Nabla and Freed are the two scribes most people search when they want a free or cheap option. Both put a low ceiling on the free end: Nabla caps its free tier at 30 consultations a month, Freed’s cheapest paid plan caps at 40 notes. A full-time clinic clears either in a week or two, so you’re really choosing between paid unlimited plans, and there they’re close: $79 to $119 a month. If you also want the chart, not just the note, there’s a bundled-EHR option at $119 that ends the two-subscription problem. You can book a demo and see a finished note first.
Here’s the free-tier reality, the upgrade math, and where the third option fits.
Key takeaways
- Nabla runs a permanent free tier capped at 30 consults/mo. Freed’s “free” is a 7-day trial; its cheapest paid plan (Starter, $39) caps at 40 notes.
- Unlimited use: Nabla Pro $119/mo; Freed Core $79/mo (monthly only) or Premier $104 annual/$119 monthly.
- Both cap volume at the low end. A high-volume clinic outgrows the free tiers fast.
- Neither ships an EHR. Both write into your existing chart.
- A bundled-EHR scribe at $119/mo annual is the option when you want note plus chart in one subscription.
| Nabla | Freed | Patient Square | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent free tier | Yes (30 consults/mo) | No (7-day trial) | No (7-day trial) |
| Cheapest paid | Pro $119/mo | Starter $39/mo (40 notes) | Assist $79/mo |
| Unlimited plan | Pro $119/mo | Core $79/mo | Assist $79/mo (all plans) |
| Bundled EHR | No | No | Yes (Copilot, $119/mo annual) |
| Trainee free use | Unlimited for interns/residents | No | No |
Figures from each vendor’s pricing page (July 2026). Confirm current caps at signup; free-tier limits change often.
Nabla vs Freed: the free-tier reality
The free tier is why people compare these two, so start there and be honest about it. Nabla’s free plan gives you 30 consultations a month, plus EHR integration, and it throws in unlimited consultations for interns and residents, which is a genuinely nice touch for a teaching clinic. Freed doesn’t have a permanent free plan at all; its “free” is a 7-day trial, after which the cheapest option is Starter at $39 a month, capped at 40 notes.
So on paper Nabla is the free-tier winner. But look at the caps against a real week. Thirty consults is a day and a half for a busy primary-care doc. Forty notes on Freed’s Starter is about two days. Neither survives a full-time schedule; they’re built for light use, trainees, or a trial period dressed up as a plan. That’s not a criticism, it’s just what “free” means here, and it’s worth knowing before you build a workflow on it.
If your volume is low or you’re testing the water, the free tiers are a real gift. If you’re documenting 20-plus patients a day, you’re shopping for the unlimited plan, and you should price that from the start. You can also book a demo to see how an unlimited bundled option compares before you commit to either.
The upgrade math: what unlimited actually costs
Once you outgrow the cap, here’s the real comparison. Nabla’s Pro tier is $119 a month for unlimited consultations. Freed’s unlimited path is Core at $79 a month, though Core is monthly billing only, or Premier at $104 on annual billing ($119 monthly), which adds EHR push and ICD-10 and CPT codes. Both publish these numbers, per their pricing pages (July 2026), and published pricing is the thing to reward here.
The lesson in the math: the free tier is marketing; the unlimited tier is the actual product for a working clinic. Freed’s Core is the cheapest published unlimited plan at $79. Nabla’s Pro matches Premier at $119. So the paid step, not the free tier, is where your real annual cost gets set.
Patient Square prices every plan as unlimited from the entry tier: $79 for Assist, $119 for Copilot, $199 for Autopilot, per clinician on annual billing, no per-note metering at any level, on the pricing page. There’s no cap to outgrow because there’s no cap. For the full self-serve field, our best AI medical scribes roundup is the honest map.
Do Nabla or Freed include an EHR? Neither does
This is the gap that decides it for a lot of buyers. Neither Nabla nor Freed ships a record system. Nabla integrates with your EHR on paid tiers; Freed’s Premier pushes the note into your chart via a browser extension. In both cases the chart is a separate product you own and pay for on its own.
For a practice that’s happy with its EHR, that’s fine, bolt the scribe on. But if you landed here because both your documentation and your chart are painful, you’re shopping for two things and these tools each solve one. Free scribe plus paid EHR still leaves you with two logins, two bills, and a copy step between them.
Patient Square’s Copilot plan puts both in one place. The AI Medical Scribe by Patient Square, one module of Practice Copilot, captures the visit as it happens and hands back a structured SOAP note, ICD-10 suggestions, and a prescription draft, ready to review and sign about two minutes after the visit. At the Copilot tier ($119/mo annual) that scribe ships with a bundled AI Copilot EHR, so the note lands where you already work. If your gap is note plus chart, book a demo and see them together.
To keep it honest on scope: our eRx is a draft you review and sign, not pharmacy transmission, and ICD-10 is suggestions, not a certified coding engine. If coding or e-prescribing depth is central to your buy, check it against all three on the demo.
Which wins for a high-volume clinic
If you run a high-volume schedule, the free tiers are off the table before you start, so ignore them. You’re comparing Nabla Pro at $119, Freed Core at $79 or Premier at $119, and a bundled option at $119. Price is close enough that it shouldn’t be the tiebreaker.
The real tiebreaker is two things: is every plan truly unlimited with no hidden per-note metering, and do you also want the chart bundled. Confirm the first with each vendor directly. For the second, the answer depends on whether your EHR is part of the problem you’re trying to fix. A high-volume clinic that’s fighting its chart as much as its notes is exactly who a bundled tool is built for. If you want the enterprise end of the market instead, Abridge alternatives covers that. If you want to look at Nabla’s alternatives field beyond Freed, Nabla alternatives covers the full comparison.
When Nabla or Freed is the better choice
Pick Nabla if a lasting free tier matters to you: light-use clinicians, a teaching practice with residents (they get unlimited free), or a careful trial before paying. The 30-consult cap is real, but the free plan is genuinely free, and that’s Nabla’s edge.
Pick Freed if you want the cheapest published unlimited plan, $79 Core, and you already have an EHR you’re keeping. It’s a focused, well-priced scribe for the independent who just needs clean notes.
Pick a bundled-EHR scribe if your gap is the note and the chart together and you’d rather run one subscription than stack two. That’s the case neither Nabla nor Freed is built for. Note quality is close across all three; decide on free-tier needs, unlimited price, and whether the chart is part of your buy.
How to decide in a week
- Estimate your monthly volume honestly. Over 30–40 encounters means the free tiers don’t apply; price the unlimited plans from the start.
- Start the free trials or free tiers today and run them on real visits, not a scripted demo.
- Match the clinical output: a note plus ICD-10 suggestions plus a checked prescription draft, so you compare like for like.
- Confirm “unlimited” means unlimited with every vendor, and settle the audio question: stored or not, and for how long. Ours is never stored.
- Decide if the chart is part of your buy. If it is, put the bundled option on your list.
The receipts behind our claims are on the security page, and the price ladder with no asterisks is on the pricing page. Book a short demo to see the note against your own visit type, then run the 7-day trial on a real clinic week. If your volume is real and your chart is part of the problem, a capped free tier was never going to be the answer.