Best AI Contract Review Tools for Lawyers in 2025

In an era where lawyers juggle countless contracts and documents, AI-powered tools have emerged to lighten the load. These legal AI tools can automate tedious contract review and drafting tasks, spotting errors faster than a human and even redlining documents in a fraction of the time. By handling routine edits and checks, AI frees up transactional lawyers and in-house teams to focus on higher-value work and client strategy. In fact, the time savings can be dramatic, contract review that once took hours can now be done in minutes.

For transactional attorneys at solo, small, or mid-sized firms, adopting the right AI assistant means faster contract turnarounds, fewer missed issues, and greater consistency. Below, we highlight six of the best legal AI tools in 2025 for contract review and drafting. We then discuss how to choose the tool that fits your practice, and answer frequently asked questions about using AI in your legal workflow.

6 Top AI Tools for Contract Review and Drafting

1. Gavel Exec, Best AI Assistant for Contract Drafting and Review

Gavel Exec is an AI legal assistant built specifically for contract drafting and redlining. Designed by the document automation company Gavel, it integrates directly into Microsoft Word, so you can draft and review contracts inside your normal workflow. Gavel Exec was trained on legal documents (e.g. corporate and real estate agreements) to generate precise clause suggestions, redline edits, and contract summaries with a high degree of accuracy. Lawyers can ask it to suggest alternative wording, flag risky language, or even redline lengthy documents based on market standards, all in Microsoft Word.

Importantly, Gavel Exec places a strong emphasis on privacy and customization. It offers enterprise-grade security, it never uses your client data to train its models and complies with strict data privacy standards. For firms that want to tailor the AI to their own playbooks, Gavel Exec’s Projects feature allows training the assistant on your firm’s past contracts and guidelines, so its redlines align with your preferred style and positions. This makes it especially attractive for small and mid-sized firms who need AI that can adapt to their specific practice, but they are also popular amongst in-house lawyers for their Playbooks feature. After extensive beta testing with law firm users, Gavel Exec has proven to perform at a “senior associate” level in contract review tasks, effectively serving as a tireless junior lawyer inside Word.

Pros:

• Seamless Microsoft Word integration for drafting, redlining, and clause insertion without leaving your document.
  
• Legal-specific AI training yields highly accurate, context-aware contract suggestions and edits.
  
• Strong privacy safeguards (no client-data training; SOC II-compliant) suitable for confidential contracts.
  
• Custom AI workflows via Projects, can be trained on your firm’s documents and playbooks for personalized contract reviews.
• Designed for solo and small firm use, with an accessible interface and no need for extensive onboarding or IT support.
  
  

Cons:

• Currently available as a Microsoft Word add-in (requires use of Word environment).
  
• Focused on transactional documents (not a tool for litigators or court analytics).
  
  

2. ChatGPT, Best General-Purpose AI Tool (Free)

ChatGPT (by OpenAI) is arguably the best free AI tool available to lawyers today, offering a conversational assistant that can help with a range of tasks. For contract work, lawyers use ChatGPT to draft initial contract clauses, suggest plain-language rewrites, or summarize contract provisions for a quick overview. Its strength lies in its ease of use, you can ask it almost anything in natural language and get an instant response. With the latest GPT-4 model (available via ChatGPT Plus), it can produce fairly sophisticated and fluent legal text. Some enterprising lawyers even integrate ChatGPT into Word or Outlook through plugins, letting them generate clause suggestions or email drafts on the fly.

However, ChatGPT is a general AI and not trained specifically on legal contracts. This means it may sometimes produce plausible-sounding but legally inaccurate content, or miss nuances that a trained legal AI would catch. It doesn’t know your firm’s playbook or jurisdictional specifics, and it won’t automatically flag if a clause deviates from market standards. There are also confidentiality concerns, content you enter into the public ChatGPT service might be stored on external servers, so you should avoid sharing sensitive client data. In short, ChatGPT is fantastic for brainstorming, formulating first drafts, and answering general legal questions, but its outputs must be reviewed carefully by an attorney before relying on them in any contract.

