clock human answering from a long-established operator.
Worth it for: A firm that wants 24/7 human cover and is comfortable running a sales call to find out what it costs.
Not for: Comparing on published numbers. They gate pricing behind a form, and we will not print a third-party figure as though they had confirmed it.
AnswerConnect does not publish its rates, so the cost is whatever the sales call produces.
Rosie
Cheap message-taking, with the booking gate in an awkward place for intake.
Worth it for: A firm that wants after-hours calls captured accurately and will handle the callback itself.
Not for: Booking consultations on the entry plan, which starts at the $149 tier. The overage rate is also unpublished.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes. After the allowance: Not published.
When a firm should not put software on intake
If your intake calls involve someone in crisis, think hard before any assistant answers first. A caller describing a domestic situation or an arrest needs a person, and the reputational cost of getting that wrong once outweighs a year of savings. Several firms run the assistant on overflow and after hours only, with the main line going to people during the day.
If your matters depend on a conflict check before anyone says anything substantive, the assistant's job is to collect names and stop. That is a configuration decision and you should make it deliberately rather than discovering it later.
And if you are in Utah or taking calls from Maine, the disclosure is not optional in the way most vendors imply. Utah requires licensed occupations to disclose verbally at the start. Read our compliance page and then ask your own counsel.
Our own pricing, in full
Including the rate after the allowance, which is the number most of this list leaves off.
| Plan | Monthly | Calls included | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarterFor a single location taking calls one line at a time. | $49 | 200 | $0.45 per call |
| ProfessionalBooking, routing and transfers included, not an add-on. | $149 | 750 | $0.35 per call |
| ScaleFor busy phones and longer opening hours. | $349 | 2,000 | $0.25 per call |
The short version
- Booking is included on every tier. Rosie keeps booking and live transfer behind its $149 plan.
- The overage rate is on the pricing page. Rosie, Ruby, Slang and AnswerConnect do not publish theirs.
- Calls are counted, not minutes, so a long useful conversation costs the same as a short one.
Questions people ask about this list
Can it run a conflict check?
No. It can collect the names a conflict check needs and put them in front of you. The check itself is a decision your firm makes, and any vendor implying software does it for you is overselling.
Does Utah's AI law apply to lawyers?
Utah's AI Policy Act requires state-licensed occupations to disclose prominently and verbally at the start of an interaction, and law is a licensed occupation. Ask whether the assistant can announce itself at call start.
Which one integrates with Clio?
Smith.ai has native Clio and MyCase integration. We do not, and we would rather write that here than describe it as integrates with everything. Our matrix has three states, and one of them is a plain no.
Why is GreetKeeper first on a list it wrote?
Because a small firm can book consultations on our $49 plan and price a heavy intake month from a published rate. On practice-management integration Smith.ai beats us outright, and it has years of firms behind it. We have no customers and no reviews, which for a firm choosing on trust is a real gap.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.