What is the best AI for psychologists in 2026? WhatsApp chatbot for psychologists and therapists

What each option does, side by side

On a phone, drag the table sideways.

1. WhatsApp Business, the free app

Who it's for: a psychologist who sees few patients and answers WhatsApp between sessions.

What it does: according to Meta's site, the app is free to download. It sends a greeting message to someone writing for the first time, an away message outside hours, and has quick replies, which are shortcuts for sending a ready-made text with a few taps. It doesn't read the question, doesn't confirm sessions and doesn't book.

Note: it solves the silence, not the work. The patient who asked the price at ten at night still doesn't have the price until you reply.

2. Psicotime

Who it's for: a psychologist who works alone and wants scheduling, reminders, records and billing in one place, at the lowest price on this list with automatic reminders.

Price: a single plan, PsicoPro, at R$ 79 per month, or R$ 828 billed once a year, which works out to R$ 69 per month. It has a 7-day trial and doesn't take a percentage of sessions, according to psicotime.com/precos in September 2026.

What it does: the patient receives a confirmation request 24 hours before the session and a reminder near the time, and you receive the list of the day's appointments on WhatsApp every morning. It has a page for the patient to book, a connection to Google Calendar and records. Alma AI, its AI, helps you prepare notes and clinical documents; it doesn't talk to the patient.

Confidentiality: the site says that records, intake forms and conversations with Alma are encrypted, meaning locked with a key derived from your password.

Note: it doesn't answer the patient's free-form questions. The site says the unpaid-session notice goes out through Psicotime's WhatsApp, and doesn't say whether the session reminder goes out from your number or from its number. If that matters to you, ask before signing up.

3. Amplimed

Who it's for: a practice that wants to replace scheduling, records and billing with a single system. The site lists psychology among the specialties of Amélia Transcrição and Amélia Copilot, the AIs that work on the records.

Price: Lite at R$ 89 and Pro at R$ 139 per month, per professional, according to the plans page for practices in September 2026. Amélia Agendamento, which talks to the patient on WhatsApp, appears as an add-on with a “Let's talk” button, with no price.

What Amélia Agendamento does: according to its page, it reads the patient's message, checks the calendar in real time and confirms the time without needing someone from the team. In other words, it books on its own.

Note: WhatsApp confirmations and transcription are add-on modules, contracted separately. See CertuAI and Amplimed side by side.

4. CertuAI

Who it's for: a practice that gets many questions about price, reimbursement, online or in-person care and schedule, and wants someone to answer while you are in session.

Price: Start at US$ 75 per month, no lock-in contract.

What it does: answers on the WhatsApp number the practice already uses, with what you taught it in the Brain, which is the knowledge base with your practice's way of doing things. It sends the session reminder and saves each conversation in the contact list, with what the person asked for.

Who books: by default, the AI doesn't lock in the time. When the patient asks for a day and time, it says it will confirm, and you receive the request to approve on the calendar. Booking on its own is an option you turn on, and it only makes sense when your real calendar is CertuAI's, connected to Google Calendar.

Limits: on a health account, like a psychology practice, the AI introduces itself as a virtual assistant, doesn't assess symptoms, doesn't advise on treatment and doesn't issue or promise a report or statement.

Note: it's an AI reading text, and it can make mistakes. Test with real phrases from your patients before turning it on.

What if the patient writes in a crisis?

Since September 20, 2026, every health account on CertuAI has a crisis rule turned on by default. When the message mentions wanting to die, hurting themselves, taking too much medication on purpose, being in crisis right now, or raises that concern about someone else, the first line of the reply provides the Centro de Valorização da Vida (CVV, Brazil's crisis helpline) at 188, free and 24 hours a day. If the risk is immediate, it says to call 192 (ambulance) or 190 (police). In the same message, the AI says a person will take over the conversation, and the alert reaches you.

At that moment it doesn't offer a time or a price, doesn't ask for details of what happened and doesn't go back to scheduling in that conversation. When in doubt between a crisis and a normal conversation, it follows the crisis rule.

This doesn't replace you. In a note dated September 5, 2025, Brazil's Federal Council of Psychology wrote that crisis management and risk assessment “are not tasks that can be delegated to algorithms”. The AI's rule exists so the person isn't left without a reply until you see the message; you are the one who provides care. Write in the Brain how and where you want to be alerted, and test before turning it on.

On the Psicotime and Amplimed pages we read, we found no rule for crisis messages on WhatsApp. If you use either of them, ask the company.

What does Brazil's Federal Council of Psychology say about using AI?

