Session notes that never leave your Mac.
CouchNotes listens, transcribes, and drafts your SOAP, DAP, or BIRP note entirely on your Mac — no cloud, no account, no subscription. Your client's words stay in the room.
Early-access pricing for the waitlist. No spam — a handful of emails between now and launch.
How it works
From session to signed note, without the internet.
Three steps. The audio and the transcript exist in exactly one place: your Mac.
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Capture
Record in session, dictate a summary afterwards, or drop in an existing audio file. Dictation mode means the client is never recorded — your voice, your summary.
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Transcribe & draft
Local models transcribe the audio, separate speakers, and draft a note in your format — SOAP, DAP, BIRP, or your own template. All of it happening on your Mac.
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Review & finalize
Every AI draft stays a draft until you touch it. Edit, finalize, copy into your EHR. Audio is deleted from this Mac when you finalize — that is the default, not a setting you hunt for.
Privacy
“HIPAA compliant” tells you it’s legal. It doesn’t tell you where the audio goes.
Cloud scribes upload your client’s voice to someone else’s servers and ask you to trust their retention policy. CouchNotes removes the question: nothing leaves the device.
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Audio lives in one place
Recordings are written to your Mac’s app folder — a location you can open in Finder. They are never uploaded, mirrored, or "synced for processing".
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Audio is deleted when you finalize
Finalizing a note deletes its audio from this Mac by default. You choose a longer retention window only if you want one.
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The models run here, not in a data center
Transcription and drafting use open models downloaded to your Mac. Unplug the network — CouchNotes keeps working.
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No accounts, no session telemetry
There is nothing to sign into and no analytics attached to your sessions. A license key, validated offline, is the whole relationship.
Recorded, transcribed, and drafted on this device.
Built for how therapists actually work
The details that decide whether you’ll still use it in March.
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Dictation mode
Client doesn’t want to be recorded? Dictate a summary after the session — guided cues, segment-by-segment re-recording, no client audio at all.
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Bring your own recording
Drag in an audio file from any recorder or telehealth export. CouchNotes transcribes and drafts from it like any other session.
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SOAP, DAP, BIRP — or yours
Switch formats per client. Build custom templates with per-section instructions the drafting model actually follows.
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Consent templates included
Client-facing AI consent forms ship in the app — print them, adapt them, log who signed what and when.
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Works offline
Airplane mode is a supported configuration. Models live on disk; nothing about your workflow needs a connection.
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Copy straight into your EHR
Finalized notes copy out as clean text or markdown, formatted for SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, or wherever your charts live.
Pricing
One price. Not one price per month.
Cloud scribes charge rent. CouchNotes is a tool you buy once — because nothing runs on our servers, there is no meter running on you.
$199 once, yours forever
- Unlimited sessions and notes
- All formats: SOAP, DAP, BIRP, custom templates
- Dictation mode and audio import
- Free updates — no version ransom
- 14-day trial, no card, no account
Year one with a cloud scribe
| Service | Price | Year one | Where audio goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freed | $99/mo | $1,188 | Cloud · subscription |
| Upheal | from $49/mo | $588+ | Cloud · subscription |
| Mentalyc | from $39/mo | $468+ | Cloud · subscription |
| CouchNotes | $199 once | $199 | Stays on your Mac |
Competitor prices as listed publicly, June 2026. CouchNotes pays for itself against the cheapest of them in about five months — then it's free. Want the detail? Read the full comparisons or the Mac scribe roundup.
Questions
Asked by careful people.
What Mac do I need?
An Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer). The transcription and drafting models use the M-series neural engine; Intel Macs are not supported. Final minimum macOS version will be confirmed at launch.
How big is the model download?
Plan for roughly 4 GB, downloaded once during setup and stored on your Mac. After that, no connection is needed to work.
Does the audio really never leave my Mac?
Yes. There is no CouchNotes server that processes sessions — transcription and drafting run as local processes on your machine. You can keep working with Wi-Fi turned off.
When is session audio deleted?
When you finalize a note, its audio is deleted from your Mac. That is the default. If you prefer a retention window, you set one explicitly in Settings.
What note formats are supported?
SOAP, DAP, and BIRP out of the box, plus custom templates where you write per-section instructions for the drafting model.
My client doesn’t want to be recorded. Is this still useful?
Yes — dictation mode is built for exactly that. After the session, you speak a summary in your own words and CouchNotes structures it into your note format. No client audio is ever captured.
How do notes get into my EHR?
Finalized notes copy out as clean plain text or markdown, ready to paste into SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, or any EHR with a notes field. There is no integration to break.
What languages does it support?
English and Spanish sessions are supported at launch — both transcription and note drafting. More languages are planned.
Is there a trial?
A 14-day full trial — no credit card, no account. If CouchNotes doesn’t earn its place in your workflow, delete it and you’ve spent nothing.
Is CouchNotes HIPAA compliant?
HIPAA compliance is a property of your practice, not a software badge. What CouchNotes gives you is stronger and simpler to reason about: session audio and notes are processed and stored only on your Mac, so there is no third-party disclosure to evaluate. Consent templates are included for documenting client agreement.