Key takeaways
Free for residents: Vera Health, OpenEvidence (with an NPI), Doximity Ask and Scribe, ChatGPT for Clinicians for eligible US clinicians, and the MDCalc app.
Trainee prices: UpToDate $219 a year, AMBOSS $149 a year for residents, and DynaMedex through ACP resident membership.
Freed offers trainees 12 months of its Core scribe plan at no cost; Doximity Scribe and OpenEvidence Visits are free.
AI use is routine: 71% of more than 15,000 family medicine residents surveyed had used AI for work in the past month.
What residents pay, October 2026
| App | What residents pay | What you get | How to sign up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vera Health | Free | Cited answers, drug checks and 900+ calculators; CME credit per search, according to Vera | Choose Resident/Fellow at sign-up and verify your status |
| OpenEvidence | Free, funded by advertising | Cited answers from licensed journals; free CME for physicians, NPs and PAs | An NPI or other licence number; students upload proof of status |
| Doximity | Free | Ask AI assistant and Scribe | A verified Doximity account; Scribe is for US physicians, NPs, PAs, CRNAs and their students |
| ChatGPT for Clinicians | Free | Cited clinical search, deep research and CME | Verified US physicians, NPs, PAs or pharmacists with an NPI; residents are not mentioned and students are not eligible |
| UpToDate | $219 a year | Full UpToDate content; Expert AI for US and Canadian trainees; no CME | Proof of training within 30 days |
| AMBOSS | $149 a year or $19.99 a month | Clinical knowledge library; AI Mode is included for now, with a waitlist, according to AMBOSS | Resident plan |
| DynaMedex | Included with ACP resident membership; $149 student plan | DynaMed topics plus Micromedex drug content; Dyna AI through ACP | ACP membership or the student plan |
| MDCalc | Free app; CME from $299 a year | 900+ calculators (vendor figure); no AI feature yet | Free registration |
| Epocrates | Free basic app; epocrates+ $179.99 a year | Drug reference and interaction checker; epocrates+ adds an AI Assist beta | No resident discount listed |
| Freed (AI scribe) | 12 months of Core at no cost, then up to 50% off Premier | Ambient visit notes; Premier adds EHR push and coding suggestions | Proof of enrollment and expected completion date |
From each company’s own pricing, terms and help pages, checked October 26, 2026, in US dollars. Vendor figures are labeled as such. Resident eligibility is noted where the company states it; where it does not, the sign-up rule is shown.
The best pick for each job
Vera Health
One free app on shift
Free for trainees, with cited answers, drug interaction checks and 900+ calculators (vendor figure) in one app. It has no ambient scribe.
UpToDate or AMBOSS
A full reference
UpToDate’s trainee plan is $219 a year with Expert AI in the US and Canada; AMBOSS is $149 a year for residents. Check whether your program already pays for one.
Doximity Scribe or OpenEvidence Visits
Notes and charting
Both are free for verified US clinicians; Freed gives trainees 12 months of Core at no cost. Ask your program before recording patients.
MDCalc or Vera Health
Calculators
MDCalc’s app is free with registration; Vera Health builds 900+ calculators (vendor figure) into the same app as its answers.
Which AI apps are free for residents?
Several strong tools cost residents nothing. Vera Health is free for licensed clinicians and trainees, with Resident/Fellow as a sign-up role. OpenEvidence is free for verified healthcare professionals who register with an NPI or other licence number, which most US residents have; it is paid for by advertising and is not available in the EU, EEA or UK. Doximity’s Ask is free for verified accounts, and its Scribe is free for US physicians. OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Clinicians is free for verified US physicians, NPs, PAs and pharmacists with an NPI; its help page does not mention residents. MDCalc’s calculator app is free with registration.
Paying for a reference: UpToDate, AMBOSS or DynaMed
If your program does not provide a reference, compare three trainee options.
- •UpToDate: $219 a year for students, residents and fellows with proof of training. It includes the full content and, for trainees in the US or Canada, Expert AI, but no CME credit.
- •AMBOSS: $149 a year or $19.99 a month on its resident plan. AMBOSS says its AI Mode is included in all subscriptions for now, with a waitlist.
- •DynaMedex: included with ACP resident membership, including Dyna AI; DynaMed lists a $149 student plan but no separate resident price.
AI scribes for residents
Doximity Scribe is free for US physicians, NPs, PAs, CRNAs and their students, and records visits of up to 140 minutes; OpenEvidence Visits is free for verified US healthcare professionals. Both expect you to copy the note into the EHR. Freed gives students, residents and fellows 12 months of its Core plan at no cost and up to 50% off Premier for 24 months. Main limitation: many hospitals restrict which AI tools can record patients, so ask your program and get patient consent before you start.
How residents use AI
AI is now part of training. In a national survey of more than 15,000 family medicine residents in October 2025, published in Family Medicine in 2026, 71% had used AI for work in the past month, but only 36% of those users had received AI training in the previous six months. A JAMA study of OpenEvidence’s logs found residents and fellows sent 27.2% of physicians’ queries; OpenEvidence supplied the data and three of its employees were co-authors.
Before you use AI on shift
A few rules apply whichever app you choose.
- •Check your program’s and hospital’s AI policy, and whether an institutional account is available.
- •Do not enter patient identifiers unless the tool has a business associate agreement that covers you and your organization approves it.
- •Open the cited sources before an answer changes patient care, and tell your attending when AI informed a decision.