• Scheduling and reminders can be automatic. The Council's guide published in December 2025 says that, in administrative activities that don't deal with psychology matters, like scheduling and reminders, AI “can be used without restrictions”. Council guide on AI.
• Therapy, no. The same guide says that virtual assistants and chatbots, the conversation robots, should not be used to conduct psychotherapy on their own.
• The decision is yours, and so is the responsibility. The position note of July 3, 2025 says AI “should not operate autonomously in decisions that involve professional judgment” and that using AI, even from another company, “does not exempt psychologists from their ethical and technical responsibility”. July 2025 note.
• Crisis and risk stay with you. Note 5/2025, from September 5, 2025, puts clinical judgment, crisis management, risk assessment and the therapeutic relationship among the tasks that are not handed to an algorithm. Note 5/2025.
• Confidentiality remains a duty. The Code of Ethics, in Article 9, says it is a psychologist's duty to respect professional confidentiality to protect people's privacy. Code of Ethics.

None of these texts prohibits AI on the practice's WhatsApp. They separate what is front desk work from what is psychology, and that is the line the table at the end of this page follows. This is not legal advice: if in doubt, talk to your regional council.

What about messaging care? What Resolution 9/2024 says

Resolution 9, of July 18, 2024, is the Council's current rule for psychology work done through digital means. It was published in the Diário Oficial da União (Brazil's federal gazette) on July 30, 2024, repealed the 2018 and 2020 rules and doesn't mention artificial intelligence. Text of the resolution.

Article 3: live conversation and exchanging messages with the people you see fall under this work. The resolution calls this “synchronous or asynchronous” communication.

Article 4, item VI: before using a digital tool, you assess “the means to handle or direct urgent and emergency demands”. An AI on WhatsApp counts in that calculation: define beforehand what it does with a risk message.

Article 7, sole paragraph: you must say which technology resources you use to guarantee confidentiality and inform the client about it. In our reading, if an AI answers the practice's WhatsApp, the patient should know. Say so in the contract and in the first message.

What about the data protection law?

Brazil's General Data Protection Law (LGPD), Law 13,709/2018, says in Article 5 that health data is sensitive personal data. Article 11 only allows this type of data to be processed in listed cases, such as the patient's consent “in a specific and prominent way” or health protection carried out by a health professional. And Article 6 asks to use only the “minimum necessary”. Text of the law.

For the WhatsApp AI, this becomes a simple rule: to book, it needs a name, a time and whether the visit is online or in person. It doesn't need to know why the person is seeking therapy, so it shouldn't ask. The Council's guide goes the same direction for AI tools in general: avoid putting patient data in them and, if it's really necessary, remove everything that identifies the person.

What about AIs for records, transcription and text?

A good part of what shows up when you search for AI for psychologists doesn't answer patients: it's AI that writes the progress note, transcribes the session or helps create a post. On this list, Alma AI, from Psicotime, and Amélia Transcrição and Amélia Copilot, from Amplimed, are of that type. CertuAI has no records and doesn't transcribe sessions.

• Session transcription: the Council's guide asks for the consent of the person being seen and a platform whose privacy and data retention rules you know. The Code of Ethics, in Article 14, says the person must be informed from the start about any means of recording.
• Reports and expert opinions: according to the guide, AI can write a draft, with your full review and your authorship taken on. Responsibility for the document always belongs to the psychologist.
• Patient data in general-purpose AI: the guide says to avoid it. Don't put in records, names or anything that identifies the person, and turn off the use of your conversations to train the tool.

For more options of AI that answers on WhatsApp, with six names and prices, see best WhatsApp chatbot for psychologists.

What can be automatic in a psychology practice?

On a phone, drag the table sideways.

The left column is front desk work, and the right column is psychology. For how to set up the AI in the practice, see AI on WhatsApp for psychologists.

What CertuAI measured on clinic and practice WhatsApp

CertuAI measured when patients write on WhatsApp at 17 clinics and practices that answer with CertuAI's AI: 28.2% of messages arrived outside Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., almost 3 in 10. If the front desk works those hours, that's the part that waits until someone comes back.

On a phone, drag the table sideways.

Source: CertuAI service base, 17 clinics and practices, 19,259 patient messages on WhatsApp from Jul 30 to Sep 30, 2026, measured on Oct 1, 2026. Business hours are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., in each clinic's time zone. Test accounts, test contacts and imported history are excluded.

Frequently asked questions

Want the AI to do this on your WhatsApp?

CertuAI is AI automation software for small and medium-sized Brazilian businesses. The AI answers on the clinic's WhatsApp, books on the calendar and records each conversation. The Start plan costs US$ 75 per month, no lock-in contract.

You connect the number the clinic already uses.

Just want the booking link? It's free, it's yours forever and doesn't need a card. Create my booking page.

Other clinic questions CertuAI has answered