Free versus paid, honestly
CourtListener and PacerPlus: Which Federal Tool You Need
CourtListener is free, nonprofit, and genuinely good. Start there. This page explains the specific moments when it is not enough.
PacerPlus vs CourtListener: the short version
CourtListener is run by the Free Law Project, a nonprofit. It is free to use, it is not trying to upsell you, and it hosts one of the largest open collections of American case law, oral argument audio, judge biographies, and financial disclosures anywhere. Its RECAP Archive holds tens of millions of federal court filings contributed by users of the RECAP browser extension.
We tell people to try CourtListener first. If your case is already in RECAP, you can read the docket and download the filings for nothing, and no subscription beats free.
The limit is structural rather than a knock on the project. RECAP contains a document because somebody already paid PACER for it and shared it. A brand-new filing on a low-traffic docket in a district nobody watches is often simply not there yet, and the archive updates when contributors update it.
Feature and price comparison
| Feature | PacerPlus | CourtListener |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $199.99 per month | Free |
| Court coverage | Federal district (civil and criminal) plus appellate by name; bankruptcy only by case number | Federal filings in RECAP, plus case law back to the 1650s |
| Document availability | Pulled live from PACER when RECAP does not have it | Only filings someone has already contributed |
| PACER page costs | 150 PACER pages included each month, then $9.99 per 30-page pack | Free for anything already in the archive; nothing to buy |
| AI docket summaries | Included — Pace summarizes filings and answers questions | Not offered |
| Alerts | 10 case monitors with emailed AI summaries of what changed | Free search, docket, and citation alerts by email or webhook |
| Case law and opinions | Docket-focused, not a case law database | Very large free opinion collection |
| Oral argument audio | Not offered | Largest free collection online |
| API and bulk data | No public API today | REST API, bulk files, database replication, webhooks |
| Support | Product support included in the subscription | Nonprofit, community and documentation driven |
Green marks the product with the clearer advantage on that row, including the rows where CourtListener wins.
What CourtListener charges
CourtListener: Free
Search, dockets, opinions, oral arguments, judge profiles, and alerts at no cost.
Free Law Project membership: Published on the Free Law Project membership page
Raises API access. We do not quote a figure here because the tiers are rendered dynamically and we could not read them.
CourtListener is a nonprofit service. API access is described as a membership benefit or a commercial agreement, and academic and student EDU memberships are free.
PacerPlus: $199.99 per month
One plan. Unlimited federal case searches, 150 PACER pages a month, 10 PacerAlerts, unlimited judge analytics, and AI docket analysis. Extra pages are $9.99 per 30-page pack. Full detail on the pricing page.
Where CourtListener is the better choice
No product wins everywhere. These are the cases where we would tell you to buy CourtListener instead.
It is free, and that matters
For students, journalists on a budget, pro se litigants, and anyone doing occasional research, free access to millions of federal filings and a huge opinion archive is the correct answer.
Case law, audio, and judge data
Opinions going back to the 1650s, the largest collection of oral argument recordings online, and judicial financial disclosures are things this platform does not offer at all.
Open data and open source
Bulk downloads, a documented REST API, database replication, and webhooks make CourtListener the right foundation for research projects. The Free Law Project also runs RECAP itself, which is why free federal filings exist at all.
Where PacerPlus is the better choice
Coverage you can rely on today
When a document is not in RECAP, we fetch it from PACER for you. A free archive cannot promise that the exhibit you need on a two-week-old docket exists yet.
The docket gets explained
Summaries of individual filings, answers to questions about them, and a readable timeline of what has happened turn a raw docket into something you can brief from.
Alerts that tell you what changed
A monitor here emails an AI summary of the new filing rather than only the docket text, which is the difference between knowing something happened and knowing what it means.
The bottom line
If you are researching occasionally, or your case is already in RECAP, use CourtListener. It is free, it is run by people doing the right thing, and it deserves your donation more than it deserves a competitor page.
Choose PacerPlus when a deadline depends on a filing that is not in the archive yet, when you have to read a 300-entry docket by tomorrow, or when you need the judge's ruling patterns before you file.
Common questions
Is CourtListener really free?
Yes. It is operated by the Free Law Project, a nonprofit, and search, dockets, opinions, and alerts cost nothing. API access beyond the default rate limit comes with membership.
What is the RECAP Archive?
It is CourtListener's collection of federal court filings, built from documents that PACER users bought and donated through the free RECAP browser extension.
Why is a document missing from RECAP?
Because nobody has bought and contributed it yet. RECAP mirrors what its users have purchased, so quiet dockets and very recent filings are the usual gaps.
Do you use RECAP too?
Yes. We check the free RECAP archive before spending a PACER page, so you are not billed for something the public already owns.
Where these numbers come from
Every CourtListenerprice on this page was read from the vendor's own pages on the dates below. Prices change; check the source before you rely on it.
- CourtListener (nonprofit, free access) — checked September 2, 2026
- CourtListener data coverage (Free Law Project wiki) — checked September 2, 2026
- Free Law Project: API access included with membership — checked September 2, 2026
Other comparisons
- PacerPlus vs Westlaw — The incumbent research suite. Enormous case law library, boolean search, and enterprise pricing that starts far above a solo budget.
- PacerPlus vs PacerMonitor — Federal docket monitoring from Fitch Solutions, with per-page document charges layered on top of a monthly subscription.
- PacerPlus vs UniCourt — Normalized state and federal litigation data across 4,000+ courts, sold in tiers that meter your case searches.
- PacerPlus vs Docket Alarm — Very wide coverage including PTAB, TTAB, and ITC, billed either pay-as-you-go or at a flat fee per user.
- PacerPlus vs Trellis — State trial court dockets and state judge analytics across 45 states. No federal coverage at all.
- New to federal records? Start with how to find a federal case or how PACER fees work.