At a glance
Four jobs, four categories. Almost nobody needs all four on day one.
Written by the team at Personify, which builds one of the tools listed below. Our entry sits in its own client-facing section rather than at the top, and we have not ranked ourselves against products that do a different job. Every description below comes from the vendor's own website, checked in October 2026.
| Tool | What it does | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Upheal | AI session notes and treatment plans, inside a full EHR built for therapists | Solo and group practices that want notes and EHR in one place |
| Mentalyc | AI notes in SOAP, DAP, BIRP and other formats, plus treatment plans and progress tracking | Clinicians who want to keep their current EHR and export into it |
| Blueprint | AI notes, session prep, progress tracking and billing follow-up, alongside your EHR or as one | Practices from solo to larger organizations |
| Freed | AI scribe for independent clinics, with mental health and psychiatry among its specialties | Clinicians in small, independent practices |
| SimplePractice | EHR and practice management: scheduling, telehealth, notes, insurance billing, client portal | Practices that need the admin backbone first |
| ChatGPT / Claude | General drafting: emails, blog posts, handouts, policy wording | Almost everyone, for non-clinical writing |
| Psychology Today | Directory where people search for a therapist by location and concern | Practices that need to be found |
| Personify | A text clone of your public content that answers prospective clients’ practical questions | Therapists fielding the same pre-booking questions every week |
The important line runs between the first seven and the last one. Everything above Personify is clinician-facing or a listing. It helps you do your work or get found. A clone is client-facing: it answers the practical questions people ask before they book. Those are not competing purchases.
Notes and documentation
The category with the clearest time saving, and the one most therapists mean by AI.
Progress notes are the paperwork that follows you home. Every tool in this group captures a session, by recording, upload, dictation or a typed summary, and drafts the note for you to review. Mentalyc leans hardest into format choice (SOAP, DAP, BIRP and more) and exports to EHRs including SimplePractice, TherapyNotes and Jane App. Upheal pairs notes with a full EHR, so it competes with your practice software as well as your notetaker. Blueprint calls itself an AI support system for therapists and goes wider, into session prep, progress tracking and billing follow-up. Freed is a general clinical scribe for independent clinics that lists mental health among its specialties.
The differences are fit, not quality: which note formats you need, whether you want to switch EHR, and how you capture sessions. Run two of them in parallel on real sessions for a few weeks before committing.
Two habits matter more than the tool. Get informed consent before recording anything, and read every note before it goes into the record. Each vendor publishes its own security and compliance claims; read them yourself and ask for a Business Associate Agreement if you need one.
Practice admin
Not glamorous, but it is where the non-clinical hours go.
Scheduling, intake forms, telehealth, insurance claims and payments are the backbone of a practice. SimplePractice is the established name here. Its homepage covers scheduling, integrated telehealth, a note template library, insurance and billing tools and a client portal, and does not lead with AI. Upheal and Blueprint both offer an EHR option too, which is the trend to watch: the notes tools are turning into practice software, and the practice software is adding AI.
If you are happy with your EHR, pick a notes tool that exports into it. If you are about to switch EHR anyway, compare the all-in-one options before buying two products.
Intake and marketing
Getting found, and writing the things people read before they book.
Psychology Today is not an AI tool, but it belongs on any honest list because it is where many people start looking. Its directory lets people search by location and by concern, such as anxiety, depression or EMDR.
ChatGPT and Claude are the cheapest useful AI for the writing around your practice: your about page, a plain-English explanation of how you work, a cancellation policy, a newsletter, a handout. Keep anything identifying about clients out of them, and check every claim before you publish. A general model will state something confidently and wrongly, in sentences that read exactly like the correct ones.
The writing you produce here is also exactly what a client-facing clone learns from, which is where the next category comes in.
Client-facing AI
The category the other lists leave out.
Every tool above helps you work faster. None of them help when someone visits your site at 11pm wondering whether you work with couples, what a session costs, whether you take their insurance, or what the first appointment is like. Those questions decide whether they book, and right now they wait for your inbox.
