- CARA A.I.'s brief-analysis feature has a multi-year track record and remains genuinely useful for litigation research, not just a recent AI bolt-on
- Full-text case law, statute, and regulation search is comprehensive for primary law
- Backed by Thomson Reuters' infrastructure and data investment post-acquisition, which means more resources than an independent startup could sustain
- Generative drafting and deposition-prep tools extend the product beyond pure research into workflow assistance
- Strong reputation among litigators specifically for opposing-brief analysis
- Integrates with the broader Westlaw ecosystem for firms already invested there
- Pricing is no longer transparent or self-serve — quote-based sales process replaces the old published rate card
- Reported costs for CoCounsel access are meaningfully higher than legacy Casetext's solo/small-firm pricing
- The standalone, budget-friendly product that built Casetext's reputation effectively doesn't exist anymore for new buyers
- Secondary source coverage (treatises, practice guides) and citator depth lag Westlaw/Lexis natively
- Generative drafting output still requires careful verification for citation accuracy, same limitation as every LLM-based legal tool
Casetext started in 2013 as a free, crowd-annotated case law database and grew into a paid legal research platform built around CARA A.I., a tool that let attorneys upload a brief and get back relevant case law the brief might be missing. It built a real reputation among small and mid-size firms as the serious, cheaper alternative to Westlaw and Lexis. That company no longer exists independently: Thomson Reuters acquired Casetext in mid-2023 for roughly $650 million, specifically for its AI research technology, and has spent the time since folding it into the Westlaw ecosystem under the CoCounsel brand.
What attorneys buy today under the Casetext/CoCounsel name is materially different from what existed pre-acquisition. CoCounsel is now Thomson Reuters' generative-AI legal assistant — built on large language models and positioned as a layer across legal research, document review, deposition prep, and drafting — sold primarily as an add-on or bundle to Westlaw subscriptions rather than as the standalone, self-serve product Casetext used to be. The problem it solves is real (associates and solo attorneys spending hours on research and brief-checking that AI can accelerate), but the buying experience and pricing model changed from "sign up online" to "talk to a Thomson Reuters rep."
Pricing
Legacy Casetext (pre-acquisition) had transparent self-serve pricing: a core research subscription in the roughly $65–$99/month range per user, with CARA A.I. and the broader case-law/statute/regulation database included, and enterprise tiers for larger firms priced per seat. That pricing page is gone.
Post-acquisition, CoCounsel is sold through Thomson Reuters' sales channel with quote-based pricing that isn't published. Publicly reported figures for CoCounsel access have ranged from several hundred to over a thousand dollars per user per month depending on whether it's bundled with Westlaw Precision or Westlaw Edge, what modules are included (document review, deposition prep, contract analysis), and firm size. Solo attorneys and small firms report needing to go through a sales call to get an actual number, and discounts are negotiated rather than listed.
The practical effect for a solo or small-firm attorney: there is no longer a clear, low-cost entry point the way there was under standalone Casetext. Budgeting requires a sales conversation, multi-user minimums may apply on some bundles, and the plain case-law-search functionality that used to be inexpensive on its own is now harder to buy without also paying for the AI layer and/or Westlaw access. That's a real cost increase in practice for anyone who just wanted the research database.
CARA A.I. and Brief Analysis
The standout feature carried over from legacy Casetext is CARA — upload a brief (yours or opposing counsel's) and it surfaces case law that's cited, missing, or relevant that a manual search might not have caught. This remains genuinely useful for litigation prep and is one of the few AI legal tools with a multi-year track record rather than a 2024-era rollout. It's now marketed under the CoCounsel "Draft & Review" workflows rather than as a standalone module.
Case Law and Statute Database
The underlying full-text search of federal and state case law, statutes, and regulations is solid and was historically Casetext's core value against Westlaw/Lexis at a fraction of the price. Coverage is comprehensive for primary law; it's weaker than Westlaw/Lexis on secondary sources (treatises, practice guides, law review commentary) and on proprietary editorial annotations (headnotes, KeyCite-equivalent depth), which is exactly what Thomson Reuters is using Westlaw's own citator network to backfill in the bundled product.
Drafting and Document Review
CoCounsel adds generative drafting assistance — memo drafting, contract review and redlining, deposition question prep, and document review for discovery — built on top of large language models. These are newer additions (post-2023) and quality is uneven: strong on summarization and first-draft generation, still requiring careful attorney review for citation accuracy and substantive legal conclusions, consistent with every generative legal AI tool on the market as of 2026.
What's Missing
There's no clean, low-friction way for a solo attorney to buy just the research-and-CARA functionality anymore without engaging Thomson Reuters sales and likely being steered toward a Westlaw bundle. Citator depth (Shepard's/KeyCite-equivalent confidence signals) is inherited from Westlaw rather than being a native, mature Casetext feature, so quality depends on which bundle tier is purchased.
Who Should Use Casetext
Good fit if you…
- Litigators who specifically want brief-analysis and opposing-counsel citation-checking as a core workflow
- Firms already paying for Westlaw Precision or Edge who can add CoCounsel as a bundled upgrade rather than a new standalone cost
- Mid-size to large firms with budget to absorb quote-based enterprise pricing and negotiating leverage to get favorable terms
- Firms wanting generative AI drafting and document review alongside primary-law research in one vendor relationship
Look elsewhere if you…
- Solo attorneys and very small firms specifically seeking the old low-cost, self-serve Casetext research subscription — that product no longer exists in that form
- Budget-conscious practices unwilling to go through a sales negotiation just to learn pricing, or unwilling to risk a de facto Westlaw upsell
- Firms whose primary need is deep secondary-source research (treatises, practice guides) where Westlaw or Lexis natively outperforms the CoCounsel bundle
Bottom Line
Casetext's technology — particularly CARA A.I.'s brief analysis — earned its reputation honestly, and that capability survives inside Thomson Reuters' CoCounsel product. But the buying experience attorneys should expect in 2026 is fundamentally different from what made Casetext a favorite among cost-conscious solo and small-firm attorneys: transparent, affordable, self-serve pricing has been replaced by a quote-based sales process typically tied to Westlaw bundles, and reported costs run well above the legacy standalone product.
For firms already committed to the Westlaw ecosystem with budget to negotiate, CoCounsel is a reasonable AI layer worth evaluating on its brief-analysis and drafting strengths. For the solo attorney this review's audience most often represents — someone specifically hunting for an affordable alternative to Westlaw/Lexis — the honest recommendation is to look at Fastcase or vLex Fastcase Premium instead, and treat Casetext/CoCounsel as a Westlaw add-on decision rather than a standalone research-tool purchase.