5 Best CoCounsel Alternatives for 2026

If you're searching for CoCounsel alternatives, you're likely looking for a tool that better fits your specific legal workflow.

While CoCounsel offers AI-assisted workflows grounded in Thomson Reuters' extensive legal content, its high price point and ecosystem-based approach aren't a fit for every team.

To help you decide, we'll break down the top options, comparing their product features, pricing, and underlying AI architecture.

Key Takeaways

• Many legal teams seek a CoCounsel alternative due to its high price and dependence on the Thomson Reuters ecosystem.
• This guide analyzes top options—including Spellbook, Callidus, LegalOn, Gavel, and GC AI—by comparing their product features, pricing, and AI architecture.
• Spellbook is a trusted legal AI used by over 4,000 in-house and law firm teams to draft, review, and negotiate contracts faster and more accurately using real-time market data.

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1. Spellbook: Top CoCounsel Alternative

Spellbook is the most popular AI suite for commercial lawyers. It helps legal teams draft and review contracts 10x faster, with greater precision—right in Microsoft Word. Trusted by over 4,000 legal teams at companies like Dropbox, Fender, and Crocs, it is designed to handle high-volume transactional work, from commercial agreements to M&A diligence. This makes it a strong alternative to CoCounsel for teams focused on contract execution.

Unlike legal research platforms, Spellbook is a complete AI suite tailored for contracts and commercial law. It is also the only contract review tool grounded in real-time market data. This integration within existing workflows and its data-driven negotiation features provide a practical advantage for commercial teams needing to move quickly and confidently.

Spellbook Features

• Review: This feature instantly analyzes an entire document, suggesting redlines and flagging potential risks directly within Microsoft Word. All edits appear as standard track changes under the lawyer's name, maintaining full control and a professional appearance.
• Draft: Generate new clauses or entire agreements from scratch. Spellbook can also search your firm’s past contracts to find and adapt precedent language for clauses like indemnification, ensuring consistency with your team’s established style.
• Ask: Get quick answers to questions about the contract you're working on without leaving your document. The AI assistant provides responses with direct citations to the relevant contract language for easy verification.
• Compare to Market: This feature allows you to benchmark contract terms against real-time data from thousands of similar agreements. You can instantly see if a clause is market-standard, providing a data-driven basis for negotiations—a key advantage for any team looking for a CoCounsel alternative.
• Associate: Delegate multi-step, multi-document projects to an AI agent. Spellbook Associate can handle tasks like preparing a full document package from a term sheet or conducting due diligence reviews across a data room, functioning much like a junior associate.
• Personalization and Learning: Spellbook learns from your edits over time, adapting its suggestions to your specific style and risk tolerance. This creates a feedback loop where the platform becomes more aligned with your drafting approach, moving beyond generic AI to a personalized assistant.

Spellbook's AI Models & Architecture

Spellbook uses a multi-model approach, selecting from top OpenAI and Anthropic models for optimal performance depending on the task.

It uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to ground outputs in your team's precedents, definitions, and playbooks and enriches them with real-time market data.

This "Market Grounding" approach ensures suggestions are relevant and defensible, a key differentiator for teams looking for an alternative to CoCounsel.

The system also improves over time through Preference Learning, adapting to your team's specific contract review style and making it a strong CoCounsel alternative.

Spellbook's Security and Compliance

Spellbook prioritizes security with a zero data retention policy, meaning your documents are never stored or used to train AI models. All data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. For legal teams evaluating their options, these enterprise-grade features are critical.

• Certifications and Compliance: Spellbook is SOC 2 Type II certified and compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and PIPEDA.
• HIPAA Ready: It supports healthcare-focused legal teams by meeting HIPAA safeguards and can execute Business Associate Agreements (BAAs).
• Enterprise Controls: The platform includes role-based access, SSO support, and audit logs for secure administration.

