- How it works: Smith.ai answers calls with AI, human receptionists, or a hybrid of both, and bills per call rather than per minute.
- Plan pricing: Human plans run from $300 for 30 calls to $2,100 for 300 calls, with overage between $11.50 and $8.50 per call. AI plans run from free to $500 for 300 calls.
- Add-ons: Fourteen add-ons are billed per call, including appointment booking at $1.50, extended intake at $1.50, and a dedicated Spanish line at $1.00, so the real invoice usually sits above the plan price.
- Who buys it: On G2, 93.2% of Smith.ai's virtual receptionist reviewers are small businesses, and about 84% are law firms.
- What reviews say: Smith.ai reviews praise the receptionists consistently and flag billing surprises, including AI calls escalated to live agents at $3 each.
- The PI question: For a mid-market PI firm, the harder question is what happens after intake, since provider, adjuster, and treatment calls stay with your staff.
Smith.ai has been answering calls for law firms since 2015, and the reviews show it. It holds a 4.4 on Trustpilot and a 4.9 on G2 across 73 reviews of its virtual receptionist service. Solo attorneys write about signing clients they would have lost to voicemail.
The question for a personal injury firm is narrower. A PI practice fields far more than new-client calls: clients three weeks into treatment, adjusters returning calls at 4 p.m., providers calling about records requests, and lien holders before disbursement. Per-call pricing charges the same for a 90-second status call as it does for a 12-minute intake.
Most Smith.ai reviews are written for small businesses in general. This one is written for PI firms, and it covers what the service does, what it costs at a PI firm's call volume, what users say, and where the model runs out of room.
What Smith.ai Does and Who Actually Uses It
Most Smith.ai reviews start with the feature list, so start with the customer base instead. Smith.ai runs call answering and intake for businesses, with a deep foothold in legal. Lawyerist's listing puts it at more than 4,000 law firms, 25 million calls handled, and 500-plus North America-based receptionists.
The customer base tells you more than the feature list. On G2, 93.2% of virtual receptionist reviewers come from small businesses of 50 employees or fewer, and Law Practice plus Legal Services account for roughly 84% of them. Recent Trustpilot reviews follow the same pattern, with solo attorneys and small firms describing Smith.ai as the receptionist they could never afford to hire. That shapes the product: it is built around the first conversation with a potential client, which is exactly where a solo practice feels the most pain.
How the AI, hybrid, and human plans differ
| Track | Who answers | Published per-call range | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Receptionist | AI answers, with live agents available at $3 per handoff | About $1 to $2 | Firms comfortable with AI on first contact |
| Hybrid | AI handles routine calls, humans take the complex ones | About $2 to $5 | Firms wanting a middle path; no published plan pricing |
| Virtual Receptionist | Live North America-based receptionists on every call | About $6 to $10 | Firms that want a human voice on all intake |
Live receptionists go live on day one while the AI is trained in parallel, so a firm switching tracks is not left exposed during setup. If you are still deciding between the two models in principle, our breakdown of an AI receptionist and a virtual receptionist covers what changes for a PI firm.
The features law firms use most
Every plan includes lead screening and qualification against your criteria, a five-question intake, a dedicated phone number, and 24/7 staffing. Spam calls do not count toward your quota as long as caller ID passes, and the first CRM integration is free.
Beyond that, receptionists can run conflict checks, book consultations, collect payments, send retainer agreements for e-signature, and make outbound follow-up calls to leads who filled in a form. Integrations cover Clio Manage and Grow, MyCase, Filevine, Lead Docket, PracticePanther, Lawmatics, Smokeball, Rocket Matter, Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier. Two limits are worth knowing early: Smith.ai supports English and Spanish only, and there is no mobile app, though the dashboard works on mobile browsers.
