Indian Kanoon vs Claw

Head-to-Head Comparison · Case Search

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

Ask any Indian lawyer where they look up a judgment first, and Indian Kanoon is very often the answer. It is free, it is fast, and it covers a huge range of Indian courts and tribunals. The question this page answers is a narrower one: once you also need to track a live matter, not just look up a past judgment, does Indian Kanoon still do the job, and where does a paid platform like Claw actually add something different. This is not a claim that Claw has "better search" than Indian Kanoon. It is an honest look at what each tool is actually built for.

01The real question this comparison answers

Indian Kanoon and Claw are often searched together, but they are not really built to do the same job. Comparing them fairly means being clear about what each one is actually for.

Indian Kanoon is a free judgment search engine

Indian Kanoon is, first and foremost, free. That single fact explains most of why it is so widely used across Indian legal practice, from solo advocates to law students to in-house teams doing a quick check. It lets anyone search a very large body of Indian case law and central legislation without paying anything, which is genuinely valuable and should be said plainly rather than downplayed.

Claw is a paid AI platform for search, tracking, and management together

Claw is not trying to be a free alternative to Indian Kanoon, and it is not trying to win on being a "better" version of the same search engine. Claw is a paid, all-in-one platform where AI-based case search is one part of a bigger job: also tracking live cases across thousands of courts, and managing those matters day to day. That is a different kind of tool solving a different kind of problem.

Why this distinction matters

A lawyer who only ever needs to look up a judgment now and then may never need anything beyond Indian Kanoon, and that is a completely reasonable position. A lawyer or firm juggling many live matters, who needs to know when the next hearing is, get alerted when an order is passed, and keep a case calendar in order, is asking a different question, one that a search engine, free or paid, was never built to answer. This page compares both honestly against that backdrop.

Indian Kanoon answers "what did the court decide." It was never built to answer "what is happening in my case right now."

02What Indian Kanoon is and does well

Indian Kanoon is a free search engine for Indian law and case law, launched in 2008, now covering the Supreme Court, a large number of High Courts, several law tribunals, and a substantial body of central legislation.

Where Indian Kanoon leads

It is free, and that is the point. The core search, browsing judgments, and reading full text is available at no cost, with no seat licence and no subscription required to get started. For a huge share of Indian legal search, that is simply enough, and it is why Indian Kanoon has become the default first stop for many lawyers.

Broad coverage, including tribunals. Indian Kanoon indexes judgments from the Supreme Court, roughly two dozen High Courts, and around 17 law tribunals, alongside central acts and legislation. That tribunal and legislation coverage is broader in scope than what a search tool focused purely on High Court and Supreme Court judgments offers, and it is a genuine strength worth stating plainly rather than glossing over.

Fast for recent orders. Indian Kanoon is often quick to index recently uploaded High Court orders, which makes it a useful first check for something that has just been passed.

Useful research extras. Indian Kanoon offers citation analysis on many judgments, showing how later courts have treated a case, along with filters by judge, bench, court, year, and document type. A separate paid premium membership adds further AI research tools on top of the free search.

Where it is not built to help

Indian Kanoon is a search and retrieval tool for documents that already exist: judgments that have been passed and laws that are already in force. It does not follow a matter that is still ongoing. It will not tell a lawyer the next hearing date for a specific case, will not send an alert when an order is uploaded in a matter they are watching, and has no calendar, cause list, or case management layer built around it. That is not a flaw in what Indian Kanoon set out to do. It simply was not built to do that job, and it does not claim to.

03What Claw is and does well

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

Claw is not competing to be a bigger free search engine

It is worth being direct about this: Claw’s case search covers 25 High Courts (1980 to 2026) and the Supreme Court (1950 to 2026), across 30 crore judgements and over 1.5 billion case records. That is a large, all-India database, but it is a search scope, not a claim of covering more courts than Indian Kanoon’s tribunal and legislation index. Claw’s search does not currently cover tribunals the way Indian Kanoon’s free index does. The honest comparison on raw search breadth is closer than a simple "Claw is better" headline would suggest.

Where Claw genuinely differs: AI search quality, and what happens after search

Semantic and AI-based search. Where Claw is built differently is in how the search itself works. Instead of matching keywords, Claw’s search understands the legal question asked in plain language, tolerates spelling and name variations in a party name, and returns results in under 5 seconds, with citations verified and formatted to be court-ready.

