If the one you have is not working
Medical scribe AI alternatives
The right alternative depends on why you are leaving. Too expensive — Heidi’s free tier and Freed’s $39 Starter are the two cheapest real options. Notes do not reach the chart — that is EHR write-back, and it is Freed’s Premier tier or an enterprise deployment. Nobody will tell you the price — Freed is the only one of the five that publishes one. It does not work outside the exam room — every tool here is built for the consultation, and none of them captures a corridor conversation or a phone call from the car.
§Our position, stated. Scriben does not appear as an alternative in this list because our clinical console is in preview and cannot be bought. What we make, and when it is worth waiting for, is at the end. Every figure below was read off the vendor’s own page on 15 September 2026. Where a vendor publishes no price, this page says so rather than repeating a third-party estimate — two of the round-ups we checked disagreed with each other by hundreds of dollars a month.
The ranking
5 scribes, in order, and why.
01 / Freed
Individual clinicians, self-serve · $39/mo Starter
- Move here if — Cost is why you are leaving, or you need the note to reach the chart and want the price of that before you ask for it.
- Do not move here if — You are a health system. Freed is built for individual clinicians and small practices, and the $39 tier caps you at 40 notes a month.
- Price — $39/mo Starter. EHR push at Premier only.
02 / Heidi
Clinicians and practices, self-serve · Free tier
- Move here if — You want to try ambient scribing without giving anyone a card, or the budget this quarter is genuinely zero.
- Do not move here if — You have to know the annual cost before you commit. That number is not published anywhere.
- Price — Free tier. Not stated on the pricing page.
03 / Nabla
Clinicians and organisations · Not published
- Move here if — You are building on top of a scribe rather than only using one — Nabla Connect is the API-first route of the five.
- Do not move here if — You are a solo clinician comparing options, because there is nothing published to compare it on.
- Price — Not published. "Reliable integrations" stated, no detail or cost given.
04 / Suki
Clinicians, organisations and platform partners · Not published
- Move here if — Your EHR is the constraint, and you want it confirmed by name before you spend an hour on a call.
- Do not move here if — You are one clinician who would like a price this evening.
- Price — Not published. Names four: Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth and MEDITECH.
05 / Abridge
Health systems only · Not published
- Move here if — You are a health system with a procurement process, and depth of EHR integration is what decides it.
- Do not move here if — You are a solo practitioner or a small practice. It is not sold to you at all.
- Price — Not published. Deep health-system integrations; enterprise deployment.
Side by side
The same facts, in a table.
- Freed
- $39/mo Starter — move here if cost is why you are leaving, or you need the note to reach the chart and want the price of that before you ask for it. Source: getfreed.ai/pricing
- Heidi
- Free tier — move here if you want to try ambient scribing without giving anyone a card, or the budget this quarter is genuinely zero. Source: heidihealth.com/pricing
- Nabla
- Not published — move here if you are building on top of a scribe rather than only using one — Nabla Connect is the API-first route of the five. Source: nabla.com
- Suki
- Not published — move here if your EHR is the constraint, and you want it confirmed by name before you spend an hour on a call. Source: suki.ai
- Abridge
- Not published — move here if you are a health system with a procurement process, and depth of EHR integration is what decides it. Source: abridge.com
All figures checked on 15 September 2026 against each vendor’s own site. Three of the five publish no pricing at all; where that is the case this table says “not published” rather than quoting an estimate. Prices change — check theirs before you buy, and tell us if anything here has gone out of date.
Before any of them
Consent, records and the thing nobody can certify.
Recording a patient encounter is governed by state law, by your professional obligations and by your employer’s policy, and the tool you choose does not change any of them. Fourteen US states require every party to consent; where you and the patient are in different states, assume the stricter rule. Our guide to recording people lawfully sets out which applies where you are. There is no such thing as HIPAA certification, so no vendor on this page holds one and none can — what you should ask for instead is a signed Business Associate Agreement, and confirmation of where audio is processed and how long it is kept. This is general information for practitioners, not medical or legal advice.
Where this comes from
What we make, and why it is not ranked above.
Scriben is a real ballpoint pen that records the room to its own storage for up to 18 hours with no phone and no network. Scriben’s clinical console is in preview and not yet available to buy. The pen ships today at $129; the healthcare workflows described on healthcare.scriben.ai are not live yet. Every tool ranked above is built for the consultation itself; a pen reaches the conversations around it — the corridor handover, the call from the car, the family meeting — which is the part none of them capture. If that is the gap you have, join the healthcare preview; if you need a scribe in the exam room today, buy one of the five above.