PatientNotes

Free AI tool · No signup

Free AI progress note generator

Type your visit notes or speak for 60 seconds, and get a structured SOAP progress note to review and copy. For primary care, therapy, physical therapy, chiropractic, nursing, dental and veterinary visits.

Don't include names, dates of birth or other identifiers. PatientNotes doesn't store what you enter.

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What is a progress note?

A progress note is the record of a single follow-up visit or session. Where an intake or history and physical captures the whole picture once, progress notes track what changed since last time: symptoms, findings, response to treatment and the next step. Read in order, they tell the story of a patient's care.

SOAP is the standard progress note format, and it is what this generator writes:

  • Subjective: what the patient reports, in their words. Symptoms, changes since the last visit, adherence, concerns.
  • Objective: what you observed and measured. Vitals, exam findings, test results, range of motion, and the patient's response to treatment given today.
  • Assessment: the problems or diagnoses you named and whether they are improving, stable or worse.
  • Plan: treatment, medication changes, education, referrals and follow-up.

Therapists often write progress notes as DAP or BIRP notes instead; pick Therapy / counselling in the tool to choose between SOAP, DAP and BIRP. Our progress notes guide compares the formats.

Progress note example

A fictional physical therapy follow-up in rough shorthand, and the progress note the generator wrote from it, unedited.

Physical therapy · SOAP

Physical therapy: ankle sprain

Rough notes

22M R ankle inversion sprain 3 wks ago playing soccer. Pain 2/10 walking, 4/10 hopping. Mild swelling lat ankle, DF 10 deg vs 20 L. Single-leg balance 10s R vs 30s L. Did balance board, theraband ankle 4-way, calf raises. Plan: 2x/wk x3 wks, add hop progression, HEP updated.

Subjective
22M. R ankle inversion sprain 3 wks ago playing soccer. Pain 2/10 walking and 4/10 hopping.
Objective
Mild swelling lat ankle. DF 10 deg R vs 20 L. Single-leg balance 10s R vs 30s L. Performed balance board, theraband ankle 4-way, and calf raises.
Assessment
R ankle inversion sprain.
Plan
2x/wk x3 wks. Add hop progression. HEP updated.

How to write a good progress note

  1. Compare with last time. A progress note is about change. “Pain 3/10, down from 6/10” or “knee flexion 95 degrees, was 80” shows progress in a way “improving” cannot.
  2. Keep subjective and objective apart. What the patient told you goes in Subjective; what you measured or saw goes in Objective.
  3. Name the problem in Assessment. State the diagnosis or problem you are treating and its status. If you have not named one yet, say so rather than guessing.
  4. Make the plan actionable. Doses, frequencies, referrals and a follow-up interval another clinician could act on.
  5. Be brief. Short lines and standard abbreviations are fine, as long as their meaning is clear.

How this progress note generator works

Choose your specialty, paste your shorthand or press Speak instead, and generate. The generator only uses what you wrote. It will not add vitals, doses or diagnoses you did not mention, and a medication without a dose stays without one. Numbers, laterality and negations such as “denies chest pain” are kept exactly. Anything your notes do not cover reads “Not documented”, so gaps are easy to spot before you copy the note into your EHR.

Progress notes without the typing

PatientNotes records the visit on your phone or in the browser and writes the progress note in your own template, with suggested ICD-10 and CPT codes. Compare it with other tools in our best AI scribes roundup.

Let PatientNotes write the note from the visit

This page is a free sample. PatientNotes records the whole visit on your phone or in the browser, writes the note in your own template, suggests ICD-10 and CPT codes, and is HIPAA compliant with a BAA included. 7-day free trial, no card. Then $50/user/mo billed annually, or $70 month to month.

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FAQ

Questions, answered

What is a progress note?

A progress note records one follow-up visit or session: how the patient has been, what you found, what you think and what happens next. It shows the course of care over time, so the next clinician can pick up where you left off.

What format should a progress note use?

SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) is the standard progress note format in medicine, nursing, physical therapy, chiropractic and dentistry, and it is what this generator writes by default. Therapists often use DAP or BIRP instead; choose Therapy / counselling as the specialty to switch.

Which specialties does it support?

General medicine and primary care, dental, therapy and counselling, chiropractic, physical therapy, nursing and veterinary. Each one uses the wording and structure clinicians in that field expect.

Is it really free? Are there limits?

Yes, it is free with no signup. To keep it fast for everyone, each visitor can generate up to 5 notes an hour and 15 a day, and record up to 5 clips an hour of up to 60 seconds each. PatientNotes itself has no such limits.

Is it HIPAA compliant? Can I enter patient information?

Don't enter or say names, dates of birth, record numbers or other identifiers. Your text and audio are sent to our AI providers to do the work, and PatientNotes doesn't store what you enter, the recording or the result. Treat this page as a drafting aid for de-identified notes. For real patient records, use PatientNotes itself, which is built for patient data and signs a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).

How accurate is the AI note?

It is a draft. The generator only uses what you wrote or said and is told not to add findings, vitals, doses or diagnoses you did not mention. Any section your notes do not cover reads "Not documented". Always review the note before it goes into a record; you remain responsible for its content.

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