Best AI Note Takers for Therapists That Work Without Recording Sessions

If you do not want an AI listening to your therapy sessions, pick a tool that writes the note from your own summary. Note Designer never records sessions at all. AutoNotes, Upheal and SOAPNoteAI sell plans or modes built on typed or dictated input. Blueprint and Twofold record sessions but also accept a typed summary. WellNotes drafts the note from a short summary you type or dictate after the session.

We are WellNotes, so read this with that in mind. To keep it fair, every competitor fact below comes from the vendor's own website, checked on November 3, 2026, with a link. If we could not confirm something on the vendor's site, we left it out. Pricing and features change, so confirm with each vendor before you buy.

Most AI note takers for therapists are ambient scribes: they record the session audio, transcribe it and draft a note from the transcript. Some clinicians and clients are not comfortable with that, and some settings do not allow it. The tools here sit in three groups:

• No session recording at all: the product has no mode that captures the session. You write the input.
• Recording optional: the product can record, but it also writes notes from a typed summary or dictation, and you choose which to use.
• Recording on higher plans only: the entry plan is typed or dictated, and recording unlocks on a more expensive tier.

Dictation is different from session recording. When you dictate, you record your own voice summarizing the session after the client has left. No client speech is captured. Whichever tool you choose, the clinician who signs the note is responsible for its content, and your consent form should describe how you use AI.

Note Designer describes itself as "the leading alternative to AI scribes" and has helped clinicians write notes for over 10 years. Its home page says "No recordings. No transcripts." Notes are built from templates for SOAP, DAP, BIRP, GIRP, SIRP and PIE notes, treatment plans and intake reports, with optional AI to rewrite or summarize what you wrote (notedesigner.com).

Pricing (published): $15 per month or $150 per year for an individual, with unlimited notes and clients and optional AI included. The Workspace tool for saving encrypted drafts on your own computer is $5 more (Note Designer pricing).

Pros: the clearest no-recording design on this list, and the lowest published price. Cons: it is template-driven, so you build the note through structured choices rather than handing over a free-text summary.

AutoNotes says it is trusted by 81,000+ clinicians. Its entry plan, Notes, includes unlimited typed or dictated notes, all core note formats and AI case note formats. In-person recording and recording on Zoom or Google Meet are not part of Notes; they start on the Workspace plan (AutoNotes pricing).

Pricing (published): Notes $19 per month per clinician ($16 billed annually); Workspace $49 per month (a $39 promo price for the first 12 months when we checked); Practice $69 per month. All plans include a free trial without a card.

Pros: an unlimited typed or dictated plan at a low price. Cons: scheduling, telehealth and the fuller AI assistant sit on higher tiers.

Upheal is best known for session capture, but its Free plan is limited to "AI notes via text-to-note, dictation, and uploads only," for individual therapy, with basic SOAP, DAP and Intake note types. Paid plans add in-person and telehealth capture. Upheal says session audio is deleted by default once you get your notes (Upheal pricing).

Pricing (published): Free $0 per month; AI Notes $39 per month flat with unlimited sessions; EHR at $1 per session; EHR Pro $99 per month.

Pros: a genuinely free way to write notes from text or dictation. Cons: the Free plan covers individual therapy only, with three note types; capture of recorded sessions and the full set of note types are on paid plans.

Blueprint is an AI platform you can use alongside your EHR or as an all-in-one EHR. Its pricing page lists progress notes "from live sessions, dictation, or a typed summary," so recording is a choice rather than a requirement (Blueprint pricing).

Pricing (published): Alongside your EHR at $0.99 per session or $69 per seat for unlimited sessions, with 5 free sessions to start; All-in-one EHR at $1.49 per session with a 30-day trial.

Pros: per-session pricing suits a light caseload, and the AI goes beyond notes into treatment plans and letters. Cons: on the alongside-your-EHR plan you copy notes into your EHR; saving straight to the chart needs Blueprint's own EHR.

Twofold is an AI scribe for clinicians across specialties, including mental health. It lists four capture modes: live session capture, dictating a summary, typing rough notes, and uploading a recording (trytwofold.com).

Pricing (published): free for a week, then $19 for the first month. The regular price depends on whether you bill monthly or annually, so check the page.

Pros: typed rough notes are a first-class input, and one tool covers many specialties. Cons: it serves many specialties beyond therapy, so therapy templates sit beside medical ones.

SOAPNoteAI turns sessions, shorthand, dictation and recordings into SOAP notes. Its pricing page separates "audio notes" from "text notes," where a text note means "you paste or type your own notes and we format them (no recording)" (SOAPNoteAI pricing).

Pricing (published): up to 20 SOAP notes free to start. Lite $29 per month (30 audio notes), Standard $69 per month (unlimited audio notes) and Pro $79 per month (unlimited, including text and shorthand). A one-time pack at $59 includes 5 audio notes and 100 text notes, valid for a year.

Pros: the credit pack is a cheap way to write mostly typed notes. Cons: unlimited typed notes need the top Pro plan, and the product leans toward SOAP.

WellNotes is a note writing tool built around a summary you write after the session. You type or dictate a few lines about what happened, choose one of 15 formats, and WellNotes drafts the note for you to review and copy into your EHR.

• Input: a typed summary, dictation of your own summary, or an uploaded audio file. There is no mode that listens to or captures the session itself. Dictation and audio upload unlock after the 3-day trial, and WellNotes does not store the audio.
• Formats: 15, including SOAP, DAP, BIRP, GIRP, PIE, SIRP, intake, risk assessment and treatment plans.
• Where notes live: saved notes stay in your browser on that device, and they are cleared when you log out, so copy or export each note first.
• Pricing: Starter $27 per month (50 notes) and Professional $38 per month (unlimited notes), per clinician. A first subscription starts with a 3-day trial, and a card is required.

Pros: designed for the write-from-your-notes workflow from the start, with a wide set of formats. Cons: not an EHR, no cloud sync, and not the cheapest option here. You can test the workflow on the free SOAP note generator or DAP note generator, which write one note per day.

Prices and features as listed on each vendor's site on November 3, 2026. We left out tools whose input options we could not confirm on their own site.

• You want no AI session capture in the product at all: Note Designer, or WellNotes if you would rather write a free-text summary than fill in templates.
• You want the lowest monthly cost for unlimited typed notes: Note Designer at $15 or AutoNotes Notes at $19.
• You want to pay nothing: Upheal's Free plan for individual therapy notes from text or dictation.
• You might record some sessions later: Blueprint, Twofold or Upheal, which do both.

Whatever you pick, the note still has to support the service you bill. Our guide to writing therapy progress notes fast covers what to put in your summary, and the code pages for 90834 and 90837 cover time documentation. For a wider look at the market, including tools that record, see our therapy note software comparison, and for budget picks see the free and low-cost AI note takers.