# Legal OCR Subscription: Terms to Read Before You Pay

- Author: Schema Law (https://www.schemalaw.com/)
- Published: 2026-05-21T22:47:04Z
- Updated: 2026-10-11T19:22:20Z
- Category: Choosing legal OCR
- Canonical: https://www.schemalaw.com/blog/legal-ocr-subscription

> What a legal OCR subscription commits you to: page allowances, monthly or annual terms, renewal and cancellation clauses, trials, exit and support levels.

A legal OCR subscription is a recurring payment for a fixed allowance: pages each period, a number of users, a set of export formats and a level of support. Before you pay, read how it renews, how you cancel, whether the price can change mid-term, and what happens to uploaded documents when it ends.

Lawyers read contracts for a living and click through their own software terms in four seconds. An OCR subscription deserves ten minutes, because the thing you are handing over is client paper. This post is the ten-minute read: what the plan line items mean, and which clauses to find before you enter a card number.

Read the subscription the way you read an engagement letter: renewal, cancellation, price changes, and what happens to files at the end. Client confidentiality depends on those clauses, because the upload may be a contract or a set of discovery. Match the vendor's deletion terms to your records retention schedule, and note the cost in matter management or e-billing so the charge has a home.

## What does a legal OCR subscription include?

A legal OCR subscription includes four measurable things: how many pages you may convert per period, how many people may sign in, which export formats you receive, and what support you can call on. A plan may also set quieter limits on pages per document, file size and how long documents are kept.

### The line items and what to ask about each

| Line item | What it controls | Question to ask before paying |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pages per month | Total conversion in a billing period | Does it reset on the calendar month or the billing date? Do unused pages carry over? |
| Pages per document | The largest single file | What happens to a file over the cap: rejected, or cut off? |
| File size and type | What you can upload at all | Will my scanner's output fit without compressing? |
| Users | Who can sign in | Named individuals, or anyone at the firm? |
| Export formats | What you can take away | Are spreadsheets and structured formats in my tier or the next one up? |
| Retention | How long uploads stay | Fixed by the vendor, or set by me? |
| Support | How you get help | Which channel, and is any response time promised in writing? |

### Reading a real plan list

Schema Law's Solo plan is a useful specimen. Three of those items are what the plan sets: 1,000 pages a month, up to 250 pages per document, and email support, at $49 per month. The rest are the same on every plan. Each account is for one person. Every plan exports every format, Excel, CSV and JSON included. Uploads are PDF, PNG or JPEG files of up to 20 MB. There is no retention setting: a document stays until you delete it. The [pricing page](https://www.schemalaw.com/pricing) shows the other tiers in the same form.

### Is 1,000 pages a month a lot?

OCR at 1,000 pages a month suits one lawyer's incoming paper: a few contracts, a records set or two, orders and correspondence. A single 600-page medical chart takes more than half of it. If one large set a month is normal for you, count pages before choosing. The post on OCR pricing has a method for [estimating your monthly page volume](https://www.schemalaw.com/blog/ocr-cost-per-page#estimating-your-monthly-page-volume).

### What is usually not included

Do not assume a subscription includes anything it does not list. Common gaps are proofreading of the output, any promise about accuracy, training for your staff, and help moving documents out at the end. If you need one of those, ask for it in writing.

## Monthly or annual: which OCR subscription term suits a law firm?

An OCR monthly subscription suits a firm whose volume is new, uneven or tied to one case. An annual term suits a firm with a year of steady history and a discount worth the commitment. When in doubt, start monthly: the cost of flexibility is usually smaller than the cost of a year on the wrong plan.

### When each term fits

| Your situation | Term that fits | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| First OCR tool, no usage history | Monthly | You do not yet know your volume or whether people will use it |
| One large matter driving the need | Monthly | The need may end when the case does |
| Steady volume for twelve months or more | Annual, if offered and discounted | The commitment matches a known pattern |
| Firm budget set once a year | Annual | One approved line instead of twelve charges |
| Cost passed to matters | Monthly | Each month's charge lines up with that month's work |

Not every vendor offers both terms. Read the vendor's own pricing page for what it sells, and do not assume an annual option or a discount exists because competitors have one.

### The break-even on an annual discount

An annual discount is worth taking only if you would have stayed anyway. Work it out before you commit.

```text
Monthly price x 12            = cost of twelve separate months
Annual price                  = cost if you commit
Difference / monthly price    = months of use the discount is worth
```

Take a fictional plan at $60 a month or $600 a year. Twelve months separately cost $720. The discount is $120, or two months. If there is a real chance you will stop or change tools before month ten, the monthly term is cheaper.

