Best AI Medical Scribes in 2026
Freed is the self-serve clinic scribe: Starter $39 a month for 40 notes, Core $79 unlimited, Premier $119 or $104 billed annually. Heidi is the permanent free tier with unlimited standard-template notes. Nabla is the health-system ambient layer (130+ orgs, 85,000+ clinicians), trial then quote. Suki adds orders and coding inside Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth, and MEDITECH. DeepScribe is the oncology ambient OS. Augmedix (now Commure) is the oldest enterprise ambient vendor. Sunoh publishes $149 per user per month and cites 100,000+ providers. Nuance DAX (Dragon Copilot), Abridge, and Ambience Healthcare are the hospital RFP shortlist.
Ambient documentation ranked by who should buy which: indie clinic, oncology group, or Epic health system. Not an EHR catalog in disguise.
Buy the scribe that matches how you already chart. An independent clinic that still picks its tools should start on Freed, Heidi, or Sunoh, where a card and a BAA get you live notes this month. A health system on Epic or Oracle Health should shortlist Nabla, Suki, Nuance DAX (Dragon Copilot), Abridge, and Ambience Healthcare, then run a specialty pilot. An oncology group should put DeepScribe and Augmedix at the top of the same RFP, because those two are tuned for that visit, not for a generic primary-care demo.
Of the 10,330 tools Toolradar tracks, 69 published tools sit in Healthcare. Only 19% of that slice is free or freemium (2 free, 11 freemium, 56 paid). Ambient scribes are a paid category with one real exception: Heidi keeps unlimited standard-template notes on a permanent free plan. Everyone else is either a published per-provider price (Freed, Sunoh) or a sales quote.
This list is ten ambient documentation products. It is not a ranking of EHRs that happen to have a note-assist toggle. Elation, CharmHealth, NextGen, Healthie, and Tebra still matter when you have not chosen a chart yet; they are the wrong shortlist once the job is "stop typing after the visit."
Top Picks
Picked by editorial review, informed by G2 and Capterra review volume and rating and by media mentions, the signals behind our category rankings. How we rate
| Tool | Starting price | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nabla | Free plan | 4.5 700 reviews | Hospitals and large groups that want a clinical AI layer inside the EHR they already run, not a $39 clinic app. |
| Freed | From $39/mo | 5.0 13 reviews | Independent and mid-size clinics that want a live ambient note this month, with a published price and a 7-day trial that does not ask for a card. |
| Heidi | Free plan | n/a | Clinicians who want to run a real scribe at $0 on standard templates, then pay only if they need advanced templates, team sharing, or a full EHR integration. |
| Suki | Custom | n/a | Health systems that want the scribe to place orders and coding inside the EHR, not only dump a SOAP note. |
| DeepScribe | Custom | 4.1 29 reviews | Community oncology and other specialty groups whose visit is too dense for a generic primary-care ambient demo. |
| Augmedix | Custom | 4.4 16 reviews | Hospitals and groups that want ambient notes with an optional human QA layer, especially emergency and complex specialty workflows. |
| Sunoh | From $149/mo | n/a | Ambulatory practices, especially on eClinicalWorks, that want a printed monthly price and a BAA without a hospital RFP. |
| Nuance DAX | From $600/mo | 2.8 10 reviews | Health systems already on Epic or Oracle Health that want Microsoft-backed ambient documentation and can wait for a quoted contract, not a self-serve scribe. |
| Abridge | Custom | 4.2 16 reviews | Health systems that want a dedicated ambient conversation platform and are running a competitive RFP against Dragon Copilot and Nabla, not a solo practice shopping online. |
| Ambience Healthcare | Custom | n/a | Hospitals and large groups that need ambient notes and clinical documentation integrity in the same vendor, not a scribe that stops at prose. |
Hospitals and large groups that want a clinical AI layer inside the EHR they already run, not a $39 clinic app.
- Pro: Nabla's own site cites 130-plus health organizations, 85,000-plus clinicians, and 20 million patient encounters a year, which is the scale proof a CMIO actually asks for.
- Pro: The product is three jobs in one layer: ambient notes from the visit, clinical-grade dictation inside Epic and other major EHRs, and E/M plus ICD-10 suggestions that stay under the clinician.
- Pro: HIPAA, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR are listed. Data retention is configurable. That is the security packet a health-system review expects.
- Con: There is no public per-provider list price. The site offers a free trial and an enterprise conversation. A three-provider clinic that wants a card-swipe scribe should start on Freed or Heidi instead.
