Knowtex vs ScribeMD (2026)
Two mid market scribes that both reach past the note, and they disclose very differently. Knowtex generates documentation, diagnostic and billing codes and orders in real time, built per specialty rather than as templates over one model, with founders who worked as scribes for a year and a federal award behind them. ScribeMD is the more legible purchase, with a complete published ladder including a free tier, a directly named certification and the most specific multi speaker capability claim in the category. Ignore the accuracy percentages circulating for ScribeMD, which have no methodology behind them. The difference that matters is that Knowtex produces orders and codes with no published gate, no retention position and no attestation, which is a lot of unsupervised output from a vendor a solo practice cannot audit.
- The automation targets the highest volume administrative workflows in the ambulatory practice, generating notes, codes and orders in real time rather than only documentation.
- Specialty specific construction rather than one model behind templates, with a named specialty focus and independent validation unusual at this size.
- A federal deployment means the product cleared a procurement process rather than only a sales one.
- A complete published ladder with limits stated rather than implied, including a genuine free tier, so a clinician can start at zero and see the ceiling before paying.
- Certification is named directly rather than described in near attestation language, which is unusual at this end of the market.
- The multi speaker claim is the most specific in this category, which matters for family visits, interpreter present encounters and team based care.
This comparison is published by AI Health Index, an independent research platform that compares healthcare AI vendors objectively. Knowtex and ScribeMD are each graded against the same capability taxonomy, from each vendor's own public materials and the regulatory record, under the AI Health Index verification standard. No vendor pays for placement, and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Plain facts
| Fact | Knowtex | ScribeMD |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Ambient Scribes | Ambient Scribes |
| Founded | 2022 | 2023 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States | Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Website | knowtex.ai | scribemd.ai |
Side by Side
Select any grade to read the note behind it.
Product updates
The latest logged changes from each vendor, newest first, each linked to its source.
Knowtex
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Clinical evidence
Knowtex reported results from a US Department of Veterans Affairs assessment of its ambient scribe at the Kansas City VA, covering 18 primary care providers: most saved one to two hours of after hours work, and patient experience scores rose nearly three points to 95.8 percent.
Source
Each vendor in one paragraph
Written to be quoted whole. Each paragraph opens the AI Health Index profile of the vendor: what the product is, who buys it and what it does.
Knowtex is a 2022 San Francisco company founded by two Stanford AI scientists who spent a year working as medical scribes alongside physicians while building the product. It generates notes, diagnostic and billing codes and orders in real time from the encounter, is designed to be EHR agnostic and specialty specific, and runs on any device without dedicated hardware.
Source: AI Health Index, August 2026
ScribeMD is a self serve ambient scribe claiming more than 3,000 physicians, generating notes in under 30 seconds across a stated 50 or more specialties including dentistry, psychiatry and cardiology.
Source: AI Health Index, August 2026
Questions buyers ask
How are Knowtex and ScribeMD priced and sold?
Knowtex announced its VA pilot contract at $15 million.
With ScribeMD, the free tier is 10 conversations a month with nine speaker support and a 48 hour support response commitment. The paid tier is $99.99 a month for unlimited conversations, adding analytics, custom note formatting and a 24 hour support response. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How do Knowtex and ScribeMD handle patient data?
In Knowtex's case, a federal health deployment brings obligations beyond the commercial privacy baseline, including federal records requirements, system of records notices governing how a federal agency may hold and use personal information, and the privacy impact assessment that accompanies an authorization to operate.
For ScribeMD, one commercial structure qualifies the retention answer rather than contradicting it. The ability to customize retention and deployment is listed as a custom enterprise tier feature, so the fifteen-day default applies as given on the free and standard plans and cannot be extended or shortened there. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
What evidence is published for Knowtex and ScribeMD?
Knowtex was one of 15 finalists in the ambient dictation track of the 2024 Department of Veterans Affairs AI Tech Sprint, a structured competitive evaluation run by the government rather than the vendor, which Knowtex describes as a top three placing.
In ScribeMD's case, no study, controlled evaluation, accuracy benchmark, third-party performance rating or independent assessment exists. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How much do Knowtex and ScribeMD leave to the clinician?
For Knowtex, the reasoning offered publicly deserves examining rather than accepting, because it is an argument by analogy standing in for a measurement. The chief executive's position is that a system accurate enough to generate a note is accurate enough to propose the orders implied by it.
With ScribeMD, a third-party review described this product as operating a hybrid model combining machine learning with human oversight. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Related comparisons
Other published head to head assessments involving these vendors or their closest peers. The full set for this category is on the Ambient Scribes page.
The accuracy and latency figures circulating for ScribeMD carry no methodology, reference standard or denominator and should not be relied on. Knowtex generates codes and orders in real time with no described gate, no published retention or training use position, no named attestation and no trust center. Neither publishes a subgroup or accent performance analysis. For self serve products the practical protections are a business associate agreement that applies on the tier you actually pay for and a written answer on whether your audio trains anything.