Feature guide
AI session notes for therapists
Updated: July 2026 · Reviewed by the PR-TOP team
AI session notes transcribe and summarise your sessions so you can write progress notes in seconds instead of minutes. PR-TOP does that — and unlike pure note-takers it also keeps a real-time client channel open between sessions: Telegram diary, exercises and one-tap crisis alerts, all encrypted.
Why session notes alone are not enough
The AI note-taker market — Quill, Supanote, AutoNotes, Heidi, Freed — solves one problem cleanly: reducing documentation time after a session. You join a call, the AI listens, and you get a clean SOAP or DAP note in your inbox. That is genuinely valuable.
The gap is the space between sessions. A client who spirals on a Wednesday night, misses the homework you assigned, or needs a nudge before Friday — none of that context reaches you through a note-taking app. Therapists in private practice increasingly report that the biggest source of double documentation is not writing the session note; it is reconstructing what happened in the six days before the next appointment.
PR-TOP is built around that gap. It handles session notes (Whisper transcription, configurable AI providers, summary templates) and then stays open as a Telegram channel where clients keep a voice, text or video diary, receive exercises, and can send a one-tap SOS straight to your inbox. All of it is AES-encrypted at the application layer. The session note and the between-session record arrive in the same dashboard.
How PR-TOP handles session notes
Session recording is the starting point. You upload an audio or video file (up to 100 MB) from any source — Zoom, local recorder, phone — and Whisper transcribes it. The transcript is immediately encrypted as Class A data, meaning the database never holds plaintext client content. An AI summary is generated using your choice of provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter) against a configurable template.
The result lands on the client's timeline in your encrypted dashboard alongside their diary entries for that week. Instead of flipping between a note-taking app and a separate folder of client messages, you see the session note and the between-session record in one place. When you prepare for the next appointment, the context is already there.
Templates are provider-configurable rather than locked to SOAP/DAP/BIRP/GIRP presets. That is a trade-off: specialist note-takers offer more mature clinical formats out of the box. If your practice runs on a specific clinical model and you need deep template parity with a US EHR, a dedicated note-taker may serve you better. See the comparison table below.
See also: AI practice management with PR-TOP and best AI assistant for therapists (2026 roundup).
Comparison: PR-TOP vs specialist AI note-takers (2026)
| Category | Pricing | Where it wins | Where it loses | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR-TOP | Free Trial, then €9/mo Basic, €19/mo Pro | Between-session channel (diary, exercises, SOS), EU/GDPR, 4 languages, single encrypted dashboard | Simpler note templates, no US-EHR integrations, no scheduling/billing | EU/CIS/LATAM therapists who want notes AND a between-session client channel |
| Quill | From ~$29/mo | Fast, clean AI notes, good template library, US-market integrations | No client-facing channel, no diary or exercises, US-hosted | US therapists who want to cut note-writing time with minimal setup |
| Supanote | From ~$19/mo | Affordable entry point, clean SOAP/DAP output, easy session upload | No between-session engagement, no client app, limited language support | Solo therapists on a budget focused purely on session documentation |
| AutoNotes | From ~$25/mo | Automated note generation, customisable templates, no manual upload needed | No client channel, no crisis alerts, US-focused compliance | Therapists who want hands-off AI note generation during sessions |
Pricing verified against each vendor's public pricing page in July 2026. Numbers refresh quarterly. PR-TOP pricing is in EUR; competitor prices are in USD.
When to choose a specialist note-taker
- Your entire workflow is session documentation — you have no need to track between-session activity.
- You need deep clinical template parity (SOAP/DAP/BIRP/GIRP variants, treatment-plan generators, DSM/ICD prompts) out of the box.
- You are a US therapist and need HIPAA-compliant integrations with your existing EHR (Epic, SimplePractice, TherapyNotes).
- You bill through a US-centric platform and want notes to flow directly into billing — a use case PR-TOP does not cover.
When to choose PR-TOP
- You want session notes AND a real-time between-session record — not two separate tools.
- Your clients benefit from keeping a voice, text or video diary between appointments and you want to see it.
- You want to assign exercises and know whether your client actually completed them before the next session.
- A client in crisis should be able to reach you with one tap from Telegram — not hunt for a phone number.
- You are in the EU, Ukraine, Russia or Latin America and want GDPR-first, EU-hosted software with a Data Processing Addendum included by default.
- You need your interface (and your clients' interface) in Russian, Ukrainian or Spanish, not English only.
Privacy and encryption: what "encrypted session notes" actually means
PR-TOP separates data into two classes at the application layer before anything reaches the database. Class A data — diary entries, session transcripts, AI summaries, private therapist notes — is encrypted with AES before storage, so the database itself holds ciphertext, not plaintext client content. Class B data — timestamps, metadata, IDs — is access-controlled plaintext. A server breach does not expose your clients' words.
All processing happens on EU infrastructure (Hetzner). There are no third-party analytics trackers — analytics run on self-hosted Umami. A Data Processing Addendum is available by default, not on request. Clients can exercise GDPR data rights (access, rectification, erasure) through your dashboard, and you can export or wipe an entire client record in one action.
Details: encryption architecture and GDPR compliance.
Frequently asked questions
Does PR-TOP produce SOAP, DAP or BIRP notes?
PR-TOP generates session summaries using configurable AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter) against a template you can customise. It does not ship named clinical formats (SOAP, DAP, BIRP, GIRP) as locked presets the way specialist note-takers do. If your practice depends on strict adherence to a specific clinical format, a dedicated tool like Quill or Supanote will serve you better for note templates. PR-TOP's value is the combination of notes and the between-session client channel.
How does Whisper transcription work in PR-TOP?
You upload an audio or video file (up to 100 MB) from any source — Zoom recording, a local recorder, a phone voice memo. PR-TOP sends it to OpenAI Whisper for transcription, then passes the transcript to your chosen AI provider for summarisation. The raw transcript is encrypted as Class A data immediately after transcription and never stored in plaintext. Streaming playback of the original file is also available from the session detail view.
Can I use PR-TOP alongside a specialist note-taker like Quill or Supanote?
Yes, and many EU therapists do. If you rely on a specialist note-taker for its clinical template depth or EHR integrations, you can run PR-TOP for the client-facing channel — diary, exercises, SOS alerts — without any conflict. The two tools solve different problems and their scopes barely overlap.
Is the session recording stored permanently?
Session files are stored as encrypted binary assets with opaque IDs and signed-access streaming URLs that expire. You control retention: you can delete a session file (and its transcript and summary) from the dashboard at any time, and the delete is permanent. There is no long-term audio retention by default.
What languages does AI note generation support?
Whisper transcription supports over 50 languages. The AI summary quality depends on the provider you configure — all major providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini) handle multilingual sessions well. The PR-TOP dashboard and the Telegram client bot are available in English, Russian, Ukrainian and Spanish.
Can I try PR-TOP without a credit card?
Yes. The free Trial tier includes the encrypted dashboard, Telegram client bot, diary, exercises and SOS for a limited number of clients. No card required, no automatic conversion to a paid plan. You upgrade only when you decide to.
Start with AI session notes — stay for the between-session layer
The free Trial takes about ten minutes to set up. No credit card. If PR-TOP does not fit your workflow, you can export all your data and leave — no lock-in.