Answering Legal publishes no price. Its pricing page asks for your name, firm, email and cell number and says it will show pricing on the next page (answeringlegal.com/answering-service-pricing-plans, read November 4, 2026). We did not submit the form, so we did not see the price, and we are not going to guess it.
The closest figures available are third-party reports of about $330 to $360 a month for 100 minutes, which Answering Legal has not confirmed. Below: what its terms charge for, how to size your firm's minutes, and what to ask before you sign.
How we did this: we read Answering Legal's pricing page, its terms of service (last modified April 10, 2026), help center and blog on November 4, 2026. We placed no test calls and took no trial.
Disclosure: NextPhone is our product, an AI receptionist used by law firms. We compete with Answering Legal for some of the same firms, so check our reading against its terms.
What Answering Legal has said about price
Everything we could find from the company itself is either old or free of dollar figures:
- July 2016, its blog: "rates starting at $198 per month for the 'lite' pricing plan".
- December 2018, its blog: a solo plan of 100 minutes "at a cost of $3.60 per minute", which works out to $360 a month.
- April 2024, its blog: plans run "From 50 to 5000 minutes", with no prices.
- Current help center: pricing depends on the number of minutes, and you get a detailed quote after a demo or trial.
The 2016 and 2018 posts are still online, but do not budget from them. We found no plan price from the company dated after 2018.
What others report
These are not Answering Legal's numbers. Each is reported by the source named, on the date shown, and none is confirmed by the company.
| Reported by | Date | Reported figures |
|---|---|---|
| MyCase blog (a software partner) | December 12, 2024 | 100 minutes $330, 150 minutes $479, 200 minutes $616, 250 minutes $737; also "50 minutes at $3.91/minute" |
| Upfirst (a competitor) | Checked September 24, 2026 | 100 minutes $360, 200 minutes $676, 300 minutes $936 |
| Peak AI Agency | October 17, 2026 | About $330 for 100 minutes; no source named |
| Lorryn | October 20, 2026 | Clio's app directory "lists a start at $210.50 a month"; we could not open that listing to confirm it |
Read together, the reports cluster around $3 to $3.60 per included minute, falling as plans get larger. The 50-minute figure works out to $195.50 a month, in the same area as the Clio listing. That is our arithmetic on other people's reports. It tells you what to expect on the form's next page, and it does not tell you what you would pay.
What the terms add
Answering Legal's pricing page says "No long-term contracts, no setup fees, no commitments". The short version of the gap: Marketing says no setup fees; the terms list $399 to $599 for extensive setup and a $21.50 carrier recovery fee. Here are the lines that matter, from its terms at answeringlegal.com/terms-of-service, read November 4, 2026.
| Line in the terms | What it says | What it means for a firm |
|---|---|---|
| Section 4 | "a carrier recovery fund of $21.50" | The terms don't say how often. Once is $21.50. Monthly is $258 a year. |
| Section 5 | "reserves the right to charge" $399 to $599 for extensive setup | Not every firm pays this. The trigger is setup "above and beyond the normal needs of a customer", and it is their call. |
| Section 5 | A $350 setup fee may apply to trials from December 5 to January 7 | A reserved right, and it covers the holiday window. |
| Section 5 | $175 may apply to trials carried through major holidays | Same window to watch. |
| Section 6 | Late fee of 1.5% a month | Standard, but it is there. Disputes need written notice within 30 days of the charge. |
| Section 8 | Service "will remain active until the next billing cycle" after notice | You pay to the end of the cycle, plus any overages. |
| Section 28 | For the first six months, Answering Legal may review usage and propose a plan change | Upgrades come by email notice with a prorated increase. Reviews continue every six months after that. |
The meter itself, from its site and terms:
- Increment: By the second (comparison page; the terms do not say).
- Beyond talk time: The clock stops at transfer; hold and wrap-up rules not published. Its 2019 blog says that "as soon as it is transferred to you, we no longer count the call duration", which is more generous than services that bill transfer time.
- Spam: Telemarketing calls free up to 10% of plan minutes, 100 minutes at most.
The overage rate is the missing piece. The help center says you'll be "charged a per-minute overage rate, detailed in your agreement". We found no published figure, and we are not estimating one. For scale, published overage across the live services in our Price Index runs $1.28 to $5.40 a minute. That range is the market, and it is not Answering Legal's rate.