Smith.ai Pricing in 2026
Pricing is where a Smith.ai review earns its keep, and Smith.ai publishes its rates, which is rarer in this category than it should be. Here is the human-receptionist side, taken from its pricing page in September 2026.
| Plan | Monthly price | Included calls | Overage per call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $300 | 30 | $11.50 |
| Basic | $810 | 90 | $10.50 |
| Pro | $2,100 | 300 | $8.50 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom |
The AI Receptionist plans sit well below that.
| Plan | Monthly price | Included calls | Extra calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 25 | $3.00 |
| Pro | $150 | 75 | $2.50 |
| Enterprise | $500 | 300 | $2.17 |
The add-ons decide your real invoice
The plan price buys a bucket of calls. What those calls are allowed to do is priced separately, and 14 add-ons are billed every time they are used.
| Add-on | Cost per call |
|---|---|
| Appointment booking | $1.50 |
| Extended intake (six more questions) | $1.50 |
| Complex call routing | $1.50 |
| Dedicated Spanish line | $1.00 |
| Accept payments | $1.00 |
| Third-party intake forms | $1.00 |
| Custom calendaring | $1.00 |
| Conflict checks | $0.50 |
| SMS, Slack, or Teams notifications | $0.50 |
| Text and email follow-up | $0.50 |
| Accept collect calls | $0.50 |
| Additional CRM integration | $0.50 |
| Call recording and transcription | $0.25 |
| Custom extended intake questions | $0.25 each |
Three more are billed monthly: business caller ID for outbound calls at $10, extra transfer destinations at $15 each, and inbound tracking numbers at $5 each. A PI firm running conflict checks, extended intake, recording, and a Spanish line on a single call adds $3.25 to that call before the call itself is counted.
Contracts, refunds, and one wrinkle
Smith.ai's virtual receptionist service is month to month with no long-term contract, and a 12-month subscription earns a 10% discount. The money-back guarantee covers your plan and add-ons up to $1,000, though overage charges are excluded. The guarantee is described two ways on the same FAQ page: one line offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, and the next says a refund applies if you decide Smith.ai is not for you "in the first two weeks." Ask for the window in writing before you sign.
What Smith.ai Would Cost at PI Call Volume
Most reviews stop at the plan table. A PI firm needs the math at its own volume, so take a firm handling about 55 calls a day on the main line, or roughly 1,200 calls a month.
| Scenario | Base plan | Overage | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Receptionist Pro | $2,100 for 300 calls | 900 x $8.50 = $7,650 | $9,750 before add-ons |
| Same, with recording on every call | $2,100 | 1,200 x $0.25 = $300 in add-ons | $10,050 |
| AI Receptionist Enterprise | $500 for 300 calls | 900 x $2.17 = $1,953 | $2,453 before live-agent handoffs |
At that volume Smith.ai would quote Enterprise pricing rather than let a firm run on published overage rates, so treat these as directional. The direction is the point: per-call billing scales with every call, and a PI firm's call mix is full of short ones.
Smith.ai argues that per-call pricing beats per-minute billing because a long intake costs the same as a quick question. That is true, and for firms doing deep intake it is a real advantage. Turn it around, though, and the model charges a full call for "is my case manager in?" and for "just returning your call." Those are the calls a PI firm gets all day, every day, for months after the client signs, and a fixed monthly price avoids that math entirely.
What Smith.ai Reviews Say About Service and Billing
The ratings behind most Smith.ai reviews are strong and consistent. Trustpilot shows 4.4, with 89% at five stars and 7% at one star, the profile claimed and on a paid subscription, and replies to 91% of negative reviews. Lawyerist rates it 4.4, with a 4.3 community rating from 19 ratings.
Where the ratings come from
| Platform | Rating | Reviews | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot | 4.4 | 300+, most within the past two years | Recent, unprompted customer sentiment, including the billing complaints |
| G2 (Virtual Receptionists) | 4.9 | 73 | Who buys it: 93.2% small business, about 84% law firms |
| G2 (AI Receptionist) | 4.7 | 21 | The AI product has a much thinner review base than the human service |
| Lawyerist | 4.4 editorial, 4.3 community | 19 community ratings | A legal-industry view, though most community ratings date from 2019 to 2022 |
The split matters when you read the praise. Most of the enthusiasm attaches to the human receptionists, which have ten years and thousands of reviews behind them. The AI Receptionist is newer and carries a fraction of the feedback, so a firm buying the AI plan is buying the less-reviewed product.
What reviewers praise, and what they flag
Praise clusters around the receptionists. Attorneys describe callers who assume they have reached someone down the hall, spam filtered before it reaches the firm, and account managers who answer quickly. One law firm reviewer in August 2026 said Smith.ai handles about 1,000 calls a month for them and valued having a real person answer in an era of voice bots.