### Seasonal and case-driven firms

A plaintiff firm with trial clusters, or a tax practice with one heavy quarter, converts most of its pages in a few months. On a monthly term, ask whether you can move between tiers as volume changes and what that involves. On an annual term, ask whether the allowance is twelve monthly buckets or one yearly pool. The difference decides whether a busy March can borrow from a quiet July.

### Who signs

A monthly charge on a firm card can be started by anyone who holds the card. Decide who is allowed to, and record the subscription in the firm's list of services that hold client documents. An annual term is a contract, and whoever signs contracts for the firm should sign it.

## Renewal, cancellation and price-change clauses in an OCR subscription

Renewal, cancellation and price-change clauses decide what leaving costs you. Find out whether the subscription renews automatically, how much notice cancellation needs, whether a cancelled period is refunded, when the vendor may raise the price, and what happens to your tier's limits if you move down.

### Clause-by-clause checklist

Open the vendor's terms of service and find each of these. If a clause is missing, ask in writing and keep the answer.

- **Automatic renewal.** Does the term renew without action from you? For how long each time?
- **Notice to cancel.** How many days before the renewal date must you cancel? By what method: a button in the account, an email, a letter?
- **Effect of cancelling.** Does service run to the end of the paid period, or stop at once?
- **Refunds.** Is any part of a prepaid period refunded on cancellation? Know the answer beforehand.
- **Price changes.** Can the price change during a term, or only at renewal? How much notice will you get, and may you cancel in response?
- **Changes to the plan itself.** Can the vendor reduce the allowance or remove a format from your tier? With what notice?
- **Upgrades.** Does a move up take effect at once? Is the first month prorated?
- **Downgrades.** When does a move down take effect? What happens to documents, users or workspaces that exceed the lower tier's limits?
- **Overage.** If you pass the page allowance, are uploads refused, or are you billed for the excess? At what rate?
- **Changes to the terms.** How does the vendor tell you when the terms change, and does continued use count as agreement?
- **Suspension.** On a failed payment, how long before access stops, and how long before documents are removed?

### Put the dates in the calendar

Lawyers docket deadlines for clients and forget their own. On the day you subscribe, enter two dates in the firm calendar: the renewal date, and the last day to cancel before it. Assign them to a person, not to "the firm."

### The downgrade trap

Moving to a cheaper tier is where surprises live. A lower tier may allow fewer users, shorter documents or fewer export formats. Ask what happens to the second user's access, and whether documents already uploaded stay available. Export what you need before you downgrade, not after.

### What this post does not tell you

This section is a list of questions, not a description of any vendor's answers, Schema Law's included. Billing terms change, and the only reliable source is the vendor's current terms and its written reply to your question. A legal department running a formal purchase will fold these clauses into a wider review, which the guide to [OCR for legal operations](https://www.schemalaw.com/blog/ocr-for-legal-operations) describes.

## Running a law firm free trial before the first invoice

Running a free trial before the first invoice means deciding in advance what the trial must prove, what it will cost when it ends, and which documents you may put into it. Treat an OCR free trial at a law firm as a small engagement with a start date, an end date and a decision.

### Two kinds of "free"

A **time-limited trial** gives you a paid tier for a set number of days. A **free tier** gives you a small allowance with no end date. They answer different questions. A free tier shows you output quality on a few pages. A time-limited trial shows you how the full plan behaves under real volume. Check which one you are being offered.

Schema Law has a free plan of the second kind: one document a day, up to three pages per document, at no charge. It runs the same software as the paid plans, with every export format, and nothing is deleted until you delete it.

### Terms to read before starting

1. **Is a payment card required to begin?** If so, the trial probably converts to a paid plan unless you cancel.
2. **What does it convert to, and when?** Note the tier, the price and the exact date.
3. **How do you cancel during the trial?** Find the control before you need it.
4. **What limits apply during the trial?** A trial with a low page cap cannot test a 500-page production.
5. **What happens to trial uploads afterwards?** Kept, deleted, or carried into the paid account?
6. **Do the confidentiality terms apply during the trial?** They should. Confirm that the same terms on training and storage cover free and trial use.

### Decide what "pass" means first

Write three or four pass conditions before uploading anything. For example: our worst fax is readable enough to search; a billing ledger exports to a spreadsheet with its columns intact; two paralegals can each produce an export without help; the page count we expect fits the tier we would buy.