- Con: Implementation is a health-system project. You are buying write-back, specialty templates, and change management, not a weekend install.
Custom pricing likely lands mid-to-high versus ambient AI scribes, depending on scale.
Watch out
Enterprise requires custom quote, no published per-seat price
Independent and mid-size clinics that want a live ambient note this month, with a published price and a 7-day trial that does not ask for a card.
- Pro: Freed's August 2026 pricing page prints real numbers: Starter $39 a month for up to 40 notes, Core $79 a month for unlimited notes plus an instant template builder and Clinical Evidence, Premier $119 monthly or $104 billed annually with EHR push, dictation, and ICD-10 plus CPT coding.
- Pro: Residents, students, and trainees get Core free. Groups are a custom plan with SSO, admin dashboards, and a dedicated account manager.
- Pro: The company states it does not store patient recordings and signs a BAA. Specialty templates and a 'learn my format' loop are the reason indie clinics stay after the trial.
- Con: Starter at $39 is a 40-note cap. A full-time panel will hit Core or Premier in the first month, so budget $79 to $119, not the headline.
- Con: EHR push and coding sit on Premier, not on Starter. A clinic that needs one-click write-back and ICD-10 on day one should skip the cheap tier.
Freed's pricing is fair for independent clinics, with the $39/mo AI Scribe tier offering strong value for solo practitioners needing EHR integration and coding support, while the $149/mo Front Desk tier is reasonable for small practices wanting automated patient communication.
Watch out
Front Desk tier may need add-on for advanced features
Clinicians who want to run a real scribe at $0 on standard templates, then pay only if they need advanced templates, team sharing, or a full EHR integration.
- Pro: Heidi's Free plan is free forever: unlimited transcription, unlimited notes on standard templates, and unlimited Heidi Evidence with citations. That is the only standing free ambient scribe on this list.
- Pro: Clinician adds unlimited advanced templates, Ask Heidi, personalizations, and in-visit Evidence, with a 14-day trial. Practice adds team templates, document sharing, and full EHR integration.
- Pro: Free is capped at 10 advanced actions a month (custom templates, Ask Heidi, form fill, session linking). Standard notes keep working when that pool is empty.
- Con: Paid Clinician and Practice dollars are regional. Heidi's help center sends you to the pricing page for the current rate in your currency. Their own cost explainer has cited Pro at $99 a month; confirm the checkout number before you treat that as a 2026 US list.
- Con: Lite EHR integrations on Clinician depend on the EHR partner. Practices that need guaranteed write-back should start the conversation on Practice, not Free.
Heidi Health's pricing is currently listed as entirely free, which is extremely generous compared to typical AI scribe tools that charge per provider or per encounter.
Health systems that want the scribe to place orders and coding inside the EHR, not only dump a SOAP note.
- Pro: Suki's differentiator is the job mix: documentation, coding, patient instructions, and orders from the same ambient session, across 100-plus specialties.
- Pro: Deep real-time integration with Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth, and MEDITECH is the reason it shows up on hospital shortlists next to Nabla and Dragon Copilot.
- Pro: SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA are listed. The company cites 400-plus organizations. Voice-enabled editing and problem-based charting are built for clinicians who will not retype the draft.
- Con: Pricing is quote-only. There is no self-serve card and no public per-provider number you can put in a 2026 clinic budget.
- Con: You are buying a second clinical vendor on top of the EHR, with the security review and specialty rollout that implies.
Call sales.
Community oncology and other specialty groups whose visit is too dense for a generic primary-care ambient demo.
- Pro: DeepScribe markets itself as the ambient AI for oncology and says it is used across 90% of community oncology centers. That is a specialty claim, not a horizontal slogan.
- Pro: The stack is more than a note: SmartPrep pulls prior notes, labs, imaging, and meds before the visit; AI coding is sold as diagnosis depth after it.
- Pro: Embedded inside OncoEMR and iKnowMed, which is the EHR pair community oncology actually runs. A sidecar that cannot sit there is a non-starter.
- Con: No public 2026 list price. This is a specialty enterprise sale.
- Con: Wrong buy for a primary-care or optometry clinic. Those buyers want Freed, Heidi, Sunoh, or a generalist hospital ambient, not an oncology OS.
Hospitals and groups that want ambient notes with an optional human QA layer, especially emergency and complex specialty workflows.
