Head to head · spec first

Claim Raven vs VeteranAI

Specs first, argument second — and a third option in both columns' margin: an accredited VSO does this for free, including the representation neither of these companies can provide. Read the table, then decide whether you need either.

Specification table · checked Sep 3, 2026
Spec	Claim Raven	VeteranAI
Price	Standard $24.99/mo · $229.99/yrPlus $39.99/mo · $359.99/yrFree tier; 14 days free on paid plans.Pathfinder $500 for a 365-day term, sold separately, with no automatic renewal.Source: Claim Raven — Pricing · Verified Sep 4, 2026	Pro $25/mo · $250/yrMax 3× $49/mo · $499/yrMax 5× $99/mo · $999/yr
What is included	Standard: decision letter decoding (15/mo), statement drafting (10/mo), Ask Raven research (150 messages/day), Board decision statistics, deadline alerts. Plus adds medical record analysis (1 scan/30 days), double the allowances, calendar sync and exports.Guided claim strategy is a separate $500 purchase. Pathfinder bundles Plus-level access with an AI-built Strategy Brief and one C-File read; their own Plus is $359.99 a year, so the Brief and the read add $140.01 on top of a plan they already sell.Source: Claim Raven — Pathfinder · Verified Sep 4, 2026	Six (AI claims assistant), C-File Analyzer, decision letter analyzer, personal statement builder, nexus letter support, C&P exam prep, medication screening, symptom tracker app.One pooled allowance, not per-tool quotas. There is no monthly cap on letters decoded, no monthly cap on statements drafted and no daily message limit — every plan is a single usage allowance you spend wherever your claim needs it, and Max 3× and Max 5× are that same allowance multiplied.3 tools are never metered at all: disability management, symptom logger, buddy statements.C-File analysis is priced separately, with 10,000 pages on Pro, 30,000 pages on Max 3×, 50,000 pages on Max 5× included on annual plans.
Who files the claim	The veteran. No unaccredited company can file for you.Source: 38 U.S.C. § 5901 — Prohibition against acting as claims agent · Verified Sep 3, 2026	The veteran. Every output is a draft you edit and submit yourself.
VA accreditation	None. An accredited-organisation search for “Claim Raven” returned no entry, and their own published boundaries state they are “not a VSO, law firm, medical provider, or VA-accredited representative.”Source: VA Office of General Counsel — accredited organisation search, no entry returned · Verified Sep 4, 2026	None. We are not accredited, not VA-affiliated, and not your representative. Verify in VA's database.
Contract length	Monthly or annual, cancel any time. Existing subscribers “remain at their current Stripe price unless we lawfully change that renewal price after the notice and cancellation opportunity” set out in their terms.Source: Claim Raven — Terms of Service · Verified Sep 4, 2026	Monthly or annual. No multi-year commitment, no minimum term beyond the period you paid for.
Refund window	“The first charge after your trial is eligible for a full refund when requested within 14 days by emailing help@claimraven.com. Later renewals are reviewed case by case.”Source: Claim Raven — Pricing · Verified Sep 4, 2026	17 days free before any charge — you evaluate the whole toolkit before a card is billed, so the question of a refund does not arise for most veterans.After that: cancel in-app at any time and billing stops at the end of the period you paid for. Refund terms are in our terms.
Data handling	“We never sell your data.” Retention differs per tool: Raven Eye keeps no source file after processing; Ask Raven and Cipher keep files until you delete them; Raven Scan records are “not scheduled for automatic deletion.” Submitted files may be sent to contracted AI providers, and masking is “best-effort.”Source: Claim Raven — Privacy Policy · Verified Sep 4, 2026	We do not sell your data for profit or monetary value.Nothing you upload trains an AI model. We do not use your documents, messages or account data to train AI models.We run our own models. Your records are processed on models we operate ourselves, so nothing you upload is handed to a third-party model provider to read.Deletion is a commitment with a deadline. Ask us to erase your data and we permanently delete 100% of it — personal information, VA and non-VA data — within 45 days, and email you to confirm.Full detail on storage, access and retention is in our privacy policy.
The free option	An accredited VSO represents you at no cost, on the initial claim and on appeals, and VA.gov filing is free. Neither column above can represent you. Find a VSO

Cells in the Claim Raven column render only from that company's own published documents or a primary filing, with the date checked. Where a cell is empty, we have not sourced it — read that as missing data, not as a finding. Our own column is our own statement of fact and is checked on the date shown.

The narrative, underneath where it belongs

How to read a head-to-head written by one of the two companies

We wrote this page, which is a conflict of interest, and the honest way to handle that is structural rather than rhetorical: the spec table goes first, our claims about ourselves are checkable against our own published terms, and our claims about them are limited to what their documents say. You will notice we have not characterized their product at all. That is deliberate — a competitor's summary of your product is not information.

What the table cannot tell you is which gap you actually have. If the gap is representation, both columns are the wrong answer and a VSO is the right one, at no cost. If the gap is a medical opinion, you need a clinician, not software. If the gap is that you have never actually read your own C-file and your denial letter does not make sense, that is the narrow thing tools in this category are for — and then price, data handling, and cancellation terms are the whole decision.

