This article is part of our AI Agent Guides. See how models compare this week on the AI Agent Leaderboard, a ranking of rankings refreshed every week.
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The best AI agent for most medical practices is an ambient scribe, which drafts visit notes from the conversation. Add a front desk agent if phones are your bottleneck. Small practices should look at Freed or Heidi first. Larger groups should compare Abridge, Dragon Copilot, Suki, and Nabla, and Assort Health, Hello Patient, or Weave cover the phones.
This article is general information, not medical or legal advice. A licensed clinician must review every AI-drafted note, and your compliance lead should review every vendor. We only report a BAA (Business Associate Agreement, the HIPAA contract with a vendor handling patient data) where the vendor's own page says so.
A BAA alone does not make a practice compliant. You still need access controls, staff training, risk analysis, and sensible patient consent. Microsoft also notes that there is no HHS-approved certification standard proving HIPAA compliance, so be wary of any badge presented as proof.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price (billing) | Key limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freed | Individual clinicians and small groups | $39 per month for individuals; groups from $149 per month | Starter covers up to 40 notes a month |
| Heidi | Clinicians wanting a free start | Free plan available; Clinician has a 14-day trial | Usage limits vary by plan |
| Abridge | Large health systems | Contact sales | Built for enterprise buyers |
| Dragon Copilot | Organizations in the Microsoft ecosystem | Contact sales | Confirm BAA coverage for this product |
| Suki | Groups on major EHRs | Contact sales | No public price on the pages we opened |
| Nabla | Health systems | Contact sales | No public pricing page found |
| Assort Health | Practices with heavy call volume | Contact sales | Confirm BAA terms directly |
| Hello Patient | Practices wanting calls and texts handled | Contact sales | Confirm BAA terms directly |
| Weave | Small practices wanting phones plus AI | From $199 per month | A communications platform first |
Prices checked on vendor pages on 2 November 2026.
How we chose
- We read vendor documentation and pricing pages. We did not run our own tests.
- We looked for a stated BAA position, and we say so when we could not find one.
- We covered both ambient scribes and front desk agents, because they solve different problems.
- We looked for EHR integration detail. EHR means electronic health record system.
- Outcome numbers on vendor sites are the vendors' own. We flag them as such.
- The numbering is not a ranking. For underlying model positions, see the leaderboard.
1. Freed: the simple choice for small practices
Best for: Solo clinicians and small groups who want quick setup.
Price: Freed's pricing page states plans from $39 a month for individuals and $149 a month for groups. Starter covers up to 40 notes a month, and higher tiers remove that cap.
BAA: Freed's security page says it signs BAAs with healthcare organizations. Its pricing page also lists an organization-wide BAA under admin features, so confirm which plan you need.
Freed records the visit and drafts a note, with templates by specialty. A 7-day free trial is available. Higher plans add EHR push, which sends the draft note to your record system, so check the plan table if that matters to you.
Where it falls short: EHR push is not listed on lower plans, so copying notes across may remain part of your day. The page showed more than one figure for some plans depending on billing, so confirm your price at checkout.
Our take: The easiest first trial for a small practice. Review each note closely for the first few weeks and track your edits to see whether errors are declining.
2. Heidi: a free way to start
Best for: Clinicians who want to try a scribe before paying.
Price: Heidi's pricing page offers a Free plan with one seat, a Clinician plan with a 14-day trial, and Teams and Enterprise via sales. Paid figures did not appear in the page text we read, so check before you buy.
BAA: Heidi's US HIPAA page says it is a business associate and makes a BAA available to every covered entity it works with.
The free tier makes Heidi a practical way to check whether a scribe suits your visit style. Usage has monthly limits on some tiers. Heidi also advertises evidence tools alongside documentation.
Where it falls short: The free plan's limits mean you may not be able to judge it across a full clinic week. Make sure a BAA is signed before any real patient encounter, even during a trial.
Our take: Good for a low-risk comparison against Freed. Use the same set of consenting patient visits for both, then count your edits.
