Suki vs Freed (2026): Which US AI Clinical Scribe Suits an Australian Practice?

Pricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow ~10% on top (Methodology).

Verdict (TL;DR): Two US clinical scribes, same score — 13/25 each. Suki is the enterprise voice-first assistant with deep EHR commands. Freed is the lightweight solo-clinician scribe with published USD pricing. Neither confirms Australian data residency. Neither integrates with Best Practice or MedicalDirector. For the typical Australian buyer — a GP, private specialist, or allied health provider — Freed wins on transparency, price, and speed to value. Suki only makes sense for a large health system already running Epic or Oracle Health. Both remain behind the Australian-built scribes on local fit. Neither replaces clinical judgement or qualified medical advice.

The tension

Australian clinicians looking at AI scribes keep running into the same two American products. Suki and Freed both sell fast, ambient note-taking. Both are used by large clinician bases in the US. Both score the same in our reviews: 13/25 — ⭐⭐⭐ Good.

But they are built for opposite buyers.

Suki is voice-first and enterprise-pitched. It listens, drafts, codes, and takes spoken commands mid-consultation. It writes back into US electronic health record (EHR) systems automatically. Its pricing is sales-led, and it targets hospital systems more than solo doctors.

Freed is the opposite end of the market. It is a lightweight scribe for one clinician. Open the app, record, get a SOAP note in 90 seconds, copy it into your records. Pricing is published in USD on a public page. A solo GP can trial it in an afternoon.

The question this piece answers: if you are an Australian practice weighing the two, which do you buy? The short answer is that most of you should buy neither, and start with a local tool. But between these two, one is clearly the better fit.

We are not re-scoring here. Both reviews stand. This compares them head to head for the Australian buyer.

What it costs in Australia

This is the first real separation. Freed publishes its prices. Suki does not.

Freed's figures are confirmed against its live pricing page (checked 30 June 2026): Starter US$39/month, Core US$79/month (unlimited notes), Premier US$104/month billed annually or US$119 month-to-month. At an exchange rate of roughly AUD 1 = USD 0.65 (US$1 ≈ A$1.40), Premier lands near A$146–A$167/month before GST.

Suki's numbers are third-party estimates only. Suki publishes no pricing and confirms nothing. Every Australian practice must go through a sales process to get a figure. Our review estimates Compose near US$299 and the full Assistant near US$399 per provider per month — roughly A$419 to A$559 at 1.40 — but Suki has not confirmed these.

Neither vendor bills in Australian dollars, operates a local entity, or states GST treatment on imported digital services. Australian buyers carry currency risk and should confirm GST handling with their accountant.

On cost and transparency, Freed wins outright. A solo clinician can see the price, start a free trial, and be generating notes the same day. With Suki, you cannot even learn the price without a sales call.

Feature diff

Both are ambient scribes. The gap is in scope and target buyer.

Suki's advantage is depth. The voice-command layer is genuine — a clinician can issue instructions without breaking the consultation flow. The clinical Q&A pulls answers straight from the chart. HCC coding adds real revenue-cycle value for large US groups. Our review scores Suki 4/5 on Feature Depth for exactly this reason.

Freed's advantage is friction. There is no command structure to learn. You talk to your patient normally, then review a note. Setup is minutes, not a procurement cycle. Our review scores Freed 4/5 on Ease of Use and notes note quality is consistently high.

Here is the catch for Australia: Suki's headline features assume a US EHR. The automated write-back, the coding pipeline, the chart-reading Q&A — these shine when the tool is wired into Epic or Oracle Health. In an Australian GP clinic on Best Practice or MedicalDirector, none of that native integration exists. Suki drops back to copy-paste, and most of its premium disappears.

Freed's write-back is also US-centric — its Chrome extension pushes to US browser EHRs, not Best Practice or MedicalDirector. But Freed never sold itself on deep integration. Its value is the note itself, and that copies cleanly into any system. Freed loses less when the integration is stripped away.

Australian fit: data residency, support, GST

This is where both tools stumble, and where the publication's defining criterion applies. Both score Australian Fit 2/5.

Data residency. Neither confirms Australian data storage. Suki runs on Google Cloud Platform, but publishes no statement that patient data sits in the Sydney or Melbourne GCP regions. Freed stores data on US servers with no published Australian residency option. Under the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principle 8 (cross-border disclosure), sending identifiable health information offshore creates obligations. A signed data processing agreement confirming data location is the minimum bar before either tool touches a patient consult. Do not assume onshore storage — verify it in writing.

Compliance posture. Both hold US frameworks — SOC 2 and HIPAA. Neither of those satisfies Australian health records law on its own. Suki at least claims Australian and New Zealand availability, though no major AU health system deployment has been announced. Freed publishes no Privacy Act 1988 compliance position at all. For clinicians whose notes may flow into a My Health Record, that is an unresolved gap for both.

Support. Freed runs US-based support with no confirmed Australian business hours. Suki's Australian support structure is unconfirmed. A clinic that needs help at 9am AEST cannot rely on either being awake.

GST and billing. Both charge in USD with no Australian entity. GST treatment on imported digital services is unverified for both. Currency movements change your monthly bill.

