Publisher disclosure: ClinicFrame publishes this comparison and is included below. Recommendations are editorial judgments based on current first-party documentation and psychiatry-specific workflow requirements; we did not conduct a head-to-head clinical trial.
Short answer: For the most psychiatry-specific individual-clinician workflow, start with PMHScribe. Mentalyc is a strong choice when a practice combines psychotherapy and prescribing. Heidi and Twofold are flexible multi-specialty options worth benchmarking. ClinicFrame fits clinicians who want a focused desktop workflow and custom psychiatric note structures. None should be selected until it has been tested on medication changes, MSE attribution, risk language, and the final EHR transfer.
Psychiatric documentation contains failure modes that a generic visit summary can hide. A fluent note can omit a dose change, turn a patient report into an observed finding, overstate a denial into a full risk conclusion, or merge psychotherapy content into the medical record. Those errors may be small in word count and large in clinical consequence. The best psychiatry scribe is therefore not the one that writes the longest or most polished note; it is the one that preserves the distinctions a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner must verify.
The APA Publishing review of AI scribes in psychiatry describes both the potential benefits and the need to manage privacy, hallucinations, bias, and the nuanced nature of psychiatric care. That balanced frame informs this guide. Every product still produces a draft. The treating professional remains responsible for the assessment, prescribing decision, risk evaluation, coding, and signed record.
We separate purpose-built psychiatric tools from broad medical scribes and focused documentation apps. A solo outpatient prescriber, a therapy-plus-medication practice, and an enterprise psychiatry department may rationally choose different products. Use this list to build a shortlist, then run a controlled pilot with representative, authorized scenarios.
Best options at a glance
- Best psychiatry-specific option: PMHScribe, for psychiatric formatting, medication management, psychotherapy add-ons, and provider-focused privacy controls.
- Best combined therapy and prescribing platform: Mentalyc, for behavioral-health templates spanning therapy, psychiatric evaluations, and medication workflows.
- Best flexible free benchmark: Heidi, for broad template and language support with an unlimited standard-documentation tier.
- Best browser-based generalist: Twofold, for cross-device capture and published behavioral-health/privacy details.
- Best focused ClinicFrame workflow: ClinicFrame, for desktop telehealth capture without a meeting bot, dictation, and custom psychiatric structures.
How we compared these AI scribes
We checked the products and source pages on August 23, 2026. Vendor terms, prices, and features change, so follow the linked source and verify the current contract before processing real records.
- We prioritized support for psychiatric evaluations, medication-management follow-ups, mental status examinations, psychotherapy add-ons, treatment plans, and patient instructions.
- We looked for explicit control of attribution: patient report, collateral report, clinician observation, and assessment must not collapse into one voice.
- We reviewed public capture, BAA, audio, retention, training, access, and EHR-transfer information, while treating vendor statements as claims to confirm contractually.
- We considered the ability to preserve dose, frequency, route, adherence, side effects, changes, risk actions, and follow-up without implying that the scribe makes clinical decisions.
- We did not award accuracy scores because the vendors do not publish one comparable, independent psychiatry benchmark using the same encounters and rubric.
Side-by-side comparison
| Tool | Best fit | What we verified | Main limitation to test |
|---|---|---|---|
| PMHScribe | psychiatry-specific documentation | Psychiatric formatting, medication management, psychotherapy add-ons, BAA availability, no stored audio, and $99 monthly psychiatry plan | Smaller, specialist platform; verify EHR fit, support capacity, and current security documentation for your organization |
| Mentalyc | practices combining therapy and medication management | Psychiatric evaluation and medication templates, broad therapy workflows, signed BAA access, EHR browser extension, and published data-use answers | Its therapy-insight ecosystem may exceed the needs of a prescribing-only practice |
| Heidi | a flexible multi-specialty benchmark with a free tier | Unlimited standard notes on the free plan, advanced templates on paid tiers, 110+ language claim, and published security controls | Psychiatry is not the sole product focus; advanced template and team workflows may require paid plans |
| Twofold | cross-device psychiatry and behavioral-health use | Psychiatry and behavioral-health templates, in-person/telehealth/dictation inputs, published BAA and no-training statements, and personal pricing | Multi-specialty defaults may need careful psychiatric template configuration |
| ClinicFrame | a focused desktop psychiatric note workflow | Mac/Windows capture, telehealth system audio without a bot, dictation, custom formats, patient-history features, and copy/PDF handoff | No direct EHR integration and unresolved public wording about BAA/training terms |
The best AI scribes for this workflow
1. PMHScribe: best for psychiatry-specific documentation
PMHScribe is the most direct answer for an individual psychiatrist or PMHNP who wants a product designed around psychiatric rather than general medical documentation. Its official page describes psychiatric formatting, medication management, psychotherapy add-ons, patient medication education, ambient capture, and post-visit dictation. The psychiatry plan is currently listed at $99 per month or $999 yearly, while group pricing requires contact. Confirm current checkout terms before budgeting.
