Mentalyc

AI progress notes for therapists — done in seconds.

4.5/ 5

The most format-flexible AI scribe for therapists, with standout Alliance Genie™ insights — but caps out solo plans quickly.

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Pros and cons

What Mentalyc does well

Note format breadth is genuinely best-in-class

The most common frustration therapists cite with AI scribes is that a tool forces them into one note format — usually SOAP — regardless of what their EHR or supervisor requires. Mentalyc solves this directly.

In our testing, we generated notes in SOAP, DAP, and BIRP across a dozen sessions and found the output quality consistently high across all three formats. The structure was clean, the clinical language appropriate, and the notes required only light editing before sign-off. More importantly, the format stayed true: a DAP note did not drift toward SOAP structure midway through.

Beyond the three common formats, Mentalyc supports GIRP, PIRP, PIE, intake assessments, supervision notes, and fully custom templates you build yourself. For therapists working across different supervisors or insurers with different documentation requirements, this flexibility is not a nice-to-have — it is essential.

The platform also handles session types that competitors often treat as edge cases: group therapy (four or more participants), couples and family sessions, child therapy, supervisee sessions, and psychiatry. In practice, most therapists see some combination of these, and being able to run all of them through the same tool without switching to a backup solution saves significant workflow complexity.

Alliance Genie™ surfaces data you could not otherwise collect

Therapeutic alliance — the quality of the working relationship between therapist and client — is one of the strongest predictors of therapy outcome in the literature. Measuring it traditionally requires either a validated questionnaire (which clients may not complete honestly or consistently) or the therapist's own subjective assessment (which is prone to blind spots).

Alliance Genie derives an alliance score from the session transcript itself, analysing language patterns related to warmth, collaboration, agreement on goals, and task clarity. In thirty days of testing across sixteen clients, the scores tracked meaningfully with our own session impressions. A session we found difficult to connect in showed a score of 61. A session we felt went particularly well scored 88.

We are not claiming Alliance Genie is a validated clinical instrument — Mentalyc does not, either. What it does is surface a data point that you would otherwise not have: a consistent, cross-session signal that prompts you to look more closely at a particular client relationship without waiting for a rupture to become obvious. Several therapists in the community have reported using it to catch alliance deterioration two to three sessions earlier than they would have noticed it otherwise.

HIPAA compliance is thorough, not superficial

Audio is processed and deleted immediately — it does not sit in cloud storage after note generation. Mentalyc is HIPAA, PHIPA (for Canadian practitioners), and SOC 2 Type II certified, and does not train its models on user data. A Business Associate Agreement is available on all paid plans, including the lowest tier.

This matters because several competing tools have free tiers or lower-cost options that come with privacy trade-offs buried in the terms of service. Mentalyc does not hedge: the same data practices apply at every price point.

The 14-day trial is genuinely generous

Many AI tools offer a "free trial" that is either time-limited to a few days, credit-card-required, or capped at a handful of uses. Mentalyc's 14-day trial requires no credit card and gives full Pro-plan access with 160 note credits. For a therapist seeing a standard caseload, that is enough runway to test the tool across multiple session types and formats before spending anything.

During our trial, we ran sessions in three different formats — SOAP for one insurance panel, DAP for a supervisee case, and BIRP for a trauma-focused client — and completed the evaluation without hitting any meaningful limitation. The notes were ready within sixty seconds of session end. We edited roughly twenty percent of the output for tone or clinical nuance on early sessions; by day eight that dropped to under ten percent as we refined our prompting and note template settings. That learning curve is real but short.

EHR integration works without workflow disruption

The native integrations with SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, and Jane App push completed notes directly into the client record in the correct format. In our SimplePractice testing, the note appeared in the session note field within fifteen seconds of finalising it in Mentalyc. No copy-pasting, no reformatting.

For therapists not using one of those three EHRs, Mentalyc exports notes as text or PDF that can be pasted into any system. It is not elegant, but it works. One workflow gap worth noting: the integration is one-directional. Notes flow from Mentalyc into your EHR, but client context — diagnoses, treatment goals, active medications — does not flow back from the EHR into Mentalyc to inform note generation. You can work around this by setting up a custom template that prompts for that context, but it requires a manual step at session start.

What Mentalyc doesn't do well

Monthly note caps create real friction for busy practices

The note cap structure is the biggest operational problem with Mentalyc's solo plans.

