Top 5 AI Therapy Note Tools: Comparison

PRODUCT COMPARISON

As a therapist, you're well acquainted with the post-session ritual: hours of painstaking documentation that eat into your evenings and weekends. But what if technology could lighten this load?

Welcome to the world of AI Therapy Notes - AI tools that promise to write professional, insurance-compliant notes so you don't have to worry about audits. Sounds too good to be true?

This movement isn't just in mental health but in all clinical documentation - most physicians and doctors are now beginning to use AI scribes to lighten their administrative workload.

In this blog, we'll take a look at these tools - how they work and examine the top 5 tools in this space.

What are AI Therapy Note tools

Before we compare the top tools, let's take a brief look at what these tools do and why they exist.

The problem these tools solve is that traditional note-taking for therapists is:

  1. Time-consuming: You spend hours each week writing notes.

  2. Prone to inconsistency: Your notes might vary based on how tired you are or how much time you have.

  3. Often delayed: When you're busy, notes pile up. You end up writing them days after the session, relying on memory.

  4. A cognitive burden: After a day of intense listening and analysis, the last thing you want is more mental effort.

These issues don't just affect you. They affect your clients. Every hour you spend on notes is an hour you're not spending on getting more clients, self-care, or preparing for your next session.

Enter AI Therapy Notes. These tools are exactly what they sound like: Session notes written by artificial intelligence. They use voice recognition to listen to your session, make sense of it, and write your note for you.

Here's how they work:

  1. Input session: First, you input your session. They either listen to your session directly once you give them access (with client consent, of course), allow you to dictate, or upload an audio recording.

  2. Get note: You get a professionally written progress note (SOAP, DAP, or any other format) at the end of the session. To do this, the AI uses voice recognition, natural language processing, and other technologies.

  3. Review: You review the note, make any necessary edits, and then copy-paste it into your EHR.

It's like having a highly efficient assistant who listens to your sessions and drafts your notes for you. Except this assistant works 24/7, doesn't take vacations, and can process information faster than any human.

Top AI Scribes for Therapy Notes

Now let's look at the top tools in this space. Note that for this article we've only considered tools focused exclusively on therapy notes. There are several other generic AI medical scribes that are focused on writing SOAP notes for physicians. Most of them don't have flexibility to write other note formats often used in mental health, so are not very relevant for therapists.

Let's look at the top AI Scribes for Therapists

1. Supanote (Most flexible and cost-efficient)

Supanote burst onto the scene in 2024, quickly gaining attention for its high-quality notes and easy interface. The focus is on high-quality notes - its AI has been trained on thousands of real, insurance-approved therapy notes. You also have the flexibility to increase or decrease the level of detail or save your own style. It's HIPAA-compliant and verified by a 3rd party auditor. Supanote also has the most competitive and reasonable pricing.

Pros:

  • Easy to use with a clean interface

  • Supports all input methods - in-person sessions, telehealth, dictation, and audio upload

  • Supports all note formats - SOAP, DAP, GIRP, PIRP, PIE, Intake, EMDR, and more

  • Offers individual, child, couple, family, group therapy options

  • Offers custom note formats

  • Liberal free plan and most competitive pricing ($40/month for 120 notes)

  • Highly secure - Not just HIPAA compliant but has extensive security measures in place to ensure no personal data is ever stored

Cons:

  • If you're using Zoom for telehealth, you'd have to use it on the browser to be able to use Supanote

  • Team management features are nascent

2. Mentalyc (Best for larger teams)

Mentalyc is a Therapy Note solution for mental health practices of all sizes. Launched by a group of psychologists frustrated with existing documentation tools, Mentalyc takes a holistic approach to practice management. Its AI note-taking feature is just one part of a broader ecosystem designed to streamline every aspect of running a therapy practice. What sets Mentalyc apart is its focus on adaptability – the system is designed to learn and improve based on each therapist's unique style and preferences, making it a tool that grows with your practice.

Pros:

  • Supports multiple input methods - in-person, telehealth, dictate, and audio upload

  • Offers note types for individual, child, couple, family, and group therapy

  • Wide variety of note formats

  • Custom note formats in higher tiers

  • Strong team management features

Cons:

  • No free trial

  • More expensive; To get most of the benefits, you have to get the $70/month plan; the lower pricing plans are highly restricted

  • Don't have the Zoom plugin - would have to use Zoom on a browser

3. Upheal (Best for Community Agencies)

Upheal focuses not just on note-taking but aims to change the entire therapy process through AI. The product is more focused on analytics - it doesn't just transcribe and write notes, it provides therapists insights into their sessions (e.g., how long the therapist spoke vs. the client) and even feedback on therapeutic techniques. Upheal's ambitious goal is to be not just a documentation tool, but an AI-powered supervisor and mentor for therapists.

