Cliniko for Doctors: Fit, Cost and the AI Tools That Sit Around It

Cliniko can work for a doctor's practice, but it is built for allied health, so test prescribing, referrals and results before buying. It costs $45 a month for one practitioner and $95 for two to five, plus 10 cents a text. Its own pages list no built-in AI; scribes and phone assistants connect as third-party apps.

That last point shapes the whole decision. The monthly fee is the smallest part of the cost once you add an AI scribe or a phone assistant, and the fit question is not "is it good software" (Cliniko says thousands of practitioners already use it) but "does it cover the jobs a doctor's practice does all day".

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What Cliniko says it is for, and why that matters to a doctor

Cliniko's own FAQ describes it as practice management software for allied health practitioners, and its feature pages are written around booking, health records with customisable treatment notes, finance, reporting and business management. Nothing there rules out a doctor using it, and the connected-apps directory lists apps made for doctors. But the product's centre of gravity is therapies: treatment notes, appointment types, recalls, letters and invoices.

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A medical practice leans on a different set of jobs, and whether Cliniko covers them is what you test. In plain terms:

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• Prescribing. The directory's prescriptions category lists five apps that connect to Cliniko, each describing a region or type of prescriber. Cliniko itself is not described as a prescribing system, so a doctor who prescribes daily needs one of those apps or a separate system.
• Referrals and letters. Cliniko has letter templates and a contact list that holds doctors and third-party payers. That covers writing a letter. It may not cover electronic referral exchange with hospitals or other systems, so ask.
• Test results. Cliniko lets you attach files to a patient record. Receiving structured results from a laboratory directly into the chart is a different thing; check whether you would be attaching PDFs by hand.
• Claims and billing. It handles invoices, payments and expenses. If your practice submits insurance claims electronically, ask what Cliniko does and which connected app covers the rest.
• Coding and clinical decision support. I did not see these on Cliniko's feature pages. If a medical practice needs them, they come from elsewhere.

None of this is a criticism. A tool that does five things well can be the right choice, provided you know what the sixth costs. The way to find out is the test in the next section.

A seven-point fit test for a doctor's practice

Use the 30-day trial, which Cliniko says needs no payment details, and run your own week through it rather than a demo's. Score each point pass, partial or fail.

1. A real consultation note. Build your usual consultation template in the health records section, then write three notes from last week's patients. If it takes noticeably longer than your present system, record why.
2. A prescription. Install or trial the prescribing app you would use and send a test prescription to a dummy patient. Time it end to end.
3. A referral letter. Use a letter template with placeholders, and check it fills patient details and the receiving doctor's details from the contact list.
4. Attaching a result. Drag a sample report into a patient file and see how easily the next doctor finds it.
5. The booking flow. Create appointment types for a standard consultation, a long one and a telephone slot. Check how online booking handles them.
6. Recalls. Create a recall type, for example an annual review, apply it to a patient and run the recalls report. Note whether it matches how you chase reviews now.
7. Privacy settings. Find the patient privacy settings and the option to request a business associate agreement, which Cliniko's FAQ says is under Settings, Patients, Patient privacy, if a health-data law requiring one applies to you.

A practice that passes six of seven can reasonably go ahead. A partial on prescribing is usually solvable with a connected app; a fail on something every doctor uses daily is a reason to stop at the trial. Keep the scores in a small table and show it to the other doctors, because a system chosen by one person tends to be resented by the rest.

What it costs for a medical practice

Cliniko prices by practitioner band in dollars (USD): $45 for one, $95 for two to five, $145 for six to eight, $195 for nine to twelve, $295 for thirteen to twenty-five and $395 for twenty-six to two hundred. Administrators and reception users are unlimited and free, which suits a practice where reception is the bigger team. Texts are pre-paid credits at 10 cents per message. Paying annually gives one month free each year, and a pro rata credit applies if you change plan mid-month. There is no minimum term. For the full workings of plan and texts, see the two-practitioner pricing tutorial.

Take a practice of three doctors and four reception and admin staff. The plan is $95. With 20 consultations per doctor per day over a five-day week, that is 300 appointments a week, about 1,290 a month. A single 160-character reminder each costs 1,290 credits or $129 a month. Add a follow-up to a third of patients (430 credits, $43) and the text spend is about $172, higher than the plan. Over a year the software line is roughly $1,140 for the plan and about $2,060 for texts, before any AI.

The lesson for doctors is that volume drives the bill. A high-throughput practice should measure whether every reminder is needed, and shorten each message to a single credit. Cliniko's help centre says emails sent from it are free, so a practice that puts the long details (directions, forms, cancellation policy) in the confirmation email and keeps one short text reminder can cut the SMS line sharply.

The AI that sits around Cliniko: what the directory lists

Cliniko's connected-apps page had 95 apps when I read it, 34 of them in an artificial intelligence category. Cliniko states that most were developed by third parties and that you should do your own due diligence. Without ranking them, the AI category falls into groups.

