Docket Navigator Pricing and Cost per User

Docket Navigator publishes its prices. A single user, available only to sole proprietors, pays $145 a month for the Patent library, $185 for Patent with Appeals and PTAB Experts, $82 for Trademark, Copyright or Trade Secret, $70 for Antitrust or Securities and $100 for the Unified Patent Court. Group plans start at $600 a month for 4 to 9 users on Patent. Every rate is a flat monthly fee per library, with no per search or per download charges, and new users get a 30 day trial after entering a credit card.

That is unusual in litigation data. Lex Machina, Bloomberg Law and most court analytics vendors send you to a sales call, while Docket Navigator prints the whole grid on its pricing page. We read that page on October 24, 2026. If you run a patent, trademark or trade secret practice and you are deciding how many seats and which libraries to buy, the table below is the number you can budget from, and the sections after it cover what the price includes and what it leaves to case law research.

Docket Navigator pricing by library and seat count

Prices are monthly and charged per library. The pricing page gives its own example: a 4 to 9 user Trademark subscription is $330 a month, and a 4 to 9 user Copyright subscription is another $330 a month. So a firm that wants Patent and Trademark pays for both rows.

Read on brochure.docketnavigator.com/pricing on October 24, 2026. Antitrust and Securities are Docket Only libraries, which Docket Navigator describes as built by its automated data gathering with a minimal amount of human editing, covering cases filed since January 2015.

How much does Docket Navigator cost per user?

The per user rate falls fast as the group grows, because the price is set by a seat band rather than by a headcount. Docket Navigator states the effective rate when every seat in the band is filled. For Patent that is $66.67 a user at 4 to 9 seats, $55.21 at 10 to 24, $43.37 at 25 to 49, $30.51 at 50 to 99 and $18.57 at 100 to 199. A sole proprietor paying $145 for one seat is paying more than seven times the per seat rate of a large firm.

The bands also hide a jump. There is no 2 or 3 user plan on the page, so a two lawyer patent boutique that is not a sole proprietorship lands in the 4 to 9 band at $600 a month, which is $300 a user if only two people log in. Two details soften that. Seats can be used by anyone in your organization, and separate subscriptions are not required for different office locations, so paralegals and docketing staff can share the same band. If you are a two or three person firm, ask Docket Navigator directly whether a group account below four seats is available, because the page tells larger groups to contact the company.

What does Docket Navigator cost per year?

Multiply the monthly rate by twelve. A sole proprietor on Patent pays $1,740 a year, or $2,220 with Appeals and PTAB Experts. A 4 to 9 user Patent group pays $7,200 a year, and adding Trademark for the same group brings it to $11,160. The FAQ says annual payment by check is accepted, alongside credit cards and eChecks; the page does not list an annual discount, so ask whether one applies before you prepay.

What the subscription includes

The FAQ is blunt about usage: "All rates are flat monthly fees and there are no per search, per download, per alert, per minute, or per-click charges." That matters if you have priced PACER or a pay per document docket service, where heavy monitoring months get expensive. The pricing page lists the Docket Report, weekly insights, the Patent Outcomes Report, docket alerts and new case notifications, bulk document download and export to Excel, collaborative tools with a group admin panel and usage statistics, and an analytics set that includes an Omnibus Report, firm comparison, court or judge comparison, motion success, time to milestones and timelines.

The Patent library covers, in Docket Navigator's words, every significant event in every patent infringement case in the U.S. district courts, patent infringement investigations in the ITC, and every IPR and CBM proceeding in the PTAB. Patent appeals coverage and PTAB Experts are sold as add-ons, which is why the Patent with Appeals and PTAB Experts column costs $40 more for a single user. Docket Navigator also says the Docket Report, Docket Navigator, Docket Alerts and New Case Alerts are designed to be used together and are not sold separately.

Is there a Docket Navigator free trial?

