Clio vs MyCase: AI Features and Pricing Compared
Last verified:
MyCase publishes every price: Basic is $50, Pro is $100 and Advanced is $130 per user per month billed annually ($60, $120 and $150 billed monthly), and its AI assistants sit on Pro and Advanced. Clio publishes one number, "starting at $49" per user for Starter, and Starter has no AI. Clio's AI is included from Core upward, and Core, Signature and Elite are quote-only. So for a three-lawyer firm, MyCase's AI tier costs $3,600 a year on the annual plan, while the like-for-like Clio figure is whatever the sales team quotes you. The real difference is approach: MyCase bundles billing, intake, texting and payments into three tiers, while Clio sells a leaner core and lets you add products around it.
We don't sell either product, we don't sell a competitor, and no vendor pays to influence this page. Every price and feature below was read from the vendors' own live pricing pages on October 27, 2026, and where a vendor won't publish a figure we say so instead of repeating a number from a blog. This is software evaluation for small firms, not legal advice.
How do Clio and MyCase differ in approach?
Both are practice management platforms: matters, contacts, calendars, tasks, documents, time and billing, trust accounting, a client portal. A small firm could run on either. What differs is the packaging philosophy.
Clio builds a core product, Clio Manage, in four plans (Starter, Core, Signature, Elite), then sells adjacent products on top. Its pricing page lists add-ons for Clio Work (an AI research, analysis and drafting product), Clio Grow (client intake and CRM) and Clio for Personal Injury, and a separate enterprise offering for large firms. Elite bundles Clio Grow with Signature's practice management. The pattern is modular: you start small and the bill grows as you bolt on pieces.
MyCase puts most of that surface inside the main subscription. Its Pro tier already includes client intake forms, a legal CRM, automated workflows, unlimited eSignature and document generation, two-way texting and a call log. Payments through LawPay carry no monthly fee, and an accounting add-on is the main extra, at $39 per user per month on Pro and Advanced. The pattern is bundled: fewer line items, a more predictable invoice, and fewer choices to make.
Neither approach is better in the abstract. Bundling suits a firm that wants to turn the software on and stop thinking about it. Modular suits a firm that already has strong opinions about intake, research or reporting and doesn't want to pay for features it replaces with something else. Our small firm AI guide covers how that choice interacts with the rest of your tool stack.
How do their AI features compare?
The two vendors draw the AI line in different places, and it matters more than the brand names.
| Clio | MyCase | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan where AI starts | Core ("AI included on plans from Core up") | Pro (Writing Assistant); Advanced (Case and Discovery Assistants) |
| Separate AI add-on fee | None stated for AI inside Clio Manage; Clio Work is a separately priced add-on | None stated for the 8am IQ assistants on those tiers; extra discovery pages are sold |
| Practice admin AI | Manage AI: deadline extraction, billing drafts, matter tasks, client updates | Smart Time Finder for missed billable time; Document Assistant for extracting and summarizing details |
| Writing and drafting | Clio Draft (document automation) and Clio Work (drafting with matter context), both priced separately | 8am IQ Writing Assistant: translate, adjust tone, improve clarity (Pro) |
| Case analysis and research | Clio Work: documents, transcripts and recordings analyzed with citations; research across a stated 1 billion legal documents from 100+ countries | 8am IQ Case Assistant: AI case analysis and research assistant (Advanced) |
| Discovery documents | Through Clio Work | 8am IQ Discovery Assistant: OCR with 5,000 pages per user each month, shared across the firm; another 5,000 pages for the firm costs $30 (Advanced) |
| Open to outside AI tools | Not stated on the pricing page | Official MyCase MCP connector to search and retrieve MyCase data from Claude |
Read that table as two different bets. Clio's own practice-admin AI is what it calls Manage AI, the renamed Clio Duo, and we walk through what it does, and what it doesn't, in our Manage AI review. It automates the operational layer, such as dates from court documents, draft invoices and matter setup. Anything closer to legal reasoning has moved into Clio Work, which you buy separately and which can run on its own or alongside Clio Manage.
MyCase puts its reasoning-flavored assistants inside the subscription tiers. That is attractive on price, because a Pro or Advanced seat already carries the writing and, on Advanced, case-analysis tools. It also means you accept MyCase's assistants as they are. We haven't found an independent, reproducible benchmark comparing either vendor's AI output, so any claim that one is "smarter" is marketing or anecdote. Test with your own documents during the trial.
One practical caution applies to both: using any generative tool with client material triggers duties the profession already has. The American Bar Association's first ethics guidance on the subject, Formal Opinion 512, released July 29, 2024, points to competence, confidentiality, client communication and reasonable fees as the rules principally in play. Ask each vendor how client data is handled before you load a live matter.
What does each cost for a small firm?
Here is the worked example: a three-lawyer firm, twelve months, no staff seats counted, using only published figures.
MyCase prices come from its pricing page. Clio's come from its pricing page, which publishes a single starting figure.
| Plan | Per user per month | Three users, per year | AI included? |
|---|---|---|---|
| MyCase Basic, annual billing | $50 | $1,800 | No |
| MyCase Basic, monthly billing | $60 | $2,160 | No |
| MyCase Pro, annual billing | $100 | $3,600 | Writing Assistant |
| MyCase Pro, monthly billing | $120 | $4,320 | Writing Assistant |
| MyCase Advanced, annual billing | $130 | $4,680 | Writing, Case and Discovery Assistants |
| MyCase Advanced, monthly billing | $150 | $5,400 | Writing, Case and Discovery Assistants |
| Clio Starter | "Starting at $49" | $1,764 if $49 is the monthly rate per user | No |
| Clio Core | Quote only | Quote only | Yes |
| Clio Signature | Quote only | Quote only | Yes |
| Clio Elite (includes Clio Grow) | Quote only | Quote only | Yes |
Three things to take from it.