Two cautions. A listing is the vendor's description, and an integration that "syncs" can mean anything from filling the note field to attaching a file. Several apps are described as built for particular allied health groups or regions, so read the small print for your own profession and area. Heidi is the one in the list I would expect a doctor to recognise, and the listing says it formats and pushes notes into the patient file, but check the demo against a doctor's consultation, not a physio session.

Judging a connected AI scribe for a consultation

Doctors' consultations differ from a treatment session: shorter, more problem-oriented, with medication changes, safety-netting and coded outputs. A scribe suited to one may be weak at another. Test with these steps.

1. Record a mock consultation with a colleague playing the patient: two problems, one medication change, a safety-net sentence.
2. See whether the note keeps the medication change exact: drug, dose, frequency.
3. See whether the safety-net advice you gave appears, and that none you did not give is invented.
4. Check whether the note lands in the right Cliniko field or arrives as an attachment.
5. Ask what happens to the audio and who processes it, and ask for the agreement the app signs with you.

The wider question of dictation versus ambient capture for doctors is covered in dictation or ambient notes for doctors, and the security questions to put to any scribe vendor are in audio, retention and agreement questions.

Adding a phone assistant: what to ask when it books into Cliniko

Several of the listed receptionist apps write bookings into the Cliniko diary. For a doctor's practice the key questions are different from a physio's:

• How does it tell an urgent call from a routine one, and what happens then? A doctor's practice cannot rely on a bot to triage a chest-pain call.
• Which appointment types can it book, and can it be limited to routine ones?
• Does it identify the caller before booking, and how does it handle two patients with the same name?
• Does it hand over to a person, and does the handover include a summary?

The after-hours rules and costs for that kind of service are laid out in what an AI answering service costs a doctor's practice. Price any assistant per call or per month, then add it to the Cliniko plan: a $95 plan with a $200 monthly phone assistant is really a $295 stack.

A worked example: three doctors weighing Cliniko with a scribe

Illustration. A three-doctor private practice currently uses an older system with no AI. They want a scribe for two doctors and a texting plan for reminders.

The scribe and assistant figures are placeholders to show the shape of the stack, not quotes. The pattern is real: the Cliniko line is small, the volume-driven lines dominate, and the fit test decides whether the whole structure works. If the practice finds that prescribing and results need extra apps too, the stack gets taller. Compare that total against what their present system plus a scribe would cost before deciding.

A mock consultation, the scribe's draft and what to fix

The fastest way to learn whether a connected scribe suits a doctor is to run a scripted consultation and mark the output. Below is an illustrative script and draft. It is invented, and not the output of any named product.

Spoken in the mock consult (abridged)
Patient: Cough for three weeks, worse at night. No fever. Ex-smoker.
Doctor: Chest clear on examination. Plan is a chest X-ray and review in two weeks. If you cough up blood or get breathless, come back straight away.
Doctor: Stop the lisinopril 10 mg, switch to losartan 50 mg once daily, as the cough may be from the lisinopril.

Draft note
Problem 1: Cough x 3 weeks, nocturnal. Afebrile. Ex-smoker.
Exam: Chest clear.
Plan: CXR. Review 2 weeks. Safety-net advice given.
Medication: Stop lisinopril 10 mg. Start losartan 50 mg once daily.

Mark it on four things. The medication line is exact, which is what you want. The safety-net line says advice was given but drops what it was ("blood" and "breathless"), so you would add them. The exam line says "chest clear" because you said it, and that is correct; a weaker tool might have added heart sounds you did not mention. And the note has no suggested diagnosis, which is right, because you did not state one. A tool that adds "ACE inhibitor cough" as a diagnosis is making a clinical judgement for you, which you should be able to switch off.

A two-week plan for a decision you can defend

Doctors are busy, so shrink the work to something that fits in the gaps between patients. This is the plan I would give a three-doctor practice.

• Days 1 to 2. One person starts the trial, builds the consultation template and a referral letter template, and books ten dummy patients. Total time: about three hours.
• Days 3 to 5. Install the prescribing app you are most likely to use, and run three test prescriptions. Run one mock consultation through your shortlisted scribe.
• Days 6 to 8. The second doctor repeats the mock consultation with their own template, to catch template differences. Reception tests the booking flow and reminder texts using their own phone numbers.
• Days 9 to 12. Export the communications log, count credits, and complete the cost table with the real numbers.
• Days 13 to 14. A twenty-minute meeting of all three doctors with the seven-point scores and the monthly total on one page. Decide, and record the decision.

If the practice would lose a week of income to run the trial properly, the trial is too heavy. Cut the scope, not the honesty: test the three jobs that would hurt most if they failed.