- Pro: Augmedix has been shipping ambient documentation since 2013 and cites a decade of notes. That history is why older RFPs still have the name on them after the 2024 Commure merger.
- Pro: The suite runs from self-serve AI to full-service human support, so a health system can meet clinicians who will not accept a raw draft on day one.
- Pro: A dedicated emergency-medicine app and oncology tuning are called out for noisy rooms and multi-speaker visits, which generic scribes fail.
- Con: Quote only. There is no published per-provider price on the current site.
- Con: You are buying into the Commure stack. Confirm what 'Augmedix' means on the contract after the merger, and who supports the instance.
Quote only.
Ambulatory practices, especially on eClinicalWorks, that want a printed monthly price and a BAA without a hospital RFP.
- Pro: Sunoh's pricing page prints $149 per user per month as a limited-time rate from $199, with a BAA included and no long-term commitment advertised. That is a rarer artifact than another 'talk to sales' tile.
- Pro: The company cites 100,000-plus healthcare providers. The product listens, drafts a dialogue flow, builds a progress-note and SOAP draft, and assists with labs, imaging, meds, and follow-up orders.
- Pro: Listed EHR integrations include athenahealth, Cerner, eClinicalWorks, Epic, ModMed, Practice Fusion, and Tebra, plus a browser EHR Sync extension for other web charts.
- Con: The $149 figure is marked limited-time. Treat $199 as the fallback if the promo ends, and confirm the number at checkout.
- Con: Outside the eClinicalWorks orbit, 'EHR-agnostic' is weaker than Nabla or Dragon Copilot on Epic. A health system should not pick Sunoh to replace those.
At $149 per user per month, Sunoh is priced at the higher end of the ambient AI scribe market, though it is not unreasonable given the included implementation, support, and BAA.
Health systems already on Epic or Oracle Health that want Microsoft-backed ambient documentation and can wait for a quoted contract, not a self-serve scribe.
- Pro: Dragon Copilot is the current Microsoft product that absorbed Nuance DAX ambient listening and Dragon Medical One dictation, so you are buying the vendor that already sits inside most US hospital IT stacks.
- Pro: Native, bidirectional write-back into Epic and Oracle Health is the reason large systems shortlist it over a phone app that dumps text into a clipboard.
- Pro: Physician and Flex license SKUs exist, including a consumption path where ambient structured notes bill as Azure usage units, which can fit lower-volume providers better than a flat seat.
- Con: There is no self-serve plan and no official 2026 list price. Historical reseller quotes of $369 to $830 per provider per month are not a current Microsoft price list and should not be used as one.
- Con: Implementation is a health-system project: EHR versioning, specialty templates, and a multi-month IT cycle that a three-provider clinic cannot absorb.
Watch out
Enterprise deployments take 3-6 months including IT approvals, EHR integration, and workflow training -- factor in internal IT staff time
Health systems that want a dedicated ambient conversation platform and are running a competitive RFP against Dragon Copilot and Nabla, not a solo practice shopping online.
- Pro: Abridge is built as clinical conversation AI, not a generic transcription layer, which is why health systems put it on the same shortlist as Dragon Copilot and Nabla.
- Pro: Enterprise EHR write-back is the product, so the note lands in the chart instead of sitting in a separate app the clinician has to babysit.
- Pro: The company sells into large provider organizations, which means BAAs, security reviews, and specialty rollout playbooks exist as a process, not a hope.
- Con: Pricing is enterprise quote only. There is no public per-provider number you can put in a 2026 budget without a sales call.
- Con: A three-provider clinic that wants a card-swipe scribe should buy Freed, Heidi, or Sunoh instead. Abridge is the wrong motion for that buyer.
Abridge's 'Enterprise' tier, with its 'Contact us' pricing, is typical for highly specialized B2B SaaS in the healthcare sector.
Watch out
Minimum user seat requirements
Hospitals and large groups that need ambient notes and clinical documentation integrity in the same vendor, not a scribe that stops at prose.
- Pro: Ambience pairs ambient note generation with AutoCDI, so the same visit can produce both the narrative and coding support that revenue cycle teams actually use.
- Pro: It is sold as an enterprise clinical platform, which puts it in the Dragon Copilot and Abridge conversation rather than the consumer-scribe conversation.
- Pro: Coding-aware documentation is the reason to pick it over a scribe that only writes paragraphs: denials start in the note.
- Con: Like DAX and Abridge, Ambience is quote-only. There is no 2026 self-serve price and no published per-provider list.