The criticism clusters around billing. Trustpilot's summary of recent reviews notes frustration with unexpected billing, account issues, and charges for services customers did not use. One reviewer wrote that "the AI receptionist transfers calls to live agents without my consent which will raise my bill," and that cancellation has to be requested by email. At $3 per handoff, an escalation setting nobody checked becomes a line item.
A September 2026 reviewer described a different problem: an AI Receptionist account that required $2,500 up front for a six-month term, with no refund for the unused months after the firm decided not to proceed. That is one customer's account, and it sits alongside Smith.ai's published month-to-month terms for virtual receptionist plans, so ask which terms apply to the plan you are quoted. Sentiment on the AI itself is mixed: a December 2025 reviewer gave four stars and said the AI "isn't the favorite of our clients," while still crediting it with capturing caller details and routing them correctly.
Did You Know
In the ABA 2024 AI TechReport, 29.5% of attorneys at firms with 10 to 49 lawyers said their offices use AI-based tools. Most firms in this size range are still forming an opinion about AI on the phone, which is why a trial on real calls beats any demo.
What setup actually looks like
Onboarding is one of the most praised parts of the service in recent reviews. Live receptionists start taking calls on day one while the AI is trained in parallel, so nothing goes dark during the switch. Firms describe a working session to build the script: which callers get transferred, which get a message taken, what questions to ask each type, and how to handle courts, attorneys, and telemarketers differently. Those instructions can be changed later by email, phone, or text.
Long-term customers repeat the same advice: treat the script as a living document, and call your own number now and then to hear what callers hear. That habit matters more on AI plans, where an escalation rule nobody revisits quietly adds $3 handoffs to the invoice.
Where Smith.ai Runs Out of Room for Personal Injury Firms
Nothing in the Smith.ai reviews makes it a weak service. It makes it a service built for intake, sold mostly to firms whose main phone problem is the first conversation. A PI firm's phone problem starts there and keeps going.
Existing clients get answered, not routed by case phase
A receptionist can take a message from a client in treatment. Routing her to the case manager who knows whether her records came back is a different job, and one a generic AI receptionist does not do either, and it depends on knowing where the matter sits in the case lifecycle.
Provider and adjuster calls stay with your team
Smith.ai's receptionists make outbound follow-up calls to leads who complete a form. They do not sit in a provider's phone tree waiting for the records department, or work through an insurer's hold queue so a paralegal can talk to an adjuster. Automating medical provider calls is a separate job from answering the main line, and that work stays with your case managers.
Call outcomes arrive as messages and CRM pushes
Detailed call summaries by email are a real strength for a solo attorney. For a firm running matters in Filevine or SmartAdvocate, the question is whether the note lands in the matter or waits for someone to copy it over. That difference is what CMS write-back solves, and anything that waits becomes a documentation problem later.
Short calls cost the same as long ones
As per our analysis, a typical PI case generates about 150 calls over its life, and most of them come after the client signs, as our breakdown of how many calls a PI case generates shows. Under per-call pricing, all of them count, which is the case for automating outbound calls rather than paying per message.
Worth Knowing
The median annual wage for paralegals and legal assistants was $62,890 in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Calls that come back as messages get finished at that rate.
How HelloCounsel Handles the Calls That Come After Intake
Those four gaps, which few Smith.ai reviews cover, are the reason HelloCounsel exists. We build AI voice agents for personal injury, workers' comp, and mass tort firms, covering inbound calls and the outbound work a case creates, with every outcome written to the case management system.
Our agent, Counsel, identifies callers before handling them, so a client in treatment reaches her case manager while an adjuster gets verified and helped. Once a lead qualifies, it opens the case in your CMS and organizes the first medical records requests. It then calls providers from tasks in your CMS, works through phone menus, waits on hold, and logs the status, and it runs scheduled check-ins so clients hear from the firm between appointments.
HelloCounsel by the Numbers
- 25,000+ calls handled - 500+ hours of call time handled - 93% SOP precision in every call - 48% improvement in call reception rates Figures reported by HelloCounsel.
