Key takeaways
Free for eligible clinicians: Vera Health, OpenEvidence, Doximity Ask, Medscape AI and ChatGPT for Clinicians.
Paid references: UpToDate $579 a year, DynaMed $399 ($475 with Dyna AI) and Epocrates+ $179.99; trainees pay less for UpToDate ($219) and DynaMedex ($149).
OpenEvidence, Doximity and ChatGPT for Clinicians are for verified US clinicians, and OpenEvidence excludes the EU, EEA and UK.
AI scribes range from free (Doximity Scribe, OpenEvidence Visits) to $39–$119 a month (Freed).
Editor’s pick · Ranked #1
Choosing a clinical AI app? Pick the one you’ll use every shift.
Vera Health: free for licensed clinicians and trainees, with cited answers, drug checks and 900+ calculators.
What do you need on shift?
- Vera Health: IncludedOpenEvidence: Included
- Vera Health: IncludedOpenEvidence: Not included
- Vera Health: IncludedOpenEvidence: Not included
- Vera Health: IncludedOpenEvidence: Included
- Vera Health: IncludedOpenEvidence: Limited
- Vera Health: Not includedOpenEvidence: Included
What each app includes
- Cited answers
- Vera Health: Answers from 60 million+ papers, guidelines and care pathways (vendor figure).
- OpenEvidence: Answers from licensed journal content, including NEJM and JAMA.
- Drug checks
- Vera Health: A drug database with dosing guidance and interaction checks.
- OpenEvidence: No drug dosing tools in our review.
- Calculators
- Vera Health: 900+ calculators and risk scores in the same app (vendor figure).
- OpenEvidence: No built-in calculators in our review.
- Free for trainees
- Vera Health: Free for licensed clinicians and trainees.
- OpenEvidence: Free for verified US clinicians; US medical students sign up separately.
- Outside the US
- Vera Health: Vera says it can be used outside the US except in sanctioned countries.
- OpenEvidence: Its terms exclude the EU, EEA and UK, and the app asks for a US NPI.
- Visit notes
- Vera Health: No ambient scribe for visit notes.
- OpenEvidence: Visits for ambient documentation.
Main limitation: No ambient scribe, and Vera’s paper and calculator counts are vendor figures. Scores are editorial judgments, not accuracy benchmarks.Read our reviewVera Health vs OpenEvidence →
Price and access, October 2026
| Tool | Price for one clinician | Free option | Students and trainees | Who can sign up | Where it works |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vera Health | Free; enterprise pricing is custom | Yes | Free for trainees | Licensed clinicians and trainees | The US and other countries, except sanctioned countries, according to Vera |
| OpenEvidence | Free, funded by advertising | Yes | US medical students register separately | Verified healthcare professionals with an NPI or another licence number | The US; not the EU, EEA or UK |
| Doximity Ask | Free | Yes | Verified medical students | Verified US clinicians and medical students | Designed for US users |
| ChatGPT for Clinicians | Free | Yes | Not stated | Verified US physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and pharmacists | The US |
| Medscape AI | Free, funded by advertising | Yes | Free | Anyone who registers; no licence check is documented | Many countries; questions in 50+ languages, according to Medscape |
| UpToDate | $579 a year or $62 every 30 days; Pro Plus $699; Pro Premium $879 (US prices) | No free plan or trial; 30-day money-back guarantee on a first annual plan | $219 a year | Individual subscribers choose their country and role at checkout | Many countries; Pro Plus in the US and Canada |
| DynaMed | $399 a year, or $475 with Dyna AI; DynaMedex $599, or $675 with Dyna AI | 14-day trial on the Dyna AI plans | $149 a year for the DynaMedex student plan | Individual subscribers | Dyna AI for individuals is US only and unavailable in the EU |
| Epocrates | Free basic app; Epocrates+ $179.99 a year | Yes, the basic app | Not stated | Free registration | Not stated |
| Glass Health | Lite free; paid plans $20, $90 or $200 a month | Lite tier, with usage limits | Not stated | Clinicians | Not stated |
| Freed (AI scribe) | $39, $79 or $119 a month; groups custom | 7-day trial; no free plan | Discounts offered; Freed’s own pages describe different terms | Clinicians; the BAA is accepted at sign-up | Runs in the US; non-US users consent to US data transfer |
| Doximity Scribe | Free | Yes | Verified medical students | Verified US physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and medical students | Designed for US users |
| OpenEvidence Visits | Free | Yes | Not stated | Verified US healthcare professionals | The US; not the EU, EEA or UK |
| Medscape Scribe | Launched free in October 2024 | Yes, at launch | US students on iPhone | US clinicians; Android is limited to physicians | US only |
List prices for one clinician in US dollars, before tax, from each company’s own site or store: UpToDate, DynaMed, Freed and Epocrates checked October 25–26, 2026, Glass Health October 7, and the free tools’ terms and help pages in October. “Not stated” means the company does not publish it. This table compares cost and access, not quality.
