Heidi Health Review Australia 2026: Is the Melbourne AI Scribe Worth It?

Verdict (TL;DR): If you're an Australian GP, allied health practitioner or specialist who loses an hour a day to note-taking, Heidi is the AI scribe to trial first — it's Melbourne-built, integrates natively with Best Practice and MedicalDirector, hosts Australian customer data onshore, and the free tier lets you test it on real consults before paying a cent. Skip it only if your indemnity provider hasn't yet cleared ambient scribes. One caveat for the strictest data-residency requirements: while core data is hosted in Australia, Heidi's privacy policy reserves the right to process some optional features (Heidi Comms, Heidi Evidence) and certain third-party services offshore. Score: 22/25 — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Australian Fit: 4/5 — gate passed. Last reviewed: 7 June 2026 by Adam.

Earlier editions of this review: 7 Jun 2026 — 22/25. This is edition 2, dated 2 Oct 2026. We keep every edition so you can see how the tool and our verdict have moved — how and why.

What Heidi Health is

Heidi is an AI medical scribe. You start a session before a consult, it listens to the conversation through your phone or laptop microphone, and it produces a structured clinical note — history, examination, assessment, plan — in seconds after you finish. It also drafts referral letters, patient summaries and care instructions from the same recording. This category is usually called "ambient clinical documentation," and Heidi is the home-grown leader.

The company was founded in Melbourne by Dr Thomas Kelly, a former vascular surgical resident, and launched its products in early 2024. It has grown fast. In October 2025 it raised a US$65 million Series B led by Steve Cohen's Point72, with Blackbird also participating, valuing the company at US$465 million and bringing total funding to US$96.6 million. Heidi says it now supports more than two million consults a week across 116 countries.

For Australian clinicians the appeal is simple. Heidi was built for this market first, so the things that usually trip up overseas tools — local clinical software, Australian privacy law, AU spelling and terminology — were the starting point, not an afterthought.

What it costs in Australia

Heidi sets a separate list price for each market it sells in, and an Australian visitor is served the Australian one. The figures below are Heidi's own Australian dollar prices, not our conversions — and they are materially lower than the US list price, so converting from US dollars overstates what an Australian clinician actually pays.

A 14-day free trial covers the Clinician and Practice plans.

GST note: Heidi publishes no GST statement on its Australian pricing page, so we state the position in words rather than attribute one to the vendor: treat the figures above as excluding GST and expect 10% to be added or shown at checkout. A GST-registered practice buying for business use claims it back as an input tax credit. Confirm the GST line on your tax invoice and the deductibility against practice income with your accountant — this is general information, not tax advice.

The free tier matters more here than in most categories. Because standard transcription and note generation are unlimited even on Free, a solo clinician with a light template need can genuinely run Heidi at no cost — the paywall bites only when you want custom templates and the "Ask Heidi" tools at volume.

How it works in practice

Setup takes minutes. You sign up, grant microphone access, and start your first session. There's no hardware, no dictaphone, no separate transcription step.

In a consult, you tap "Start," talk to your patient as you normally would, and tap "Stop" when you're done. Heidi transcribes the conversation and, within roughly ten to twenty seconds, returns a structured note in the template you've chosen. A standard GP consult note that might take five to eight minutes to type lands almost fully formed; your job shifts from writing to checking and editing.

The template system is the engine. You pick a format — SOAP, a referral letter, a mental health care plan, a specialist letter — and Heidi shapes the output to match. Paid tiers let you build custom templates so the note comes out in your own house style. "Ask Heidi" lets you query or reshape the note in plain English: "make the plan a dot-point list," or "draft a referral to cardiology from this."

The integration step is what separates Heidi from a generic transcription app. It plugs directly into the major Australian clinical systems — Best Practice, MedicalDirector, MediRecords, Zedmed and others as embedded integrations, with Cliniko, Nookal and Genie as synced "connect" integrations. With Best Practice or MedicalDirector, the finished note drops into the patient record without copy-paste.