Pros:

• Free and easily accessible AI assistant with a user-friendly chat interface.
  
• Versatile: can draft language, explain contract clauses, and generate quick summaries or checklists on request.
  
• Continuously improving (latest GPT-4 model) with a broad knowledge base across many domains.
  
  

Cons:

• Not specialized for law, lacks awareness of legal standards and may omit important regulatory or risk considerations.
  
• Tendency to hallucinate or err in legal contexts, producing text that sounds confident but may be incorrect.
  
• No built-in confidentiality guarantees for the free version; lawyers must be cautious when inputting client information.
  
  

3. CoCounsel (Casetext/Thomson Reuters), AI for Legal Research & Analysis

CoCounsel is an AI legal assistant originally developed by Casetext and now part of Thomson Reuters’ product suite. It’s a powerful, multifaceted tool that can perform legal research, review documents, analyze contracts, and even assist with tasks like deposition prep. CoCounsel leverages OpenAI’s GPT-4 under the hood, but it’s augmented with legal-specific training and integrates with legal databases. For example, since Thomson Reuters acquired Casetext, CoCounsel has been increasingly integrated with Westlaw and other TR resources. Lawyers can ask CoCounsel to find relevant case law, summarize a contract, identify risky clauses, or compare a document against a checklist, all within one platform. It can even generate work product like deposition outlines or legal memos based on your prompts.

A standout feature is CoCounsel’s ability to automate lengthy review tasks. It might provide side-by-side summaries of a long contract, or draft timeline charts of key obligations to improve clarity during a deal. It also allows adjusting the tone of its output (e.g., a more formal style for client communications vs. a casual internal summary), which can be useful for in-house counsel preparing explainers for business teams. On the downside, CoCounsel is geared more toward larger teams and complex projects. It focuses on standardized automation rather than deeply customized firm-specific solutions. Setting up CoCounsel in a workflow can be a bit complex, and solo or small firm lawyers might find they won’t use many of its heavier features. In other words, it shines in a busy legal department or large firm environment with high-volume research and review needs, but could be overkill for a simple contract practice.

Pros:

• All-in-one legal AI that handles research, contract analysis, document review, and more in a single platform.
  
• Integrated with reputable legal data (Thomson Reuters/Westlaw content), enhancing its reliability for legal research.
  
• Offers helpful review aids like automated summaries and timelines, and can tailor outputs in different tones for various audiences (e.g. client vs. internal).
  
  

Cons:

• Less customizable to firm-specific clauses or styles (designed for general legal use cases out-of-the-box).
  
• Can be complex for small firms, who may not need its full breadth of features.
  
• Premium tool (enterprise-level pricing), while a free “CoCounsel Core” version exists, advanced features require a subscription (which larger organizations are more apt to afford).
  
  

4. Harvey AI, Generative AI for Legal Drafting and Large Firms

Harvey is a cutting-edge generative AI platform that made headlines as one of the first AI built on GPT-4 specifically for legal use. Backed by the OpenAI Startup Fund, Harvey has been adopted (in pilot programs) by large law firms and corporate legal departments to assist in everything from drafting contracts and legal briefs to answering legal questions. Harvey’s AI is extremely powerful at generating coherent legal documents, for example, it can draft a research memo or a contract from scratch based on a user’s prompts, drawing on its extensive training in law. It also has features for summarizing large sets of documents, which can be useful in due diligence or discovery: Harvey’s automated summarization can digest thousands of pages of documents and produce concise summaries of the key points.

What sets Harvey apart is its ability to understand context and nuance in legal language. It can adapt to different jurisdictions’ laws and even incorporate user-provided data to some extent. For instance, Harvey can be prompted with specific facts or a desired contract structure, and it will draft a tailored document that attempts to meet those requirements. According to reports, it produces work at a high level of precision thanks to GPT-4’s advanced language capabilities. This makes Harvey particularly appealing for large-scale legal drafting tasks, imagine generating a first draft of a multi-jurisdictional contract in minutes, which attorneys can then refine.

