What a law firm pays for answering and intake
Your intake calls are the most expensive kind of call to buy by the minute. A conflict check, a matter description and your practice-area questions take six to ten minutes between them, where the general market prices around three. That single fact explains most of what you'll get quoted.
Smith.ai also bills per call: $150 a month for 75 to 300 calls on its Pro plan, roughly $2.00 each. GreetKeeper's Starter is $49 for 200 answered calls, with booking included.
Per-minute services will quote you from the same cards as everyone else, so if you take 60 intake calls you burn around 400 minutes and land on a $700 to $1,725 plan. Ruby's top published tier, $1,725 for 500 minutes, buys you roughly 70 intake calls.
What 60 intake calls a month costs, at six minutes each
| Service | Model | Plan | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai | Per call | Pro, 75–300 calls | $150 |
| PATLive | Per minute | $759 plan, 500 min | $759 |
| Posh | Per minute | Prestigious $700, 350 min, +10 at $2.00 | $720 |
| Ruby | Per minute | Enterprise $1,725, 500 min | $1,725 |
| AnswerConnect | Per minute | Past the 400-minute top tier | Quote only |
| GreetKeeper | Per answered call | Starter, 200 calls | $49 |
360 minutes assumed. Every plan read on the vendor's own pricing page, September 2026.
What makes legal intake expensive
- Call length. Conflict checks and matter descriptions take minutes that a retail inquiry never needs, and every per-minute vendor bills all of them.
- Practice-area routing. Family, injury and conveyancing inquiries reach different people, which means a rule set rather than a greeting.
- The value of the call, which cuts the other way: a single retained matter can be worth more than a year of any plan here.
- Whether the service writes into your practice management system, and by what route. Ask each vendor which systems it reaches and how.
- Out-of-hours intake, since people search for a solicitor in the evening and call whoever answers.
Worked example
A four-partner firm takes 60 intake calls and 140 general calls a month. Intake runs six minutes, general runs two. That's 640 minutes total.
Smith.ai Pro
200 calls sits inside the 75 to 300 band. $150, with the human bench and Clio integration included.
PATLive
640 minutes needs the $1,499 plan covering 1,000. $1,499.
Posh
640 minutes is Lavish at $975 for 500, then 140 at $1.95. $1,248.
GreetKeeper
200 answered calls, exactly Starter's allowance. $49, with Clio reached through our webhook and a paid Zapier plan.
If you run a firm, the per-call model wins on price by a wide margin. The same 200 calls cost $49 on GreetKeeper and $1,499 on a minute meter.
Where our own price sits
Our plans are $49, $149 and $349 for 200, 750 and 2,000 answered calls, with $0.45, $0.35 and $0.25 after. A ten-minute conflict-check conversation counts once.
The assistant captures the caller's name, number and reason for calling, and every call arrives as a transcript and a short summary. You set which inquiries transfer to a fee earner and which get written up for the morning.
| 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 |
Pricing a law firm's intake line
Check how each service connects to your practice software. GreetKeeper reaches Clio and MyCase through our webhook and a paid Zapier plan.
Turn on the AI announcement. Utah expects regulated occupations, law included, to disclose it at the start of the call.
Put privileged-material questions in writing to every vendor, and compare the answers alongside the price.
Every competitor figure on this page was read on that vendor's own pricing page in September 2026. Prices change. Check before you buy.
Questions people ask
Why do law firms pay more than other businesses?
Your call length, almost entirely. A six-minute intake call costs you twice what a three-minute inquiry costs on every per-minute plan here. With the same call count as a salon, you pay roughly double.
Is a per-call service always cheaper for a firm?
On these figures, yes, and by a lot. Smith.ai at $150 and we at $49 both count your calls rather than your minutes, and intake length is exactly what per-minute pricing punishes hardest.
Can an AI handle a conflict check?
It asks the conflict questions you write and records the answers in a transcript you can read. Your fee earner then decides whether a conflict exists.
What should a firm ask a vendor before signing?
Ask what gets stored and for how long, which subprocessors hear your audio, whether it writes into your practice management system, and what happens to a call the service can't handle. Get all four in writing, from us as well.
Price it on your intake length
Time five real intake calls. That average is what every per-minute quote you receive will be built on.