- Con: You are buying a second clinical vendor on top of your EHR, with the IT and change-management load that implies.
Watch out
Minimum contract value/duration
What an AI medical scribe actually does
An ambient medical scribe sits in the room or on a phone, captures the consented visit, and drafts a structured note the clinician signs. The good ones also push that note into the EHR, suggest E/M and ICD-10 codes, and keep the audio off disk or under a written retention policy. None of them diagnose. The clinician remains the author of record. HIPAA, a signed BAA, and a consent script are the floor. FDA clearance is not required for documentation AI.
Three buying shapes show up, and mixing them is how groups waste a year.
Self-serve clinic scribes (Freed, Heidi, Sunoh) start with a trial or a published monthly price. They write into browser EHRs or a short integration list. Setup is days, not a capital project.
Health-system ambient layers (Nabla, Suki, Nuance DAX, Abridge, Ambience Healthcare) assume Epic, Oracle Health, or another installed EHR. The product is write-back, specialty templates, and a security review you will actually pass. Pricing is a quote. Implementation is a 60 to 180 day IT cycle.
Specialty ambient (DeepScribe for oncology, Augmedix for emergency and complex specialties) is a third shape. The visit has more speakers, more prior context, and coding that a primary-care demo will miss. Buy the vendor that already lives in OncoEMR, iKnowMed, or the ED workflow.
Why the scribe you buy is a workflow decision, not a model bake-off
Documentation is the work clinicians name when they talk about burnout, and it is the source file for coding, billing, and medical-legal review. A note the clinician will sign is worth a contract. A paragraph nobody trusts is a new inbox.
The split that matters is not "which model is smarter." It is where the note lands and who can buy the tool this quarter. Freed Starter at $39 a month (40 notes) and Sunoh at $149 per user per month are numbers a practice manager can put in a budget tomorrow. Nabla citing 85,000 clinicians across 130 organizations is a different motion: a CMIO, a BAA, and an EHR version pin. DeepScribe claiming 90% of community oncology centers is a specialty lock-in argument, not a feature list.
Healthcare on Toolradar is paid: 56 of 69 published tools. If a roundup promises ten ambient scribes you can swipe a card for, it is padding with EHRs or inventing products. This list stays on ambient vendors and says when the price is a quote.
Key Features to Look For
Write-back into the EHR you already run (Essential)
A scribe that dumps text into a clipboard is a failed purchase. Nabla and Suki sell Epic-grade write-back. Sunoh lists eClinicalWorks, Epic, athenahealth, and a browser sync. DeepScribe embeds in OncoEMR and iKnowMed.
Published price vs enterprise quote (Essential)
Freed and Sunoh print dollars. Heidi prints a free tier and keeps paid Clinician and Practice rates on a regional checkout. Everyone else on this list is quote-only. Budget the sales cycle if you pick the second group.
Specialty the demo was trained on (Important)
DeepScribe is oncology. Augmedix calls out emergency medicine and oncology. A primary-care ambient demo does not prove a multi-speaker procedure or an infusion visit.
Coding and orders, not only prose (Important)
Nabla and Freed suggest E/M and ICD-10. Suki adds orders. Ambience sells AutoCDI. A pretty narrative that misses a code still costs money.
Pricing Overview
Self-serve clinic
Heidi Free at $0 (standard templates). Freed Starter $39 (40 notes), Core $79, Premier $119 or $104 annual. Sunoh $149 / user / mo limited-time.
$0 to $149 / user / mo
Health-system ambient
Quote
Specialty ambient
DeepScribe for community oncology (OncoEMR / iKnowMed). Augmedix for ED and complex specialties, now under Commure.
Quote
Pricing Comparison
| Tool | Published price | What that buys | Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
Nabla | Free trial, then quote | Ambient notes, Epic dictation, E/M + ICD-10 | Health systems (85k clinicians cited) |
Freed | $39 / $79 / $119 | Starter 40 notes; Core unlimited; Premier EHR push + coding | Indie clinics |
Heidi | $0 Free, paid regional | Unlimited standard-template notes; 10 advanced actions / mo on Free | Solo clinicians |
Suki | Quote | Notes + coding + orders in Epic / Oracle / athena / MEDITECH | Health systems (400+ orgs cited) |
Quote | Oncology ambient OS, SmartPrep, OncoEMR / iKnowMed | Community oncology | |
Augmedix | Quote | Ambient + optional human QA; ED app | Hospitals (Commure) |
Sunoh | $149 / user / mo | Limited-time from $199; BAA included | Ambulatory, especially eCW |
Quote | Dragon Copilot; Epic / Oracle write-back | Hospital IT | |
Abridge | Quote | Conversation AI + EHR write-back | Health-system RFP |
Ambience | Quote | Ambient notes + AutoCDI | Hospitals that need coding |
Freed and Sunoh prices from vendor pages, 2026-08-26. Heidi paid rates are regional; confirm checkout. Historical DAX reseller quotes of $369 to $830 / provider / mo are not a 2026 Microsoft list. Catalog: 69 published Healthcare tools, 19% free or freemium.