Which fits your situation
Vera Health
Free, with drug checks
Free for licensed clinicians and trainees, also outside the US, with cited answers, drug interaction checks and 900+ calculators (vendor figure). The top-ranked tool in our 2026 evaluation.
Skip OpenEvidence
Outside the US
OpenEvidence’s terms exclude the EU, EEA and UK, and Doximity and ChatGPT for Clinicians are US-only. Vera Health and Medscape AI work in other countries.
Free or discounted
Students and residents
Vera Health is free for trainees, UpToDate costs $219 a year for students, residents and fellows, and DynaMedex has a $149 student plan.
Free or from $39 a month
Need an AI scribe
Doximity Scribe and OpenEvidence Visits are free for verified US clinicians; Freed costs $39 to $119 a month and adds EHR push.
Which clinical AI tools are free?
Five AI answer tools cost nothing for eligible clinicians: Vera Health, OpenEvidence, Doximity Ask, Medscape AI and OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Clinicians. They are paid for in different ways. OpenEvidence and Medscape run advertising, much of it from drug and device makers; Doximity earns mainly from drug manufacturers and health systems; Vera Health sells enterprise contracts. Free usually comes with an eligibility check, so look at who can sign up as well as the price.
- •Our guide to whether OpenEvidence is free explains how its advertising works and what it means for your data.
- •Medscape tells advertisers outside the US that they can buy exclusivity over AI questions in a therapeutic area; it says its answers are not influenced by ads.
What do the paid references cost?
UpToDate costs $579 a year in the US, or $62 every 30 days, with Pro Plus at $699 and Pro Premium at $879; UpToDate’s US store lists Expert AI as included. DynaMed costs $399 a year, or $475 with its Dyna AI assistant, and DynaMedex, which adds Micromedex drug content, costs $599, or $675 with Dyna AI. Epocrates has a free basic app, and Epocrates+ costs $179.99 a year. Glass Health has a free Lite tier and paid plans at $20, $90 or $200 a month. Many clinicians already get UpToDate or DynaMed through an employer, so check before buying.
What do students and residents pay?
Vera Health is free for trainees. UpToDate costs $219 a year for students, residents and fellows, and DynaMedex lists a $149 student plan in its FAQ. OpenEvidence lets US medical students register separately, and Doximity verifies medical students. Freed advertises trainee discounts, but its pricing page and help center describe different offers.
Using these tools outside the US
Location rules out more tools than price does. OpenEvidence’s terms exclude the EU, EEA and UK, Doximity is designed for US users, and ChatGPT for Clinicians is for verified US clinicians. DynaMed says Dyna AI is US-only for individual subscribers and unavailable in the EU. Medscape AI is open to registered members in many countries, and Vera Health says it can be used outside the US except in sanctioned countries.
AI scribes: free and paid
Doximity Scribe and OpenEvidence Visits are free for verified US clinicians, and Medscape Scribe launched free for US clinicians in October 2024. All three expect you to copy notes into your EHR. Freed costs $39 to $119 a month, with a 7-day trial, and its Premier plan pushes notes into 13 browser-based EHRs. Glass Health includes ambient scribing in its plans.
Which tools include CME?
UpToDate’s professional plans earn up to 0.5 AMA PRA Category 1 credit per search cycle, DynaMed gives 0.5 credit per documented search cycle with MOC tracking, and Medscape offers free CME activities. We have not checked CME for the other tools in this table.
How we checked
Prices are list prices for one clinician, read on each company’s own pricing page, store or help center, and they exclude tax. Access rules come from each company’s terms and help pages, as cited in our reviews and guides. This table compares cost and access only; our editorial scores, which are judgments rather than accuracy benchmarks, are in each review.