A complete overview of Hippocratic AI pricing and its AI healthcare agents

There’s been a ton of buzz lately around chipmaker Nvidia and a company called Hippocratic AI. They’ve been making headlines with their "AI nurses" and an eye-catching low hourly cost, framing it as a huge step for industry-specific AI. But once you dig past the headlines, the details start to get a little fuzzy. It’s not always clear how the tech actually works, what its real-world limits are, or how the pricing really fits together.

We’re here to clear that up. Let’s pull back the curtain on Hippocratic AI and break down exactly how its AI healthcare agents work, what they’re built to do, and, most importantly, the details of the Hippocratic AI pricing model.

What is Hippocratic AI?

Before we get into the numbers, let’s cover the basics. Hippocratic AI is a healthcare tech company building generative AI agents with a "safety-first" mantra. These agents are designed to handle conversations and tasks with patients that don’t involve diagnosis.

The vision: Tackling healthcare staffing shortages

The main goal for Hippocratic AI is to help solve the worldwide shortage of healthcare workers. It’s a huge problem. The World Health Organization expects a shortfall of 10 million health workers by 2030. The company figures the only way to close that gap between the number of available professionals and the growing demand for care is with scalable, AI-powered help.

The technology: Teaming up with Nvidia for conversational AI

To make these AI agents sound less like robots and more like people, Hippocratic AI paired up with Nvidia. They’re working together to create "super-low latency" conversations, which is just a technical way of saying they want to get rid of awkward pauses and delays. The aim is to make talking with the AI feel natural and smooth, which is a big part of their plan to build "empathetic" AI that patients feel comfortable with.

How Hippocratic AI’s healthcare agents work

It’s important to know that these aren’t just generic chatbots loaded up with a medical dictionary. Hippocratic AI’s agents are built on a special Large Language Model (LLM) designed specifically for healthcare conversations from the very beginning.

The Polaris large language model (LLM)

The brain of the operation is Polaris, Hippocratic AI’s own safety-focused LLM. It has been trained on a massive amount of proprietary healthcare data, everything from clinical care plans to medical textbooks.

According to their own data, this specialized training seems to be working. They claim Polaris does better than general models like GPT-4, and even human nurses, on certain jobs. For example, they’ve reported the AI is better at spotting how a medication might affect lab values or flagging toxic doses of over-the-counter drugs. It’s a good reminder that for narrow, data-heavy tasks, a focused AI can be incredibly sharp.

Use cases: From post-discharge checkups to wellness coaching

So, what do these agents actually do? Hippocratic AI is very clear that they are not for diagnosing conditions. Instead, they handle the supportive, non-diagnostic work that can take up a lot of a human nurse’s day. This includes things like:

• Chronic care management

• Post-discharge follow-ups

• Pre-operative check-ins

• Health risk assessments

• Wellness coaching

Key limitations and ethical questions

While the technology is pretty interesting, it comes with some serious guardrails and raises some big questions. The agents are specifically designed to pass a conversation over to a human professional whenever a question goes beyond what they’re programmed to handle. But that doesn’t solve every issue.

Bringing AI into such a personal field kicks off a real debate about replacing the "human touch." Can an AI genuinely show empathy? Then there’s the constant risk of AI hallucinations, where the model gives information that sounds confident but is just plain wrong, something that could be dangerous in a healthcare context. And, of course, data privacy is a huge concern when you’re dealing with sensitive health information.

For any business handling sensitive customer data, whether it’s in healthcare or customer support, picking a platform with rock-solid security is a must. For instance, solutions like eesel AI offer important security features like optional EU data residency and zero-retention policies for enterprise clients, making sure you always stay in control of your data.

A detailed breakdown of Hippocratic AI pricing

Alright, let’s get to the main event: Hippocratic AI pricing. It isn’t a simple, one-size-fits-all plan. The model is actually split into two parts: one for the healthcare providers who use the agents, and another for the licensed clinicians who help build them.

The provider cost: The advertised $9 per hour model

The number that grabs all the headlines is the $9 per hour cost. This is what a hospital or clinic would pay to run a Hippocratic AI agent. When you put that next to the median hourly wage for a registered nurse in the U.S., which sits around $39.05 per hour, the potential for saving money is pretty clear.

