How we picked
This page is about one kind of tool: the ambient AI scribe, which listens to the visit with the patient's consent and drafts the note. It does not cover dictation software, human transcription or enterprise platforms sold to health systems. If you want a broader ranking that includes dictation and enterprise tools, see our medical dictation software ranking.
The buyer here is a practice owner or office manager buying for a group of 1 to 20 clinicians, not a single physician signing up alone and not a health system with an IT department. That changes what matters: you need to be able to buy without a sales cycle, know the cost before you start, get a BAA that covers the whole practice, and manage seats when a clinician joins or leaves.
- Self-serve sign-up and a free trial, so clinicians can test it on real visits first.
- Published per-clinician pricing, so you can work out the group cost before talking to sales.
- A BAA covering the practice.
- A way to get the note into your EHR without heavy IT work: copy and paste at minimum, a browser extension or push to the chart if possible.
- Group features: central billing, adding and removing seats, and shared templates.
We excluded Abridge, Ambience, Microsoft Dragon Copilot, Suki and DeepScribe because they are sold through enterprise or demo-led contracts without published prices, and Dolbey because its ambient product is quote-only.
The best ambient AI scribes for small practices
1. Freed: best overall for small groups
Freed is the most complete self-serve option for a small group. Each clinician can start a 7-day trial without a credit card, and when the practice is ready, the Groups plan adds medical assistant users, note sharing, live onboarding, SSO, admin dashboards, centralized billing, a volume discount and an organization-wide BAA. As of November 2026, individual plans are Starter at $39 per clinician a month on annual billing ($59 monthly) with up to 40 notes a month, Core at $59 to $79 with unlimited notes, and Premier at $104 annually or $119 monthly, which adds EHR push into web-based EHRs, coding suggestions and patient instructions. Groups pricing is by quote. Freed states it is SOC 2 Type II certified and deletes visit audio after the note is finished. The main drawback is that the features a group usually wants, EHR push and the org-wide BAA, sit in Premier and Groups, so the real cost is higher than the $39 headline.
2. VoiceboxMD: best low-cost scribe with no note cap
VoiceboxMD combines an ambient scribe with real-time dictation, which suits a group where some clinicians prefer to dictate. As of November 2026, plans are Essential at $49 per user a month with unlimited visits, Power at $79 with ICD-10 and CPT suggestions, letters and after-visit summaries, and Premium at $99 with Chart Fill, which places the finished note across the chart. There are no contracts or setup fees, trials run 7 days on monthly billing and 14 days on annual, and the vendor says a BAA is provided to every subscriber at no extra cost. That makes it the cheapest way to equip a whole group with an uncapped scribe. The drawbacks are that it types into the EHR at the desktop level rather than through EHR integrations, it does not publish a SOC 2 report, independent reviews are still scarce, and group pricing for larger practices is by request.
3. Heidi: best for trialing across a group before paying
Heidi has a free plan with one seat and a weekly usage allowance, so every clinician in a small group can try it on real visits before the practice commits. Paid Clinician seats are $110 a month billed yearly or $150 month to month as of November 2026, with a 14-day trial, and Max seats with a higher usage limit are $299 yearly or $409 monthly. Heidi says it offers a BAA to every covered entity it works with and hosts US data in the United States. It also drafts letters and patient recaps and answers clinical evidence questions. The drawback for a group is that team management, template setup, SSO and EHR integration sit in the Teams plan, which is quote-only, and the per-seat price is more than double Freed's or VoiceboxMD's entry tiers.
4. Sunoh: best for practices on eClinicalWorks
Sunoh comes from the eClinicalWorks family and is the obvious first test for an eClinicalWorks practice. Its free EHR Sync Chrome extension also pushes approved notes into athenahealth, Epic, Cerner, ModMed, Practice Fusion, Tebra and other browser-based EHRs. As of November 2026, its pricing page lists one plan at $149 per user a month, described as a limited-time price against a regular $199, with ambient capture, draft SOAP notes, 24x7x365 support, implementation services and a BAA included, and no long-term commitment. The drawbacks are that the regular price after the promotion is not stated, trial length is not published, and it does not publish SOC 2 or HITRUST attestations.
What small practices should look for in an AI scribe
- Total group cost, not the headline price. Work out the tier your clinicians actually need. Note caps, coding and EHR push often sit in higher tiers.
- One BAA for the practice. Confirm that the BAA covers every clinician and is signed before the first real visit is recorded.
- How the note reaches the chart. Copy and paste works but costs time. A browser extension or push into a web-based EHR saves more. Deep integrations are mostly reserved for enterprise plans.
- Audio retention and model training. Ask how long audio is kept and whether your patient data is used to train models.
- Seat management. Check that an office manager can add and remove clinicians, move billing to one card or invoice, and see who is using it.
- Patient consent. Have a simple consent script and signage before you start, and check your state's recording consent rules.
- A structured trial. Have two or three clinicians in different specialties use it for a week, then compare note edits and time spent charting.
AI scribe pricing (what small practices typically pay)
As of November 2026, self-serve ambient scribes with published prices run from $39 to $149 per clinician per month at entry level. For a practice with five clinicians, that works out roughly as follows on the entry tier with unlimited notes:
- VoiceboxMD Essential: $49 x 5 = $245 a month
- Freed Core: $59 to $79 x 5 = $295 to $395 a month
- Heidi Clinician: $110 x 5 = $550 a month on annual billing
- Sunoh: $149 x 5 = $745 a month at the current promotional rate
If your group needs EHR push, coding suggestions or admin controls, budget for the higher tiers: Freed Premier is $104 per clinician on annual billing, and VoiceboxMD Power and Premium are $79 and $99. Group plans from Freed, Heidi and VoiceboxMD are quoted, and Freed lists a group volume discount. None of these four publish setup fees; Sunoh includes implementation and VoiceboxMD states it charges no setup fees.