Irys vs ChatGPT
A chatbot sees the current prompt. A matter platform preserves the work.
ChatGPT is an excellent general assistant, and many lawyers already use it. Irys is built for the part of the job it was not built around: the legal matter.
Who ChatGPT is for
ChatGPT is a widely used general-purpose AI assistant. It is built by OpenAI, it improves quickly, and it is genuinely useful for an enormous range of work, including plenty of tasks inside a law office.
Its business tiers are real workplace products, with administrative and security features and connectors described on OpenAI's business pages.
If the goal is one AI assistant for the whole firm, marketing, operations, finance, and administration included, a general assistant is a sensible default.
Verified pricing: what is public and what is not
ChatGPT Plus is publicly listed at $20 per month. Standard business-tier pricing could not be verified on official OpenAI pages at the time of review; confirm current per-seat pricing with OpenAI.
Irys One is publicly listed at $299 per month, with no per-token or per-query overage on the advertised plan. Irys Teams is $329 per seat per month for 2 to 50 attorneys. There is a 7-day trial with no credit card.
On sticker price, the general assistant is cheaper. That is true and worth saying plainly. The real comparison is what each subscription buys for legal work specifically.
What ChatGPT does better
Raw model capability and pace of improvement. OpenAI builds the frontier models itself, and ChatGPT offers them directly.
Breadth. A general assistant is useful across departments, not just legal. If a firm wants one tool for everything from client communications to spreadsheets, this is that tool.
Price for general use. At $20 per month for the individual paid tier, it is an inexpensive way to put strong AI in front of a broad workforce.
Ecosystem and familiarity. A very large user base, extensive documentation, and business-tier connectors into common workplace systems.
What Irys does differently
Irys keeps a persistent, source-linked representation of each matter: the documents, facts, people, dates, authorities, and drafts. The next task picks up where the last one ended, so there is no need to rebuild the matter in every new prompt.
Output is source-linked, and Cite Check reviews the authorities behind it. A lawyer can trace material statements back to the underlying source instead of taking a chat answer on faith.
Research and drafting happen inside the same matter workspace, and a Word add-in brings that work into the document where lawyers actually finish it. Built-in e-signature covers execution without another subscription.
Workbench, currently in beta, connects to applications such as Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, Sheets, Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Slack, and can prepare documents and email drafts across them. Workbench requires user approval rather than autonomously sending communications or changing files.
The infrastructure around the models is Irys's own. Irys runs its own agentic orchestration, structured matter intelligence, and evaluation infrastructure around the models it uses, built to plan and carry multi-step legal work. In Irys's internal evaluations on published legal benchmark tasks (Irys internal testing, July 2026), the Irys system scored above leading frontier-model baselines on legal work. Methodology available on request.
None of this is an argument that general models are weak. The difference is the legal structure built around them: matter state, provenance, citation review, and finished work product. As of the review date we found no public documentation of a built-in legal citator for ChatGPT.
Test both on the same matter
Do not decide this on marketing pages, including this one. Take one real matter and run the same work through both tools, then answer these questions.
Can it show the exact source behind a factual statement in its output?
Can it check whether a cited authority is still good law?
Can it carry the matter context into a later drafting or review task without re-uploading and re-explaining the documents?
Can it work across email, files, research, and Word without manual copying?
Can it produce a usable finished file, not just chat text?
Can teammates work inside the same matter with appropriate permissions?
What happens when the matter grows to hundreds of documents?
What is included in the quoted price, and what usage capacities or overage terms apply?
How to decide
Many firms will sensibly run both: a general assistant for general work, and a legal platform for matters. That is a reasonable stack, not a contradiction.
Choose ChatGPT when the priority is one broadly capable assistant for the whole organization at the lowest entry price. Choose Irys when the priority is legal work product: matters, citations, drafting, and finished files.
Except where a statement is expressly labeled as Irys internal testing, comparisons on this page are based on publicly available information reviewed August 3, 2026. Pricing, plans, and features change. Confirm current terms with each vendor before you buy.
The Irys offer
One published price. No per-token or per-query overage.
Irys One is $299 per month with unlimited AI queries under the advertised plan, a 7-day trial, and no credit card required.
Except where a statement is expressly labeled as Irys internal testing, this comparison is based on publicly available information reviewed on August 3, 2026, and on Irys's current product positioning. “Not publicly listed” means no standard public price or term was found on the vendor's official materials as of that date; actual pricing, features, and contract terms may vary and may require particular plans, content subscriptions, or integrations. Product capabilities on both sides change frequently; confirm current details with each vendor before making a purchasing decision. ChatGPT and all other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Their use here is for identification and comparison only and does not imply any affiliation with, or endorsement by, their owners. This page is informational and is not legal, financial, or purchasing advice.
Ready to see Irys in action?
Book a demo and see how Irys connects drafting, research, and matter context into one platform.
Book a Demo