The realistic time saving for a busy GP is in the order of one to two minutes per consult once you trust the output enough to skim rather than rewrite. Across a 30-patient day that's a meaningful chunk of admin clawed back. Heidi's own impact data from its Australian hospital and enterprise deployments in 2025 claims a median utilisation rate around 86% among clinicians who adopted it — meaning adopters use it for most consults, most days (vendor-reported figure) [Medical Republic, June 2026, secondary]. That stickiness is the strongest signal in the category.

What it does well

• Native Australian clinical software integration. Best Practice and MedicalDirector were first-class targets, not bolted on. The note files into the record where you already work.
• A genuinely usable free tier. Unlimited transcription and standard-template notes at no cost means you can test it on real patients for weeks before paying.
• Fast, structured output. A complete consult note in seconds, formatted to a clinical template, not a raw transcript dump.
• Serious security credentials for the category. ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 certification, plus stated alignment with the Australian Privacy Principles — uncommon among scribes and important when the data is health data.
• Built for Australia first. AU terminology, AU clinical context and local product decisions come standard rather than as a US tool retro-fitted.

What it doesn't do well

• Onshore for core data, but not an absolute no-data-leaves-Australia guarantee. Heidi's AU/NZ compliance page states "all our data is locally hosted within Australia" and "your patients' information stays right here in Australia", and its privacy policy confirms a "data localization solution" for Australian customers. The honest limitation: the same privacy policy reserves the right to process some optional features — Heidi Comms and Heidi Evidence — and certain third-party services "outside your jurisdiction," under data-processing agreements. Core consult data is onshore; specific add-ons may not be. A practice with an absolute onshore requirement should confirm which features it will use against that clause.
• The accuracy ceiling is the clinician's, not the AI's. Heidi can mishear, miss nuance, or invent plausible-but-wrong detail. Every note must be read and corrected before it enters the record. This is a documentation aid, not a substitute for your own check.
• The paywall on custom templates and Ask Heidi. The 10-actions-a-month Free cap means anyone who relies on custom templates will hit the Clinician tier quickly — fine, but budget for it.
• The pricing page is fragile. Heidi's Australian dollar prices are real and set per market, but the page itself renders through a client-side app that failed to paint at all in two separate browser sessions on 21 September 2026 — the plan cards never appeared, and the figures had to be read from the pricing configuration the page ships. A clinician on a slow connection or a locked-down practice browser may simply see a blank pricing page. Heidi also publishes no GST wording anywhere on it.
• Indemnity and consent sit with you. Heidi doesn't obtain patient consent for recording or clear your medico-legal position — that's the practice's job, and the RACGP advises checking with your indemnity provider first [Medical Republic / Healthcare IT News, secondary].

Australian fit

Data residency and privacy. This is the question that decides the category, so we read Heidi's own pages closely. Its AU/NZ compliance page is unambiguous: "all our data is locally hosted within Australia" and "your patients' information stays right here in Australia". The privacy policy backs this with a stated "data localization solution" for Australian customers and confirms personal information "is stored in your local jurisdiction". The audio used to generate notes is deleted once the note is produced, not stored permanently. Heidi adheres to the Privacy Act 1988 and all 13 Australian Privacy Principles, holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certification, and encrypts data in transit and at rest. The one genuine caveat: the privacy policy reserves the right to process two optional features (Heidi Comms, Heidi Evidence) and certain third-party services offshore under data-processing agreements. So core consult data is onshore; a practice using those add-ons under an absolute onshore mandate should check that clause. That residual offshore-processing path is why Australian Fit sits at a strong 4/5 rather than a perfect 5 — onshore storage is real and documented, but it isn't a blanket "nothing ever leaves Australia" guarantee.

My Health Record and clinical software. Heidi files notes natively into Best Practice and MedicalDirector and syncs with Cliniko, Genie, Halaxy and others. The note still flows to My Health Record through your existing clinical system in the normal way; Heidi populates the record, your software handles the upload.

AUD and GST. Heidi bills Australians in Australian dollars at a price it sets for this market: Clinician A$85/month on annual billing or A$120/month monthly, Practice A$130. There is no conversion and no FX exposure. Heidi publishes no GST statement on the page, so assume the figures exclude GST and expect 10% at checkout; a GST-registered practice claims it back. Confirm the GST line on your tax invoice.

