5 best AI note takers for psychotherapists (2026)

The session ends. Your next client is waiting, and you still need to write up what happened in the last hour.

You can start the note now, hold the details in your head until later, or finish the documentation after your working day. Each asks for attention you would rather bring to the person in front of you.

The best AI note takers for psychotherapists help produce a useful draft without making the client less comfortable speaking. The question is whether the whole workflow works: agreement to record, processing, review, transfer into the appropriate record, and removal of temporary material.

This guide compares five options. Weeve publishes it and is our recommendation for therapists who want core session processing on a compatible Mac. Specialist clinical tools may fit practices that prefer their documentation features and have approved the service's data handling.

Best AI note takers for psychotherapists: the shortlist

• Weeve: for local session transcription and draft notes on Mac.

• Upheal: for therapy-specific notes, with the option of a broader practice platform.

• Heidi: for clinicians who want adaptable documentation templates.

• Quill: for therapists who want help writing notes without recording the session.

• Freed: for a general clinical scribe that works alongside an existing record system.

Decide first whether you want to record the session. A client who declines recording may still be comfortable with an appropriately approved way of drafting your own account afterwards. That requires its own privacy assessment.

1. Weeve, for private session notes on Mac

Weeve records and creates transcripts and structured summaries on the Mac. No bot joins the session. It suits therapists who want local capture and prefer to decide what becomes part of the clinical record after reviewing the output.

A practical workflow is to generate a draft in the structure you need, correct it and transfer the appropriate material into your existing record system. Custom summary instructions can help shape the draft. They still require testing and review.

Best for: therapists using a compatible Mac who want the core recording and AI workflow to remain on that device.

What to know: local files remain until removed. Keep optional external AI and cloud-synchronised folders outside a workflow described to clients as local. Deletion needs to include the copies you create; see Weeve's data-handling notice.

Cost: the current pricing includes a free Starter plan and lists Pro at €12.99 per month excluding VAT. The Mac app requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14.4 or later.

Trade-off: Weeve does not replace your clinical record system or professional review. Expect to check attribution, pronouns and whether the draft accurately reflects what occurred.

2. Upheal, for therapy-specific documentation

Upheal offers AI notes alongside an existing EHR, or a broader platform with practice features. Its documentation covers custom templates and several session-input routes. That is useful when the practice wants a service built around therapy documentation rather than general meeting recaps. See Upheal's product guide.

Best for: therapists who want specialist note-writing features and are comfortable with an approved cloud service.

What to know: Upheal describes cloud infrastructure and recording controls. Review the relevant settings and client agreement rather than assuming every kind of session data has the same retention period.

Cost: its pricing page lists a free plan for post-session inputs such as text and dictation, and AI Notes at $39 per month.

Trade-off: specialist workflow support may reduce setup work. It does not meet a requirement that session processing happen entirely on the therapist's computer.

3. Heidi, for adaptable clinical templates

Heidi provides a clinical scribe with standard templates and more advanced customisation on paid plans. For a therapist whose main frustration is turning a conversation into the right document structure, that flexibility is worth evaluating. See Heidi's plan comparison.

Best for: clinicians who want to test different documentation structures and have approved a hosted scribe.

What to know: this is a hosted service; review the relevant data-processing agreement. Distinguish audio handling from transcript and note retention. Heidi's data-management guide describes manual deletion and retention settings. Check the capture mode you will actually use.

Cost: standard-template transcription and notes are available on the free plan; advanced functions depend on the plan.

Trade-off: a template can organise information, but it cannot establish that an intervention occurred or a clinical finding was assessed. Check the content before filing the result.

4. Quill, for notes without recording the session

Quill takes a brief account you provide after the session and turns it into structured documentation. It does not record the therapy conversation. Its FAQ describes online processing in the US and says the supplied summary and generated note are discarded after generation. See Quill's workflow and privacy explanation.

Best for: therapists who want to keep AI outside the live session while getting help formatting their own clinical account.

What to know: avoiding session capture reduces what you send, but your post-session summary can still contain confidential health information. Approve that processing arrangement and include only what is needed.

Cost: Quill lists $20 per month for unlimited notes.

Trade-off: you still have to supply the relevant account. It helps with writing and structure rather than remembering the whole session for you.

