FrontRx vs Freed AI: A Detailed Comparison for Clinicians in 2026

FrontRx and Freed AI are both ambient AI medical scribes that listen to patient encounters and generate clinical notes automatically. They share the same core promise of reducing documentation burden, but they differ significantly in pricing, compliance scope, data residency, and clinical workflow features. This guide walks through every dimension that matters so you can make an informed choice for your practice.

What is Freed AI?

Freed AI is an ambient AI scribe founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco. It listens to clinician-patient conversations and converts them into structured clinical notes such as SOAP notes, referral letters, and patient instructions. As of 2026, Freed reports having transcribed over 32 million patient visits across more than 50 medical specialties. The platform is available on iOS, Android, and desktop, and it integrates with browser-based EHRs through a Chrome extension that enables one-click note pushing. Freed also offers direct integrations with Athena, eClinicalWorks, and Practice Fusion. The note output language is English regardless of the language spoken during the encounter.

What is FrontRx?

FrontRx is a Canadian AI medical scribe platform founded by interventional cardiologists at the Montreal Heart Institute and McGill University. Like Freed, it generates structured clinical notes from ambient listening. However, FrontRx extends beyond documentation into patient list management, shift handover workflows, and AI-assisted prescription writing through its Klio agent. The platform is fully bilingual in English and French, supports 15+ medical specialties, and stores all data on Canadian-hosted servers. FrontRx is priced at $40 CAD per month (approximately $29 USD), with free access for medical residents.

How does FrontRx compare to Freed AI on pricing?

Pricing is one of the most visible differences between the two platforms. FrontRx offers a single plan at $40 CAD/month (roughly $29 USD) that includes all features: ambient scribe, patient lists, handover tools, and the Klio prescription agent. Medical residents get full access at no cost. There are no tiered feature gates.

Freed AI uses a tiered pricing model. The Starter plan costs $39 USD/month but limits usage to 40 notes per month. The Core plan at $79 USD/month removes the note cap and adds an AI editing assistant. The Premier plan at $119 USD/month (or $104/month billed annually) adds EHR push via Chrome extension, ICD-10 and CPT code suggestions, and patient visit summaries. Freed offers a 7-day free trial but has no permanent free tier. For a clinician who needs EHR integration and coding support, the effective cost with Freed is three to four times higher than FrontRx.

Is Freed AI HIPAA compliant?

Yes. Freed AI is HIPAA compliant and SOC 2 Type 2 certified. It maintains Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with enterprise customers, encrypts data in transit using TLS 1.2-1.3, and follows FIPS PUB 140-2 cryptographic standards. Patient recordings are deleted after the note is generated, and users can enable 30-day auto-deletion for saved notes. Freed also states that its AI models are trained only on de-identified notes. All data is stored within the United States.

Does Freed AI meet Canadian privacy requirements?

Freed states that it complies with PIPEDA based on a legal review conducted by Canadian attorneys. However, Freed does not currently hold specific certifications for PHIPA (Ontario) or Quebec's Law 25, and its data is stored in the United States rather than on Canadian soil. For Canadian clinicians, this means patient health information crosses the border. While this does not automatically violate PIPEDA, it introduces additional considerations around data sovereignty, provincial health privacy laws, and institutional procurement policies that often require Canadian data residency.

FrontRx takes a different approach. The platform is built to comply with HIPAA, PHIPA, PIPEDA, and Quebec Law 25 from the ground up. All data is hosted on Canadian servers. Audio recordings are deleted immediately after processing, transcripts are retained for 24 hours, and clinical notes are kept for 7 days before automatic deletion. Encryption uses AES-256 at rest. For Quebec-based organizations and any Canadian institution with strict data residency requirements, this architecture avoids the cross-border data transfer question entirely.

How do FrontRx and Freed AI compare on features?

What clinical workflows does FrontRx offer that Freed does not?

The most significant workflow difference is patient handover and list management. FrontRx includes built-in tools for maintaining active patient lists and generating structured handover summaries when care transitions between providers, such as at shift change in hospital settings. This feature is designed for teams that need continuity documentation beyond individual visit notes. Freed AI does not offer patient list or handover functionality.

The second major differentiator is Klio, the AI prescription agent exclusive to FrontRx. Klio allows clinicians to draft, verify, and fax prescriptions from a single clinical instruction. It checks drug interactions in real time against a database of over 250,000 drug-drug pairs, resolves brand names to generics, maps RAMQ formulary codes for Quebec practices, and supports heparin bridge protocols for perioperative anticoagulation. This is not available in Freed or most other AI scribe platforms.

Where does Freed AI have an advantage over FrontRx?

Freed AI has a broader specialty coverage with over 50 supported specialties compared to FrontRx's 15+. Clinicians in niche subspecialties may find that Freed's pre-trained templates produce more accurate first-draft notes for their specific field. Freed also supports input in 90+ languages, which is valuable for clinicians who see patients in languages other than English or French, although the final notes are always generated in English.