Questions to put to Cliniko and to each connected app

Subject: Questions before we decide

Hello [first name],

We are a medical practice with [number] doctors considering [Cliniko / app name].
1. Which of the following does it handle itself, and which need a connected app: prescribing, referral letters, results, claims, coding?
2. Which connected apps do your other medical practices use for those jobs?
3. For the AI scribe: where is audio processed, how long is it kept, and is it used to train models?
4. Will you sign a business associate agreement or equivalent data-processing agreement?
5. What happens to our data and notes if the app is discontinued?
6. What are the total monthly costs for our size, including any per-doctor or per-use fees?

Thank you,
[your name]

Send it to each vendor on your shortlist and file the replies. A vendor who answers all six clearly and quickly has earned a longer look. One who answers question 1 with "yes, all of it" and cannot name how deserves a follow-up.

Keeping patients informed when AI touches the consultation

Whichever connected tool you choose, patients should know. A short notice at booking and a sentence at the start of the consultation is enough: "I use an AI note-taking tool that records this conversation to draft my notes. I check every note. You can ask me not to use it." Record the patient's answer in the chart, and have a no-AI route that costs them nothing, such as typing notes yourself for that visit. Reception needs a plain answer to "where does the recording go", taken from the vendor's written reply, not from memory. If you use a phone assistant, the same principle applies: the caller should be told they are speaking to an automated assistant and be able to reach a person.

What goes wrong when a doctor adopts an allied-health system

Template sprawl. Cliniko's templates are customisable, which means each doctor builds their own. Within a month there are six consultation templates and no consistent record. Agree one standard template for the practice and review it quarterly.

The attachment graveyard. Results and letters get dragged in as files with names like "scan1.pdf". Agree a naming rule (date, type, source) before the first one goes in.

Reminder volume. A high-volume practice discovers its text bill in month two. Check credits weekly at first using the Communications export described in the pricing tutorial.

An app that stops being supported. A connected app is a small company's product. Before relying on one, ask how long it has been integrated and what happens to your data if it closes, and keep an export route.

A decision rule you can write on one page

Say yes to Cliniko if the seven-point test passes at least six, your doctors accept a standard template, and the full monthly stack (plan, texts, apps) is lower than your present total. Say not yet if prescribing or results fail, and ask connected-app vendors to demonstrate the specific job, not the brochure. Say no if the practice depends on structured results, claims or coding that Cliniko and its apps cannot show you live.

Whichever way you land, write the decision down with the date, the test scores and the monthly total. A year later you will want to know why you chose it. For a broader view of what to fund first as a medical practice, the AI budget tutorial sets out the order, and the recall, reminder and review side is in recall, reminder and review flows for doctors.

Questions doctors ask about Cliniko

Is Cliniko aimed at doctors?

Cliniko describes itself as practice management software for allied health practitioners. Doctors do use it, but you should test the parts a medical practice leans on, such as prescribing, referrals, results and claims, because those may come from connected apps rather than Cliniko itself.

Does Cliniko have its own AI scribe?

Cliniko's pricing page, features page and help centre do not list a built-in AI scribe or phone assistant. Its connected-apps directory lists third-party AI scribes and receptionists that integrate with it. Each charges its own fees, so add them to your sum before comparing.

Can I get a business associate agreement from Cliniko?

Cliniko's FAQ says you can enable its health-privacy settings and request a business associate agreement from Settings, Patients, Patient privacy. If a health-data law that requires one applies to your practice, request it before storing real records, and ask each connected AI app for its own agreement.

How many doctors can share one Cliniko subscription?

Pricing is by practitioner band, with one practitioner at $45 a month and two to five at $95. Reception and admin users are unlimited. Ask Cliniko in writing how it counts locums and part-time doctors before you subscribe.

Further reads

• AI Platform for Doctors: One Suite or Separate Scribe and Phone Tools? — One AI suite or separate scribe and phone tools.
• AI Chatbot for a Doctor's Website: Scope, Disclosure, Handover — Scope and handover rules for a doctor's website chatbot.
• HIPAA-Compliant AI Assistants for a Medical Office: BAA by Plan — Agreement checks by plan for AI in a medical office.
• ChatGPT for Medical Notes: A Safe Drafting Workflow for Small Practices — A safe drafting workflow for notes with ChatGPT.
• AI Policy for General Practice: A Template for UK Surgeries — A practice AI policy you can adapt.
• What Is an AI Scribe and How Does It Work in a Consultation? — How an AI scribe works inside a consultation.
• AI Scheduling for Doctors: Appointment Types and Waitlist Rules — How to configure AI scheduling for a doctor's practice: appointment types, buffers, overbooking limits, waitlist fill rules and a safe link to the EHR calendar.
• How Can AI Help GP Practices? Eight Admin Jobs Beyond the Scribe — Eight admin jobs for a GP practice beyond the scribe, from letters and coding suggestions to rotas and complaint drafts, each with its check step.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: Cliniko pricing page, FAQ, features page, connected-apps directory and help-centre articles (viewed 4 November 2026). Connected apps are third-party products described in their own listings.