One more thing worth saying plainly: switching software does not change your evidence. Whatever you decide here, the claim still turns on what is in your record and how clearly you describe your symptoms. Any page that makes a subscription sound like the deciding factor — including one of ours — is overselling.

Choose the free path if

You want someone to handle the filing and the correspondence, or you are appealing and want a representative of record. Cost: $0.

Choose software if

You are doing this yourself, the file is long, and the denial language is opaque. Then compare the two columns on price, data handling, and cancellation — not on tone of voice.

Walk away from either if

Anyone quotes a fee tied to your back pay, implies VA affiliation, promises a rating, or asks for your VA.gov login.

Print this. Bring it to the call.

Ten questions to ask before you pay anyone

These apply to us too. If a company will not answer any one of them in writing, that is your answer.

Are you accredited by VA to represent me? If not, who actually files my claim?Only accredited attorneys, agents, and VSO reps may represent you. Everyone else — including us — is a tool or a service you use while you represent yourself.
What is the total price in dollars, and what triggers it?Ask for a number, not a range and not a "depends." If the price is not published where you can read it before you talk to a salesperson, ask why.
Is any part of the fee tied to my back pay or my monthly increase?A fee stated as a multiple of your first monthly increase is still a percentage of your benefits. Do the multiplication before you sign.
What happens to the fee if my claim is denied?Get the answer in the agreement, not from the person selling it to you.
Can I cancel? When, how, and what do I get back?Ask what happens to work already delivered, and whether cancelling requires a phone call.
Who writes the medical opinion, are they licensed, and can they decline to write one?A clinician who cannot say no to writing an opinion is not giving an independent opinion — and VA weighs opinions on their reasoning, not their letterhead.
What am I signing? Arbitration, assignment of benefits, recurring charges?Read the whole agreement. Ask for a copy to keep before you sign it, not after.
Where does my C-file go, who reads it, and can I delete it?Your file holds your medical history. Ask about retention, human review, and deletion — and ask it of every vendor, including software.
Did you tell me, unprompted, that accredited VSOs do this for free?Anyone charging you should be able to explain what you are buying that the free path does not give you.
Can you promise, in writing, what you will never do — including contacting VA as me?A clear list of limits is a better signal than a long list of promises.

FAQ

Head to head

Which one is cheaper?

Ours is published: Pro is $25/month or $250/year. Max 3× is $49/month or $499/year. Max 5× is $99/month or $999/year. Claim Raven's own pricing page, checked Sep 4, 2026, lists Standard at $24.99/month or $229.99/year and Plus at $39.99/month or $359.99/year. On the entry plan paid monthly the two are a penny apart, which is a tie in everything but arithmetic. Paid annually theirs is cheaper on sticker: $229.99 against $250. The tiers are not like-for-like, though, and that is the part worth checking against your own claim. Theirs meter each tool separately — 15 decision letters and 10 statement drafts a month, 150 assistant messages a day, one record scan every 30 days. Ours is a single allowance you spend wherever the claim needs it, with no per-tool cap and no daily limit. Which one is cheaper depends on whether your claim fits inside those per-tool limits; if it does, theirs costs slightly less a year, and if it does not, the comparison stops being about the sticker price.

Claim Raven sells a $500 Pathfinder program. Do I need something like that here?

No — the work Pathfinder is sold for is inside the subscription. Pathfinder is $500 for a 365-day term, and by Claim Raven's own pages it bundles Plus-level access with an AI-built Strategy Brief, one C-File read, records organisation, evidence tasks, statement tools and C&P exam preparation. Their own Plus plan is $359.99 a year, so the Brief and the C-File read add $140.01 on top of a plan they already sell. Against our Pro at $250 a year, Pathfinder is exactly twice the price, and $270.01 more than their own Standard plan. Six, our AI claims assistant, does the guided-strategy work as part of the subscription rather than as a separate purchase, and the C-File Analyzer is on every plan with pages included on annual. Two things about their offer are worth crediting: the six-payment option totals exactly $500 with no financing premium, and the refund window runs to day 60, which is longer than ours. The structural difference is the term — Pathfinder is a 365-day purchase with no automatic renewal, so you buy the year again, where a subscription you can cancel stops when you stop.

Does either file my claim for me?

No. Neither company is accredited to represent you, so filing happens in your VA.gov account or through your accredited rep. Any marketing that blurs this — in either direction — is worth reading twice.

Is there a free option instead of both?

Yes, and it does more: an accredited VSO can represent you on the claim and on appeal at no cost. Filing yourself on VA.gov is also free. We put that in the spec table on purpose.

Can I use both tools at once?

Technically yes, and it is usually a waste of money. Pick the one whose price and data terms you are comfortable with, and put the difference toward getting your records in order.

Our side of the table, at our published price

$25/mo or $250/yr, cancel in-app, no cut of your benefits — and a VSO is still free, which we will keep saying. Every plan is on the pricing page.

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