AU support and context. Melbourne-headquartered with Australian clinical leadership, including a chief medical officer appointment announced alongside the 2025 raise. Heidi does not publish dedicated AU support hours or a phone line; documented support is its online help centre and in-app/email channels.

AHPRA / RACGP context. Ambient scribes are not separately registered or endorsed by AHPRA, and the RACGP advises every practice to consult its indemnity provider before adopting one [Medical Republic / Healthcare IT News, secondary]. Adoption among Australian GPs reached roughly 18.7% in May 2026, up from about 8% in late 2024 [Medical Republic, May 2026, secondary] — growing fast but not yet mainstream.

The clinical caveat that matters most: Heidi does not replace clinical judgement. The treating clinician remains responsible for the accuracy and content of the medical record. Read and correct every note before it is saved.

Australian Fit score: 4/5.

Alternatives

• Lyrebird Health — another Australian-built ambient scribe with deep local clinical-software integration. Consider this if you want a like-for-like AU competitor to compare on price and note quality before committing. See our Lyrebird Health review.
• Microsoft Dragon Copilot — the enterprise heavyweight, strongest where a hospital or large group already runs Microsoft and wants vendor consolidation. Consider this if you're an enterprise buyer, not a solo clinician. See our Dragon Copilot review.
• Nabla — a well-regarded global scribe with a large clinician base. Consider this if you want a mature international option, but check its Australian clinical-software integration and residency position carefully first. See our Nabla review.

Bottom line

Heidi is the AI scribe most Australian clinicians should trial first. It's built here, it files notes straight into the clinical software you already use, and the free tier lets you prove the value on your own patients before you pay. The security credentials — ISO 27001, SOC 2, stated APP compliance — are about as good as the category currently offers, and the stickiness among real adopters tells you it earns its keep day to day.

It isn't flawless. AUD pricing is frustratingly opaque until you sign up, and — like every scribe — it shifts the accuracy burden onto you to check each note. On data residency, Heidi clears the bar that matters most for this market: it hosts Australian customer data onshore and says so plainly. The only asterisk is that a couple of optional features and some third-party processing can run offshore under its privacy policy, so a practice with an absolute onshore mandate should check that clause against the features it plans to use.

For a solo GP or allied health practitioner drowning in documentation, the calculus is easy: start on Free, run it for a fortnight, and see whether it gives you back the hour a day it promises. For most, it will. Its onshore hosting, native AU clinical-software integration and genuine free tier are why it holds our Top Pick in this category — narrowly ahead of fellow Australian scribe Lyrebird Health, which also hosts onshore (AWS Sydney) and is the first name to compare it against on price and note quality.

Score

Australian Fit gate: 4/5 — gate passed.

Frequently asked questions

Is Heidi Health available in Australia?

Yes — and it's built for Australia first. Heidi is Melbourne-headquartered, founded by Dr Thomas Kelly, and integrates natively with Best Practice and MedicalDirector, plus Cliniko, Genie, Halaxy and others. AU terminology and clinical context come standard.

Does Heidi charge in AUD?

Yes. Heidi sets an Australian price rather than converting its US one: Clinician A$85/month billed annually, or A$120/month monthly, with Practice at A$130. Heidi publishes no GST wording, so treat those as excluding GST and expect 10% at checkout — claimable as an input tax credit if your practice is registered.

Is there a free plan or free trial?

Yes. The free tier gives unlimited transcription and standard-template notes, plus 10 "actions" a month — enough for a solo clinician to run it at no cost. A 14-day free trial covers the paid Clinician and Practice plans.

Is my patient data stored in Australia?

Mostly yes. Heidi's compliance page states all data is locally hosted in Australia and the audio is deleted once the note is produced. The caveat: its privacy policy reserves the right to process some optional features (Heidi Comms, Heidi Evidence) offshore. Check that clause if you have an absolute onshore mandate.

Who is Heidi best for?

Australian GPs, allied health practitioners and specialists losing an hour a day to note-taking. It's our Top Pick in the category. Skip it only if your indemnity provider hasn't yet cleared ambient scribes — the RACGP advises checking first.