Key features
- Caller pre-identification: The agent checks the caller against the case management system before handling the call, so it knows whether it is speaking with a client, provider, adjuster, or new prospect, which matter is involved, and which case staff to route to
- Custom call flows: Separate flows for new callers, current clients, providers, adjusters, attorneys, and after-hours traffic, each following your firm's SOP
- 24/7 answering: Picks up every call on the main line, including nights, weekends, holidays, and campaign spikes
- AI intake: Qualifies intake calls against your criteria in seconds and writes intake notes directly into the case management system
- Bilingual English and Spanish: Handles both languages on one line, including callers who switch mid-conversation, with no transfer
- Lead follow-up: Calls back new leads who did not sign on the first call and logs each attempt
- Case opening: Once a lead qualifies, creates the matter in your case management system, enters contact, incident, and insurance details, sends the retainer, and assigns the case to your team
- Case development: Keeps signed cases moving between intake and demand by running the routine calls each case phase creates, then closing the loop in the file when each task is done
- Medical records retrieval and organization: Organizes records requests on each new matter from day one, then works provider phone trees and hold queues, confirms request status, and repeats follow-up until the records arrive
- Medical coordination: Confirms appointments with providers, sets treatment dates from the case file, and logs referrals and schedule changes to the matter
- Treatment check-ins: Places scheduled client calls after each visit, captures updates, and escalates when the case manager needs to step in
- Client check-ins: Runs regular status calls so clients hear from the firm on a schedule, and logs anything new to the case file
- Legal coordination: Handles routine calls with adjusters and lien holders, confirms claim numbers and balances, and writes each exchange to the case file
- Insurance claim opening: Opens claims with carriers through outbound calls
- Hold-time handling: Works insurer and provider phone menus and waits in hold queues, then connects your staff when a person answers
- Task completion: Each supported call ends with the action done and the case file updated, so staff do not have to act on a forwarded message
- CMS write-back: Direct integrations with SmartAdvocate, Filevine, Litify, Lead Docket, and Clio, with custom integrations available for other systems
- Call reporting: A dashboard measures call volume, caller type, transfers, and script adherence, so you can size the phone load before and after launch
- Human escalation: Your transfer rules send sensitive, judgment-heavy, or out-of-scope calls to the right person with context loaded
Because each outcome lands in the matter, case manager workload drops instead of shifting to a different inbox.
How the two compare
| Capability | HelloCounsel | Smith.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed monthly pricing | Yes. From $500 with no per-call billing | No. Per call, with 14 per-call add-ons |
| Inbound answering 24/7 | Yes. With caller pre-identification and case-phase routing | Yes. AI, human, or hybrid answering |
| Handles post-sign calls | Yes. Reception, Intake, check-ins, case opening, claims, and follow-up | Partial. Answers and takes messages; follow-up stays with your staff |
| Case opening | Yes. Matter setup, retainer, and first records requests after intake qualifies | Partial. Can send retainers for e-signature and push intake to your CRM; matter setup stays with your team |
| Lead follow-up and Client Check-ins | Yes. Calls back unsigned leads and runs scheduled client check-ins | Partial. Outbound follow-up to leads who filled in a form; no client check-ins |
| Human receptionists on call | No. Counsel escalates to your staff with context attached | Yes. 500+ North America-based agents |
| Medical records retrieval and organization | Yes. Requests organized at case opening, then chased from CMS tasks and logged in the matter | No. Outbound is limited to lead follow-up |
| Adjuster calls and hold time | Yes. Counsel waits in the queue and connects your teammate | No. Stays with your staff |
| Treatment and medical coordination | Yes. Post-visit calls and provider scheduling, with answers written to the file | No. |
| Notes written into the matter | Yes. Notes, fields, and summaries at call end | Yes. Call summaries and CRM pushes through integrations |
| Bilingual English and Spanish | Yes. On one line, including mid-call switches | Yes. A dedicated Spanish line costs $1.00 per call |
| Call performance reporting | Yes. Volume, caller types, and transfer rates | Yes. Call Intelligence dashboard |
"Working with HelloCounsel has been an outstanding experience. Their commitment to client service and innovation is evident in everything they do. We've been extremely impressed with our new AI receptionist, Kate, and the impact it's already making for our firm. I'm excited to continue exploring additional solutions that allow our case managers to focus more time on delivering exceptional client care." Anthony Ramos, COO, Pendergast Law
Where Smith.ai wins outright is the human voice. If your partners want a live receptionist on every referral call, that is a real reason to choose it, and no AI agent changes that preference. Bring your ten most common case calls to a founder call if you want to see how the other calls would be handled.