But a "per-hour" model also brings up some practical questions. What happens to your budget during a busy flu season? If patient calls suddenly shoot up, does your bill shoot up with it? This kind of usage-based pricing can make financial planning a real headache.

This video explores the controversial cost comparison between Hippocratic AI's $9/hour AI agents and human nurses.

The clinician creator program

The other side of the pricing coin is the clinician creator program. This is a marketplace where licensed U.S. clinicians, like nurses and doctors, can build their own specialized AI agents and get paid for them.

Here’s how they get compensated:

• Clinicians earn 5% of the base rate for their agent, which is usually $10 per hour.

• They also get 70% of any premium rate they choose to add on top of that base rate.

• There’s a cap on how much they can earn, which is currently $5,000 per agent.

It’s a clever way to use the expertise of real medical professionals to build out their offerings, but it does add another layer of complexity to the whole business model.

Implications for budget predictability

While the creator program is an interesting twist, the per-hour operational cost for providers is a classic variable expense. For most businesses, getting unpredictable monthly bills that swing up and down with usage makes it incredibly tough to forecast a budget or calculate a clear return on investment. A model like this can even end up penalizing you for having high customer engagement, which is the last thing you want.

Why a predictable pricing model is critical for AI agents

Let’s zoom out from the healthcare world for a minute and think about the wider need for AI agents in business, whether for customer support, IT helpdesks, or internal knowledge bases. In these areas, predictability isn’t just nice to have; it’s essential.

The problem with per-hour models

The fundamental issue with usage-based models, whether they charge by the hour or by the resolution, is the financial uncertainty they create. You shouldn’t get a surprise bill at the end of the month just because your support team had a busy week or a new product launch led to a flood of questions. This kind of pricing makes it hard to scale with confidence and can even make teams hesitant to fully adopt the tech.

The alternative: Transparent, feature-based plans

For most businesses, a much better approach is predictable, tiered pricing. This is where a platform like eesel AI really shines. We offer clear monthly or annual plans based on a set number of AI interactions, which could be an answer, a triage action, or some other automated task.

Most importantly, there are no per-resolution fees. You never get charged more for successfully helping your customers. This simple difference aligns our goals with yours, creating a partnership where we both win when your support is running smoothly.

Beyond pricing: The importance of control and risk-free testing

The best AI platform doesn’t just hand you an agent; it gives you complete control. It should be easy to set up, safe to test, and simple to manage. This is another area where a different philosophy can make all the difference.

Here’s what sets eesel AI apart:

• Go live in minutes: Our setup is genuinely self-serve. You can connect your helpdesk (like Zendesk or Freshdesk) and knowledge bases and get started on your own, without waiting for mandatory sales calls or months-long implementation projects.

• Powerful simulation mode: You can safely test your AI setup on thousands of your own past tickets. This gives you an accurate preview of resolution rates and lets you fine-tune everything before the agent ever talks to a live customer.

• Total control: You decide exactly which types of questions the AI handles and which get sent to a human agent. This lets you roll things out gradually and confidently, so you’re always in the driver’s seat.

Aspect	Hippocratic AI	eesel AI
Pricing Model	Per-hour operational cost + creator revenue share.	Transparent tiers based on interaction volume.
Predictability	Potentially unpredictable; costs scale with usage hours.	Highly predictable; no per-resolution fees.
Setup	Requires partnership and integration.	Radically self-serve; go live in minutes.
Transparency	Complex model with multiple components.	Simple, public pricing plans. Cancel anytime.
Testing	Piloted with select healthcare partners.	Robust simulation mode for risk-free testing on your own data.

Hippocratic AI pricing: The future of AI agents is about control and predictability

Hippocratic AI is pioneering a fascinating and very specialized approach to AI. Their focus on a single industry with a safety-first model is smart, and their pricing structure is definitely creative.

However, for most businesses looking to use AI for customer support, IT service management, or internal knowledge, that model just might not be the right fit. The impressive tech comes with an unpredictable price tag and a complicated setup. The future of AI agents for the rest of the business world is in solutions that are not only powerful but also transparent, predictable, and easy to manage.

Ready to try an AI agent you can actually control and budget for? See how eesel AI works with your existing helpdesk and knowledge sources in just a few clicks. Start your free trial today and simulate your ROI in minutes.