Pros:

• Built on OpenAI’s GPT-4, offering extremely advanced language generation and the ability to draft legal documents with high precision.
  
• Excels at large-scale summarization and analysis, can quickly analyze and summarize huge volumes of text (e.g. contract libraries, case law) that would overwhelm a human.
  
• Understands legal context well (e.g. can incorporate jurisdiction-specific requirements in its outputs) and integrates with enterprise workflows for large firms.
  
• Continually improving through enterprise pilots, with feedback from top law firms to fine-tune its performance in practice.
  
  

Cons:

• Enterprise-focused and not broadly available, initially rolled out to big law firms, with access usually via firm-wide deployments (not an off-the-shelf tool a small firm can easily subscribe to).
  
• Likely overkill for smaller firms or simple contracts; Capabilities are geared toward complex, large-scale legal work and it may be more than is necessary for a straightforward transactional practice.
  
• As with any generative AI, outputs still require careful attorney review. Harvey can draft impressively, but lawyers must ensure the content is legally sound and customized to the client’s needs.

5. Luminance – Best for Enterprise-Scale Contract Analysis with AI

Luminance is an AI-powered legal platform focused on document analysis, contract compliance, and due diligence. It uses machine learning to read and understand legal documents at scale, automatically identifying key clauses, deviations from standard terms, and risk indicators. Luminance is often used by large law firms and corporate legal departments handling major contract volumes, M&A transactions, and cross-border agreements. It’s particularly strong at detecting non-standard clauses and surfacing anomalies during contract review.

What sets Luminance apart is its visual review interface: users can see AI-generated heatmaps and color-coded risk flags, making it easier to navigate lengthy documents. It also offers AI-powered compliance checks against internal standards or external regulations. However, while Luminance is powerful, it’s priced and built for enterprise clients. Smaller firms or solo practitioners may find the setup process and cost prohibitive for day-to-day contract work.

Pros:

• Advanced AI analysis and clause anomaly detection for high-stakes contracts and large document sets.
  
• Intuitive interface with visual dashboards and risk flagging.
  
• Built-in tools for compliance monitoring and due diligence, useful in M&A or financial transactions.
  
  

Cons:

• Enterprise pricing and onboarding make it less accessible for small or mid-sized firms.
  
• Not optimized for transactional drafting or Microsoft Word-based workflows.
  
• Best suited for high-volume or complex reviews, not simple day-to-day agreements.
  
  

6. Legora – AI-Powered Legal Assistant with Strong Clause Analysis

Legora is an AI contract review assistant that focuses on contract analysis, clause detection, and document comparison. It’s designed to help lawyers quickly understand complex agreements, detect missing or risky terms, and benchmark language against standard clauses. Like Luminance, Legora is positioned for larger legal teams that handle significant volumes of contracts or need multi-document analytics.

One of Legora’s standout features is its clause benchmarking and deviation analysis, which flags when contract language strays from firm-approved templates or market norms. The tool also provides auto-summaries and risk ratings for each section, making it easier to triage which contracts need deeper review. That said, Legora is not deeply customizable and doesn’t integrate into Microsoft Word—review happens in a standalone platform. It also comes with a higher price tag, making it best suited for firms with enterprise budgets.

Pros:

• Strong clause benchmarking and deviation detection tools.
  
• Helpful for triaging contracts and identifying areas of concern quickly.
  
• Multi-document review support for bulk analysis.
  
  

Cons:

• No Word integration; requires lawyers to work in a separate platform.
  
• Higher pricing may not be justifiable for firms with lower contract volume.
  
• Less flexibility for custom firm workflows or playbooks.
  
  

How to Choose the Right Legal AI Contract Tool

With several strong legal AI options on the market, how do you decide which tool is the best fit for your contract work? Here are some key factors to consider when choosing a legal AI assistant for your firm:

• Accuracy and Domain Training: Prioritize tools that have been trained on legal data or contract language. High accuracy is a must, even a quick AI-generated draft saves no time if you have to fix errors all day. Look for evidence of legal-specific models or benchmarking for the tool (for example, Gavel Exec is benchmarked for legal accuracy and trained by lawyers in its target domains). A reliable tool should understand clause context and produce quality suggestions with minimal mistakes.
  