3. Abridge: for large health systems
Best for: Enterprise health systems, especially on Epic.
Price: Contact sales. Abridge's site focuses on enterprise buyers and says it is trusted by 300+ health systems.
BAA: We did not find a BAA statement on the pages we opened. Ask directly during procurement.
Abridge's product page describes notes integrated into EHR workflows, including a version inside Epic, across multiple specialties. The site publishes results such as a reported reduction in note-writing effort. Those are vendor or customer figures, not independent results.
Abridge also describes documentation that supports coding. One health system case on its site mentions more diagnoses documented per encounter. Any change in coding should go through your compliance team, because better capture and overcoding can look similar on an audit.
Where it falls short: It is not a tool an independent practice can usually buy quickly. Enterprise rollouts take IT and governance time.
Our take: A leading candidate for health systems. Small practices will find simpler options above.
4. Dragon Copilot: for Microsoft-based organizations
Best for: Organizations already invested in Microsoft or earlier Dragon products.
Price: Contact sales. Microsoft's product page routes buyers to a contact form.
BAA: Microsoft's HIPAA documentation describes BAA terms for covered services. The section we read did not name Dragon Copilot, so ask Microsoft to confirm coverage in writing.
Dragon Copilot targets physicians, nurses, radiologists, and other clinical staff. It captures multi-party and multilingual conversations and orders at the point of care, or through on-demand recordings. Microsoft keeps documentation for it on Microsoft Learn, which helps your IT team evaluate it early.
Where it falls short: No public price. Buying through a large vendor can mean bundled contracts and longer procurement. A small practice may find it hard to reach the right sales team.
Our take: The natural option if Microsoft already runs your IT and security. Compare note quality against one specialist tool before you decide.
5. Suki: for groups on major EHRs
Best for: Groups that need deep integration with their record system.
Price: Contact sales. We did not find a public price on the pages we opened.
BAA: We did not find a BAA statement on the pages we opened. Ask directly.
Suki's site describes ambient documentation and says it has real-time integrations with Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth, and MEDITECH. It describes this as a broad embedded approach, which is the feature to test. Ask to see it working in your own EHR environment.
Integration depth decides how much time a scribe really saves. A beautifully written note that needs copying into four fields has hidden costs. Time the whole workflow, not just the note.
Where it falls short: No public pricing or plan detail. If you are not on one of those major EHRs, confirm what integration you actually get.
Our take: A strong shortlist candidate for athenahealth and MEDITECH groups in particular. Ask for references on your EHR version.
6. Nabla: built for health systems
Best for: Health systems wanting ambient documentation and configurable data retention.
Price: Contact sales. We did not find a public pricing page.
BAA: We did not find an explicit BAA statement on the pages we opened. Nabla's site lists HIPAA next to SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR, but that does not tell you a BAA is included. Ask for it.
Nabla describes clinical-grade speech recognition built into Epic and major EHRs. It also says data retention policies are fully configurable. Retention matters: audio and transcripts that exist longer than needed are risk you carry for no benefit.
Ask each vendor whether recordings are stored, for how long, and whether they are used for improving models. Get the answer in the contract. These details often differ between vendors with similar marketing.
Where it falls short: The site is aimed at health systems, so a small practice may not fit. No public pricing.
Our take: Worth comparing with Abridge at the enterprise end. The retention controls make it a good prompt for a broader data conversation.
7. Assort Health: a voice agent for the phones
Best for: Practices with long hold times and complex scheduling rules.
Price: Contact sales.
BAA: We did not find a BAA statement on pages we could read. Its trust center did not load for our request, so ask for the BAA directly.
Assort Health sells a voice agent for referrals, scheduling, intake, and follow-up. One customer quote on its site describes scheduling over 100 providers across six specialties. Customer figures on hold times and revenue are vendor-published.
Scheduling is a good test of a voice agent, since your rules are specific and errors are visible. Start with existing patients and simple appointment types. Write a clear path to a person for anything clinical.