Spellbook Pricing

Spellbook uses a custom per-seat pricing model, with annual subscriptions tailored to your team's size and feature requirements. All plans include the full suite of features, including Spellbook Associate, plus onboarding and support.

• Volume discounts are available for teams with 10+ users.
• Custom quotes are provided after a demo to fit your needs.

Get started with a free 7-day trial to see how Spellbook works for your team.

Other Alternatives to CoCounsel

For legal teams evaluating their options, it's worth looking at other companies like CoCounsel.

These tools are often tailored to different practice areas and workflows, from document automation to litigation support.

2. Callidus

Callidus (StrongSuit) is a flexible AI co-pilot for legal teams, offering tools for drafting, redlining, and research within Microsoft Word. As an alternative to CoCounsel, it uses a multi-model system and a partnership with CourtListener for its research capabilities. While its feature set is broad, the platform is still establishing its market position and lacks the deep playbook functionality of more focused contract review tools.

Callidus Features

• Negotiate: Analyzes contracts against playbooks and provides structured redlines.
• Draft: Generates new clauses that are contextually aware of the document.
• Chat: An AI assistant for legal Q&A and document summarization.
• Legal Research: Retrieves case law and statutes via a partnership with CourtListener.
• Compare Contracts: Aligns third-party documents to internal templates.

Callidus Pricing

Callidus uses a flat-rate pricing model:

• $3,000 USD per user per year.
• Includes unlimited usage, onboarding, and support.
• Discounts are available for larger teams and multi-year deals.

3. LegalOn

LegalOn is a contract review platform for in-house teams handling high volumes of commercial contracts. It uses a playbook-driven system to standardize review and control risk. As a CoCounsel alternative, its narrow focus on applying curated legal standards can be restrictive for teams that require more flexibility in their drafting and negotiation workflows.

LegalOn Features

• Playbook-driven review: Analyzes contracts against curated legal standards directly within Microsoft Word.
• AI-powered redlining: Identifies risks and suggests additions, deletions, or revisions based on playbook rules.
• Attorney guidance: Provides context and sample language for each identified issue.
• AI Assistant: Supports ad hoc drafting, summarization, and Q&A for tasks outside of playbooks.
• Web application: Includes intake forms, matter tracking, and a template library.

LegalOn Pricing

LegalOn uses a per-seat, per-module model where costs vary by user count and selected features. Indicative pricing:

• Individual licenses start around $3,500 per user/year.
• A five-user enterprise plan with all modules is about $40,000 per year.

4. Gavel

Gavel is a document automation platform that uses AI to generate legal documents from structured inputs and rule-based logic. It is designed for practices with highly repeatable workflows, such as estate planning or commercial contracting. Unlike tools focused on contract review and negotiation, Gavel’s primary function is document production, making it a less direct alternative to CoCounsel for teams that need to analyze and redline third-party agreements.

Gavel Features

• Word Add-in: Offers a chat-based interface for drafting, redlining, and summarizing documents.
• Playbooks: Defines and applies rule-based standards to contracts during review.
• Projects: Creates shared knowledge bases with clause libraries and templates to ensure consistency.
• Document Automation: Generates documents from structured questionnaires and logic-driven workflows.

Gavel Pricing

Gavel is priced on a monthly, per-user subscription basis.

• The baseline price is around $160 per user per month.
• Discounts are available for teams with more than 10 users.

5. GC AI

GC AI is a legal AI platform for in-house teams, combining a web app for research with a Word add-in for contract review. It emphasizes team collaboration through shared prompts and knowledge bases. Unlike CoCounsel, which is grounded in Thomson Reuters' proprietary content, GC AI functions more as a generalist workspace, with research features that are not tied to a specific legal database.

GC AI Features

• A web app for legal research and multi-document analysis.
• A Microsoft Word add-in for contract review and redlining.
• Playbooks to standardize review against internal policies.
• Shared prompts and knowledge bases for team collaboration.
• AI chat for Q&A and summarization with citations.