Its privacy page states that it does not save an audio recording, retains transcripts and completed notes until the customer deletes them, offers a BAA for practices, encrypts data at rest, and does not use customer data to train models. That is a useful level of specificity because “no recording” does not mean “no retained text.” A practice can decide whether the transcript/note retention controls fit its policy and ask how backups, support access, and account termination are handled.
The reason to trial PMHScribe is not a marketing superlative; it is the narrower workflow. Test an initial evaluation, a short medication follow-up, a combined E/M and psychotherapy encounter, and a risk-sensitive visit. Verify that psychotherapy content stays appropriately separated, medication changes are exact, the MSE contains only supported findings, and the final note fits your EHR without extensive reformatting.
Verify it: PMHScribe official HIPAA and pricing page.
2. Mentalyc: best for practices combining therapy and medication management
Mentalyc is a strong second choice for practices where prescribers and therapists share a behavioral-health ecosystem. The official FAQs state that it supports PMHNP workflows, psychiatric evaluations, medication management, customizable note layouts, and a browser extension for inserting notes into web-based EHRs. That can be valuable for a group trying to standardize documentation across therapy and prescribing without forcing both roles into a generic medical template.
The same FAQs describe BAA access, model-training terms, and audio handling. Read those sections together: certain audio is temporarily used and retained for a stated period to support note generation, while other features have their own behavior. A psychiatric practice should map each enabled feature, not rely on the shortest privacy sentence. Also decide whether longitudinal insights are appropriate for the intended record and who may access them.
Trial Mentalyc if psychotherapy documentation is a central part of the practice. Score whether medication lists, dose changes, side effects, and risk actions receive the same precision as therapy interventions and progress. Ask how psychiatric and psychotherapy records are separated, how shared templates are governed, and whether the EHR extension places each section in the correct chart fields.
Verify it: Mentalyc official FAQs.
3. Heidi: best for a flexible multi-specialty benchmark with a free tier
Heidi is useful as a benchmark because its free tier currently offers unlimited standard documentation and its transcription product claims broad language support, multi-speaker handling, offline transcription, and specialty adaptation. A psychiatrist can test whether a general clinical platform captures the structure of common visits before purchasing advanced templates or team capabilities.
Heidi states that audio is not stored after processing and publishes several security and privacy certifications. Those claims support a shortlist, not a complete vendor review. Confirm the US BAA process for the exact account, where transcripts and notes remain, whether evidence or assistant features send additional context through different workflows, and which controls are available on the selected tier.
The most important test is discipline. Generate a note from a visit containing a historical diagnosis, a current symptom report, an observed MSE, a dose adjustment, and a safety discussion. Check whether Heidi keeps each source and time frame distinct. A generalist that needs two minutes of corrections may beat a specialist that needs ten; a polished draft with one unsupported risk statement should fail regardless of speed.
Verify it: Heidi official pricing and transcription page.
4. Twofold: best for cross-device psychiatry and behavioral-health use
Twofold offers a browser-based workflow across desktop and mobile, with in-person, telehealth, dictation, typed, and upload inputs described on its official site. Its behavioral-health material includes multiple note formats and coding-related features. The current personal price is listed as $69 monthly or $49 per month billed annually, with a trial; promotional offers can vary, so use the live pricing page when deciding.
Its security page states that a BAA is available for healthcare customers, recordings are not retained on its servers, patient data is not used for model training, and PHI is hosted on US infrastructure. A group should validate these claims through the agreement and security review and determine how transcripts, notes, user access, and administrative visibility are handled.
Shortlist Twofold if device flexibility and fast onboarding matter more than a psychiatry-only product. Build approved templates for initial evaluation, medication follow-up, and any psychotherapy add-on before judging it. Pay particular attention to the boundary between a symptom mentioned in conversation and a finding the clinician actually assessed.
Verify it: Twofold official behavioral-health page.