Where it falls short: No public price. A voice agent must never give clinical advice, so urgent symptoms need a tested escalation path.
Our take: A serious option for specialty groups with high call volume. Audit real calls every week at first, and include calls where patients sounded upset.
8. Hello Patient: calls and texts
Best for: Practices that want follow-ups and no-show recovery as well as answering calls.
Price: Contact sales.
BAA: We did not find a BAA statement on the pages we opened. Ask directly.
Hello Patient describes AI agents that pick up calls and texts, schedule 24/7, reconnect with no-shows, and integrate with your EHR and CRM. Outbound work like no-show recovery adds value that inbound-only tools do not offer.
Outbound texts and calls bring extra rules. The FCC has ruled that AI-generated voices count as artificial voices under the TCPA, which generally requires prior express consent for such calls. Have counsel review your consent language before you turn on any outreach.
Where it falls short: No public pricing or plan detail on the pages we read. Ask how it handles patients who opt out.
Our take: Worth testing if missed appointments cost you more than missed calls. Measure kept appointments, not messages sent.
9. Weave: phones plus AI for small practices
Best for: Small dental and medical practices wanting one communications platform.
Price: Weave's pricing page says plans start from $199 a month.
BAA: We did not find a BAA statement on the Weave pages we opened. Third-party articles mention one, but those are not our source. Ask Weave for its BAA before you sign.
Weave bundles phones, texting, email marketing, and waitlists. Its site lists an AI Receptionist and AI features for turning calls into appointments. If you want one vendor for the front office, this is a simpler purchase than separate phone and agent contracts.
Where it falls short: You are buying a communications system, not only an agent, so switching costs are higher. Check whether your phone numbers and existing workflows can move easily.
Our take: A practical choice for small practices replacing an old phone system anyway. Otherwise, a standalone receptionist tool may be less disruptive. Our AI medical receptionist list goes deeper.
How to choose
Pick the job first. If charting after hours is the pain, start with a scribe. If patients cannot get through, start with the front desk. Doing both at once makes it hard to tell what helped.
Use this checklist before any patient data flows:
- Get a signed BAA for the specific product and plan.
- Ask where audio and transcripts are stored, and for how long.
- Ask whether your data is used to train models.
- Decide how patients are told about recording and how they can decline. State recording laws vary.
- Have a clinician review every note, with no exceptions.
- Write an escalation path for urgent symptoms on any patient-facing channel.
- Update your HIPAA risk analysis to include the new vendor.
Measure the trial properly. Compare time to complete notes, edit counts, and after-hours charting for at least two weeks. Our agent evaluation scorecard gives you a format, and our human approval table helps set rules.
Agent benchmarks do not measure clinical documentation accuracy. The reliability board and methodology page offer background on the underlying models only. Your own review of real notes matters more, and our medical practice marketing services can help once capacity is free.
Frequently asked questions
Are AI scribes HIPAA compliant?
Compliance is not a product feature that a vendor can hand you. It depends on the contract, configuration, and how your practice works. Get a signed BAA, then do your own risk analysis with your compliance lead.
Do we need patient consent to use an AI scribe?
Many practices ask, and some states require all-party consent to record. The rules depend on your state and setting, so ask your attorney. Decide what happens when a patient declines, and train staff on it.
Which AI scribe is cheapest for one clinician?
Among vendors with public prices, Heidi has a free plan and Freed starts from $39 a month. Check note limits and EHR features, since those can push you to a higher plan. Prices can change, so confirm at checkout.
Can a front desk agent handle clinical questions?
It should not give clinical advice. Configure it to collect information, schedule, and hand off, with a tested path for urgent symptoms. Audit real calls regularly so you can catch mistakes early.
Can we use ChatGPT or another general tool for patient notes?
Not with patient data unless you have a BAA covering that product and plan. Consumer and small business plans may not offer one. Read the vendor's own HIPAA page, then involve your compliance lead.
