Voice dictation for SimplePractice: type your own notes by voice

SimplePractice's own voice feature is Note Taker, a paid AI add-on. According to SimplePractice, it generates progress notes "at the end of every telehealth and in-person session, whether you record the session or use Dictation," and if you don't want to record, you can "speak your thoughts into our Dictation tool or upload an audio or text file afterward." Either way, AI drafts the note for you to review.

Separately, you can always use your computer's built-in dictation (Apple Dictation on a Mac, voice typing on Windows) in any SimplePractice text field. That is free but uses a general vocabulary, and depending on your settings it may send your words to Apple or Microsoft; see our guides on Apple Dictation and Windows voice typing.

As of October 2026, SimplePractice says Note Taker is "free to try for 30 days, then $35/month per clinician," on top of your SimplePractice plan. That is $420 a year per clinician for as long as you keep it. Note Taker is also included in SimplePractice's Care Aide bundle, listed at $59 a month for the account owner and $49 a month for each additional clinician. New-customer discounts sometimes change these numbers for the first few months.

Note Taker runs inside SimplePractice, which already acts as your business associate for the EHR. Confirm with SimplePractice that your agreement covers the AI features you turn on.

Sapience Med is a desktop app for Mac and Windows. Open SimplePractice in your browser as usual, click into a note field, hold the Sapience Med hotkey, say the note in your own words and release. The text appears in the field as if you had typed it.

There is no plug-in, browser extension or SimplePractice integration. Sapience Med types into whatever text field has focus, so your existing templates (SOAP, DAP, BIRP, intake, treatment plan) work unchanged. For example scripts, see how to dictate DAP, SOAP and BIRP notes.

Speech recognition runs entirely on your computer. The session is not recorded, the client is not on the microphone, and the audio of your own dictation is processed in memory and discarded. No AI rewrites your words. Sapience Systems LLP never receives PHI, so it is not a business associate; see why Sapience Med doesn't need a BAA.

They solve different problems. Note Taker writes a draft note for you from a recording or a dictated summary. Sapience Med types exactly what you say.

If you want AI to write the first draft and you are comfortable with that happening in SimplePractice's cloud, Note Taker is built into the EHR you already use. If you would rather write the note yourself, just faster, dictation is the closer fit.

It depends on where the audio and text go. Note Taker processes your session or summary inside SimplePractice, under your relationship with SimplePractice as a business associate. Sapience Med keeps the audio on your computer and puts the text straight into SimplePractice, so the only place your note ends up is the EHR that already holds it.

Built-in computer dictation is the one to check. Apple Dictation can run on the Mac, but only when Keyboard settings say so, and Apple offers no BAA. Windows voice typing sends speech to Microsoft's cloud and is not on Microsoft's list of BAA-covered services. Any third-party cloud dictation app needs its own BAA.