Freed's Premier tier also includes ICD-10 and CPT code suggestions and direct EHR push through a Chrome extension. For US-based practices that rely heavily on coding accuracy for billing, this integration can save meaningful time. FrontRx does not currently generate billing codes, and its EHR workflow uses copy/paste rather than direct push.

At scale, Freed's experience with 32 million transcribed visits translates into a large training corpus. This can mean better accuracy for less common clinical scenarios and more polished default templates. Freed also has a well-established support team and a mature onboarding process that requires no IT involvement.

Which AI scribe is better for Canadian clinicians?

For Canadian clinicians, the choice often comes down to data residency and regulatory alignment. FrontRx stores all data on Canadian servers and is built to comply with PIPEDA, PHIPA, and Quebec Law 25. This matters for physicians working in provincial health systems, academic hospitals, or any setting where institutional policies mandate Canadian data residency. The bilingual English-French interface also eliminates the need to work in a second language, which is particularly relevant for francophone clinicians and for practices in Quebec where bilingual documentation may be required.

Freed AI can be used by Canadian clinicians, and the company states PIPEDA compliance, but the data flows through US-based servers. Some Canadian institutions may flag this during vendor assessment. Clinicians in private practice with fewer institutional constraints may find this acceptable, while those in public hospital systems should verify with their compliance office before adopting a US-hosted solution.

Which AI scribe is better for US-based practices?

For US-based practices, both platforms meet HIPAA requirements. The decision often comes down to feature priorities. If your primary need is fast, accurate note generation with direct EHR integration and billing code support, Freed's Premier tier delivers well on those points. If you also need handover documentation, patient list management, or AI-assisted prescribing, FrontRx offers capabilities that Freed does not have at any tier.

Budget matters too. A solo practitioner who only needs basic transcription might start with Freed's Starter plan at $39 USD/month, accepting the 40-note monthly limit. But any clinician seeing more than two patients per day will quickly need the Core or Premier plan. At $79-$119 USD/month, Freed costs significantly more than FrontRx's flat $40 CAD/month for full-feature access.

How do data retention policies compare between FrontRx and Freed?

FrontRx follows an aggressive deletion schedule designed to minimize the window of exposure for sensitive health data. Audio recordings are deleted immediately after processing. Transcripts are automatically deleted after 24 hours. Clinical notes are deleted after 7 days. This approach reflects a privacy-first design philosophy: the platform generates the documentation, gives the clinician time to review and export it, and then removes it from its servers.

Freed deletes audio recordings after the note is generated, which is comparable to FrontRx's immediate deletion. For notes and transcripts, Freed gives users control through manual deletion and an optional 30-day auto-deletion setting. This offers more flexibility for clinicians who want to keep notes accessible longer, but it also means data sits on Freed's US-based servers for a longer period unless the clinician actively manages deletion settings.

Who should choose FrontRx over Freed AI?

• Canadian clinicians who need data stored on Canadian servers to meet institutional or provincial requirements
• Francophone clinicians or bilingual practices that require a French-language interface and documentation
• Hospital teams that need patient list management and structured shift handover workflows
• Clinicians who want AI-assisted prescription writing with drug interaction checking and RAMQ code mapping
• Budget-conscious practices seeking full-feature access at a single flat rate
• Medical residents who need a free, full-featured AI scribe during training

Who should choose Freed AI over FrontRx?

• US-based practices that prioritize direct EHR push and ICD-10/CPT coding support
• Clinicians in niche subspecialties who benefit from Freed's broader specialty template library
• Multilingual practices seeing patients in languages beyond English and French
• Solo practitioners who only need basic transcription and are comfortable with the 40-note Starter plan limit

Frequently asked questions about FrontRx and Freed AI

Freed can transcribe conversations in French and many other languages, but the generated clinical notes are always in English. The application interface is also English-only. FrontRx offers a fully bilingual interface and generates documentation in both English and French.

Freed offers a 7-day free trial but does not have a permanent free tier for residents or any other group. FrontRx provides full-featured access at no cost for medical residents in training.

FrontRx currently uses a copy/paste workflow for EHR integration. Freed's Premier tier offers one-click EHR push through a Chrome extension for browser-based EHRs, as well as direct integrations with specific systems like Athena and eClinicalWorks.

Both platforms take data security seriously. Freed uses TLS encryption in transit and follows FIPS 140-2 standards, with SOC 2 Type 2 certification. FrontRx uses AES-256 encryption at rest and follows an aggressive data deletion policy where audio is deleted immediately, transcripts within 24 hours, and notes within 7 days. Both are HIPAA compliant. The key difference is that FrontRx hosts data in Canada while Freed hosts data in the United States.

It depends on the group's priorities. Freed has more experience at scale with over 32 million visits transcribed and a mature onboarding process. FrontRx offers team-oriented features like patient list management and handover workflows that Freed lacks. For large Canadian groups, FrontRx's compliance posture and data residency may be decisive factors. For large US groups focused on billing optimization, Freed's coding support may carry more weight.