Headway's $9.99 Fee vs Grow Therapy: What You Keep

Headway is adding a flat $9.99 fee to every session with a client it finds for you. That changes the math on which platform leaves you more of each session.

Where we stand: we make CoralEHR, an EHR for private-pay practices, so we have a view on the out-of-network section at the end. Every figure about Headway and Grow comes from their own pages or from therapist-reported data, linked as we go.

What Headway changed

According to Headway's help article on the marketplace service fee (Headway, as quoted by TherapistRates):

• The amount is $9.99 per appointment, the same for every health plan.
• It applies to every appointment with a new client Headway connects you with, on insurance and private-pay sessions alike.
• It lasts for as long as you see that client, from the first session to the last.
• It comes out of your payout. Headway says the fee is not a change to your contracted rate and doesn't change what clients pay. Both are true, and your deposit for that session is still $9.99 smaller.

These don't carry the fee:

• clients you add yourself through Add Client or the calendar
• clients who book through your direct link, wherever you've shared it (your website, a Psychology Today profile, your email signature)
• clients who find your profile through a search engine rather than an ad, or by searching your name
• clients you were already seeing before the fee started in your state
• cancellations and no-shows

The fee is never applied retroactively. If you later turn off marketplace visibility, clients who already booked through the marketplace stay marketplace clients, and their sessions keep the fee.

Timing. Headway's article now says the fee will be introduced state by state starting in November 2026 and reach every state by the end of 2026, with at least 7 days' notice in your account. The first version, published October 8, named October 8 for Virginia, Washington, Georgia, Ohio and Illinois (Upheal). Headway revised it, so trust the banner in your own account over any date you read elsewhere, including here.

Therapists have pushed back. A Change.org petition asks Headway to replace the per-session charge with a one-time referral fee (Change.org).

What $9.99 is as a share of a session

A flat fee takes a bigger share of a smaller payout. Against the median Headway payouts therapists have reported to TherapistRates (reported before the fee began, so these are what the fee comes out of):

One directory client seen weekly for 52 sessions is $519.48 in fees. Ten of them is $5,194.80.

How Grow Therapy charges

Grow Therapy is free to join and charges no membership fee. Like Headway, it is paid out of the insurance payment for each session, and it doesn't publish how much of that payment it keeps. The payout Grow shows you already has its cut taken out.

The one provider fee Grow documents is a 5% processing fee on cash-pay appointments, taken from your payout once the client has paid (Grow Therapy help center).

As of October 30, 2026, we found no per-session marketplace fee like Headway's in Grow's public help pages. You will see figures like "Grow takes 10 to 15%" on review sites. We couldn't trace any of them to Grow, so we don't use them here.

Which one pays you more?

Public information can't settle it. Headway's percentage of each reimbursement is unpublished, and so is Grow's. What you can compare is what lands in your account:

1. Ask each platform for its payout on the same session code with the same payer in your state.
2. Subtract $9.99 from the Headway figure for the share of your caseload that comes from its directory.
3. For cash-pay sessions, compare Headway's private-pay fee with Grow's 5%.

The calculator below does that for a year, and adds a third column: the same caseload, private pay, at a fee you choose.

Questions to ask before you choose

1. Which of my current clients count as marketplace clients, and where do I see that in my account?
2. If I leave, what happens to my credentialing with each payer, and how do I export my notes?
3. How much notice do you give before a fee or payout change, and where does it appear?

The out-of-network math

The fee also changes another calculation: what your caseload would be worth if you set the price yourself.

In a private-pay practice the client pays your fee directly. You keep it minus card processing, which runs about 3% on standard card pricing. Clients with out-of-network benefits can often claim part of it back from their insurer with a superbill you give them, so your fee isn't always their real cost.

Private pay has costs of its own. You find your own clients, you hold fee conversations, and some people who would see you through insurance can't pay out of pocket. That is why the number to look at in the calculator is the last line: how many private-pay sessions a week would match what you take home now. If it is fewer sessions than you see now, the difference is time back.

You can also do both: keep a platform for part of your caseload and open a few private-pay slots. Building your own referral sources helps on both sides, since clients who book through your website or direct link don't carry Headway's fee either.

If you are weighing the move, start with leaving insurance panels, insurance vs private pay and setting a sliding scale. If you are comparing Headway with Alma instead, our Alma vs Headway guide has their price changes since September.

CoralEHR is built for the private-pay side: booking, notes, card payments, superbills and Good Faith Estimates in one place. If you stay on Headway or Grow, their built-in tools may be all you need, and that's a fine answer.

Sources: Headway help center, Understanding the marketplace service fee · TherapistRates, Headway's $9.99 marketplace fee · Upheal, Headway's $9.99 marketplace fee · Grow Therapy help center, payment policy for cash-pay appointments · Change.org petition

Read on October 30, 2026. Platform fees and payouts change. Confirm current terms with each company before making a decision.