Pros:

  • Better suited for agencies looking to supervise therapists and use session analytics for training purposes

  • Advanced analytics and insights on sessions

  • Has a Zoom plug-in (for the $100/month tier)

  • Can also use Upheal for video calls (in higher tier plans)

Cons:

  • Most expensive tool on the list ($99/month) to get full features; most lower plans only do notes in SOAP Note format

  • No free plan

  • More complex interface might have a steeper learning curve

4. AutoNotes

AutoNotes is a unique type of tool. AutoNotes doesn't listen in to your sessions or allow you to dictate. However, with AutoNotes, you click a series of 20-30 check-boxes and radio-buttons about the session you just had, and AutoNotes will write the note for you. A lot of therapists like this model if they're not comfortable with dictating.

Pros:

  • Different model (checkboxes-to-notes), suitable for therapists looking for that

  • Flexible pricing - can pay based on number of notes used; however, price per note is high

  • Customizable templates

Cons:

  • Text-based interface may not suit all workflows

  • No dictate or direct listening options - so may not save much time

  • Expensive - if one does about 80 sessions per month, that's almost $130 per month (is $1-1.5 per note)

5. Blueprint

Blueprint is an older company that has recently shifted into the AI notes for therapy space. They attempt to create an all-in-one AI assistant for therapists. Blueprint goes beyond simple note-taking to offer a suite of AI-powered tools designed to enhance every aspect of therapy. From pre-session preparation to post-session analysis, Blueprint aims to be a comprehensive support system for therapists.

Pros:

  • Offers pre-session insights and in-session guidance

  • Includes smart treatment plans

  • Also has an AI-therapist feature that allows clients to chat with someone

Cons:

  • May have features beyond what most therapists need

  • More expensive than some competitors ($129/month for 100 sessions)

Choosing an AI Therapy Note Tool: What to Look For

Now that we've looked at all the tools, how do you pick? What are the questions to ask while selecting an AI tool for progress notes?

  1. Is it designed specifically for mental health professionals, or is it a generic AI medical scribe? (All products covered in this article are focused on mental health professionals only)

  2. Note quality: How well does it capture the nuances of your therapy sessions? Quality can vary widely across tools. Take advantage of free trials to assess this.

  3. Does it support the specific format you use?

  4. Does it support both in-person and telehealth sessions?

  5. Can you dictate if you don't want to record a session? This is a crucial feature if clients don't consent to session recording. Most top tools offer this option.

  6. Security and Compliance: Is it HIPAA compliant? All tools in this list claim HIPAA-compliance. If you want to be extra sure, ask them for an audit report proving they're HIPAA compliant.

  7. How quickly do they delete recordings? Check how quickly audio is deleted after transcription. Some tools like Supanote transcribe real-time, so there's no recorded audio that ever exists, making them safer.

  8. What is the pricing for your expected volume?

How to Think about Pricing

When considering cost, think about the value of your time. If a tool costs $200 a month but saves you 20 hours, that's $10 per hour. Is your time worth more than that? It probably is.

Now let's compare the pricing across tools. Let's say you're a full-time therapist needing around 100 notes per month (20-25 sessions per week). Here's what it would cost you with the different tools:

  1. Supanote: $50/month

  2. Mentalyc: $70/month

  3. Upheal: $100/month

  4. AutoNotes: $100/month

  5. Blueprint: $100-130/month depending on features

Ethical Considerations: Is it ethical to use AI scribes for therapy notes?

This is a complex question, and everyone's bound to have different opinions. Below are some things to consider:

  • Informed Consent: Clients should know AI is being used in documentation.

  • Accuracy: You're still responsible for the accuracy of your notes.

  • Data Privacy: How comfortable are you with a third party processing your session data?

Are AI Notes Right for You?

Ask yourself:

  • How much time do you currently spend on notes?

  • How satisfied are you with your current note-taking process?

  • How comfortable are you with technology?

  • What would you do with the time saved by using AI scribes?

If you're spending hours on notes each week, constantly behind on documentation, comfortable with tech, and have ideas for how you'd use extra time—then AI scribes for notes might be worth considering.

But if you prefer handwritten notes, find note-taking therapeutic, or are skeptical of AI—then stick with your current method. The best tool is the one that works for you.

Conclusion: The Future is Already Here

AI progress notes aren't science fiction. They're here, now, and they're changing how therapists work. This is not just in mental health. AI notes and AI documentation are seeing increasing adoption across all industries, and clinical documentation is a big part of it given how healthcare professionals are overburdened with it now. In a few years, an AI-powered note will be as common as a mobile phone.

But today they're not evenly distributed. Many therapists don't know about them. Many who do are skeptical. Some love them. And that's okay. The question isn't whether AI will impact therapy. It already has. The question is how we, as therapists, will adapt to and shape this change. Will we use AI to free up time for more clients, more training, more self-care? Or will we resist it and prefer traditional methods?

There's no right answer. But there is a right question: How can we best serve our clients?

If AI Therapy Note tools help you do that—by giving you more time, more insight, more energy—then they're worth considering. If not, then they're just another tech fad. You're the therapist. You decide.

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