Yes. New users get a 30 day trial, but you start it by entering a credit card, and you are charged when the trial ends unless you cancel. Put the end date in your calendar the day you sign up. Use the trial on live matters: pull the judge comparison and motion success reports for your assigned judge and check the counts against the docket you already know.

Is Docket Navigator worth it for a small IP practice?

For a patent litigator, usually yes. Judge and court comparison reports, motion success rates and time to milestones in patent cases are the data a client asks for when it decides where to file or whether to fight a motion to stay pending IPR, and $145 a month is a small line against one patent case budget. Compared with the alternatives, it is one of the few litigation analytics products with a public price. Lex Machina, which LexisNexis sells with deep federal patent analytics, is quote only, and our judge analytics software comparison puts the published options side by side, from Lexis+ at $114 a month to Westlaw Advantage at $288.60.

It is less obviously worth it for a trademark or trade secret practice that litigates a handful of cases a year. At $82 a month for a single user, the question is whether you would open it every week. If you mostly need to watch a few dockets, a pay as you go docket service may cost less; the Lex Machina pricing page lists Docket Alarm at $39.99 a month plus $4 a document, or $99 a user flat.

What Docket Navigator does not do

Docket Navigator is a docket and analytics service. It tells you what happened in district court and PTAB proceedings and how often a judge granted a motion, but it is not a case law research platform with a citator. When you brief claim construction, a Section 101 motion or an obviousness argument, the authority that decides it is Federal Circuit and Supreme Court precedent, and you need to know whether each case you cite is still good law.

That is where CaseSearch fits. Ask the issue in plain English, for example whether a claim to a method of detecting fraud using generic computer components is patent eligible after Alice, and you get the on-point Supreme Court and Federal Circuit decisions with their citations, a plain-language holding and a good-law signal. It costs $49 a month, or $24 a month billed yearly, and you can see CaseSearch pricing or run one question with no account. A Docket Navigator single seat plus CaseSearch billed yearly is $169 a month, less than the cheapest Westlaw Advantage plan. The wider litigation workflow is on our AI for litigators page.

One more job sits next to both. When a new client or an accused infringer is a company you have not dealt with before, a quick company background check on the business before you take the matter is cheaper than finding a problem after the engagement letter is signed.

What to ask before you subscribe

• Which libraries you actually need, since each one is billed separately.
• Whether a group account below four seats is available for a small firm that is not a sole proprietorship.
• Whether paying annually by check earns a discount.
• When the card is charged after the 30 day trial, and how to cancel before then.
• Whether patent appeals coverage and PTAB Experts are needed for your matters, or whether the base Patent library is enough.

Frequently asked questions

How much is Docket Navigator per month?

A single user pays $145 a month for the Patent library, $185 with Appeals and PTAB Experts, $82 for Trademark, Copyright or Trade Secret, $70 for Antitrust or Securities and $100 for the Unified Patent Court. Single user plans are only for sole proprietors; groups of 4 to 9 users pay $600 a month for Patent.

Does Docket Navigator charge per search or per document?

No. Docket Navigator says all rates are flat monthly fees with no per search, per download, per alert, per minute or per click charges. You pay per library and per seat band, and nothing else on the published page.

Does Docket Navigator have judge analytics?

Yes. The pricing page lists court or judge comparison reports, motion success, time to milestones, timelines and firm comparison reports in its analytics set. For patent cases that covers district court judges, the ITC and the PTAB.

Can several people share a Docket Navigator subscription?

Yes, within the seat band you buy. Seats can be occupied by anyone in your organization, and separate subscriptions are not required for different office locations. Single user subscriptions are limited to sole proprietors.

The short answer

Docket Navigator pricing is published and flat: $145 a month for a sole proprietor on Patent, $600 a month for 4 to 9 patent users, and lower per seat rates as the group grows, with each library billed separately and a 30 day trial that needs a card. Budget it for dockets and patent analytics, and buy the Federal Circuit case law your briefs cite separately. One research question runs on CaseSearch with no account.