Estimate your firm's bill
Answering Legal says its average call runs "less than 3 minutes". That average covers every kind of call. Your firm's minutes depend on its mix, because a new-matter intake runs longer than a message from an existing client. Its 2024 post makes the same point at the extreme: a thirty-minute new-client call "might be a big hit", though it adds that calls that long are rare. So size the two types separately:
- Minutes = (new-matter calls x intake minutes) + (other calls x message minutes)
- Monthly bill = P + (Minutes - M) x R + carrier fee, if it recurs
- P is the plan price from your quote, M is the minutes in that plan, and R is your overage rate
If you use Total Screen and Transfer, its full intake happens before the transfer attempt, so those intake minutes count on calls you end up taking yourself.
Here are three example firms. The call counts and lengths are our assumptions, so use your own phone records. The last column is the number to bring to your quote.
| Firm | New-matter calls | Other calls | Minutes to quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo family law | 20 x 6 minutes = 120 | 40 x 2 minutes = 80 | 200 |
| Two-attorney criminal defense | 45 x 5 minutes = 225 | 35 x 2 minutes = 70 | 295 |
| Personal injury firm running Local Services Ads | 60 x 9 minutes = 540 | 60 x 2 minutes = 120 | 660 |
The personal injury firm is where R matters most. It runs paid leads, so a good month brings more intakes, and every minute past M bills at a rate you can't see until the agreement. Ask for R first, then multiply it by your busiest month's overage, not your average month's.
If the reports above hold, the family law firm is looking at $616 to $676 a month for 200 minutes. If Upfirst's figure holds for the criminal defense firm, 300 minutes is $936. NextPhone's Growth plan, the one that syncs with Clio, is $299 at any of these volumes, so that is $317 to $377 a month less at 200 minutes and $637 less at 300, against reported prices you should verify on your own quote.
What the rest of the market charges
For figures read from each vendor's own page, here are services a law firm would realistically compare, at a 3-minute average call. Alert Communications serves law firms only.
| Provider | 25 calls (75 min) | 50 calls (150 min) | 100 calls (300 min) |
|---|---|---|---|
NextPhone AI receptionist | $199 Pro, $2.65/min | $199 Pro, $1.33/min | $199 Pro, $0.66/min |
Alert Communications Live answering service alertcommunications.com/plans, read Nov 2, 2026 | $187.50 Alert Go (pay as you go), $2.50/min | $375 Alert Go (pay as you go), $2.50/min | $750 Alert Go (pay as you go), $2.50/min |
PATLive Live answering service patlive.com/pricing, read Nov 2, 2026 | $156.25 50 minutes, $2.08/min | $293.50 100 minutes, $1.96/min | $479 300 minutes, $1.60/min |
Posh Live answering service posh.com/pricing, read Nov 2, 2026 | $185 Vogue (50 minutes), $2.47/min | $322.50 Elegant (100 minutes), $2.15/min | $630 200 minutes, $2.10/min |
Ruby Live answering service ruby.com/plans-and-pricing, read Nov 2, 2026 | $385 50 minutes, $5.13/min | $620 100 minutes, $4.13/min | $1,160 200 minutes, $3.87/min |
Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists Live answering service smith.ai/pricing/receptionists, read Nov 2, 2026 | $300 30 calls, $4.00/min | $530 30 calls, $3.53/min | $915 90 calls, $3.05/min |
Across every live service in the index, 50 calls a month costs $95 to $620 (low end ReceptionHQ, message-taking only, no transfers), with a median of $294. Answering Legal's reported prices for about 150 minutes sit in the upper half of that. Alert, also law-firm only, is $375 at the same volume.
The trial is how the plan gets sized
Answering Legal's help center says you get a detailed quote after a demo or trial, so how the trial runs matters. The length depends on the page you read: Described as 7 days, 14 days or 400 minutes; the terms allow ending it after 100 minutes. Its trial tutorial says you don't need a card and won't be asked to pay for service during the trial, which is a generous offer.
Three clauses in Section 5 of the terms are worth reading first:
The window. It "does not offer a free trial during the dates between December 15 thru January 4". The reserved $350 setup fee runs wider, December 5 to January 7. If you plan to start around year end, start in November or ask for the fee waived in writing.
The 100-minute line. The terms allow ending a trial once a firm "has used more than 100 minutes". The personal injury firm above would pass that in about five days (660 minutes over a 30-day month). Ask whether the 400-minute offer stands for you.
Ad campaigns. A trial can be refused if the firm "intends to use the free trial for an advertising campaign". If you are about to launch TV, radio or web ads, raise it up front.
A trial in a quiet week may also size you into a small plan, and Section 28 then gives Answering Legal six months to propose moving you up. Do your own count from phone records rather than relying on one sample.