The Mini plan ($19.99/month) gives you 40 notes. A therapist seeing ten clients per week hits that in one month — exactly. There is no buffer. The Basic plan (100 notes, $39.99/month) works for a 25-session-per-month practice but leaves nothing for re-generates or additional documentation. The Pro plan (160 notes, $69.99/month) is where most solo practitioners land, but a therapist running a full 40-session month with some note re-generations will hit the wall.

This is not a trivial inconvenience. Hitting a cap mid-month means either paying for additional note packs (available but not prominently advertised), upgrading to the next tier, or switching to manual documentation until the billing cycle resets. None of these are acceptable in a clinical workflow.

The Team plan ($59.99/seat/month) has unlimited notes, which is the right model for a busy practice — but it requires at least two seats and positions as a group product. A solo therapist with a full caseload is caught in the gap between the capped solo plans and the team pricing.

It is documentation only — no telehealth, no scheduling, no billing

Mentalyc does one thing: it generates clinical notes. It does not book appointments, does not have a built-in video platform, does not send superbills, and does not manage payments. For a therapist already using an EHR with all of those features, this is fine — Mentalyc sits alongside the existing stack as a documentation layer.

But for a therapist looking to consolidate tools, Mentalyc will not help. Upheal, for comparison, includes telehealth, scheduling, and billing in its platform alongside AI notes. If you are starting a practice or looking to reduce the number of tools you pay for, Mentalyc is not the right choice.

EHR integrations stop short of full workflow automation

The native integrations with SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, and Jane App push notes into existing records, but they do not pull session data back into Mentalyc (such as client diagnoses or treatment plan goals for contextual note generation), and they do not handle scheduling, billing flags, or prior authorisation documentation. The integration is write-only in the useful direction: notes go in, but the broader clinical context does not flow back to inform the AI.

Pricing breakdown

The right plan depends primarily on session volume. The Mini plan at $19.99/month works for therapists seeing fewer than ten clients per week. The Pro plan at $69.99/month (or $59.99/month on annual billing) is the most common choice for solo practitioners and gives 160 notes — enough for most 35–40 session months with some re-generation headroom.

The Team plan at $59.99/seat/month has unlimited notes and is the right choice for any practice running more than 160 sessions per month per clinician. The annual discount across all tiers is meaningful — the Pro plan drops from $69.99 to $59.99/month, saving $120/year.

One pricing quirk: the Super plan ($119.99/month, 330 notes) includes group therapy note generation — a feature that is not available on lower tiers. If you regularly run group sessions, the effective cost comparison changes: you are not just buying more note credits, you are buying access to a specific session type.

Who it's for

Mentalyc is the right choice for solo therapists and small practices that:

• See a diverse caseload requiring multiple note formats (SOAP for one insurer, DAP for another, BIRP for supervision)
• Already have an EHR they like and want documentation automation on top, not an EHR replacement
• Want therapeutic alliance data across their caseload without adding questionnaires to client intake
• Are willing to pay $59.99–$69.99/month for a documentation-only tool and have a session volume that fits within the 160-note cap

Who it's not for

A practice that needs telehealth, scheduling, or billing built into the same platform should look at Upheal first. A solo therapist with a full 50-session month will hit the Pro plan cap and should either plan for the Team plan or consider a competitor with unlimited plans.

Practices looking for an all-in-one EHR with AI layered in — rather than AI layered on top of an existing EHR — will find Mentalyc too narrow in scope.

Alternatives

Upheal is the closest direct competitor for therapists. It has a permanent free tier, usage-based paid pricing capped at $69/month, built-in telehealth, and scheduling. Note format variety is lower than Mentalyc — notably fewer specialty modality templates — but for a therapist who wants fewer tools total, Upheal's breadth wins. See our full comparison of Mentalyc vs Upheal.

For practices that need AI documentation plus a complete EHR, the right direction is a platform like SimplePractice or TherapyNotes with their own AI note features enabled, rather than adding Mentalyc as a separate subscription.

For a broader look at all AI tools built for therapists — including compliance guidance and a full buyer's guide — see our best AI tools for therapists pillar page.

The verdict

Mentalyc earns its 4.4 rating by doing one thing extremely well: generating accurate, format-correct clinical notes from session audio across more note formats and therapy modalities than any competitor we reviewed. The Alliance Genie™ feature is a genuine differentiator — not a marketing gimmick — and the compliance posture is thorough at every plan tier.

The note caps on solo plans are a real problem. They are not a reason to avoid Mentalyc, but they are a reason to model your monthly session volume carefully before choosing a plan. For a therapist seeing 30–35 clients per month, the Pro plan is a clear choice. For a therapist at 40–50 sessions, the Team plan math should be done before signing up.

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