This is what Personify does. You build a text clone from your own public material: your website, your about page, your FAQ, your blog posts, the handouts and between-session resources you already share. Visitors ask their practical questions and get answers drawn from what you have written, about your approach, your fees, who you work with and what to expect, in 100+ languages, at whatever hour they asked. When someone needs a resource you have already published, it can point them to it.
Be clear about what it is. A clone of your public content is a front desk for information, not a clinician. It does not provide therapy, assess anyone, diagnose anything or handle emergencies, and it should say so where it lives.
Where a clone is the wrong tool
- Anything clinical. Therapy, assessment and diagnosis stay with you.
- Crisis or emergencies. Point people to crisis services, never to a chatbot.
- Client records or session content. Train it on public material only, never on notes.
- Practices whose bottleneck is note writing. Buy a notes tool instead, it is a better fit.
- Anything your licensing board or professional body has not cleared. Check before, not after.
Personify is free to start, with Pro at $39/month, or $29/month billed yearly. See pricing, or read what an AI clone costs across the market. Done-for-you builds are scoped on a discovery call.
A note on crisis
Whatever you put on your site, plan for the visitor who is not okay.
People sometimes reach out to a therapist's website at their worst moment. No AI tool on this page, ours included, is a crisis service. If you put any AI where prospective clients can reach it, put crisis resources next to it, in plain sight.
If you are reading this in crisis: in the US, call or text 988 for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Elsewhere, call your local emergency number or a local crisis line. If you are in immediate danger, call emergency services now.
For more on where general chatbots stop being appropriate, see our guide to the ChatGPT therapist prompt, and what it cannot do.
How to choose
Pick by bottleneck, not by feature list.
Track where your non-clinical hours go for two weeks before buying anything. The answer is usually one of four things, and each points at a different category.
- Notes after every session. Buy a notes tool. Trial two on real sessions, keep one.
- Scheduling, billing and claims. Fix your EHR first. AI on top of a messy back office stays messy.
- Writing for your website. A general model plus your own judgment. Cheapest fix on this page.
- The same pre-booking questions, endlessly. A client-facing clone. This is the only category that answers the question instead of speeding up yours.
Buying across two categories at once is how software goes unopened. Fix the loudest one, live with it for a quarter, then look again. Coaches face a similar choice, covered in how to get coaching clients, and advisors in AI tools for financial advisors. If you are comparing clone platforms, start with Personify alternatives.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best AI tools for therapists?
It depends on the job. For session notes and treatment plans, the dedicated tools are Upheal, Mentalyc, Blueprint and Freed. For running the practice, an EHR such as SimplePractice or Upheal's EHR. For drafting emails, blog posts and handouts, a general assistant like ChatGPT or Claude. For answering prospective clients' questions about your approach, fees and fit, a client-facing AI clone trained on your own public material.
Can AI replace a therapist?
No. None of the tools on this page provide therapy, and none should be presented to clients as if they do. The useful AI in a therapy practice either takes paperwork off your plate or answers routine practical questions so you have more time for the clinical work only you can do.
Is it safe to use an AI note taker for therapy sessions?
The note-taking tools on this page market themselves to therapists and publish their own security and compliance claims. Read those claims, ask for a Business Associate Agreement if you are a US covered entity, get informed client consent before recording, and review every note before it goes into the record. The note is still yours, and so is the responsibility for it.
What is an AI assistant for therapists?
The phrase covers two different things. Most products called an AI assistant for therapists are clinician-facing: they help you write notes, plan treatment or handle billing. A client-facing assistant is different: it sits on your website and answers prospective clients' practical questions from material you have already published. Know which one you are buying.
Should an AI clone answer questions from clients in crisis?
No. A clone of your public content is not a crisis service and should not be positioned as one. Put crisis resources on the page where the clone lives, such as 988 in the US (call or text) or your local emergency number, and tell visitors plainly that the clone cannot help in an emergency.
How much do AI tools for therapists cost?
Pricing moves often, so check with each vendor. As of October 2026, Upheal lists a free plan and AI Notes at $39/month, Mentalyc says plans start at $14.99/month billed annually, and Freed lists plans starting at $39/month. Personify is free to start, with Pro at $39/month or $29/month billed yearly.