Is Smith.ai the Right Fit for Your Firm?
No Smith.ai review can answer that for every firm, because the verdict depends less on the product than on which calls are costing you time.
| If your firm | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Is a solo or small practice losing new-client calls | Smith.ai is a strong fit, and the reviews support it |
| Wants a live human on every intake call | Smith.ai's virtual receptionist plans are built for that |
| Has predictable, low call volume | Per-call pricing is manageable and transparent |
| Runs marketing campaigns that spike call volume | Per-call overage will follow the spike, so price it first |
| Fields heavy post-sign volume from clients, providers, and adjusters | A PI-specific voice agent covers more of the work |
| Needs records follow-up and treatment check-ins handled | Smith.ai does not cover this; look at HelloCounsel |
| Wants every call documented in the matter automatically | Check where the note lands before signing |
If you are weighing options side by side, our roundup of Smith.ai alternatives covers the rest of the category for PI firms, and our list of legal answering services compares the human-first options.
What to check before you sign
- Transfer rules: Set escalation limits on day one so AI calls do not hand off to live agents at $3 each without your say-so
- Add-ons: List the ones you actually need and multiply by your monthly call count
- Plan terms: Confirm whether your specific plan is month to month or a prepaid term
- Refund window: Get the 30-day guarantee confirmed in writing, given the FAQ's conflicting wording
- Overage alerts: Ask to be notified as you approach your plan's call limit
- CRM destination: Test a call and check whether the summary reaches the matter or an inbox
The wider set of questions sits in our guide on choosing a phone answering service.
Smith.ai Earns Its Reputation, Within Its Lane
Read enough Smith.ai reviews and a clear picture forms: the service does what it set out to do. Callers reach a professional voice at any hour, intake gets captured properly, and the integration list reaches most legal software a firm is likely to run. For a solo attorney or a small firm whose biggest leak is the unanswered new-client call, it is an easy recommendation.
Mid-market PI firms sit in a different position. Intake is one slice of the phone, and the rest of the case generates months of calls to providers, adjusters, lien holders, and clients in treatment. Those calls are not a receptionist problem, and under per-call pricing they get expensive to outsource.
Price your real call mix against the tables above, then decide which part of the phone you are buying help for. If it is the work after the retainer is signed, HelloCounsel's AI voice agents handle those calls on a fixed monthly price and log every one in the file. Review the HelloCounsel product against your call mix.
Book a call with HelloCounsel's founders and bring a week of call logs. The team will show you which calls the agents can take off your team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Smith.ai worth it for personal injury firms?
Based on published pricing and current Smith.ai reviews, it is worth it for firms whose main gap is new-client intake, especially solo and small practices. Mid-market PI firms with heavy post-sign call volume usually need broader coverage.
How much does Smith.ai cost per call?
Smith.ai puts the AI Receptionist at roughly $1 to $2 per call, the Hybrid at $2 to $5, and human Virtual Receptionists at $6 to $10. Overage on human plans runs $8.50 to $11.50 per call.
Which service handles calls after the client signs?
HelloCounsel answers inbound calls and places outbound calls for records follow-up, treatment check-ins, and claim opening, writing each outcome to the matter. Smith.ai's outbound work covers lead follow-up.
Does Smith.ai charge for spam calls?
No. Smith.ai does not count spam or unsolicited sales calls toward your quota, as long as the lines you forward pass caller ID.
Does Smith.ai require a contract?
Virtual receptionist plans are month to month, with a 10% discount for a 12-month subscription. One reviewer reported a prepaid six-month AI plan, so confirm the terms for your specific plan.
Does Smith.ai integrate with Filevine or Clio?
Yes. Smith.ai lists integrations including Clio Manage, Clio Grow, Filevine, MyCase, Lead Docket, PracticePanther, Lawmatics, Smokeball, and Zapier. HelloCounsel writes directly into Filevine, SmartAdvocate, Litify, Lead Docket, and Clio.
Does Smith.ai offer Spanish-speaking receptionists?
Yes. Smith.ai offers bilingual English and Spanish answering, and a dedicated Spanish line is available as an add-on at $1.00 per call.
Share this article