5. ClinicFrame: best for a focused desktop psychiatric note workflow
ClinicFrame is our product, and its best case is deliberately narrow: a psychiatrist or PMHNP who wants a focused desktop application for in-person visits, telehealth capture without an extra meeting participant, or dictation after the visit. Custom formats can be configured for evaluations, medication follow-ups, and other psychiatric records, and patient-history tools can help surface prior chart context for clinician review.
ClinicFrame does not currently send notes directly into an EHR. The reviewed draft is copied or exported, which keeps implementation simple but adds a handoff that should be timed and risk-assessed. Large organizations may prefer an enterprise system with discrete field integration, role governance, and centralized deployment. A solo clinician may prefer a smaller surface area, provided the final transfer is reliable.
ClinicFrame includes a signed BAA with every account, on every plan, and states that patient content is never used to train AI models, ours or any third party's. Because we publish this comparison, commercial interest is not a reason to lower the evidence bar: confirm the agreement and data-use terms directly before processing PHI, exactly as you would with any other vendor on this list.
Verify it: ClinicFrame psychiatry and PMHNP workflow.
The five psychiatric fields to verify every time
Psychiatric notes often depend on small details that ambient drafting can omit or normalize. A medication line needs the correct drug, strength, route, frequency, adherence, adverse effects, and actual change. A risk section needs the assessment performed, relevant statements, protective factors, actions, consultation, disposition, and follow-up—not a confident conclusion inferred from one denial. A mental status examination must distinguish what was observed from what was reported.
The clinician should review these fields before polishing prose. If a product repeatedly misses them, a more elegant template will not fix the underlying fit. Use the mental status exam template and examples to define supported domains, while avoiding default normal findings for anything not assessed.
- Medication identity, dose, route, frequency, adherence, side effects, and changes.
- Patient report versus collateral report versus clinician observation.
- MSE domains actually observed or elicited, including limitations of telehealth.
- Risk statements, assessment steps, actions, consultation, disposition, and follow-up.
- Assessment and plan language that reflects the clinician's decision rather than model inference.
Test four visits, not one demo
A routine medication check is too easy to establish a winner. Use de-identified simulations or properly authorized encounters representing the practice: a comprehensive evaluation, a brief medication follow-up with a dose change, a combined E/M and psychotherapy visit, and a complex telehealth encounter with collateral information or safety content. Configure the approved template first and reuse the same facts in every product.
Score unsupported content, omissions, attribution, chronology, medication fidelity, MSE grounding, risk fidelity, and time to a signed note inside the EHR. Weight errors by consequence. A missing comma is not comparable to a missing taper instruction or an invented denial. The AI medical scribe accuracy guide provides a repeatable measurement framework.
Psychotherapy notes and the medical record are not interchangeable
HHS defines psychotherapy notes narrowly and gives separately maintained notes additional protections; progress notes and medication records in the general chart do not become psychotherapy notes merely because the visit included therapy. A product that captures everything may make it easier to put too much into the wrong record. Define which template feeds the medical record, which content stays separate, and which content should not be retained by the tool at all.
Review HHS guidance on psychotherapy notes and the requirements that apply to your setting. This article is not legal advice. Product features cannot decide record classification for you.
Procurement questions for a psychiatry practice
Ask for the BAA and security materials before real PHI enters a trial. Map audio, transcript, note, patient-history context, support access, backups, and model-improvement paths separately. Confirm retention and deletion at the record and account level. For groups, test roles, shared templates, audit logs, offboarding, and what administrators can see. Use the BAA guide and consent guide as starting checklists.
Finally, ask how the product changes after an update. A template or model revision can alter omission and phrasing patterns. Keep a small regression set of authorized simulations and rerun it after meaningful changes. Safe adoption is a monitored documentation process, not a one-time purchasing decision.
Final recommendation
PMHScribe is the clearest psychiatry-specific starting point. Mentalyc is compelling for combined therapy and prescribing workflows. Heidi and Twofold provide strong multi-specialty benchmarks with different pricing and device models. ClinicFrame belongs in the trial when its desktop capture and custom formats fit; it includes a signed BAA with every account and states that patient content is never used to train AI models, and you should read that agreement before real PHI use.
The final decision should come from your hardest notes. Pick the product that preserves medication and risk details, keeps observation and report separate, supports the right record boundaries, and reaches the EHR with the fewest clinically meaningful corrections. The psychiatrist or PMHNP remains responsible for every signed statement.