5. Freed, for a general clinical scribe

Freed creates a transcript and draft clinical note from an in-person or virtual encounter. It also supports uploaded material and transfer into existing record systems, with capabilities varying by plan. See Freed's feature and workflow FAQ.

Best for: clinicians who want a general scribe alongside their current EHR rather than another practice-management platform.

What to know: compare the note structure with your actual psychotherapy requirements. A document that reads well may still need substantial changes to match the purpose and scope of your record.

Cost: Freed offers tiered paid plans. Check the chosen billing option and note allowance before comparing it with an unlimited plan.

Trade-off: using a hosted clinical scribe requires reviewing the service's processing and retention arrangements. A statement about audio deletion does not tell you how long the resulting notes remain.

Presence in the session is part of the value

Documentation work starts before you open the note. During a session, you may already be holding a phrase you want to preserve, a question to revisit and an action to follow up.

Capture can reduce how much you need to hold in memory. That leaves room to listen, notice a change in tone or stay with a difficult moment. The useful output afterwards helps you move into the next session without trying to carry the previous one with you.

Try the workflow with a fictional session first. Include an important phrase, a correction and a tentative statement. Check what survives into the draft and how much effort it takes to make the note usable.

Measure the whole task: review, correction and transfer as well as generation. A fast first draft is useful only if the finished note takes less work.

Explain what happens to the recording

A client deciding whether to accept recording needs a concrete explanation. Cover what is captured, where it is processed, who receives the output and when temporary material is removed.

For a local workflow you have checked, an explanation might be:

With your agreement, I would use a tool on my Mac to help draft my notes. The recording and AI processing would stay on this computer. I would review the draft, put the required notes into your clinical record and delete the temporary recording and transcript afterwards, in line with the arrangements we agree. We can also work without recording.

Use that wording only if it accurately describes your setup, backups and retention obligations. Discuss questions before starting. If the client declines, continue with an agreed alternative rather than trying to overcome the refusal.

This is more useful than asking someone to trust the label “AI”. It gives them a choice about a process they can understand. The ISPC's professional guidance similarly addresses informed agreement, recording, data handling and practitioner responsibility.

Keep the clinical note you need, without retaining everything

A full session recording and a finished progress note serve different purposes. You may be able to remove temporary capture while retaining the record your practice requires.

A useful sequence is:

1. Agree the approach. Explain capture, processing and retention before recording.

2. Conduct the session. Keep your attention on the client; note important observations yourself where needed.

3. Generate the draft. Use the structure appropriate to the record you are preparing.

4. Review it. Check attribution, pronouns, context and unsupported statements.

5. Transfer the required material. Put the reviewed note in the appropriate record system.

6. Remove temporary material where permitted. Include recordings, transcripts and extra drafts, with exports and backups accounted for.

Where your practice distinguishes progress notes from separate private process notes, keep those outputs and destinations deliberate. Do not assume every jurisdiction uses the same definitions or rules.

Deletion should be an action you can carry out and explain. Avoid promising automatic secure erasure or the removal of every possible copy unless you have established that capability.

A template should leave room for what was not assessed

An attractive note can be wrong in a clinically important way. A speaker may be misidentified. A tentative feeling may become a firm conclusion. A standard footer may state that an assessment happened when it did not.

Build templates that organise supported information. Do not prefill findings, interventions or risk statements as though they occurred in every session. Correct the draft using your own professional judgement before adding it to the record.

The goal is less transcription and formatting work, with time left for the review that matters. It is not to remove the therapist from documentation.

Questions psychotherapists ask

Can AI write my session notes for me?

It can help produce a draft from an agreed recording or your own account. You remain responsible for checking the resulting note and choosing what belongs in the record.

What if my client does not want to be recorded?

Use a non-recording workflow. You can take limited notes yourself and write or dictate your account afterwards. If another AI service processes that account, review its privacy arrangements too.

Can I delete the recording after the session?

That depends on the workflow and applicable retention obligations. Where temporary capture can be removed, do so after the required review and transfer. Removing source audio is different from deleting clinical notes that must be retained.

Does local processing make a practice compliant?

Local processing is one part of the assessment. Professional duties, client information, access controls, device security and record handling still need attention. Assess the tool within your practice rather than treating its architecture as a compliance certificate.

For therapists who want to try local session notes, download Weeve for Mac. Start with a fictional conversation, shape the draft you need and practise the full review-and-delete workflow before asking a client to take part.