First, the cheapest rows are not comparable. Clio Starter at $49 and MyCase Basic at $50 or $60 are close, and neither includes AI. Clio's page states that AI is included on plans from Core up, so any Clio plan with AI is in quote territory. Clio's card shows only "starting at $49" and does not state the billing term, so we have shown that row conditionally rather than guess.
Second, the AI-bearing MyCase tiers can be priced to the dollar. Pro with Accounting added is ($100 + $39) x 3 x 12 = $5,004 a year. Advanced with Accounting is ($130 + $39) x 3 x 12 = $6,084. The accounting add-on is optional, and the pricing page states it is available on Pro and Advanced. If you take payments through LawPay, MyCase lists no monthly fee, with processing rates on top.
Third, a quote is not a price. Get Clio's figure in writing for your headcount and ask what is included at that price: the client portal tier, custom roles, matter stages, Clio Grow, Clio Work. Our Clio pricing breakdown lays out which features sit on which rung, and a quote that excludes the add-ons you assumed is the usual way these comparisons go wrong.
Trials help here. Clio advertises a 7-day free trial with no credit card. MyCase offers 10 days with no card. Neither is long, so load a real matter on day one.
Which integrates better with the tools you already use?
This is the section where we have to be careful, because neither vendor's pricing page settles it. MyCase lists "70+ Integrations" as a Pro feature, and an Open API on Advanced. Clio's pricing page presents a "Platform" view and add-ons rather than an integration count, and we are not going to quote a figure for it that we could not read on the page.
What you can do in an afternoon is settle it for your own stack. Write down the five tools your firm cannot do without: email, calendar, document editor, e-signature, payments and your accounting setup. Then check each against both vendors' integration directories. A missing connector costs more than a $20 price gap. Two further points are checkable on the pages we read:
- Calendar: Clio lists two-way sync with Google and Microsoft Outlook calendars on every plan.
- Payments: MyCase builds online payments with next-day deposits into the Basic tier and routes card processing through LawPay, with trust accounting in the same product.
If your firm lives inside one AI assistant, such as Claude, the MyCase MCP connector is a concrete, shipped option. Clio's equivalent isn't on the pricing page, though Clio Work is a first-party AI product that works from matter context.
Which firm type fits which platform?
Use these as starting rules, then test them in the trial.
- Solo lawyer, minimal staff: MyCase Basic or Clio Starter get you matters, calendaring, time and billing and trust accounting. If you want AI help with drafting, MyCase Pro is the cheapest published way in. On Clio you need Core or above, which means a quote.
- Two to five lawyers who want intake, texting and e-signature without stitching tools together: MyCase Pro is built for this. The price is public and the features are listed.
- A firm that wants to add legal research and document analysis to its practice management: Clio's Work add-on is aimed squarely at this, with research across a stated 1 billion legal documents and citations to verify findings. MyCase's Advanced Case Assistant covers case analysis and research in a lighter way. If heavy research is the main job, compare both against a dedicated tool in our practice management category and our best AI legal tools list.
- A firm growing past ten lawyers or running multiple practice areas: Clio's Signature tier adds matter stages and unlimited custom roles, according to its comparison grid, and the enterprise offering exists above that. MyCase Advanced adds open API access, split billing and conflict check tracking.
- A consumer-facing practice that bills heavily by time: also look at Smokeball, which is built around automatic time tracking.
What should you do before you decide?
Run the same three tasks in both trials: set up one live matter with its deadlines, send one invoice from time entries, and ask the AI to summarize one real document you already know well. Score the results yourself. Our buyer's checklist for evaluating legal AI has the security and pricing questions to put to each vendor, and the practice management listings in our directory carry the same verified status for every tool we track.
FAQ
Is MyCase cheaper than Clio?
At the entry level they are close: MyCase Basic is $50 per user per month billed annually, and Clio Starter starts at $49. Neither includes AI. Above that, MyCase publishes Pro at $100 and Advanced at $130 on annual billing, while Clio's Core, Signature and Elite are quote-only, so a direct comparison depends on the quote you receive.
Does MyCase have AI features?
Yes. MyCase lists 8am IQ assistants: a Writing Assistant on Pro, and a Case Assistant and Discovery Assistant on Advanced. The Discovery Assistant includes 5,000 pages per user each month, shared across the firm, with another 5,000 pages sold for $30. It also offers an official MCP connector for Claude.
Is Clio Duo included in Clio's price?
Clio Duo is now Manage AI, and Clio's pricing page says AI is included on plans from Core up, with no separate AI charge stated for it. Starter does not include AI. Clio Work, the research and drafting product, is a separate add-on you price with sales.
Which is better for a solo lawyer?
For most solos either works. MyCase is easier to budget because every price is public, and its Pro tier adds intake, texting and a writing assistant. Clio suits a solo who expects to grow into add-ons. Use both free trials with one live matter before paying.
This article is general information about legal software, not legal advice. Pricing and packaging change often, so confirm current terms with each vendor before you buy.