The first decision is not which company — it is which kind of help you need, because the five kinds differ in what they can legally do, who ends up filing, and how you get charged. Pick the category first; the brand question gets much smaller after that.
You can file a VA disability claim yourself on VA.gov at no cost, and you can appoint a VA-accredited Veterans Service Organization representative to represent you — also at no cost, including on appeals. Accredited representation is not a discount version of paid help; it is the only category on this page that can actually act for you before VA. If you have not priced this option, price it before you read anything else here.
Submit Form 21-526EZ online, upload evidence, and track status. No intermediary is required at any step.
How to file on VA.gov ↗A VSO rep becomes your representative of record once you file VA Form 21-22. DAV, VFW, American Legion, and your county or state office all do this at no charge.
Find one near youVA's Office of General Counsel publishes every accredited attorney, agent, and VSO rep. If a company is not in there, it cannot represent you.
Search the OGC list ↗Every company selling VA claim help sits in one of these rows. Find the row that matches your gap, then compare brands only inside it.
| Category | What it does | What it cannot do | Who decides | Typical cost structure | Represents you before VA? | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VSOs & VA.govThe free path | Accredited reps file, argue, and appeal for you. VA.gov lets you file and upload evidence directly. | Cannot speed up VA. Cannot write your medical opinion. Caseloads and rep experience vary by office. | You do — your rep acts on your instruction after Form 21-22. | $0. No fee, no percentage, ever. | Yes — accredited | Always the first call, and often the last one you need. |
| Medical evidence servicesNexus letters · IMOs | Connects you with a clinician who reviews records and may write an independent medical opinion. | Cannot represent you. Cannot promise a favorable opinion — and an opinion is evidence, not a decision. | The clinician decides what the opinion says; you decide whether to submit it. | Per document or per condition, usually charged whether or not VA grants the claim. | No | Your file is missing a medical link between service and your current condition. |
| Claims consultantsUnaccredited coaching | Sells strategy calls, document prep, and coaching on how to present your claim. | Cannot represent you before VA, cannot appear at hearings, cannot be your representative of record. | You file everything yourself; the consultant advises from outside the process. | Flat program fee, or a fee quoted as a multiple of your first monthly increase — read that as a share of your benefits. | No | Rarely — and only after you have priced the free path and read the whole agreement. |
| Law firms & agentsAccredited representation | Represents you before VA, files appeals, argues before the Board and the CAVC. | Cannot charge for preparing an initial claim, cannot guarantee an outcome, cannot write your medical opinion. | You direct the case; they act as your representative of record. | Contingency on past-due benefits after a decision — VA presumes 20% reasonable, 33⅓% or more unreasonable. | Yes — accredited | You were denied, you are appealing, or the issue is complex — TDIU, effective dates, CUE. |
Cost-structure column describes what these categories commonly charge, based on published pricing and VA's fee rules. Individual companies differ — check each one's own published terms, and check accreditation before you believe a representation claim.
VeteranAI is software, which is not one of the categories above — none of them describes a tool you run yourself on your own records. We are not accredited, we are not your representative, and we never contact VA on your behalf. What we do is read what is already in your record — a C-file that can run thousands of pages, a decision letter written in rating language — and help you turn it into documents you write, review, and file yourself. More than 30,000 veterans have used the tools. Plenty of them should also have a VSO, and we say so on the way in.
If you want someone to take the claim off your hands, we are the wrong category — go to an accredited VSO, and pay nothing.
Price is not one number in this market — it is four different structures, and the structure matters more than the sticker. Work out what each one costs you in dollars over a year before you compare anything.
One price for a defined package, due up front or on delivery. Easy to compare, but check exactly what counts as delivered — and what a revision costs.
Watch for: fees due regardless of outcome, and packages that stop at the document you already had.
Standard for accredited representation on appeals: the fee comes out of past-due benefits after a favorable decision. VA reviews these agreements — 20% of past-due benefits is presumed reasonable, 33⅓% or more is presumed unreasonable, and no fee is allowed for preparing an initial claim.
Watch for: unaccredited companies using the same shape — a "multiple of your first increase" is a percentage of your benefits by another name.
Nexus letters, IMOs, and DBQ reviews are priced per document or per condition. You are paying a clinician for a review and an opinion — including the possibility that the opinion does not help you.
Watch for: per-condition pricing that multiplies fast, and anyone who guarantees what the opinion will say.
You rent software by the month or year and cancel when you are done. Our published prices, in full:
Watch for: subscriptions with no published price, no cancel path, or a sales call between you and the number.
One more comparison worth running: the free path costs $0 in every one of these models. Any paid option should be justified by a specific gap it closes — not by access to VA, which nobody has to buy.
These apply to us too. If a company will not answer any one of them in writing, that is your answer.
Each page compares the companies inside that category on the same six questions, with the same sourcing rules.
If one of these answers costs us a sale, that is the answer staying.
No. Most veterans file an initial claim themselves or with a free accredited VSO representative. Under VA's fee rules, accredited attorneys and agents generally cannot charge for preparing an initial claim at all — their fees apply after a decision, on appeal. A lawyer becomes worth considering when you have been denied, when the effective date is in dispute, or when the case turns on TDIU or a clear-and-unmistakable-error argument.
It depends entirely on what you are buying. Representation is free through an accredited VSO, so paying for access to VA makes no sense. Paying can make sense for a specific gap: a clinician's opinion your file is genuinely missing, or software that helps you read 3,000 pages of your own records. Name the gap first, then price the thing that closes it.
Accreditation is VA's recognition that a person may represent you before VA. Accredited attorneys, claims agents, and VSO representatives can be your representative of record, receive your file, and argue your case. Unaccredited companies — consultants, evidence vendors, and software like ours — cannot. Whatever they sell you, you remain the person filing the claim. You can check any name against VA's Office of General Counsel list in about a minute.
For accredited representatives, VA's rules presume a fee of 20% of past-due benefits to be reasonable and a fee of 33⅓% or more to be unreasonable, and fees are not permitted for preparing an initial claim. Unaccredited companies are not covered by that framework at all, which is exactly why a fee quoted as "five times your first monthly increase" deserves a calculator and a second read.
Source: 38 C.F.R. § 14.636(e)–(f) · Verified Sep 3, 2026No. We are software, not a representative. You read your own records with our tools, you review and edit every document, and you file the claim yourself on VA.gov or hand it to your accredited rep. We never contact VA on your behalf, and we are not able to.
Pro is $25/month or $250/year. Max 3× is $49/month or $499/year. Max 5× is $99/month or $999/year. Those are the whole prices — no percentage of back pay, no per-document charges, no sales call to find out the number. Cancel and the charges stop.
Read your C-file, decode your decision letter, and draft your own evidence. Prices are on the pricing page, in numbers, before you sign up.