Live case tracking, which Indian Kanoon does not attempt. This is the sharpest difference between the two. Claw tracks live matters across more than 8,200 courts, covering all states, tribunals, district courts, and the Supreme Court. It auto-updates case status, builds a daily cause list, keeps a calendar, and sends hearing and order alerts over WhatsApp and email. Indian Kanoon has no equivalent, because it was never built to follow an ongoing matter in the first place.

Case management on top of tracking. Beyond tracking, Claw includes AI auto-compliance, where the system reads a court order and schedules the right reminders automatically, plus MIS reports and Claw Notebooks for organising matter notes and documents. This turns "knowing what happened" into "managing what happens next," which is a step further than any search engine, free or paid, is designed to take a user.

An AI legal assistant alongside search. Claw also includes Legal GPT, an AI legal assistant, and a Chat with Judgements feature to ask a judgment questions directly instead of reading it end to end.

The fair way to put it: Claw is not a better version of Indian Kanoon’s search. It is a paid platform built to do the job Indian Kanoon was never designed for, tracking and managing a live matter, with AI search as one part of that.

04Side-by-side: every dimension

The table below sets out the dimensions that actually distinguish these two tools, rather than pretending they compete on the same axis everywhere.

05Cost breakdown

Cost is where this comparison is the most straightforward, and it deserves a direct answer rather than a hedge.

Indian Kanoon is free for its core search and reading experience. There is no seat fee and no subscription needed to search judgments or laws. A separate premium membership, priced at roughly Rs 500 per month or around Rs 5,000 per year, adds further AI research tools (branded PRISM) on top of the free search.

Claw has a free plan for individual advocates, which includes Legal GPT, unlimited cases, case search, a daily personalised cause list, client management, and 20 GB of storage. For teams and enterprises, there is no free tier; paid plans start at a Standard tier around Rs 799 per month and a Premium tier around Rs 1,099 per month, which works out to roughly Rs 9,588 to Rs 13,188 per year per seat, covering case search, live case tracking, case management, and AI tools together.

So the honest cost picture is this: if all you need is free judgment lookup, Indian Kanoon costs nothing and does that job. If you need an individual advocate’s AI search, case tracking, and client management together, Claw also has a genuine free option, which is unusual since most Indian legal software in this space is demo or quote-based rather than free. Once a firm or enterprise needs seats for a team, that moves to a paid Claw plan, and the comparison then becomes about what a search engine alone cannot do for a live litigation practice.

06How to choose

The right choice depends on what job you are actually trying to do, not on which tool has a bigger name in legal circles.

Choose Indian Kanoon if

• You mainly need to look up judgments, orders, or central legislation occasionally, and cost matters more than anything else.
• You want broad coverage including tribunals and central law, without paying for a subscription.
• You are a student, researcher, or occasional user who does not need to follow a live matter.

Choose Claw if

• You need to track live matters, hearing dates, and orders across courts, not just search past judgments.
• You want AI-based case search with verified, court-ready citations, alongside case management and compliance reminders in the same place.
• You are an individual advocate who wants a genuine free plan that includes an AI legal assistant and a daily cause list, or a firm that needs seats with tracking and management built in.

Many practices use both

These two tools are not mutually exclusive, and a lot of practices end up using both: Indian Kanoon for a quick, free lookup or a tribunal judgment, and Claw for the ongoing tracking, alerts, and management of active matters. For a wider look at options beyond just these two, see Indian Kanoon alternatives, and for tools focused specifically on case tracking beyond the government’s own NJDG system, see best tools for tracking cases beyond NJDG.

07Where Claw fits

In the context of this comparison, Claw is not trying to out-search Indian Kanoon on being a bigger free judgment database, and it does not need to. Indian Kanoon has earned its place as the default, no-cost first stop for a huge number of Indian lawyers, and that should be said plainly rather than argued away.

Claw’s case is a different one: AI-based case search that understands the legal question and returns verified court-ready citations, combined with live case tracking across 8,200 plus courts and case management features like auto-compliance, cause lists, and alerts, in one subscription. That combination is aimed at a lawyer or firm managing active matters day to day, a job a search engine, free or paid, was never designed to do. For an individual advocate who wants AI search and tracking without paying anything at all, Claw’s free plan covers that too. For a wider view of how Claw compares across the case search category, see Indian Kanoon alternatives.

08Sources and further reading

Official sources for the tools compared here:

• Indian Kanoon: indiankanoon.org
• Indian Kanoon, free features: indiankanoon.org/free_features
• Claw: clawlaw.in
• Supreme Court of India (official judgments): sci.gov.in

Pricing and coverage figures are indicative and change over time. Confirm current details directly with each provider before making a decision.

09Frequently asked questions