Astrid Legal vs Ajax: AI timekeeping compared
Summary: Ajax and Astrid both draft time entries automatically and keep them private to the timekeeper until they are approved. The difference is what each one reads. Ajax takes screen grabs through the workday and reads the words on the screen, so its descriptions can name the motion you drafted or the case you researched, and it applies outside counsel guidelines and learns from your edits. Astrid never reads the screen. It measures calls and meetings from the recording, including calls on a cell phone, and drafts time from the subject, people and times of sent email, calendar events, and document editing in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Ajax sends time to a long list of billing systems, including Aderant and Elite 3E. Astrid files to Clio, Smokeball, Lawcus and 8am MyCase.
We make Astrid, so weigh our side accordingly. What we say about Ajax comes from its own homepage, Timekeeping, Integrations and Security pages, read on October 30, 2026. Confirm anything that matters with Ajax directly before you buy.
At a glance
| Astrid | Ajax | |
|---|---|---|
| How work is captured | A set list of sources, each turned on by the timekeeper | Screen grabs of the whole workday, plus email, calendar and phone integrations |
| What is read | Subject, people and times of sent email; document editing sessions; never message bodies, file contents or the screen | The words on screen: documents, research and email content |
| Phone calls | Recorded and measured, from Zoom Phone, Dialpad, a dial-in for any cell phone or landline, and the iPhone app | Through supported phone systems such as RingCentral, Dialpad and VXT |
| Outside counsel guidelines | No | Yes, uploaded and turned into rules |
| Learns from your edits | No | Yes |
| Billing systems | Clio, Smokeball, Lawcus, 8am MyCase, or a CSV export | SurePoint, Clio, MyCase, Filevine, PracticePanther, Centerbase, Actionstep, Soluno, Orion, Litify, Aderant, Elite 3E, Tabs3 |
| Certifications | None yet | SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA with a BAA, annual penetration test |
| Price | Published: call time in the $40 seat, other sources $59 per timekeeper per month | Not published; a pilot through a demo |
How each one captures time
Ajax's Timekeeping page says it captures screen grabs of your entire workday and reads the words on your screen, and that it reads the actual content of your work: the motion you drafted, the research you pulled up, the redlines you sent back. Its homepage FAQ makes this the main difference from other timekeepers, which it says read only calendars and email subject lines. It also connects to email, calendar, Zoom, Teams and phone systems, logs when you step away from your desk so you can add time for a conversation away from the computer, and lets you exclude apps and websites and pause capture with one click.
Astrid takes the other approach and reads less. It drafts time from these sources:
- Calls and meetings Astrid records, from Zoom Phone, Dialpad, a dial-in number for any cell phone or landline, a notetaker in Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, the Windows desktop app and the iPhone app. The length comes from the recording.
- Outlook and Gmail. Emails you send, read from the subject line, the people and the times. Message bodies are not read or stored.
- Outlook and Google Calendar, at the scheduled length, and Google Meet calls you attended.
- SharePoint, OneDrive and Google Drive. Editing sessions on the documents you work on, from the file's edit history and name, never what the file says.
- Dialpad call logs for calls Astrid did not record.
- Astrid Desktop for time in Word, Excel, Acrobat and other apps on your firm's allowlist.
- A Chrome and Edge extension for time on research and court sites on your firm's allowlist.
Each person turns each source on for themselves, the firm can turn any source off, and capture can be paused at any time. A new source runs in preview for a few days before anything lands in the queue.
The trade is real in both directions. Reading the screen lets Ajax describe desktop work in more detail than Astrid can from edit times and file names. Reading only what a source exposes means Astrid never processes the contents of privileged documents or email to draft a time entry.
Phone calls
Ajax's security page says it tracks phone work through supported internet calling systems, naming RingCentral, Dialpad and VXT, and cannot see anything else on your phone. Its site does not say whether it transcribes a call or how it sets a call's length.
Phone calls are where Astrid started. A call is recorded and transcribed, its length is measured from the recording, and the time entry's description is written from what was said, for the client's invoice, never from the firm's internal note on the call. Because Astrid has a dial-in number and an iPhone app, a call on an attorney's own cell phone or a desk line becomes a time entry too, not just calls on a supported phone system. Time entries from calls and meetings are included in Astrid's $40 seat.
Descriptions and billing rules
Ajax drafts descriptions it calls OCG-compliant and picks the matter and activity code for each entry. Each user sets narrative style (tense, detail level, word choices), block billing can be allowed for selected clients only, and plain-text rules can be set for any client or matter. You can upload a client's outside counsel guidelines as a PDF or Word file, review the rules Ajax extracts, and trace each rule back to the page it came from. Ajax says it learns from every edit you make. It pulls matters, UTBMS and activity codes and rates from your billing system.
