Relex & Claude vs Westlaw
Own your clients, your data and your firm.
Westlaw is Thomson Reuters' legal-research service: a proprietary, editorially enhanced database of case law, statutes and secondary sources, with headnotes and KeyCite, and AI-Assisted Research layered on top, sold by subscription through sales. Relex is not a research database you rent. It gives the Claude you already pay for the whole matter as a formal ontology, and grounds every citation in verbatim text it fetches and caches from official and free sources, which a verifier then enforces. The law you cite is checkable, and the client's identity never reaches a model.
At a glance
| Dimension | Relex | Westlaw |
|---|---|---|
| Where client data goes | Encrypted in your browser before anything leaves your device. The model only ever sees [Party 1]. | A proprietary, editorially enhanced research corpus (headnotes, KeyCite), licensed by subscription; Thomson Reuters publishes an enterprise security and compliance program. |
| Whose AI runs it | Bring your own Claude or Claude for Legal over MCP and OAuth. You own the reasoning. | AI-Assisted Research and CoCounsel features run on Thomson Reuters' own stack. Westlaw does not publicly describe bringing your own model or agent into the product. |
| Try it today | Sign up and run a real case in minutes. Free to try, no card. | Quote-based subscription through sales; no public pricing. |
| Who owns the client | Partner Network: own the client and keep 100%, at 0% commission. | A research subscription, not a client-ownership or referral model. |
| Case structure | A formal ontology of parties, issues, claims, statutes, and facts. | A search interface over case law, statutes, regulations and secondary sources. |
| Your know-how | A private per-tenant index the model searches. Never a copy it keeps or trains on. | Your notes and folders inside the platform; the corpus itself is Thomson Reuters' licensed content. |
| Getting started | In the browser in minutes, standalone or with your own Claude. | Sales process and subscription setup. |
This comparison reflects each product’s own public positioning as of July 2026. Westlaw is a trademark of its respective owner, and this page is an independent comparison.
The opposite bet
Westlaw is the bet that legal knowledge is a proprietary database you subscribe to, with the publisher's editorial layer between you and the law. Relex takes the opposite bet. The law is grounded from official and free sources into verbatim cached text, a verifier rejects any citation that is not backed by that text, and the reasoning belongs to the Claude you already pay for. You are not renting access to the law; you are grounding your own work in it.
Why the pairing wins
A research database can return authorities. It cannot run your matter: the parties, issues, claims, statutes and facts as a formal ontology, with your own know-how indexed privately alongside. Relex gives your Claude that whole structure and grounds its drafting in verbatim law it caches from official and free sources, so the citations are filing-grade and checkable, while the real names stay encrypted in your browser. For US local law it searches LOCUS, 2.2M municipal and county ordinance sections, and fetches the exact section text to cite.
Own the intake, own the client
Research is one step of a matter, not the whole of it. Clients reach your practice by email, by WhatsApp or SMS, or through a guest link, and what they tell you becomes a structured case the agent picks up. Research, drafting, native cryptographic e-signature and invoicing run in one workspace. Through the Partner Network you stay the merchant of record through Stripe, at a flat $99 per month and 0% commission on what your clients pay you.
Relex is a software platform. It is not a law firm, it does not replace lawyers, and it does not provide legal advice.
What you actually pay
Relex publishes its price. It is free to start, needs no credit card, and runs on the Claude subscription you already pay for, so there is no per-seat AI licence stacked on top. If you bill your own clients through the Partner Network, you stay the merchant of record and keep 100% of what they pay you, at a flat $99 per month with 0% commission. No per-matter platform cut, and no enterprise quote to negotiate.
Westlaw is a quote-based research subscription. Relex adds no research-database licence: it grounds citations in verbatim text from official and free sources and runs on the Claude you already pay for, at a flat $99/mo with 0% commission.
Questions people ask
Is Relex a legal-research service like Westlaw?
No. Relex does not resell a proprietary law database. It grounds your Claude's drafting in verbatim law it fetches and caches from official and free sources, with a verifier that rejects any citation not backed by cached text. Research is one grounded step inside running the whole matter, not a subscription you browse.
Where does the law Relex cites come from, and can I trust it?
From official and free sources, cached verbatim, and enforced by a verifier before a draft can cite it. Community legal packs that relied on model memory found roughly 30% of their citations wrong; Relex's citation discipline is mechanical, not aspirational, so filing-grade citations are grounded in text, not recalled.
Does Relex cover local and international law?
Yes. For US local law it searches LOCUS, 2.2M municipal and county ordinance sections, and fetches exact section text. Across jurisdictions it discovers authorities through official and free channels and grounds the verbatim text before citing.
Which one can I try today?
Relex. Signing up is free, takes one click, and needs no credit card. Westlaw is quoted and set up through Thomson Reuters' sales team.
What does legal research cost per search on Relex?
Nothing per search. Relex grounds citations by fetching and caching verbatim text from official and free sources on the Claude you already pay for — there is no per-search charge, no plan-coverage tier, and no "out of plan" document to decide whether to open.
How much does Relex cost compared with the others?
Relex is free to start, then a flat $99 per month with 0% commission if you bill your own clients through it, on top of the Claude plan you already have and with no separate per-seat AI fee. Most tools compared here quote enterprise pricing through sales or charge per user for their own AI. None of them publishes a referral or marketplace take rate; Relex publishes its own: 0%.
More comparisons
Automate the work around the law. Stay the lawyer.
Own your clients, your data, and your firm. Start in the browser, or bring your own Claude in one step. No key to paste.