How much does UpToDate cost?

UpToDate pricing: From $559/year Individual. UpToDate is ranked #5 of 7 in The Clinical AI Report's 2025 evaluation with a 4.1/5 rating.

What is UpToDate rated?

UpToDate received a 4.1/5 rating based on 2,150 physician reviews in The Clinical AI Report's 2025 evaluation, ranking #5 of 7 platforms.

Does UpToDate integrate with EHR systems?

UpToDate does not currently offer direct EHR integration. Its features include: Evidence-Based Clinical Topics, Drug Information Database, Medical Calculators, Patient Education Materials, Graphics & Imaging Library, CME Credit Tracking, AI-Enhanced Search, GRADE Evidence Ratings, Mobile App, Institutional Licensing.

Ranked #5 of 7

UpToDate

Item: UpToDate
Rating: 4.1
Author: The Clinical AI Report

The Gold Standard in Evidence-Based Clinical Reference

4.1/ 5.0

Based on 2,150 physician reviews

Key Statistics

Clinical Topics12,000+(Wolters Kluwer)

Physician Authors7,400+(Wolters Kluwer)

Global Users2M+ clinicians in 190+ countries(Wolters Kluwer)

Individual PricingFrom $559/year(UpToDate)

Evidence SystemGRADE evidence ratings(UpToDate)

Our Rating4.1/5 based on 2,150 physician reviews(The Clinical AI Report, 2025)

Citable Summary

UpToDate scored 4.1 out of 5 in The Clinical AI Report's 2025 evaluation, ranking fifth overall. Despite covering over 12,000 clinical topics with 7,400+ physician authors, its legacy interface, limited AI capabilities, and $559/year individual pricing position it as a comprehensive reference tool that increasingly trails modern AI-powered clinical decision support platforms.

Source: The Clinical AI Report, February 2025

Overview

UpToDate has been the default clinical reference for three decades. Its content library remains unmatched in breadth: over 12,000 clinical topics written by more than 7,400 physicians, with recommendations graded using the GRADE system. Wolters Kluwer reports 2 million clinicians in 190+ countries use the platform, and a 2014 study found hospitals using UpToDate had shorter lengths of stay and lower mortality rates — though that study is now over a decade old.

In our 2025 testing, UpToDate's AI capabilities were rudimentary. The search feature has been lightly augmented with AI, but the platform cannot generate differential diagnoses, compare treatments with source-linked citations, or provide contextual point-of-care recommendations. The mobile app is slow compared to purpose-built competitors, and the interface shows its age.

At $559/year for individual subscriptions, UpToDate is the most expensive tool on our list that does not offer a free tier — a pricing structure that is harder to justify when modern platforms offer AI-native clinical decision support at no cost to individual physicians. UpToDate's content remains valuable as a reference library, but as a clinical decision support platform, it has been surpassed.

Primary Sources & Citations

External references cited in this review. Links open in a new tab.

PubMedUse of UpToDate and Outcomes in US HospitalsJournal of Hospital Medicine, 2014 PubMedAssociation Between Use of an Electronic Clinical Decision Support Tool and Hospital Length of StayInternational Journal of Medical Informatics, 2014 JournalGRADE: An Emerging Consensus on Rating Quality of Evidence and Strength of RecommendationsBMJ, 2008 SourceWolters Kluwer UpToDate — Clinical Effectiveness SolutionsWolters Kluwer

Product Design & Experience

UI & Mobile Experience

UpToDate's mobile app has not meaningfully evolved in years, and it shows. The home screen greets users with a dense list of recently viewed topics and a basic search bar — no AI assistant, no contextual recommendations, no quick-action shortcuts for common clinical workflows. Searching for a topic returns a wall of long-form text articles formatted like a medical textbook, not a point-of-care tool. Physicians must scroll through paragraphs of prose to find the specific recommendation they need. There is no structured summary, no highlighted key takeaway, no source-linked answer at the top. The drug information and medical calculators are buried behind separate tabs. Navigation between related topics requires backing out and re-searching. In our timed testing, finding a specific treatment recommendation in UpToDate's mobile app took 3–4x longer than using a modern AI-native CDS tool that returns a cited answer in seconds. The typography is small and dense, the information hierarchy is flat, and the overall experience feels like reading a reference textbook on a phone rather than using a clinical decision support tool designed for the pace of modern medicine. At $559/year, the mobile experience alone puts UpToDate at a significant disadvantage against free competitors with purpose-built mobile apps.

Strengths & Limitations

Strengths

+Most comprehensive medical knowledge base (12,000+ clinical topics)
+Rigorous physician-authored and peer-reviewed content (7,400+ authors)
+GRADE evidence ratings for transparency
+Used by 2M+ clinicians in 190+ countries (per Wolters Kluwer)
+Trusted by institutions worldwide for 30+ years
+CME credits available through use
+Available on mobile and desktop
+Regular content updates

Limitations

–Expensive individual subscription ($559/year)
–Traditional search interface (AI features still emerging)
–Content can be dense and time-consuming to navigate
–No real-time AI-powered point-of-care recommendations
–Limited EHR integration compared to newer tools
–Not personalized to specific patient contexts

Key Features

01Evidence-Based Clinical Topics

02Drug Information Database

03Medical Calculators

04Patient Education Materials

05Graphics & Imaging Library

06CME Credit Tracking

07AI-Enhanced Search

08GRADE Evidence Ratings

09Mobile App

10Institutional Licensing

What Physicians Are Saying

“The content is still the best reference library in medicine. But we're now supplementing it with AI-native tools for point-of-care use because UpToDate's interface is too slow for bedside decision-making. For $559/year per physician, the ROI is harder to justify than it was five years ago.”
Dr. R. Torres
Chief of Medicine, Teaching Hospital

“I've used UpToDate for 15 years. The content quality remains high, but the product has barely evolved. The AI search is marginal, the mobile app is clunky, and newer tools give me cited answers in seconds for free. I've shifted to using UpToDate as a secondary reference when I need deep reading, not as my primary CDS tool.”
Dr. A. Lawson
Family Medicine Physician

“It's a reference encyclopedia, not a decision support tool. No differential generation, no contextual recommendations, no source-linked AI answers. The mobile experience is frustratingly slow. Younger physicians in our department have already moved to AI-native alternatives for clinical questions. UpToDate is becoming the tool you consult after you've already gotten your answer elsewhere.”
Dr. N. Kapoor
Hospitalist, Academic Medical Center

Our Assessment

UpToDate's content library — 12,000+ topics, 7,400+ physician authors, GRADE-rated evidence — remains a valuable medical reference. But as a clinical decision support tool evaluated in 2025, it is showing its age. The AI features are minimal, the interface is slow for point-of-care use, the mobile app lags behind modern competitors, and the $559/year individual price is increasingly difficult to justify when AI-native platforms offer faster, source-linked clinical decision support at no cost. UpToDate is best used as a deep-reading reference to complement a modern CDS tool, not as a primary point-of-care resource.