CourtListener vs GovInfo

CourtListener is a web-based legal research service with a searchable archive covering opinions from U.S. federal and state courts, oral arguments, judges, judicial financial records, and federal filings. Its RECAP Archive includes nearly every federal case, hundreds of millions of docket entries, and tens of millions of legal documents. Search tools cover case law, dockets, and citations, and alerts can track topics, people, companies, citations, and other searches. Free Law Project also provides REST APIs, bulk data files, webhooks, database replication, and an MCP server through which AI assistants can access CourtListener data and APIs. The project is built on open source technology. The free non-member plan includes five docket alerts, unlimited daily opinion search alerts, five daily RECAP search alerts, five Pray & Pay requests, and API limits of 5 per minute, 50 per hour, and 125 per day. Paid tiers list higher limits. Complimentary EDU and qualifying LSO memberships are also available.

GovInfo is a free web and API service providing public access to official publications from all three branches of the U.S. Federal Government. Users can browse by alphabet, category, date, committee, or author, and search publication metadata. The API exposes content and metadata in self-describing packages, while selected collections offer machine-readable bulk files such as XML with schemas, stylesheets, and guides. Searches cover case law, statutes and regulations, and legal commentary, including opinions from more than 100 U.S. courts. PDF files receive digital signatures and a visible authenticity seal that can be checked in Adobe Acrobat or Reader. The preservation repository keeps at least two geographically separate archival copies, weekly backups, a standby recovery instance, virus scanning, and fixity checks; GPO reports ISO 16363:2012 certification from December 28, 2018. The responsive site works on mobile without a separate app or URL. A public-preview MCP server supports integrations with large-language-model workflows. Full text is limited to publications stored on GovInfo.