Read next

• Category guide: Best AI Medical Scribes in Australia 2026

Sources

1. Heidi — Series B funding announcement (founder, Melbourne HQ, funding, valuation, launch timing, global scale) — https://www.heidihealth.com/blog/blog-heidi-series-b — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20251007051634/https://www.heidihealth.com/blog/blog-heidi-series-b — checked 7 June 2026
2. Heidi — Australian pricing page (plan names, free tier, Enterprise custom hosting, and the native AUD price list: Clinician A$85 annual / A$120 monthly, Practice A$130) — https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/pricing — re-verified 21 September 2026 through an Australian browser session; the page serves "initialCurrency":"AUD","initialCurrencySource":"geo". Wayback: capture pending (archive.org unavailable 21 Sep 2026) — earlier snapshot of the superseded page: — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260606105754/https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/pricing — checked 7 June 2026
3. Heidi Help Centre — Pricing plans, cost & features (free tier 10 actions/month, 14-day trial, team/enterprise via sales) — https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/8885030-heidi-s-pricing-plans-cost-features — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260310153218/https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/8885030-heidi-s-pricing-plans-cost-features — checked 7 June 2026
4. Heidi Help Centre — Is Heidi compliant with healthcare privacy regulations? (ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA, Privacy Act 1988 / APPs, Canada onshore) — https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/8885110-is-heidi-compliant-with-healthcare-privacy-regulations — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260405215415/https://support.heidihealth.com/en/articles/8885110-is-heidi-compliant-with-healthcare-privacy-regulations — checked 7 June 2026
5. Heidi — ISO 27001 certification (ISO/IEC 27001:2022, data localisation per region, layered controls) — https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/blog/iso-27001-certification — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260120061420/https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/blog/iso-27001-certification — checked 7 June 2026
6. Heidi — SOC 2 Type 2 certification — https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/blog/soc-2-type-2-certification — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260125091044/https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/blog/soc-2-type-2-certification — checked 7 June 2026
7. Heidi — Integrations (Best Practice, MedicalDirector, Cliniko, Genie, Halaxy, etc.) — https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/integrations — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260331233114/https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/integrations — checked 7 June 2026
8. Heidi — AU/NZ compliance page (onshore hosting: "all our data is locally hosted within Australia", APP compliance, audio deletion) — https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/compliance/app — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260509073700/https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/compliance/app — checked 7 June 2026
9. Heidi — Privacy policy (AU data localization solution, local-jurisdiction storage, offshore processing of Heidi Comms/Evidence and third-party services) — https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/legal/privacy-policy — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260509073644/https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/legal/privacy-policy — checked 7 June 2026
10. G2 — Heidi pricing (Clinician US$150/month — the US list price; superseded as an AU cross-check by Heidi’s own AUD price list, see source 2) — https://www.g2.com/products/heidi/pricing — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260607234523/https://www.g2.com/products/heidi/pricing — checked 7 June 2026
11. The Medical Republic — AU GP adoption rate (HealthEd / Medical Republic survey of 1,535 GPs, May 2026: 18.7% personally use an AI scribe) and RACGP indemnity guidance (secondary, context only) — https://www.medicalrepublic.com.au/how-many-gps-are-actually-using-ai-scribes/125763 — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260613073028/https://www.medicalrepublic.com.au/how-many-gps-are-actually-using-ai-scribes/125763 — checked 13 June 2026 (snapshot recaptured 13 June 2026; prior snapshot archived the wrong article)
12. Healthcare IT News — What Australian GPs should consider before adopting AI scribes (secondary, context only) — https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/anz/what-australian-gps-should-consider-adopting-ai-scribes — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20250724152807/https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/anz/what-australian-gps-should-consider-adopting-ai-scribes — checked 7 June 2026
13. The Medical Republic — "Is Heidi's 'everyone, everywhere, all at once' strategy sustainable?" (median utilisation rate of 86% across Heidi's Australian hospital and enterprise deployments in 2025, per impact data presented by Condon; secondary, context only) — https://www.medicalrepublic.com.au/is-heidis-everyone-everywhere-all-at-once-strategy-sustainable/125878 — Wayback: capture pending (Save Page Now unavailable at time of check) — checked 13 June 2026

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