How to choose the test pages and score the results is a subject of its own. The guide to choosing OCR for lawyers covers [running your own test on real documents](https://www.schemalaw.com/blog/what-is-the-best-ocr-for-lawyers#running-your-own-test-on-real-documents), including which documents are safe to use.

### End the trial on purpose

On the last day, make one of three decisions and record it: subscribe, extend with a reason, or cancel and delete what you uploaded. A trial that drifts into a paid month by default is how a firm ends up with a subscription nobody chose.

## What happens to your documents when a subscription ends?

What happens to your documents when a subscription ends depends entirely on the vendor's terms, so ask before you subscribe. The safe practice is the same with every vendor: export what you need, delete what you uploaded, and confirm both while your account still works.

### Questions to put to a vendor

- After cancellation, how long can I still sign in and export?
- Are my documents deleted at the end of the paid period, after a grace period, or only when I delete them?
- If the account moves to a free tier, do that tier's retention limits then apply to documents uploaded under the paid plan?
- Does deleting a document remove the original file and the converted text?
- Are documents kept in backups after deletion, and for how long?
- Will you confirm deletion in writing if a client asks me to prove it?

Schema Law lists one line for every plan that bears on this: "Delete any document, at any time". The [security section of the homepage](https://www.schemalaw.com/#security) says the original file and everything parsed from it are removed. No plan has a retention setting and nothing is deleted automatically, so a document stays until you delete it. For anything beyond those statements, such as what happens to an account after cancellation, ask.

### An exit routine

1. Two weeks before the end date, list every matter with documents in the tool.
2. Export what each matter needs, in the formats the file requires, and save it to the firm's own system.
3. Check a few exports open correctly.
4. Delete the uploads, matter by matter.
5. Note the date of deletion in each matter's file.
6. Cancel, and keep the confirmation.

### Why not leave them there

The firm's file is the record, and the OCR tool is only where a working copy was made. Documents left in a lapsed account are client material in a place nobody is watching, under terms nobody has reread. Your duties to the client continue after the invoice stops. The post on [whether OCR software stores your documents](https://www.schemalaw.com/blog/does-ocr-software-store-my-documents) explains what to look for in a vendor's storage terms.

### Closed matters during the subscription

Do not wait for cancellation to tidy up. Deleting uploads when each matter closes means the end of the subscription, whenever it comes, is a small job.

## Email support, priority support and a named contact by plan tier

Support levels rise with plan tier in three common steps: email support, where you write and wait in a queue; priority support, where your request is handled ahead of others; and a named contact, where one person knows your account. The labels matter less than whether a response time is written down.

### What each label usually means

| Level | What you get | What to ask |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Email support | A support address or form, answered in turn | Is there a stated response time? On which days? |
| Priority support | The same channel, with your requests moved ahead | Ahead of whom, and is there a target time? |
| A named contact | A person assigned to your account | Is there a backup when that person is away? Can I phone them? |

A plan that offers OCR with email support and one that offers OCR with priority support may answer equally fast in a quiet week. The difference shows on the day a production is due and an upload fails. Ask what the vendor commits to in writing, and treat anything unwritten as a courtesy.

Schema Law's plans follow the three steps: the Solo plan lists email support, the Team plan lists priority support, and the Enterprise plan lists a named contact for support. The plan lists do not state response times, so ask if a time matters to you.

### Matching support to how you work

- **A solo lawyer converting a few documents a week** can live with email. A day's delay is an inconvenience.
- **A team converting productions against court deadlines** should want its requests ahead of the queue.
- **A firm that put the vendor through a security review and a contract negotiation** needs a person who already knows that history.

For a document conversion subscription for law firms of thirty or more people, the guide to [OCR for a mid-size law firm](https://www.schemalaw.com/blog/ocr-for-mid-size-law-firm) works through which tier that size of team needs and who should own it.

### Before you write to support

A good request gets a faster answer at every level. Include the file name, the page count, what you expected, what you got and the page where it went wrong. Do not attach a client document to an email unless the vendor's terms and your own policy allow it. Describe the problem and wait to be told how to share the file.

### Test it during the trial

Send one real question during the trial and note how long the answer takes and whether it helps. It is the only evidence about support you can collect before paying.

## Try it on a real document

Upload a scanned PDF and export it as Word, a searchable PDF or plain text on the free plan. Your documents are never used to train an AI model. [Start free](https://www.schemalaw.com/api/auth/google)