"Free" is the right place for a budget-conscious solo to start — but "free" hides a confidentiality question that matters more in law than in almost any other field. Here's what free legal AI can genuinely do, where it quietly runs out, and how to start without putting a client's confidences at risk.

What free can do well

Evaluate the workflow. A free plan lets you see whether AI-assisted drafting fits how you work before you spend anything.
Handle low volume. A few matters and a handful of drafts a month often fit inside a free tier.
Read public case law. CourtListener is a free, public corpus of US case law you can search and read directly.

The confidentiality trap in "free"

Free consumer chatbot tiers frequently reserve the right to use your inputs to train their models. For a lawyer, that's a Rule 1.6 confidentiality problem the moment a client fact goes in. "Free" that costs you a confidence is the most expensive option there is. A free tier on a tool with a contractual no-training posture is a different animal — that's the kind worth using.

Where free runs out

Volume. Once you're drafting steadily, free message or matter caps start to bite.
Validation at scale. Checking every citation by hand is fine for one brief, painful across a docket.
The practice glue. Conflicts, deadlines, and clean time entries are where free general tools simply don't go.

Draftiro's free plan, honestly

Draftiro has a genuinely free plan with no credit card — and it runs on the paid Gemini tier, so even on the free plan your data never trains AI models. You get AI drafting, CourtListener citation validation, and conflict checks; paid tiers from $29/mo lift the caps and add depth. Start free on the pricing page, or see how it compares for the budget-minded in affordable legal AI under $100.