OpenEvidence vs UpToDate (2026)
Both answer clinical questions at the point of care, from different foundations. OpenEvidence is AI first: free to verified US and Canadian clinicians and funded by pharmaceutical and medical device advertising shown in the product, it answers from the medical literature through a model family that ranges from quick direct answers to structured reports built over several minutes, and it runs inside the EHR at named health systems. UpToDate is the long established reference from Wolters Kluwer, written by more than 7,600 physician authors and editors. Its Expert AI, launched in September 2025, is a conversational assistant that draws only on that authored content rather than the open literature. The choice is about where the answer comes from. OpenEvidence synthesizes the literature itself; UpToDate answers from a reference its editors have already synthesized, and charges for it.
- Free use for verified US and Canadian clinicians, paid for by pharmaceutical and device advertising inside the product.
- A model family that trades speed for depth: direct answers, a more thorough survey, or a structured report.
- Enterprise deployments embedded in the EHR at named health systems.
- Content written and curated by more than 7,600 physician authors and editors.
- Expert AI, a conversational assistant that draws only on UpToDate's own content.
- Personal and trainee subscriptions sold online, with enterprise terms quoted.
This comparison is published by AI Health Index, an independent research platform that compares healthcare AI vendors objectively. OpenEvidence and UpToDate 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 | OpenEvidence | UpToDate |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Clinical Reference & Evidence | Clinical Reference & Evidence |
| Founded | 2021 | Not recorded |
| Headquarters | Miami, Florida | Waltham, Massachusetts |
| Website | openevidence.com | wolterskluwer.com |
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.
OpenEvidence
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Product / capability
OpenEvidence launched Patient Take-Homes, a new feature allowing clinicians to optionally turn AI-generated answers into educational materials for their patients.
Source -
Clinical evidence
A systematic review published in npj Digital Medicine evaluated 11 studies assessing OpenEvidence's clinical question-answering capabilities.
Source -
Product / capability
OpenEvidence integrated Springer Nature's medical content into its platform, expanding the peer-reviewed literature available to ground its AI responses.
Source
UpToDate
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Product / capability
Wolters Kluwer expanded its generative AI solution, UpToDate Expert AI, by integrating comprehensive medication data from UpToDate Lexidrug.
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.
AI medical search and clinical decision support used at the point of care, free to verified United States and Canadian clinicians and funded by pharmaceutical and medical device advertising shown inside the product, with enterprise deployments embedded in the electronic health record at named health systems. The published model family is Osler for direct answers in seconds, Sackett for a more thorough survey.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Clinical reference and decision support published by Wolters Kluwer Health and in market for more than thirty years, with content curated by over 7,600 physician authors and editors and reported use by more than three million clinicians across thousands of hospitals worldwide.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Questions buyers ask
How do OpenEvidence and UpToDate work with the EHR?
For OpenEvidence, the first party evidence is recent. On 22 September 2026 the company and the University of Texas Medical Branch announced a collaboration putting cited clinical evidence inside the electronic health record, live at UTMB since March 2026, with adoption reported as growing since launch.
With UpToDate, patient education material is offered in up to nineteen languages, which is a real interoperability property in a multilingual health system. The company's release of 3 June 2026 states that more than half of United States Enterprise Edition customers, approximately 2,000 hospitals, had signed up for the Expert AI version by 30 April 2026, so the generative layer is reaching the chart through the same route. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 29, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How are OpenEvidence and UpToDate priced and sold?
In OpenEvidence's case, the named health system collaborations announced through 2026 carry no commercial terms. It is also not stated whether free individual use by a health system's clinicians creates any institutional obligation before a contract exists.
For UpToDate, enterprise pricing, which is what a health system buys and the tier that reaches most clinicians, is gated behind a sales conversation. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 29, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How do OpenEvidence and UpToDate handle patient data?
With OpenEvidence, the scope is narrower than it first looks. The exclusion is drawn around protected health information, not around everything a clinician types.
The terms of use state that UpToDate and its licensors are not intended to receive, transmit, store or process protected health information under HIPAA, which places the product outside the patient data relationship by contract. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 29, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Which settings and specialties do OpenEvidence and UpToDate cover?
For OpenEvidence, the product now covers the consultation, the encounter through Visits, and patient contact through the Dialer, with an education platform carrying continuing education and maintenance of certification credit added on 28 July 2026.
With UpToDate, the trainee and medical university segments are substantial, and continuing medical education accrues inside the AI product, so the product serves workforce and training as well. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 29, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Related comparisons
Other published head to head assessments involving these vendors or their closest peers.
Both records were reviewed on this site in September 2026. OpenEvidence is free to verified clinicians and funded by advertising; UpToDate sells subscriptions.
Ask both how an answer is corrected when the underlying evidence changes, and how quickly.