Contract checker:
know what your UK contract says before you sign
Ookulli is a contract checker for anyone in the UK with a contract to sign, from freelancers and contractors to employees and individuals. Upload a service agreement, an NDA, an offer letter or an employment contract and it checks what the document says against UK law in minutes, then shows you the wording behind each flag and, where it rests on UK law, the law itself.
First check free. No card needed. Your documents are never used to train AI models.
Which contract are you checking?
The contract checker covers service agreements, NDAs, offer letters and employment contracts. Each card links to the page with the detail of what gets checked.
Service agreement
A client has sent terms for a project or a retainer. The check looks at when you get paid, who owns what you make, how either side can end the work early and how much liability lands on you.
Check a service agreementNDA
You have been asked to sign before a pitch, a project or a first meeting. The check reads the definition of confidential information, how long the duty lasts, whether it binds both of you, and any restriction on future work tucked inside it.
Check an NDAEmployment contract or offer letter
An employer has sent you an offer letter or a new contract. Ookulli checks both, and employment contracts have their own check, built around notice, restrictive covenants, bonus, intellectual property and probation.
Check an employment contractWhat a contract check should pick up, and the UK law behind it
A contract checker is only as useful as its reasons. These are the clauses worth reading twice in a UK service agreement or NDA, with the law that decides how far they can go.
Late payment
If a business client pays late, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 lets you claim statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed £40, £70 or £100 depending on the size of the debt. Where the contract sets a payment date more than 60 days after you deliver and invoice, that longer date only holds if it is not grossly unfair to you. If it is, interest can start from day 60. If the contract names its own interest rate, that rate applies instead, so read the number.
Payment terms in a freelance contractLiability and indemnities
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 means nobody can exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and any other exclusion of negligence liability has to be reasonable. When you sign a client's written standard terms, a clause letting them limit their own liability for breach faces the same test. None of that limits what you owe the client. Find the indemnity and check whether it has a cap.
How a limitation of liability clause worksWho owns the work
Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the author of a work is the first owner of its copyright. An employer takes it first only where an employee makes the work in the course of employment. As a freelancer you keep it unless you assign it, and an assignment of copyright only takes effect in writing signed by you or on your behalf. The contract is usually that writing. Check whether it also hands over tools and material you owned before the project started.
Who owns the work in a freelance contractConfidentiality
Start with the definition of confidential information. One wide enough to take in your general skills and contacts protects no real secret and still gets in the way of your next job. Then check how long the duty lasts. Separately, in Great Britain, where the NDA is with your employer, section 43J of the Employment Rights Act 1996 makes void any part of it that tries to stop you making a protected disclosure (whistleblowing).
How to review an NDAWhat the contract leaves out
Some of the risk sits in what is not there. A contract with no payment date, no limit on rounds of changes, no notice period for ending the work or no cap on your liability can cost more than a badly worded clause. Ookulli flags missing protections as well as one-sided terms.
The risky clauses to check firstHow the AI contract checker works
Any AI that reads your contract has to earn your trust, so Ookulli shows its working.
Step 1
Upload the contract
Send the PDF or DOCX you were given. There is no appointment to book.
Step 2
Ookulli finds what your contract has to settle
Each kind of document has its own list of things it has to settle, worked out with legal experts: what the contract says about payment, for example, or about ending the work. Ookulli searches the whole document for each one, so a term spread over several clauses is read as one. It also notes what should be there and is not, and anything that does not belong in this kind of document.
Step 3
Ookulli checks each one against the law, and against what is normal
For each one, Ookulli retrieves the UK law that applies and measures the term against it. It also compares the term with its own standards for this kind of document, built with experts. Those standards are not law: they catch terms that are legal but still unfair or unusual. Once every term is checked, related terms are compared with each other.
Step 4
You see the reasons behind every flag
A plain-English summary comes first, with each finding rated for risk and the most serious at the top. Each red flag points back to the wording it comes from, or says what is missing, and names the law where the flag rests on one, with what to do next. The chat answers follow-up questions about your own document at no extra cost.
The whole check takes minutes. Ookulli gives general information, not legal advice. It shows you what to question, and the decision stays yours.
Contract checker or contract review service: what the difference costs
The closest paid service on this search is contract-checker.co.uk. When we checked its website on 4 October 2026, it charged £89 per contract and returned a plain-English risk report within 24 hours, and it describes the result as an AI-assisted report that its team carries out. Ookulli's first check is free, each one after that is £10, and the result is back in minutes.
The gap widens when you have more than one document. Three contracts through Ookulli cost £25 with the 300-credit bundle. At contract-checker.co.uk the same three cost £267 one at a time, or £199 a month on its plan for up to four contracts.
Swipe the table sideways to compare all three.
| Ookulli | contract-checker.co.uk | A solicitor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | First check free, then £10 a document, or £8 with the 500-credit bundle. No subscription | £89 per contract, or monthly plans from £199 | £200 to £579 an hour at the 2026 guideline rates courts in England and Wales use for solicitors and legal executives |
| Turnaround | Minutes | Within 24 hours | Depends on the firm |
| Documents | Service agreements, NDAs, offer letters, employment contracts | Most business and personal contracts, including employment, tenancy, service, NDA, lease and shareholder agreements | Any |
| What you get | A plain-English summary, red flags tied to your document and, where one applies, the UK law, and follow-up chat | A risk-graded report with suggested push-back wording and a draft negotiation email | Legal advice on your situation |
Prices and features for contract-checker.co.uk were checked on its website on 4 October 2026 and may have changed since. Guideline rates are what courts use when they assess legal costs, so read them as a benchmark rather than a quote.
The higher price at contract-checker.co.uk buys a longer list of document types and ready-to-send push-back wording, if you can wait a day. For a service agreement, an NDA or an employment contract you need to answer today, Ookulli is faster and costs about a ninth as much.
Free contract checkers: unions, professional bodies and chatbots
If you belong to a union or a professional body, ask it first. Some check members' employment contracts for free, the Association of School and College Leaders among them. Those services are set up for employment contracts, so a client's service agreement or NDA may fall outside them.
A general chatbot will summarise a contract too. It may not tell you which country's law it applied, and depending on the tool and your settings, what you paste in may be used for training. There is more on why general AI gets contract review wrong.
When a contract checker is not enough
Ookulli checks service agreements, NDAs, offer letters and employment contracts. A tenancy agreement or a shareholders' agreement needs a different check.
A settlement agreement needs more than a check, by law. For one to waive your claims under the Employment Rights Act 1996, section 203 requires, among other conditions, that you have had advice on its terms and effect from a relevant independent adviser, such as a qualified lawyer. Software cannot be that adviser. Read what to check in a settlement agreement before you see that adviser.
If you are already in a dispute, or the contract is worth £50,000 or more, take it to a solicitor. Running it through the contract checker first still means you arrive knowing which clauses to ask about.
Pricing
Straightforward and Affordable
Your first contract review is free, because every new account gets a 120-credit welcome bonus. After that, pay only when you need another review. No subscription, no ongoing commitment.
See packagesSTARTING FROM
£10
per document
analysis
Contract checker FAQ
Before you upload
More on checking a contract yourself
7 risky contract clauses UK freelancers should always check
The clauses to read twice before you sign a client's terms.
Contract review without a solicitor
Five ways to protect yourself in the UK when a solicitor is not in the budget.
The clause library
A page for each common clause, with the UK law that governs it.
Got a contract waiting for your signature?
Run it through the contract checker before you sign. Your first check is free.
Upload your contractNo card needed. 30-day money-back guarantee on every purchase.