Astrid has none of the guideline features: it does not read outside counsel guidelines, enforce billing rules, or learn from edits yet. What it does is separate measured time from estimated time on every entry. Email and document time is a labelled estimate that shows the emails or editing sessions behind it and the arithmetic, and estimates are set low on purpose, because a high one bills a client for time not spent. Reading an email creates no time. Related activity is grouped, so a thread of emails or a session on one document becomes one entry. Astrid sends unrounded time and leaves your billing increment to your case management system, and sets the system's activity category in Clio, Smokeball and Lawcus. It does not assign UTBMS task codes. It drafts time only for matters billed by the hour, so a firm with a contingency practice and an hourly one gets entries for the hourly matters only.
Reviewing and releasing time
Both keep drafts private. Ajax's integrations page says nobody at your firm sees anything until you release it, and Astrid's drafts and the activity behind them are visible only to the timekeeper.
Ajax has a mobile app for review, merge and split by dragging, a one-click rewrite, and a timeline search of past entries. Astrid's Time page shows one, two or four weeks grouped by day with totals, and lets the timekeeper edit, approve one entry or a batch, split, merge, mark a day complete and add a manual entry. It works in a phone's browser rather than a separate app. A firm administrator can reassign an entry to the right person but cannot approve it for them.
When a timekeeper opens an entry, Astrid checks Clio for time another tool or a person already entered on the same matter, for the same person, on the same day, and warns if it looks like the same work.
Where approved time goes
Ajax names SurePoint, Clio, MyCase, Filevine, PracticePanther, Centerbase, Actionstep, Soluno, Orion and Litify, and sets up Aderant, Elite 3E and Tabs3 with each firm's IT team. Smokeball, Lawcus and CasePeer are not named on its site.
Astrid files approved time to Clio Manage, Smokeball, Lawcus and 8am MyCase, matched to the matter, and a timekeeper can export approved entries as a CSV file for any other system. Astrid does not connect to the enterprise billing systems Ajax lists.
Privacy and security
Ajax's security page says it is SOC 2 Type II certified, HIPAA compliant with a signed BAA for firms that need one, tested by an independent security firm every year, and offers single sign-on with SAML and SCIM. It says raw activity data is purged on a rolling cycle, it does not store your data, and your data is never used to train models.
Astrid has no SOC 2 certification and no independent penetration test yet; our security page says what is and is not in place. If your clients or insurer require those, that favors Ajax today. Astrid's privacy case rests on reading less: it never sees the screen, the body of an email or the contents of a document, and customer data is never used to train models.
Pricing and how to try each one
Time entries from calls and meetings, the Time page and filing are included in Astrid's notetaker seat, at $40 per person per month billed monthly or $400 per year billed annually. Time from email, calendar, documents, call logs, the desktop app and the browser extension is the billable hours add-on, at $59 per timekeeper per month or $590 per year. The 14-day free trial includes the add-on, and you can start it yourself.
Ajax does not publish a price. Its site offers a pilot, arranged by booking a demo, so you can see results before you buy.
Which one fits
Ajax fits firms whose billable time is mostly desktop work (drafting, research, email) and that want the most detailed descriptions of it, firms whose clients bill under outside counsel guidelines, firms on SurePoint, Filevine, PracticePanther, Centerbase, Aderant, Elite 3E or Tabs3, and firms that need SOC 2 or a HIPAA BAA.
Astrid fits hourly firms where client calls are a large share of the time that goes unbilled, especially calls on cell phones and desk lines; firms on Smokeball or Lawcus, which Ajax does not name; firms that would rather a timekeeper not read the screen or the contents of privileged documents; and firms that want a published price and a free trial they can start today. See how Astrid drafts billable time.
Both together is possible on Clio or MyCase: Ajax for desktop work, Astrid for calls. Decide which tool owns call time so one call does not become two entries. We have not tested this combination.
Questions to bring to an Ajax demo
- What does it cost per timekeeper after the pilot?
- How long are screen grabs and the text read from them kept, and where are they processed?
- For a call on a cell phone that is not on a supported phone system, what does Ajax capture?
- Does the description of a call come from what was said, or from the call's details?
Sources
- Ajax: home, Timekeeping, Integrations and Security pages, read October 30, 2026
Frequently asked questions
Does Ajax read my screen?
Yes. Ajax's site says it captures screen grabs of your entire workday and reads the words on your screen. Astrid does not capture the screen.
Does Astrid apply outside counsel guidelines?
No. Astrid does not read outside counsel guidelines or enforce billing rules. Ajax turns uploaded guidelines into rules for the entries it drafts.
Can Astrid draft time from calls on my cell phone?
Yes. Calls through Astrid's dial-in number or recorded in the iPhone app become time entries, with the length measured from the recording. Ajax's site says it tracks phone work through supported internet calling systems such as RingCentral, Dialpad and VXT.
Does Ajax work with Smokeball or Lawcus?
Neither is named on Ajax's site. Astrid files time to Clio, Smokeball, Lawcus and 8am MyCase.
Is Ajax's price published?
No. Ajax's site offers a pilot arranged through a demo. Astrid's prices are published, with a 14-day free trial.
Does Astrid read my email to draft time?
It reads the subject line, the people and the times of emails you send in Outlook or Gmail. Message bodies are not read or stored.