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AI receptionist for law firms

A potential client calls three firms and retains the first one that picks up. That is the whole business case. This page prices the services that answer for you, from $150 a month for AI intake up to $720 a month for trained human receptionists, and shows why per call and per minute billing land very differently on legal intake.

Prices read from each vendor's own pricing page in July 2026. Full table on the pricing index.

What calls does a law firm actually miss?

A firm rarely misses calls because nobody is there. It misses them because the person who answers is the same person doing everything else, and because legal calls arrive at the worst possible moments.

• The shopping call. The caller has three numbers from a search result and dials them in order. They do not leave a voicemail. Whoever picks up gets the consultation, and the other two firms never learn the call happened.
• The hearing gap. Two hours in court, phone on silent, and the paralegal is at lunch. This is the most expensive recurring hole in a small firm's day and it repeats every week.
• The 2am call. Arrests, accidents and domestic matters do not wait for office hours. These are also the highest value matters in criminal, personal injury and family practice.
• The unqualified call that eats an hour. The other side of the problem. Calls that were never going to become a matter still burn attorney time. A screening layer with a real script is worth as much as the calls it saves.
• The weekend lead your ad spend already paid for. If you run paid search, the clicks keep coming on Saturday. Nobody answering means you paid for the click and gave the matter away.

What one missed call costs you here

A signed matter at a small firm is commonly worth somewhere in the $2,000 to $5,000 range, and considerably more in personal injury, complex family or business litigation. Treat that as a typical range to start from, not a claim about your practice. Use your own average fee per signed matter, and if you work on contingency use your expected value per case rather than the headline settlement.

Then be honest about the conversion rate, because this is where legal marketing maths usually goes wrong. Most firms sign well under a fifth of the people who call. If you take 40 calls a week, miss 15 percent of them and one in eight of those callers would have signed, that is roughly one lost matter a month. At the range above, one lost matter a month is $2,000 to $5,000, against a $300 a month answering plan. The answering service does not have to be good. It has to be better than a voicemail greeting.

Put your own fee per signed matter in the third field and a realistic sign rate in the fourth. The full calculator shows the workings.

Which service fits a law firm

Smith.ai, because per call billing suits legal intake

Smith.ai names law firms as its target and prices accordingly. Live agents start at $300 a month for 30 calls, then $810 for 90 calls and $2100 for 300 calls. Their AI track runs $150 a month for 75 calls. Because it bills per call rather than per minute, a long intake does not cost more than a short one, which matters when a proper screening conversation takes ten minutes. Two things to price in: going over your plan costs more per call than the calls inside it, and on the human plans appointment booking is a $1.50 per call add-on with the Spanish line at $1.00 per call. Check current Smith.ai pricing.

NextPhone, if you want Clio and a bill that never moves

NextPhone charges a flat $199 a month on Pro for unlimited calls with no per-minute charges at all. The tier a firm usually needs is Growth at $299 a month, because that is where the CRM integrations sit, Clio among them, along with Zapier and webhooks. For a high-volume practice, immigration or high-turnover family work, a flat bill beats guessing at minutes. The caution is in their own wording: prices are quoted as "starts at", so confirm your number before signing. Check current NextPhone pricing.

AnswerConnect, if most of your calls are short screening

AnswerConnect is the cheapest honest per-minute rate among the human services: $395 a month for 300 minutes with $1.85 per extra minute, against $350 for 200 minutes on Entry where the overage jumps to $2.50. The detail that suits a firm fielding a lot of quick "do you handle this" calls: the first 30 interactions under 30 seconds each billing cycle carry no charge. Spanish answering is a $30 a month add-on. Ask about the setup fee in writing, because their own pricing PDF contradicts itself on whether Growth carries it. Check current AnswerConnect pricing.

Ruby, if the brand and the bundled extras matter

Ruby runs $720 a month for 200 minutes and $1725 for 500 minutes, with bilingual Spanish included and no activation or setup fee. It is the name most partners will already recognise. Price it with both eyes open: minutes are billed in 60-second increments rounded up, so short calls burn the plan faster than the number suggests, and the overage rate is not published on their pricing page. Get it in writing before the first bill. Check current Ruby pricing.

Prices side by side

Verified July 2026. Every published plan sits in one table on the pricing index.

What to ask before you sign

1. Read me the intake script, word for word. What does the receptionist say before taking details, and how do they avoid anything that sounds like advice or like an attorney-client relationship has formed? If a vendor cannot show you the script, they do not have one.
2. What do you capture for a conflict check? At minimum the adverse party and the matter type, captured before anyone from the firm calls back. The service does not run the check. It has to give you what you need to run it.
3. Per call or per minute, and what does a 12-minute intake cost? Run your own average intake length through both models. Smith.ai charges the same for a long call. AnswerConnect charges $1.85 a minute past the bundle. Ruby does not say.
4. Where does the intake land? Email, a portal, or straight into Clio. NextPhone puts Clio on the $299 Growth tier, not the entry one. If it lands in an inbox, someone has to retype it, and that person is usually you.
5. What does Spanish cost? Ruby bundles it. AnswerConnect charges $30 a month. Smith.ai charges $1.00 a call on the human plans. PATLive sells it at $20 a month. Same feature, four different bills.

Where to go next

Firms that also handle medical records and patient calls should read the BAA questions on our medical practices page, because the compliance answer changes the vendor list. If you work closely with agents on closings and referrals, the short-call economics on the real estate page are the mirror image of yours. For every published plan in one sortable table, use the pricing index.