  
• Integration with Your Workflow: Consider where and how you will use the AI. The best tools integrate seamlessly with your existing workflow, whether that's Microsoft Word, your document management system, or a contract lifecycle platform. Tools embedded in Word (like Gavel Exec) allow one-click access to AI-powered suggestions and redlines as you draft, which can be more efficient than exporting documents to a separate AI website. A user-friendly interface is also essential, lawyers shouldn’t need extensive training to use the software.
  
  
• Use Case Fit: Match the tool to the type of contracts and volume of work you handle. If you’re frequently reviewing high volumes of routine contracts, an AI with multi-document support and batch processing could be ideal. If your work is more bespoke and complex, you might prefer an AI that you can customize with your own clause library or which excels at nuanced drafting (e.g. Gavel Exec’s Projects for firm-specific training). Ensure the tool can handle the document formats and tasks you need, whether it’s comparing two contracts, generating a redlined version, or answering questions about a contract’s content.
  
  
• Privacy and Security: Client confidentiality is paramount in legal practice. Verify the tool’s privacy policy and security standards. Enterprise-grade solutions should offer encryption, access controls, and should not use your confidential data to train their models. For cloud-based AI tools, check for compliance with privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.). If you’re at a law firm, you may also need to clear the tool with your IT or risk management team to ensure it meets your ethical obligations regarding client data.
  
  
• Scalability and Collaboration: If you work in a team, look at features for multi-user support and collaboration. Some AI platforms allow multiple attorneys to share projects or review results together. Also consider whether the tool can scale with your practice, can it handle increasing volumes of documents or additional types of contracts as your firm grows? Cloud-based AI tools often make it easy to scale up usage and storage as needed. Choose a solution that can grow alongside your business and accommodate new use cases (for instance, you might start with NDAs but later want to use AI for purchase agreements or compliance documents).
  
  
• Vendor Support and Cost-Benefit: Lastly, evaluate the provider’s support and the overall cost-benefit. Does the vendor offer training, customer support, or onboarding help? A responsive support team can be valuable, especially early on. On the cost side, while we won’t delve into specific pricing, consider the return on investment in time saved. A pricier tool that automates hours of work may pay for itself quickly. Many legal AI vendors offer free trials or limited free tiers, take advantage of these to pilot the tool with your own contracts and see the results firsthand.
  
  

By weighing these factors, accuracy, workflow integration, use case fit, security, scalability, and support, you can identify which AI tool will best streamline your contract drafting and review process. The right choice will ultimately depend on your practice’s unique needs and the pain points you’re trying to solve, whether it’s cranking through repetitive contract markups or ensuring no clause ever slips through the cracks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Can AI tools really draft and review contracts effectively without human help?
AI contract tools have become surprisingly effective at first-draft generation and issue spotting, but they are not a replacement for human lawyers. In practice, these tools excel at handling the heavy lifting: they can scan contracts for missing or risky clauses, suggest alternative language, and even draft entire sections in seconds. This level of automation can drastically reduce the time lawyers spend on rote editing and review. That said, human oversight is still essential. The AI might not fully understand your client’s business context or negotiate the best deal terms, it might miss subtleties or produce boilerplate that needs tailoring. Think of legal AI as a junior assistant: it will do the grunt work and highlight potential issues, but a lawyer must check the work, make judgment calls, and finalize the contract. When used wisely, AI tools can enhance accuracy (by catching common errors) and consistency across documents, all while freeing up attorneys to focus on high-level strategy. But no responsible lawyer would sign off on an AI-drafted contract without reviewing it, at least not in 2025.