AHPRA and consent. For either tool, the treating clinician remains responsible for every note. Patients must be told AI is being used and must consent before any consultation audio is processed. That obligation does not shift to the software.

The Australian Fit gate. Both tools sit at Australian Fit 2/5 — well below the 4/5 threshold. Neither can be an Excellent tool or a category Top Pick for Australians, regardless of raw score. Both are capped at ⭐⭐⭐ Good. See our Methodology for how the Australian Fit gate works.

Against Australian-built rivals, both trail badly. Heidi Health and Lyrebird Health host data in Australia, integrate natively with Best Practice and MedicalDirector, and publish local compliance positions. On Australian fit, neither US tool is close.

Who buys which

Buy Suki if you are a large Australian health system already running Epic or Oracle Health, you have a procurement team that can extract a data processing agreement and negotiate commercial terms, and you want the deepest voice-command and coding feature set on the market. This is a narrow buyer. For that buyer, Suki's depth is real and its integration actually fires.

Buy Freed if you are a solo GP, private specialist, or allied health provider who has assessed the offshore-data implications, is comfortable with the risk, and wants a polished scribe you can trial today for well under A$200/month. Freed's transparency, price, and low friction are a genuine fit for a single clinician who does not need EHR integration.

Buy neither — start local — if you work in public health, have any hospital or state-health relationship, carry an explicit data-sovereignty obligation, or simply want native Best Practice or MedicalDirector integration with onshore data. That describes most Australian practices. Heidi Health's free tier is the right first stop.

The verdict

Same score, different shape. Suki is the more capable product on paper — deeper features, spoken commands, automated coding. But almost all of that advantage depends on a US EHR an Australian clinic will not have, and Suki compounds the problem by hiding its price behind a sales process.

Freed does less, but it does the one thing that copies cleanly across any system — a fast, high-quality note — and it tells you exactly what it costs.

For the typical Australian buyer, Freed is the better of the two. It is cheaper, transparent, trial-able today, and loses less when its US integrations do not apply here. Suki earns its place only in a large health-system context that most Australian readers are not in.

But the honest verdict is the one both reviews reach independently: for Australian data residency, local EHR integration, and AU support, the Australian-built scribes beat both. If those things matter to your practice — and for most they should — evaluate Heidi Health or Lyrebird Health first.

Neither Suki nor Freed replaces clinical judgement or qualified medical advice. The treating clinician is responsible for reviewing and verifying every note before it enters the patient record.

At a glance

Full reviews: Suki · Freed.

For the Australian-built alternatives, see Best AI Medical Scribes in Australia.

Frequently asked questions

Is Suki or Freed better for an Australian clinician?

For the typical Australian buyer — a solo GP, private specialist, or allied health provider — Freed is the better of the two. It publishes USD pricing, offers a 7-day free trial, and loses less value than Suki when US EHR integrations do not apply in Australia. Both score 13/25. Suki suits large health systems already running Epic or Oracle Health. Both trail the Australian-built scribes, Heidi Health and Lyrebird Health, on local data residency and EHR fit.

Do Suki or Freed store patient data in Australia?

Neither confirms Australian data residency. Suki runs on Google Cloud Platform but publishes no statement that data is stored in Australian regions. Freed stores data on US servers with no published Australian residency option. Under the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principle 8, Australian practices must obtain a written data processing agreement confirming data location before using either.

How much do Suki and Freed cost in Australian dollars?

Freed publishes USD pricing: Starter US$39/month, Core US$79/month, Premier US$104/month annual or US$119/month monthly — roughly A$55 to A$167/month at USD 1 = AUD 1.40, before GST. Suki publishes no pricing; third-party estimates put it near US$299 to US$399 per provider per month (about A$419 to A$559), but Suki has not confirmed these figures. Neither bills in AUD.

Sources

• Freed — Pricing (primary): https://www.getfreed.ai/pricing (checked 30 June 2026 — contemporaneous snapshot still owed) — Starter US$39/mo, Core US$79/mo, Premier US$104/mo annual or US$119/mo monthly, 7-day free trial, no card. Wayback 23 July 2026
• Freed — Security overview (primary): https://www.getfreed.ai/security (checked 30 June 2026; Wayback: snapshot queued) — Wayback 17 May 2026
• Suki AI — EHR Integrations (primary): https://www.suki.ai/ehr-integrations/ (checked 30 June 2026; Wayback: snapshot queued) — Wayback 11 May 2026
• Suki AI — Security & Compliance (primary): https://developer.suki.ai/documentation/faqs/security (checked 30 June 2026; Wayback: snapshot queued) — Wayback 16 April 2026
• Suki pricing: third-party estimates from industry sources (estimate) — not confirmed by Suki AI. USD figures converted at AUD ≈ 1.40, ex-GST.
• TGA — Digital Scribes guidance: https://www.tga.gov.au/products/medical-devices/software-and-artificial-intelligence/manufacturing/artificial-intelligence-ai-and-medical-device-software/digital-scribes (checked 30 June 2026; Wayback: snapshot queued) — Wayback 21 January 2026
• AUD exchange rate: approximately USD 1 = AUD 1.40 as of September 2026 (estimate) — verify at time of purchase.

The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. We don't accept payment for positive reviews. Read our Methodology and Affiliate Disclosure.