GC AI Pricing

GC AI offers seat-based annual pricing with two tiers:

• A solo license costs $5,000 per user per year.
• The team plan is $7,000 per user per year and includes SSO and collaboration tools.
• Volume discounts are available for teams with 10+ users.

How To Choose The Best CoCounsel Alternative

Choosing the right alternative to CoCounsel depends on your team's primary workflows and priorities. Consider these factors to find a tool that aligns with your needs for contract drafting and review.

1. Integration with Your Existing Workflow

A tool that operates directly within your primary software, like Microsoft Word, avoids the friction of switching between applications. This allows your team to draft, review, and negotiate contracts faster without disrupting established processes.

2. Specialization in Contract Work

Generalist AI platforms may offer broad capabilities, but a tool specialized for commercial contracts provides more relevant and precise assistance. Look for an AI suite designed specifically for the nuances of drafting clauses, redlining agreements, and managing negotiations.

3. Access to Market Data

The ability to benchmark your contract terms against real-time market data provides a significant advantage in negotiations. This data-grounded approach helps you justify your positions and confidently determine if a clause is standard or an outlier.

Try Spellbook Free

Among the available CoCounsel alternatives, Spellbook stands out by operating directly in Microsoft Word and grounding negotiations in real-time market data. This gives your team a practical advantage for drafting and reviewing contracts with speed and confidence. See how it works for your practice by starting a free 7-day trial today.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do the AI models in these alternatives differ from CoCounsel's?

CoCounsel is built on Casetext technology and integrated with Thomson Reuters' proprietary legal content. This gives it strength in legal research but can also tie users to a specific publisher's ecosystem.

Many alternatives use a multi-model approach, selecting from leading large language models (LLMs) to perform specific tasks like drafting or summarization. These tools often use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to ground their outputs in a firm's own documents or other data sources, offering more flexibility than a single publisher's content library. This is a common approach for AI tools for lawyers.

Are these AI legal tools secure for handling confidential client information?

Security is a critical factor for legal professionals. Reputable AI tools address this with enterprise-grade security measures. When evaluating options, look for clear policies on data handling, encryption standards, and certifications like SOC 2 Type II.

For example, Spellbook operates with a zero data retention policy, meaning your documents are not stored on its systems or used for training AI models. It is also compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and PIPEDA. Understanding the privacy of AI models and the tool's specific safeguards is a necessary step in the evaluation process.

Will I need to change my team's workflow to use one of these tools?

This depends on the tool. Some platforms are standalone web applications that require you to upload documents and work outside of your usual software. This can create friction and slow down adoption for a busy legal team.

Other tools, including Spellbook, Callidus, and GC AI, integrate directly into Microsoft Word as an add-in. This approach allows lawyers to get AI assistance within their existing drafting and review process, minimizing disruption. A tool that fits into your workflow is typically easier to adopt than one that requires building new processes.

How does Spellbook's focus on contract work compare to CoCounsel's broader capabilities?

CoCounsel is designed as a generalist legal AI assistant, offering a wide range of skills from legal research and memo drafting to document review. Its value is closely tied to its integration with the vast Thomson Reuters content library.

Spellbook, in contrast, is specialized for transactional and commercial law. It operates entirely within Microsoft Word, focusing on the core tasks of drafting, reviewing, and negotiating contracts. Features like "Compare to Market," which benchmarks clauses against thousands of recent agreements, are built specifically for this workflow. While CoCounsel can assist with contracts, Spellbook is designed from the ground up for that purpose, offering a more focused toolset for contract-heavy practices.

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Our Research Methodology

This comparison is based on comprehensive research of publicly available information, including product websites, feature documentation, press releases, customer reviews, legal technology publications, and third-party analyses from sources like LawSites, Artificial Lawyer, and industry analysts.

Where pricing information is not publicly disclosed, we've included estimates based on available industry data and user reports. Information is current as of 2026 and may change as products evolve. We encourage readers to verify details directly with vendors and request demos to evaluate fit for their specific needs.