Q2. Is it safe to use AI assistants with confidential legal documents?
It can be, but you need to choose your tools carefully. With any cloud-based AI, you should verify how your data is handled. Many legal-tech providers understand confidentiality concerns and have implemented strong safeguards. For example, Gavel Exec uses enterprise-grade security protocols and never uses your data to train its AI models. This means your client documents stay private. Similarly, some vendors let you opt out of data sharing, or run their AI in a private cloud for your firm. By contrast, a general tool like the free version of ChatGPT does not come with a confidentiality guarantee, whatever you input could be stored on OpenAI’s servers and potentially used (in aggregated form) to improve the model. Lawyers should avoid inputting sensitive client information into any AI tool unless they’re confident in the privacy protections. Always review the software’s privacy policy and, if available, look for certifications or independent audits. Many firms also require client consent or internal approval before using AI on client work. In short: legal-focused AI tools are often built with confidentiality in mind, but due diligence is key. When in doubt, start with non-sensitive documents to evaluate a tool, and gradually increase usage as trust is established.

Q3. What is the best free AI tool for contract drafting and review?
If you’re looking for a no-cost starting point, ChatGPT is the most well-known free option and is widely used for basic contract drafting help. With ChatGPT, you can experiment by asking it to draft a clause or explain a provision. It’s useful for brainstorming language or getting a quick second pair of “eyes” on a contract issue. However, keep in mind the limitations we discussed (lack of legal training and privacy concerns). Another free (or freemium) option to consider is Casetext’s CoCounsel Core, which is a scaled-down version of the CoCounsel platform. CoCounsel Core has the advantage of being purpose-built for law, it can handle legal research queries, summarize documents, and do contract analysis using GPT-4, all at no cost. This makes it a compelling free tool for solo practitioners or small firms. The trade-off is that its advanced capabilities might be limited compared to paid plans. In sum, ChatGPT is a great general AI assistant to try for free, and CoCounsel Core is an excellent law-specific AI that won’t cost you anything. Both can be good starting points, as long as you stay mindful of their constraints.

Q4. What is the best AI tool for legal contract drafting?
Given the current landscape, Gavel Exec stands out as one of the top AI tools for contract drafting and review. It was designed from the ground up for transactional lawyers and integrates directly with Word to offer contract-specific suggestions (clauses, redlines, risk flags) in real time. Thanks to its legal-trained models and features like clause benchmarking and playbooks, it helps lawyers draft contracts faster and with greater confidence in the accuracy of the language. Of course, “best” is always subjective to your needs. Some might argue other tools are better in certain areas: for instance, some tools are extremely powerful at generating long-form documents (like briefs) due to GPT-4, and might be preferable if you’re in a large firm with diverse drafting needs. But for pure contract drafting efficiency, especially in a typical corporate law practice, Gavel Exec’s combination of Word integration, clause generation, and accuracy makes it a top choice in 2025. It allows you to draft and redline in one place, with AI suggestions that truly understand legal context, essentially serving as a specialized co-pilot for your contract work.

Q5. Which AI tool is best for legal research and case law?
For legal research specifically (finding case law, statutes, answering complex legal questions), Lexis+ AI is often cited as the leading tool. Lexis+ AI is LexisNexis’s own generative AI platform that combines their vast legal database with an AI assistant. It can digest your natural language query (like “What are the key elements of a valid force majeure clause under New York law?”) and produce an answer with citations to relevant cases or statutes. It also integrates features like Shepard’s citation checking in real-time, so you can ensure the cases are still good law.  

By embracing the right AI tools, transactional lawyers and legal teams can streamline their contract drafting and review like never before. The six tools profiled above each offer unique strengths, from Gavel Exec’s in-Word clause wizardry to Harvey and Legora’s suite that includes litigation, and understanding these differences is key to making an informed choice. While no AI is a silver bullet, the technology in 2025 is mature enough to deliver real productivity gains and risk reduction. Lawyers who thoughtfully integrate AI into their practice will find themselves able to close deals faster, with more consistency and insight, all while freeing time to devote to the strategic and advisory roles that truly add value for clients. The bottom line: legal AI has arrived for contracts, and it’s an opportunity that modern lawyers can’t afford to ignore.

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