Best AI scribe for physicians: Doximity Scribe, with 9 runner-ups
Answer in brief: for an independent physician, Doximity Scribe: it is free for US physicians, NPs, PAs and residents and carries BAA coverage, per Doximity. If your health system already licenses a scribe inside the EHR (Abridge, Dragon Copilot, Nabla, Suki), use that one. If you want to pay for EHR push and code suggestions in a small practice, Freed.
Limits: Vendor facts come from each vendor's own website (1 from trade press), read 2026-11-12. We haven't run every product, and prices change, so check the vendor before you buy.
Why Doximity Scribe is the pick
Reason 1, cost: $0. Doximity's own scribe guide calls it free for physicians, nurse practitioners, PAs and residents. Every other scribe here with a published price charges at least $39 a month.
Reason 2, contract: the same page says it is HIPAA-compliant "with BAA coverage". A free tool without a BAA would be a non-starter for PHI; this one clears that bar.
Reason 3, data held: it writes the note and then discards the recording, so no visit audio sits on a vendor server.
That combination fits the physician this site writes for: someone who wants to try ambient documentation this week, alone, without a procurement cycle. Our source for all 3 points is Doximity's own blog, read on 2026-11-12; we couldn't load doximity.com/scribe itself without signing in.
The catch with Doximity Scribe
- Copy and paste. Doximity says summaries work with any EHR "via simple copy and paste". That is fine for 15 visits a day and tedious for 30. Paid scribes push the note into the chart.
- No audio to go back to. Discarding the recording protects privacy, and it also means you can't re-listen when the note says 50 mg and you remember 15. Fix the note while the visit is fresh.
- Vendor-ranked. Doximity's blog ranks Doximity Scribe first in its own list of scribes. We reached the same pick for a different reason (free plus BAA), but read their list with that in mind, as you should read ours.
10 AI scribes compared (captured 2026-11-12)
| Scribe | Sold to | Published price | Security stated | EHR fit | Source, date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doximity Scribe (pick) | Physicians, NPs, PAs, residents | Free | HIPAA, BAA coverage; recording discarded | Copy and paste into any EHR | blog.doximity.com, 2026-11-12 |
| Freed | Individual clinicians and groups | Starter $39 a month (40 notes); Core $59 to $79; Premier $104 to $119, by billing term | HIPAA; organization-wide BAA; doesn't store recordings | 1-click push to browser-based EHRs | getfreed.ai, 2026-11-12 |
| Heidi | Individual clinicians and teams | Free plan; paid plans with a 14-day trial (prices not in page text) | HIPAA listed | EHR integration as an add-on | heidihealth.com, 2026-11-12 |
| DeepCura | Practices | $129 a month or $999 a year per provider | HIPAA and PIPEDA | Epic, athena, eCW, AdvancedMD included | deepcura.com, 2026-11-12 |
| Abridge | Health systems (300+, per Abridge) | Not published | Not stated on home page | Enterprise EHR; also coding specificity and orders | abridge.com, 2026-11-12 |
| Microsoft Dragon Copilot | Organizations, for physicians, nurses, radiologists | Not published | "Enterprise-grade security" (no specifics on page) | Epic named | microsoft.com, 2026-11-12 |
| Nabla | Clinicians and health organizations | "Try it for free"; no price shown | SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA; retention configurable | Epic named | nabla.com, 2026-11-12 |
| Suki | Health systems and practices | Not published | SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA | Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth, MEDITECH | suki.ai, 2026-11-12 |
| Sunoh.ai | Practices (100,000+ providers, per Sunoh) | Not published | HIPAA safeguards stated | athenahealth, Cerner, eClinicalWorks, Epic, ModMed, Practice Fusion, Tebra | sunoh.ai, 2026-11-12 |
| DeepScribe | Oncology practices | Not published | Not stated on home page | "EHRs driving oncology"; pre-visit chart summary | deepscribe.ai, 2026-11-12 |
"Not published" means we looked for a price and found none on the pages we read. 6 of the 10 publish no price; expect a sales call for those.
Runner-ups, and who should pick each
Freed: the paid pick for a solo or small practice
Pick Freed over Doximity when copy and paste is costing you more time than $39 to $119 a month is worth. Freed pushes notes into browser-based EHRs in 1 click, adds ICD-10 codes and patient letters, and offers a 7-day trial without a card. The catch: Starter caps you at 40 notes a month, which a full-time clinic burns in under a week, so most physicians land on Core.
Heidi: the other free start
Heidi's free plan includes 1 seat and unlimited transcription, with limited use of its other features, and paid plans start with a 14-day trial. The catch: paid prices didn't appear in the page text we captured, and we found no BAA statement on the pricing page. Ask before recording a real visit.
DeepCura: 1 price, everything in it
$129 a month (or $999 a year) per provider, with EHR integration for Epic, athena, eCW and AdvancedMD included, and team members with read and edit access free. The catch: you pay for an AI receptionist and fax line you may not want; if you only need notes, cheaper options exist.
Abridge, Dragon Copilot, Nabla, Suki: health system picks
These sell to organizations and live inside the EHR. Abridge states 300+ health systems and Best in KLAS for 2025 and 2026 (its claim). Suki lists real-time integrations with Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth and MEDITECH and holds SOC 2 Type 2. Nabla states 85,000+ clinicians and configurable data retention. Dragon Copilot names Epic. None publishes a price. If you're employed, the choice is usually already made; your job is to learn the review step well.
Sunoh.ai and DeepScribe: fit by EHR or specialty
Sunoh names 7 EHRs, including eClinicalWorks and Tebra, which the enterprise scribes rarely mention. DeepScribe is built for oncology, with oncology codes and a pre-visit chart summary; outside oncology, look elsewhere.
What to check in your first 10 notes
Any scribe you choose, run it on 10 real visits before you trust it with a full day. Check these 5 things against your memory of each visit:
- Drug names, doses and sides (left vs right) in the plan.
- Negatives: "denies chest pain" must not become "chest pain".
- Who said what: patient report vs your exam findings.
- Nothing added that wasn't discussed, especially review-of-systems items.
- How long your edits take. If editing takes longer than typing did, the scribe isn't saving you anything.
A scribe creates the record that the next reviewer will read. If that reviewer is you, months later, on an outside file, that's a different job: see record summaries.
Questions about AI scribes
What is the best free AI scribe for physicians?
Doximity Scribe, which Doximity says is free for physicians, NPs, PAs and residents with BAA coverage. Heidi also has a free plan with unlimited transcription.
Which AI scribe works inside Epic?
Abridge, Microsoft Dragon Copilot, Nabla and Suki each name Epic on their sites, and Sunoh and DeepCura list Epic among their integrations. Ask your Epic team which one your organization licenses.
Do AI scribes keep the audio?
It depends on the vendor. Doximity says it discards the recording, Freed says it doesn't store patient recordings, and Nabla says retention is configurable. Ask every vendor in writing.
Can an AI scribe code my visit?
Some suggest codes: Freed adds ICD-10 codes and Abridge describes coding specificity. You still own every code billed under your NPI. Group coding tools are on the coding page.