VIGILIST · GUIDE 002
How much does e-discovery cost in 2026?
Per-GB rates, seat fees, processing charges, and per-document review — the four meters behind every e-discovery invoice, what each one runs in 2026, and the billing trap that quietly doubles "cheap" per-GB rates.
- Hosting: most providers now charge under $15/GB/month with analytics; only ~11% exceed $25/GB/month
- Processing: $25–75/GB one-time at ingestion is the most common range; a growing third of providers charge under $25
- Seats: $50–100 per user per month where charged
- Human first-pass review: $0.50–1.00 per document (down from $1.50–3.00 in 2024)
- Metered GenAI review: $0.11–0.50 per document
- Flat all-inclusive platforms: roughly $6–18/GB/month published; $10–35/GB/month estimated for quote-only enterprise bundles
Sources: ComplexDiscovery Winter 2026 eDiscovery Pricing Survey (n=53 providers), vendor pricing pages and announcements, and third-party buyer's guides, as of July 2026.
The four meters on every invoice
E-discovery bills look complicated because four different meters run at once:
- Hosting, per GB per month. The rent on your data. The headline number in most quotes — and usually the smallest of the four.
- Processing, per GB, one-time. Charged when data lands: extraction, indexing, imaging. Billed before anyone reads a page.
- Seats, per user per month. Common in the service-provider channel. Three reviewers at $75/seat is $2,700/year before a single document is hosted.
- Review, per document or per hour. The meter that dwarfs the others. At 2026's $0.50–1.00/document, first-pass human review of a modest 25,000-document matter is $12,500–25,000.
The processed-GB trap
The most expensive fine print in e-discovery is one word: processed. Processing expands what you collected — extracted text, generated images, unpacked families — typically to 1.3–2× its original size, and most per-GB platforms bill on the expanded number. A "$12/GB" rate on processed data can be $24 per gigabyte you actually collected. Some platforms also bill on peak volume, so a spike during review sets the month's bill. When you compare quotes, the first question isn't the rate — it's which gigabytes.
A worked example: the 5 GB matter
Take a typical small matter: 5 GB collected, roughly 25,000 documents. Here's what the meters produce:
| Model | Month one | First-pass review |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional provider stack | Processing $125–375 + hosting ~$60–75 + three seats $150–300 ≈ $335–750 before anyone reads a page | Human: $12,500–25,000 · metered GenAI: $2,750–12,500 |
| Flat per-user platform | ~$375/mo for three users | Humans read everything — no AI first pass |
| Budget per-GB platform | ~$30–50/mo | Humans read everything — minimal AI |
| Vigilist | $90/mo, everything included | Included — the AI reads all 25,000 documents overnight, with validation statistics |
Illustrative; traditional-stack figures built from the survey ranges above. Vigilist bills raw uploaded GB.
What changed in 2025–2026: the price reset
Between October 2025 and February 2026, the market's two largest platforms restructured: Relativity bundled its aiR generative-AI review into standard RelativityOne subscriptions (it had been estimated at $0.20–0.25/document), and DISCO collapsed its pricing to a single all-inclusive per-GB fee with its AI included. Effective rates fell sharply — but both remain quote-only, sold on annual terms, and priced on processed data. The reset lowered the ceiling; it didn't publish the floor.
Six questions to ask any vendor
- Is the per-GB rate billed on raw, processed, or peak gigabytes?
- What's the processing charge at ingestion, and is OCR extra?
- Are there seat fees, and for whom — reviewers, experts, co-counsel?
- What does "AI included" mean: an assistant you ask, a batch action metered in credits, or a first pass that reads everything by default?
- If the AI makes review calls, what validation ships with them — control sets, recall, elusion — and are reports preserved as run?
- What are the minimums — monthly floor, platform fee, annual commitment — applied to your actual matter size?
Frequently asked questions
What is the average cost of e-discovery per GB in 2026?
Most providers host below $15/GB/month with analytics, plus one-time processing commonly at $25–75/GB and seat fees of $50–100/user/month where charged. Flat all-inclusive platforms run roughly $6–18/GB/month published; quote-only enterprise bundles are estimated at $10–35/GB/month effective.
What is a "processed" gigabyte?
Collected data expanded by extraction, imaging, and unpacking — typically 1.3–2× original size. Many platforms bill on the expanded number, which can double the effective rate per collected GB.
Is AI document review cheaper than human review?
Substantially: $0.11–0.50 per document metered, versus $0.50–1.00 for human first pass — and flat platforms now include AI review in per-GB pricing with no per-document meter at all.
Why do quotes for the same matter vary so much?
Different meters: which gigabytes are billed, who needs a seat, what the AI costs extra, and what minimums apply. Two identical per-GB rates can produce invoices that differ by multiples.
One meter. Published.
Vigilist is $18 per raw GB per month — AI first-pass review, knowledge graph, redactions, productions, and court-ready validation included. No processing fees, no seats, no minimums. Drag the slider on your matter size and read the number before anyone calls you back.
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