Lyrebird Health vs Heidi Health: Which AI Clinical Scribe Is Right for Australian GPs?

Australian GPs spend close to two hours a day on clinical documentation. That’s ten hours a week not seeing patients, not sleeping, not doing anything except writing notes. Two Melbourne startups are competing to fix that problem, and right now they’re the two most-cited AI scribe options in Australian general practice: Lyrebird Health and Heidi Health.

Both record consultations, generate notes, and promise to cut admin time. The difference is where they fit in your workflow. This post breaks down what each tool actually does, what it costs, and which one makes more sense depending on how your practice runs.

Quick comparison

Lyrebird Health

Lyrebird launched in Melbourne and raised $12 million from Five V Capital and Octopus Ventures. The headline feature is EMR integration that goes deeper than any other AI scribe in Australia: Lyrebird sits inside Best Practice (Bp Premier), writing notes directly into the patient record without any copy-paste step. That’s not just a convenience. It changes how you interact with the tool entirely.

The Bp Premier integration means notes are in the right place, in the right format, from the moment the consultation ends. No browser overlay. No switching tabs. The AI is inside the software most Australian GPs already use every day.

Beyond Bp Premier, Lyrebird integrates with Genie, Cubiko, and BetterConsult. As of 2026, Bp Premier clinics get Lyrebird free under a new partnership deal. Independent GPs and allied health practitioners pay $160/month (billed annually) on the Pro plan, or contact them for enterprise pricing.

Where Lyrebird is weaker: it’s built primarily for GP workflows. If you’re running a multi-specialty clinic, a psychology practice, or treating patients who don’t speak English, you’ll hit its limits. The tool is expanding into allied health, but it’s not there yet in the way Heidi is.

Lyrebird strengths

• Notes write back directly into Bp Premier patient records
• Free for Bp Premier clinics (as of 2026)
• All data stored onshore in Australia
• Tight GP workflow focus means less setup and configuration

Watch-outs

• Less useful if you’re not on Bp Premier or Genie
• Specialty coverage narrower than Heidi
• No significant multilingual support

Heidi Health

Heidi raised $17 million in a Series A, with Telstra Health as a strategic partner, and now processes more than one million consultations per week globally. That scale matters because it means the model has been trained on a genuinely diverse range of clinical scenarios.

The free tier is generous: unlimited basic consultations with 10 Pro Actions per month. The paid Clinician plan costs $150/month billed annually. Worth flagging: that price jumped 67% in early 2026 (from roughly $90/month to $150/month), and some practitioners have raised concerns about reliability and occasional hallucinations at the higher price point. Heidi is worth testing on the free tier before committing.

Heidi’s main strength is breadth. It covers 200-plus specialties and 110-plus languages, which matters if you’re in a practice that sees patients from diverse cultural backgrounds or if you’re not a GP. The February 2026 launch of Heidi Evidence added in-consultation clinical decision support, and Heidi Comms handles patient communication tasks. Data is hosted in Australia and the platform is SOC2 and ISO certified.

The EMR integration is where Heidi’s limits show. It works through a Chrome extension overlay, which gets you a note generated fast but requires copy-pasting it into your patient record. That works fine for many practitioners, but it’s not the same as having the scribe live inside your EMR. Native write-back is Enterprise only.

Heidi strengths

• Unlimited basic consults on the free tier
• 200+ specialties and 110+ languages
• Heidi Evidence adds in-consultation decision support
• Strong compliance credentials (SOC2, ISO, AU data hosting)
• Works across any EMR via Chrome extension

Watch-outs

• Notes don’t write back to EMR (unless you’re on Enterprise)
• Price jumped 67% in early 2026; some users report reliability issues at the new price point
• Chrome extension workflow adds a step vs native integrations

Head-to-head: which one wins for your situation

GP on Best Practice: Lyrebird. The native Bp Premier integration makes this straightforward. Notes go directly into the patient record, and if your clinic already uses Bp Premier, you may qualify for the free offer. There’s no meaningful reason to choose the overlay approach when native integration is available.

Multi-specialty clinic or allied health: Heidi. The 200-plus specialty support and broad language coverage make it the more practical option for practices that see a diverse patient mix or where the practitioner isn’t a GP.

GP on Genie or another EMR: Either. Lyrebird integrates with Genie natively. Heidi’s Chrome extension works across any web-based EMR. Test both free tiers and see which note quality you prefer in practice.

Trying before paying: Heidi’s free tier is more flexible (unlimited basic consults vs Lyrebird’s monthly limit). That said, if you’re a Bp Premier clinic, Lyrebird’s 2026 free offer is worth checking before you pay for anything.

The bottom line

If you’re an Australian GP on Best Practice, Lyrebird is the better fit. The Bp Premier integration is the real differentiator: it removes the friction between recording a consultation and having it in the patient record. That’s not a minor workflow improvement; it’s the whole job done in one step.

If you’re in allied health, running a multi-specialty practice, or seeing patients who primarily speak languages other than English, Heidi is the stronger tool. The breadth of specialty support and language coverage is genuinely ahead of Lyrebird right now.

Pricing is close enough ($10/month difference) that it shouldn’t drive the decision. What should drive it is where each tool fits in your actual workflow.

Both offer free tiers. Try them in real consultations before paying.

Read the Full Company Profiles

• 📋 Lyrebird Health: The Australian AI Scribe Built for GPs
• 📋 Heidi Health: The AI Clinical Scribe Trusted by a Million Consultations a Week

Sources

• Medlo.com.au: Best AI Medical Scribes in Australia (Heidi 1M+ consults/week)
• Lyrebird Health pricing ($160/month, free for Bp Premier clinics)
• Lyrebird Health: Best Practice integration detail
• Veroscribe: Heidi Health Review 2026 (pricing restructure, Feb 2026)
• Grounded Scribe: Best AI Scribe Australia (independent AU comparison)
• Industry estimates on GP documentation time: 1.5–2 hours/day based on AMA/RACGP practitioner surveys

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