Mistakes to Avoid
- ×
Treating historical DAX reseller quotes of $369 to $830 per provider per month as Microsoft's 2026 Dragon Copilot list price.
- ×
- ×
Running a primary-care ambient demo and calling the oncology or ED evaluation done. DeepScribe and Augmedix exist because those visits are different.
- ×
Budgeting Freed at $39 after a full-time panel. Starter is 40 notes. Core is $79 and Premier is $119 or $104 billed annually.
- ×
Skipping the BAA question on audio retention and model training. Freed says it does not store recordings. Get the same sentence in writing from every other vendor.
Expert Tips
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If you are on eClinicalWorks, price Sunoh at $149 per user per month against Freed Premier before you open a Dragon Copilot conversation.
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If you are community oncology, start the RFP with DeepScribe (OncoEMR / iKnowMed) and Augmedix. A generic primary-care scribe will fail the visit.
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Ask every ambient vendor where the audio is stored, for how long, and whether it is used to train models. Get the answer in the BAA, not the slide deck.
The Bottom Line
Of the 10,330 tools Toolradar tracks, 69 published tools sit in Healthcare and only 13 are free or freemium. Freed prints $39 / $79 / $119. Heidi keeps unlimited standard notes free. Sunoh prints $149 per user per month. Nabla, Suki, DeepScribe, Augmedix, Nuance DAX, Abridge, and Ambience Healthcare are the quoted ambient layer. Pick clinic self-serve versus health-system write-back first. The EHR can wait until the note has a home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Nuance DAX still a product I can buy in 2026?
The ambient product you buy from Microsoft in 2026 is Dragon Copilot, which absorbed Nuance DAX and Dragon Medical One. The Toolradar listing remains nuance-dax. There is no self-serve checkout and no official public list price. Historical reseller ranges of $369 to $830 per provider per month are not a current Microsoft price. A clinic that wants a card this week should buy Freed, Heidi, or Sunoh instead.
What is the cheapest AI medical scribe in this list?
Heidi Free at $0 for unlimited standard-template notes. Freed Starter is $39 a month for 40 notes. Sunoh is $149 per user per month. Everyone else is a quote. If you need unlimited notes and EHR push, Freed's real comparison point is Core at $79 or Premier at $119, not the $39 headline.
Does clinical documentation AI need FDA clearance?
No. Documentation tools are administrative. They draft notes for a clinician to sign. Diagnostic imaging AI is a different category and often does need 510(k) or De Novo clearance. You still need HIPAA, a signed BAA, and a consent workflow.
Should a 5-provider primary care clinic buy Abridge or Freed?
Freed, or Heidi if the free standard-template tier is enough. Abridge is an enterprise ambient platform sold to health systems. A five-provider clinic should be live on a published-price scribe this month. Abridge becomes rational when Epic or Oracle Health is already locked and you are writing an RFP.
Which scribe is for oncology?
DeepScribe is the oncology ambient OS, embedded in OncoEMR and iKnowMed, and it claims 90% of community oncology centers. Augmedix also tunes for oncology and emergency medicine. A generic Freed or Heidi trial can still draft a note; it will not carry prior-line context the way DeepScribe SmartPrep does.
Cite this page: Toolradar, "Best AI Medical Scribes in 2026", updated August 2026, https://toolradar.com/guides/best-ai-clinical-documentation-tools
Sources
Prices and plan details on this page come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker:
- Nabla pricing, checked
- Freed pricing, checked
- Heidi pricing, checked
- Suki pricing, checked
- DeepScribe pricing, checked
- Augmedix pricing, checked
- Sunoh pricing, checked
- Nuance DAX pricing, checked
- Abridge pricing, checked
- Ambience Healthcare pricing, checked
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